by Alex Archer
Annja felt her heart beating faster. Was Vanya telling the truth? If so, what answers did she have?
“So tell me something,” she said, fighting to remain calm.
“About your past?” Vanya smiled. “Perhaps I will. Right before I kill you and Hsu Xiao takes the sword. At least then you will die with some measure of peace.”
Vanya glanced down the corridor. “What is the holdup down there? Bring the body out!” she shouted.
Annja saw the two soldiers approaching. They were dragging a limp body behind them.
“What took you so long?” Vanya said.
“We couldn’t find him at first. She must have shot him behind the statue on the far side of the room.”
“You saw the bullet hole?”
“We couldn’t see anything in the room. It’s too dark,” the first soldier said.
“There’s a blood trail,” the second soldier said. “And it’s a lot of blood.”
Vanya nodded and cleared her throat. “All right then. You’ve done well. Turn the body over so I can see him.”
The soldiers turned the body over. Vanya looked and then frowned. “He still looks alive to me. Put another bullet in his head to be sure.”
Vanya looked at Annja. “After all, if he’s truly dead, one more bullet won’t make a difference now, will it?”
Annja shrugged. “I guess not. Shame he’ll have to have a closed casket, though.”
“I don’t think anyone will really care about that. And why should they when we dump his body into the nearest gorge and be done with it?”
“Disrespecting the dead will come back to bite you,” Annja said. “Trust me on that one.”
“Trust you?” Vanya asked. “Why would I ever do a thing like that.” She turned to the soldiers. “Shoot him again. Shoot him now.”
30
One of the soldiers chambered a round in his weapon and, as he did so, Tuk came alive, suddenly kicking at the exposed knee of the soldier with the gun aimed at him. The gun went off and the round fired wild.
Annja jerked her shoulders up, knocking away Hsu Xiao’s hands. Then she pivoted and drove two punches into the assassin’s exposed sternum. Hsu Xiao recoiled and thrust her hands forward, but as she did so, Annja leaned back, just barely out of range of the slicing claws that would have surely severed her carotid artery.
Annja kicked up at the same time Hsu Xiao backflipped away and Annja’s kick hit nothing. She summoned the sword in time to cut down the other solider who was aiming his gun at Tuk.
Annja’s blade cut him through the shoulder and ripped a chunk of flesh out of his neck. He went down screaming.
Tuk grabbed the closest gun and aimed a volley of bullets at Hsu Xiao, but the assassin twisted away. Annja saw her flick her wrist ever so gently.
“Tuk!”
The throwing spikes embedded themselves in Tuk’s shoulder and upper chest. He went down clutching at the exposed pieces of steel.
Vanya grabbed a knife from a hidden sheath in her dress and came up behind Tuk, placing the point of the knife under his right ear. “Drop the sword, Annja. Drop it or he dies.”
“You’ll kill him, anyway,” Annja said.
“I won’t. I only want the sword. This man is inconsequential to me.”
Tuk grimaced. “Don’t listen to her, Annja! She won’t stay true to her word. You know this.”
Annja held the sword up in front of her. Hsu Xiao came back to stand beside Vanya. The look on her face made Annja’s skin crawl.
“Let him go first,” she said.
Vanya sniffed. “I’m not a fool, Annja.”
“Neither am I. And you don’t exactly have a good record of keeping your word. So we do this my way or no way. You let Tuk go. Once he’s clear, then I’ll surrender the sword. You tell him how to get out of here and he’s gone. It’s that simple.”
“I can’t tell him how to leave. He’ll bring back help.”
Annja shook her head. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere. What help is going to come for us?”
Vanya’s eyes narrowed and she had a whispered conversation with Hsu Xiao. Vanya nodded. “All right. I will tell him how to get out of here. Once he’s gone, you turn yourself over to us.”
Annja pointed at Hsu Xiao. “Crazy Nails stays here with us the entire time. Once Tuk has enough time to get away, then I’m yours. Not a moment before. You try anything at all, any kind of ambush, any funny business, and Tuk’s death will be the least of your worries.”
Vanya sighed. “Fine. You have my word.” She pushed Tuk away from her. “But make it quick. I have a schedule to keep and, right now, I’m behind.”
Annja leaned over Tuk and tugged the three spikes out of him while he gritted his teeth. “You going to be okay?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. I think so. None of them went too deep. Hurts like hell but I can endure it.”
“Get clear of this place. You hear me? Get clear and don’t stop to look back. You can bet as soon as they’re done with me Hsu Xiao will be on your trail. She’s going to want to make sure there are no witnesses. You understand?”
“I understand.” He looked into Annja’s eyes. “Thank you for doing this for me. I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend like you.”
Annja smiled. “Hey, you watched over me. This is the least I can do.”
Tuk looked at her and nodded once. “All right, then.”
Annja smiled. “All right.”
Tuk turned to Vanya. “I’m ready to leave now.”
