“I see your point.” Charlie looked around, suddenly anxious. “Maybe we should have stayed by the hole we fell through. Perhaps young McIntire and Anya will be able to follow us here. You think?”
“For once, Doc, I think you’re right. This place is creeping me out some.” Ryan turned and bid Charlie to follow him back up the trail.
As they moved, the going was harder because of the incline. Then it was again Charlie who pointed out the problem.
“Mister Ryan, I don’t want to place added worry onto our situation, but when we started back the incline was what you would expect. But now—”
“Come on Doc, what is it?” Ryan snapped.
“We seem to be traveling downhill once again.”
Jason looked down and the trail ahead had a distinct decline as it meandered further. He shined the light around. “I’m sure we came this way. Oh, come on, we were only walking for fifteen minutes when we stopped and turned back. No one could ever get that lost.”
“Did you say fifteen minutes?” Charlie asked as he shined his own light onto the wristwatch he wore.
“Yeah, no more than that.”
“When we fell through the hole I checked the time. It was ten thirty in the morning. Now look at your watch.”
Ryan did with a shake of his head as he thought Ellenshaw was having another Crazy Charlie moment, which he remembered, he had a lot of.
“Shit,” Ryan said as he tapped his watch with the tip of the flashlight. “According to mine we’ve been down here for five hours.”
“Uh, let’s go back the other way,” Charlie said, nervously looking about and shining his light everywhere. Then the circle of glowing light stopped. “Ah, ha! There’s the dragon, we must be close.”
Charlie started to move forward toward the maroon colored dragon, and that was when Ryan reached out and took the older man by the arm.
“What, we must be close to our starting point.”
“Doc, look,” Ryan said as he adjusted his own light to an area to the left and then to the right of the red dragon.
“Oh, my.”
Instead of the one dragon, they were now looking at several. At least fifty of the winged creatures were drawn over an area about the size of a large living room wall.
“Okay, that just about does the twilight zone thing. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Ryan said, and then took Ellenshaw by the arm.
They turned as one and suddenly came face to face with what they had been staring at for the past few minutes.
The dragon was blocking their way forward.
Charlie stood motionless. “Oh, crap.”
* * *
As the circle of men surrounded and moved into the small camp, Sarah saw at least three of the Mongolian guides that had stolen their Land Rover earlier. They were all three flanking a large man in native dress. The long robes and head coverings told Sarah that these were the real princes of the plains in this area. These were actual Mongols, and their guides were a part of this group. They did not look friendly, and the fully automatic AK-47s the hundred men held accentuated that point. They started rummaging through the camp, smashing and removing things of value.
Sarah looked at Anya with anger etching her face, as one of their captors pushed her to the ground and searched her. Then the brute of a man removed the small satellite phone from her pocket. When they had found themselves surrounded, Sarah knew she couldn’t raise the phone to her ear without being filled with all kinds of holes from the approaching men, so she had hit the auto-relay button that would connect her to Europa. She had started hitting the transmit button over and over again, hoping the super-computer could interpret. After being searched and basically felt up by the Mongol guide that had just been in their camp that morning, Sarah and the others were allowed to stand up.
“You can tell them to stop playing their little games now,” Anya said as she turned to face the man impersonating Professor Anderson. “Its obvious these pirates work for you. And ask them if our friends are still alive.”
“Sorry to disappoint, Major Korvesky,” Anderson said as he slowly stood up from the brutal search of his body, “but these surly looking gentlemen are most assuredly not with me.”
“I personally love the irony here, old man,” Professor Birnbaum said, “the back stabber stabbed in the back. That fact almost bloody well makes this situation worthwhile,” Professor Birnbaum said as he spit a mouthful of blood out onto the sand after being backhanded by one of the Mongols when he hadn’t moved fast enough for his taste.
“May I suggest no further antagonistic moves toward our captors. They are notoriously ruthless in their methods. Quite unreasonable at times actually,” Professor Lee said as he slowly moved his eyes about the camp. “They usually do not kill outsiders unless they have reason to. Let us just hope that our colleagues are a-foot, and not dead. If we cooperate, all we’ll have after this is a long walk out of here. Do not and we’ll be no more active than the American pilot we discovered this morning.”
“Wonderful choices you give us, Lee old man,” Birnbaum said with a sarcastic nod of his head.
“No talking!” a small man with a fur lined hat said. He eased up to the very much larger Birnbaum and slapped him across the face, which made the large Australian take a sudden step forward.
Anya jumped up and knocked Birnbaum down before the small man could shoot him.
“He’s sorry, he won’t do it again,” Anya said as she lay across Birnbaum.
The Mongolian took an angry step forward but was called back by the large man who seemed to be leading this group of thieves. He kicked sand at the two prone scientists before moving off. Sarah stepped forward and helped both to their feet.
“Alright you two, I think it best we adhere to Professor Lee’s advice about these people. They seem to be very experienced at what they do.”
“We may not be in this situation for very long,” the man claiming to be Professor Anderson said. “My associates have a very long reach. The information I sent to them will be seen as valuable enough to retrieve at all costs. They shouldn’t be long.”
