The Emperor's Tomb

TANG STOOD AT THE WINDOW AND SHADED HIS EYES FROM A bar of golden sun cresting over the eastern peaks. He nursed a cup of sweet black tea, scented with cardamom. He half expected to hear the romantic wail of a conch shell, its rising tone like a foghorn, echoing off the cliffs. A brother had once, each day at dawn, blown that siren from the monastery walls.

He glanced down at the street.

Batang was coming alive, a trickle of people slowly becoming a stream. Most wore wool gowns with red waistbands and saffron caps, ankle-length with high collars, which offered protection from a wind that leaned into the building and rattled the wooden walls. He knew the weather here was fickle, particularly this time of year. Though high in altitude, the late-spring air would be surprisingly warm, heated by UV rays that the thin atmosphere did little to negate.

Viktor was downstairs eating. Two hours ago he’d received word through his satellite phone that Ni and Sokolov had left Yecheng, in custody. He’d ordered the chopper to deliver his prisoners then come for him at seven thirty. He’d been pleased to hear that Malone and Vitt had been captured and, he assumed, were now dead.

All of the elements were finally dropping into place.

He breathed in the warm air, redolent with the smell of oily butter lamps. Outside the panes, the dull crystal ting of bells could be heard.

The door opened.

He turned and said to Viktor, “It’s time for me to leave. The helicopter will return shortly.”

On the bed lay equipment that Viktor had brought with him earlier. Some rope, a backpack, flashlight, knife, and fleece-lined jacket.

“The walk up to the hall is a little over an hour,” Tang said. “The trail starts west of town and winds upward. The hall lies on the other side of the ridge, just past a suspension bridge. Buddhas carved into the rock, beyond the bridge, mark the way. It is not hard to find.”

“What happened in Yecheng?”

“It’s not important.”

Viktor Tomas was apparently still concerned about Cassiopeia Vitt. Strange. To him, women were nothing but a distraction. Men like Viktor should feel the same way. Odd that he didn’t.

Viktor gathered up his gear, slipping on a leather jacket.

“Take that trail,” Tang said. “Make sure no one from here follows. Arrive at the hall unnoticed and enter with caution. I’m told there are few there, so you should be able to gain entrance easily. The main gates are left open.”

“I’ll cover your back,” Viktor said. “But, Minister, you have a more immediate problem.”

He didn’t like the words or the tone. “Why do you say that?”

“Because Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt just drove into town.”

CASSIOPEIA ADMIRED BATANG. WHITEWASHED ADOBE WALLS, red moon and sun designs above the doors, firewood and dung bricks piled on the roofs—all typical for the area. A mixture of Mongols, Chinese, Arabs, and Tibetans who, unlike the populations of their respective countries, had learned to live together. They’d just driven nearly two hours through a skeletal landscape, stripped to its rocky bones, across a rough road.

“My gut is still reeling from those rations,” Malone said as they stepped from the Rover.

Along the way they’d found some food in the vehicle, rock-hard bars of cookie crumbs and milk powder mixed with what she thought was lard. Tasted like sweet cardboard. Her stomach was also upset from the bars and the jostling. Strange she’d get motion sick—one of those weaknesses she did not like to display or discuss—but firm ground felt good.

“Ni said the monastery is west of town,” she said. “We’re going to have to ask its location.”

Guarded faces watched both her and Malone. Glancing up, she spotted two ravens tumbling over each other in the morning sky. The air had definitely thinned and to compensate she’d found herself breathing faster, but she told herself to stop, as that would solve nothing.

“Asking doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Malone said as he stood near the hood.

She agreed. “I don’t think they get a lot of foreigners like us here.”

TANG KEPT AWAY FROM THE GRIMY WINDOW, LOOSE IN ITS frame.

“Seems you were right about Malone,” he said to Viktor. “He is a man to be respected.”

“So is she.”

He faced Viktor. “As you keep reminding me.”

Frustratingly, his need of this foreigner seemed to never end. “I’m going to leave. Occupy those two until I am away from town.”

“And what am I to do after I occupy them?”

“Make sure they head up into the mountains. Soldiers are there we can now use.”

“And are those soldiers there for me, too?”

“Hardly. Since you know about them.”

But he wondered if Viktor believed him. Hard to know anything about this guarded man. Always, something more seemed to percolate inside him. Like now. He’d come into the room knowing Malone and Vitt were here, yet he’d held that information until he was ready to reveal it.

Thankfully, by nightfall he would be rid of this man.

Along with all the others.

MALONE HEARD THE SOUND AT THE SAME TIME AS CASSIOPEIA. The rhythmic thump of rotors. Low, steady, hypnotic, like a heartbeat.