Vanya sighed. “Fine, fine. Go back to the statue room and continue to where your cell was. Beyond the doorway is a false wall. Press it and a door will open to a small staircase. Travel up the staircase and you’ll come to a trapdoor in the floor of the cave you and Annja were in when the yeti found you. That’s your way home.”
“A trapdoor in the floor of the cave? That was the big secret?” Annja said.
Vanya smiled. “No one ever checks the floor. All anyone thinks about is the wall having some type of contraption.” Her eyes flamed. “Now go before I change my mind and have Hsu Xiao kill you all.”
Annja gripped the sword. “That would be a grave mistake.”
Vanya nodded at Tuk. “He gets ten minutes. No more. If he’s not back on the other side by then, it will be his own fault.”
Annja looked at Tuk. “Run and don’t stop for anything. Understand?”
“I understand.” He smiled. “Goodbye, Annja.”
“Seeing you,” she said.
Tuk dashed back into the temple corridor and vanished from view. Vanya calmly glanced at her watch and then back at Annja. “Ten minutes from now. Are we agreed on that?”
“Sure.”
Hsu Xiao stayed stock-still. Annja could sense her desire to rush into the temple and strike Tuk down before he could get clear. “I think your dog wants off her leash,” Annja said.
Vanya smiled. “She does. Very much so, in fact. But she’s a good girl and she’ll do what I say. Besides, there will be time enough for her to kill Tuk once we’re done with you. Who knows, perhaps she’ll even use your sword to do it.”
“She’ll have to get the sword away from me first,” Annja said. “And the truth of the matter is, I don’t think she’ll be able to.”
“I suppose Guge told you our theory?”
“He did.”
Vanya shook her head. “He always did talk too much. I should have had him killed years ago.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told him,” Annja said. “It’s not going to work.”
“How do you know?”
Annja shrugged. “Well, considering it’s my sword now and I’m the one who’s been living with it for years, I think I have a better insight into how the sword behaves than you do.”
“That may be true for some things, but one might also argue that you lack the perspective to see a possible means to separate the two of you.”
Annja nodded. “I’ll give you that. But what happens if this
grand old theory of yours turns out to be one big mistake? What then? I’ll be dead and you’ll lose the only chance you have of getting the sword.”
Vanya crossed her arms. “That’s a chance we’re willing to take.”
“Wonderful,” Annja said. “See, if I were you, I’d keep me alive and just try different ways to get the sword.”
“You’re too powerful to keep alive, Annja. Surely you must understand that. If you die giving us the sword or if you don’t give us the sword, either way you will at least be dead and gone and no longer a threat.”
“I find it difficult to believe that you consider me such a big danger to you or to your government.”
Vanya sniffed. “What makes you think I give a damn about my government and all it stands for? Hasn’t anyone ever told you that all disputes in the world boil down to the smallest common denominator? And that denominator is money and power. That’s it. Show me any despot, any religious zealot, any tyrant—they all want the same things. Money and power make the world go around.”
“And that’s all you want?” Annja said.
Vanya checked her watch. “Five minutes, Annja. Five minutes to go.”
“Answer the question. Is that why you’ve done everything here? So you can set yourself up as some sort of power mogul?”
Vanya sat on the low stone wall closest to them and stretched her arms. “I have existed in the inner circles of male dominance in China. As a woman, I’ve been told I’d never get anywhere of import and yet I rose to a position of great power within the intelligence service. And I’ve been able to keep an eye out for other promising women so I can help them along, school them in the ways in which we will take power, and then keep them by my side when I need them.”
Annja glanced at Hsu Xiao. “I assume she’s talking about you.”
Hsu Xiao gave a curt nod.
Vanya laughed. “Hsu Xiao wants nothing more than to face you in mortal combat, Annja. Do you know that?”
“Well, I can respect that,” Annja said. “At least she’s not a coward like so many others who just want the fruit without doing any of the work.”
“But I can’t afford to lose her to that blade of yours. Not when I have so many plans for it.”
“What kind of plans?”
“China’s government needs some shaking up for one.”
“You’re going to rule China? Good luck.”
Vanya shrugged. “Well, what would you have me do? Seize power from a nonnuclear power? What a waste that would be. Once Hsu Xiao has the sword, I shall be able to dispatch anyone who stands in my way.”
“Seems to me you could do that now if you choose.”
Vanya shook her head. “No. Hsu Xiao is incredibly powerful, yes. But with the sword, none shall be able to stand against her.”
Annja frowned. “It’s not a shield of invulnerability, you know. I can die just as easily with the sword as I can without it.”
“Rubbish,” Vanya said. “We know the sword grants you a much higher pain threshold and endurance.”
“Yeah, it seems to. But it doesn’t mean I can’t die. If your friend Hsu Xiao here gets a face full of lead, no blade on earth is going to stop her from taking a ride down the River Styx.”
Vanya smiled. “Perhaps. But with the sword, she will be much more potent than any of my enemies.”
Annja grinned. “So that’s it, isn’t it. You’ve got a foe already who is too powerful. What’s he got, someone even better than Hsu Xiao? Is that why you haven’t moved on him yet?”
Vanya checked her watch. “You’ve got one minute, Annja.”