It was Sarah who saw the Mongols stop their pillaging then congregate in a circle. Every now and then she saw one or another look their way and she didn’t like the smiles of anticipation on their faces.
“I believe they could be in the next valley over, and still not make it in time, Comrade whatever your name is.”
“It most assuredly is not Comrade, Captain. And why would you say that?”
“Because they are in the process of deciding to shoot us here, or,” she turned and looked at the mountain rising above them, “up there.”
At that moment, the circle of Mongols broke up and they moved toward the group of geologists.
“I guess they decided,” Birnbaum said as he prepared himself to fight.
* * *
As Ryan tried to keep his testicles in place as he came face to face with the dragon, it was Charlie who saw that it was a man in a mask and red garb. He slowly placed a thin fingered hand on Jason’s shoulder and eased him back three steps. He placed another hand on the nine-millimeter Glock semi-automatic pistol that Ryan had a hand on in the back of his belt.
“Easy, Mister Ryan, it’s just a mask.”
The seven-foot giant took a menacing step toward them.
“Okay, how about that spear?” Ryan asked with his eyes and flashlight on the immense curved blade at the tip of the eight-foot shaft. The sharpened edge was pointed in their direction.
To Ryan’s surprise, Crazy Charlie Ellenshaw moved his body from around Jason to stand in front of him as if in guardianship.
“Hello,” he said as Ryan rolled his eyes.
The massive figure in front of them tilted its large head before looking from Charlie to Jason. Then the monster leaned the spear against the cave wall. Its large clawed fingers reached up and lifted the edges of the mask.
“Do you mind shining that light someplace else?” the figure said in
perfect English. Charlie was speechless, and Ryan amazed when the mask of the dragon was lifted free of the wearer’s head. Jason moved the light to the right of the figure before them. “Thank you.”
The two Americans watched as the figure exposed a well-trimmed head of black hair. The man, more of a boy in Charlie’s estimation, removed the large gloves that had crystal-type claws sewn onto its fingertips and rubbed his right hand through his wet hair.
“You’re Americans from the geological survey in the valley? We were told that you were leaving this morning. Perhaps you should have.”
Ryan was surprised. The large figure before them was just a boy. He could be no older than seventeen at the most. He watched as the young Chinese kid reached into the satin-like cloth of his disguise and placed a pair of wire-rimmed glasses over his eyes before fixing the two strangers with a curious look. He could see that neither man was willing to speak. The tall figure moved to a large rock and clumsily sat down. He lifted the long skirt that covered his legs and shook off a pair of long stilts. The kid wasn’t a giant, nor a dragon as first suspected. He was a teenage boy with a colorful mask and leg stilts used for height.
“Excuse the dramatics, but the local indigenous population are terrified of the old legends of these mountains.”
“Uh, uh, who are you?” Charlie stuttered the question. “I mean, is that a British turn you have in your accent?”
The boy moved the mask from his lap and placed it on the ground. He stood and stretched. “Perhaps so, we pick up habits from wherever we are sent to school. I am currently enrolled at Cambridge.”
Ryan and Charlie exchanged confused looks.
“My brother, Che Li, has the more barbaric slant to the English language, he’s at Princeton.”
“Just who in the hell are you, and why are you living in a cave?” Ryan asked, stepping back around Charlie.
The boy laughed as he peeled the rest of the satin cloth from his body. Both men saw that, underneath, the kid was wearing what looked like blue jeans and a white button-down shirt. He was also sweating profusely.
“I’ve probably said too much already.” The boy moved to retrieve the mask and the spear as he bundled the clothing into a ball and then faced the two Americans.
“At least tell us your name,” Charlie said as he again stepped around Ryan.
“My name is Che Lao, and I’ve got to get back, so I can hand this off to my relief. There seems to be too many houseguests above, so we have to have people in all of the tunnels.”
“Houseguests?” Ellenshaw asked.
“Yes, your group and the bunch of thieves about to murder them.”
“Sarah and Anya,” Ryan said as he fixed the kid with an angry look.
The boy saw Ryan’s reaction and then smiled. “No, not murdered by us. Come on, let’s get back and someone with more authority will explain things far better than myself.” He placed the bundle and mask under his arm and then pointed with the spear. “This way.”
“No, no, we have to get back to our friends, they’re just geologists,” Ryan said, unwilling to follow the kid anywhere. Both he and Charlie didn’t think the boy heard Ryan’s concern, but he answered as he walked.
“Your friends are soon to be in the hands of the most capable man on the face of the Earth. Perhaps its time for you to worry about your own fate, Mister Ryan.”
The boy vanished around a bend in the trail. Ryan looked at Charlie.
“He knows your name, Commander,” Charlie said as he shined the light onto the trail where the stranger had disappeared.
“And yours, Professor Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III. I’ve read your work, well, not all of it, but some. Very interesting theories you have, Professor, on many varying subjects,” the voice echoed. “Now, we can either talk or you can get answers. Up to you. But let me warn you, if you strike out on your own you’ll never get out of here. If you noticed, time has a strange way about it the further down you go. As far as I know,” the voice was growing fainter the further the kid got, “only one man ever made it out of here, and that was by pure luck.”
The last words were almost so faint that they were hardly understood.
“Perhaps we—”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Ryan said.
The two Americans followed the stranger into the bowels of the Allal Mountains.
* * *
Sarah stood next to Anya as they were herded toward the face of the lowest mountain rock.
“Where in the hell is our security element?” Anya asked as one of their captors poked her in the back with the barrel of his AK-47. “Ow, do that again…please!” Anya hissed as she suddenly turned and faced the bearded brute. The man smiled and then raised the muzzle of the weapon toward Anya’s face.
A sudden burst of Mongolian stopped the man from his premature carrying out of Anya’s execution. The beast of a man took a step back.
“Look, I have many soldiers coming, they can pay you a lot of money,” the imposter posing as Anderson said.
The group of Mongols didn’t respond. The last of the group, about thirty of them, had finished loading their plunder into the backs and onto the roofs of the stolen Land Rovers.
“I don’t think they really care, Comrade Anderson,” Sarah said as she tried to muster all the courage she could, assisted as she was by seeing someone else more frightened than herself.
“Regardless, when they do arrive, they will kill every one of these thieving bastards!” he shouted at the Mongol facing him.
“I suspect so. But let me say this, I respect these assholes far more than you. At least this is their way of life. You do it because your masters in Siberia and Moscow say to,” Sarah said, stepping away from the rock wall so Anderson could see her face. She was immediately and unceremoniously shoved back by the muzzle of a weapon.
“Before I get shot, I would like to know just one thing—WHO IN THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?” Birnbaum screamed the last few words.
“We are all people that should have left when our geological survey came up with little of value,” Lee said as he eyed the men lining up before them. “I should have insisted this morning we be out by nine. Man, I won’t ever live this down with the Master.”
All sixteen sets of eyes from the survey group leaned forward and stared at the diminutive Professor Lee. He smiled with his hands and arms still in the air.
“Oh, come on, mate, you too?” Birnbaum said with incredulity edging his question. “Is anyone here who they claimed to be?”
“Why yes, like Sarah here, I am an actual geologist. Master’s degree from Edinburgh.”
The Mongols lined up in front of them. The fifty or so loaders of plunder stopped their movements in order to watch. The other thirty or so stopped digging what would be their shallow grave.
“The one time we leave without Carl and Jack’s planning, we get shot and killed,” Anya said with faint sarcasm lacing her words.
Mongolian orders were shouted and the AK-47’s were raised. Sarah took Anya’s hand and they both looked defiantly at their line of executioners.
Before anyone realized what was happening, a sprig of fresh, cool air whipped the area in front of the line of condemned. The Mongols seemed not to feel it. The breeze freshened into a light wind as the weapons came to a stop after being raised. They aimed their rifles at the group. The wind increased dramatically and this time the line of executioners looked around as small pellets of sand started to strike their faces. Sarah turned her head away as some of the particles struck her own face. It was at that time that she saw Professor Lee lower his hands and then examine his watch as if he expected something to happen at this time.
More angry shouts sounded in the Mongolian language as men started turning away from the pelting they were getting. To the amazement of all, the sand directly in front of the geologists sprang into the air. It looked as if the wall of dirt and sand were more than a thousand, small tornado-like shapes as they spun and moved left to right in front of them. They all
turned away as the sand spun off the funnels. The wall climbed higher and then even higher. The wall of sand was solid as the group looked and could see none of the Mongols who had lined them up for execution. Sarah managed to raise her head as did Anya as the wall of swirling sand rose still higher. They could see nothing but heard the shouts and screams of the Mongols they could no longer see.
“What is this?” Anya shouted as loud as she could as the wind now forced them all to the ground. They heard the rending of steel and even more distant shouts of men. Still the wall grew higher, higher and even more so. The group would later comment that the wall looked as if it stepped from the film sequence of an old Cecil B. DeMille motion picture.
As Sarah and Anya covered their heads, silence immediately engulfed them as if by magic. They looked up just as the last of the sand fell away into a cloud of moving dust. They heard the sound of engines, and as they slowly rose to their feet they saw the trail of dust from the Land Rovers as they sped away. All started to brush the sand from their hair and clothes. Most were in shock. Birnbaum was being helped up by the much smaller Lee.
“Are you okay, Professor?” Lee asked Birnbaum, who could only stare at the devastation of their once orderly camp. Lee stepped away from the Australian when he saw the man was too shocked to speak. He looked up at the rock wall they had been lined up against, and then angrily shouted to the now clear skies. “Do you think that was funny?” he screamed as they all looked at Lee as if he had lost his mind. “Oh, I get it, you wanted to make an example out of me, is that it? It wasn’t my fault that they found that skeleton. You yourself told me how resilient Ms. McIntire and her friends were!”
“Lee, who in the hell are you speaking to?” Sarah asked as she and Anya approached, ready to subdue the obviously insane geologist.
Lee brushed more sand from his clothing and then noticed that he was being spoken to.
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