Annja nodded. She glanced at the temple corridor and hoped that Tuk had made his way back to the cave. That he was on the phone with Garin right now, calling in the cavalry.
“So once you dispatch all your opponents, what then?” Annja asked.
“I will assume leadership of China and help guide her into the new millennium the way she should be. I’ll be the new Jade Empress.”
“Fruitcake, more likely. What makes you think that anyone will abide by you being the new ruler of China?”
“Because I will kill anyone who does not.”
“And what about the rest of the world?”
“What about it?”
“I hardly think they’re just going to roll over and say, ‘Great,’ when you come into power.”
Vanya nodded. “That is true. I had been giving that some thought.” She smiled. “A small demonstration of my power may be necessary to prove how serious I am.”
“Small demonstration? Like what? You’re going to wipe out Tibet?”
Vanya shook her head. “That’s far too small scale for my liking. If I do that no one will even pay attention. No, I need something bigger. Something more along the lines of shock and awe.”
Annja frowned as she realized what Vanya would target. “Taiwan.”
Vanya shrugged. “It’s been asking for it for years. They’re such upstarts and it’s really like a forgotten province, anyway. There’s absolutely no way I could tolerate such dissent in my kingdom.”
“Dual purpose,” Annja said. “You show the rest of the world you mean business and you show your citizens their dissent won’t be tolerated.”
“I believe it’s what we call a win-win,” Vanya said. “And speaking of which, your final minute is now up.”
“Is it?”
Vanya nodded. “Yes. It’s time for you to lower your sword, Annja. You belong to me now.”
31
Tuk raced along the corridor as fast as his legs, grinding like pistons beneath his body, would carry him. He made it back to the doorway and then found the secret exit to the spiral stone staircase leading up. The air bit at him; the cold temperatures were a distinct difference from the balmy weather he’d just enjoyed.
As he neared the top of the stairs, he looked up and saw the ceiling and what would be a trapdoor in the floor of the cave. It seemed perfectly flush and he supposed it would look exactly the same form the other side.
He reached up and undid the locking mechanism, a series of slide bolts that would discourage entry even if by some miracle the trapdoor was discovered.
Tuk braced himself on the stairs and shoved up at the trapdoor with all the strength he had. The weight was enormous and he soon realized that the trapdoor was actually made out of the stone of the mountain itself. For all intents and purposes, Tuk was trying to move a mountain to gain his freedom.
He glanced back down the staircase, half expecting to see the shadowy wisp of Hsu Xiao coming after him. Tuk had no illusions about whether he would live or die. His survival depended on gaining his freedom to call Garin.
Tuk shoved again, but the stone didn’t budge. He took a huge breath and shoved once more, but the stone did not seem to want to give in the slightest. Tuk brought his arms back down and rested them for a moment.
He hadn’t expected the weight to be so incredible.
He frowned and looked back up at the series of bolt locks. He counted them off and then to his horror saw that he’d missed two corner locking mechanisms that were of a different type than the simple slide bolts.
They weren’t taking any chances with this door being discovered, he thought.
Tuk immediately focused his attention to the two locks. They looked like dead bolt locks, but with a simple turning mechanism. He twisted the first knob and heard the satisfying sound of the bolt sliding away with a solid thunk. He quickly did the same to the other lock and then brought his arms back down to rest again.
He’d never known that working overhead could so rapidly tax his arm muscles like this. He took a series of deep breaths and then launched himself right at the trapdoor, hoping that it would move.
He impacted and then he drove the door back and up.
A rush of cold air slapped him in the face and Tuk had an instant shiver. The wind swept in from the cave opening, but he was back.
Back on the other side.
He scrambled out of
the staircase, but as he did, the little cell phone tumbled out of his pocket and fell over and over again back down the stairs, coming apart at the bottom. Tuk gasped as he saw the little phone split into two pieces.
“No!”
He scrambled down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, he scooped up the components and then raced back up. Better to be on this side, and if Hsu Xiao’s face suddenly appeared, at least he could slam the rock down on her head.
Tuk examined the components in his hand. Was the phone broken? Would it even work again if he was somehow able to put it back together?
He looked at the pieces and then frowned. There didn’t appear to be anything broken. Perhaps it was just the battery that had come away.
He quickly slapped the battery back into place and then powered the phone up. For a few tense seconds he waited and then he nearly shouted with joy as the screen illuminated and Tuk saw that he had reception.
He pressed the number two. After about thirty seconds, the phone on the other end rang.
“Tuk?”
“Garin!”
“Where are you?”
“There’s not much time. Annja’s going to have to give up her sword if you don’t hurry and get here.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“We’re in the cave near the crash site. The place I told you where we found shelter. From the outside it looks like a small crack but you should be able to just fit inside.”
“Tuk, we found that place. We searched it inside and out and couldn’t find a thing. Are you sure that’s the location?”
“It is! Listen to me! Once inside, there’s a trapdoor in the floor of the cave that leads down a staircase and back over to the other side where we just were. But you’ve got to hurry.”