The Emperor's Tomb

FIFTY

1:00 PM

MALONE SAT IN THE HELICOPTER’S PASSENGER COMPARTMENT with Cassiopeia and Pau Wen, while Viktor flew alone in the cockpit. His clothes were wet from his dip in Lake Dian, but they were drying. They were flying northeast, a thousand kilometers across the heart of China, toward Shaanxi province and Xi’an. He remained skeptical as hell about trusting Viktor, so he motioned at Cassiopeia and Pau to remove their headsets.

He nestled close to them and said, “I want to have a talk without him listening.” He kept his voice just below the din of the rotors.

“We’re making progress, Cotton,” Cassiopeia said, and he caught her irritation.

“I realize your goal is to find Sokolov’s boy. But does either of you think all this is happening with no one knowing?”

“It clearly is not,” Pau said. “But we are getting where we need to go. Once there, we can change the situation.”

“And fighting with Viktor,” Cassiopeia said, “is not going to make things easier.”

“You’ve got a soft spot for him, don’t you?”

“I have a soft spot for Lev Sokolov’s son. I want to find that boy. To do that I need a sample of ancient oil to give Tang. To get that, we have to be in Xi’an.”

“You don’t really think that deal is still good, do you? Sokolov’s apparently in deep trouble.”

Her frustration was evident and he hated pressing, but it had to be said.

“Tang could already have Sokolov,” he said. “He may have no use for you any longer.”

“Then why are we still alive?” she asked.

He pointed at Pau. “Apparently, he’s what interests Tang now. Viktor made that abundantly clear.”

And there was what Ivan had not said. About Sokolov. The Russians wanted him back but, if left with no choice, dead was not out of the question.

He faced Pau. “What are we going to do once we’re on the ground?”

“We will enter the tomb of Qin Shi, just as I once did. But we’ll need flashlights.”

He found an equipment bay where two lay and retrieved them.

“The tomb was not finished at the time of Qin’s death,” Pau said. “His son, the Second Emperor, completed it and buried his father. He then tricked the designers, and some of the builders, into going inside, trapping them underground. They died with their emperor.”

“How do you know that?” Malone asked.

“I’ve seen their bones. They were there when I entered the tomb.”

“But you’re saying there was another way in and out,” Cassiopeia said.

Pau explained that groundwater had been a challenge for the builders, as their excavations had been deep enough to tap the water table. So an elaborate underground drainage system had been created. Long channels bore through the earth, as much as 800 meters long, which prevented water from penetrating the chambers during construction. Once completed, most of the tunnels were refilled with tamped earth to form a dam.

A few, though, had been left open.

“I stumbled across one when I found Qin Shi’s library. It bypasses all the traps that the builders set for robbers. Which was probably its purpose. They would have required a way to get inside to inspect the integrity, from time to time, without exposing themselves to danger.”

“Why didn’t they use it to get out once they were trapped inside?” Cassiopeia asked.

“The answer to that question will be obvious once you see the entrance.”

“What about the mercury?” Malone asked, recalling their conversation yesterday at Pau’s residence.

“I allowed the tomb to ventilate for several days before I entered. I also wore a respirator.”

“And what about now?” Cassiopeia asked. “The tomb has been sealed for over twenty years.”

“Preventive measures are in place.”

Not entirely comforting, Malone thought, glancing toward the cockpit and his other problem. Outside the windshield, rain closed in on the sun as threatening clouds approached.

“He saved our lives back there,” Cassiopeia said. “Yours included. He’s our way to Tang.”

“And what would have prevented Tang from already going into Qin’s tomb and taking the oil sample himself? Viktor has known about this for two days.”

“How would he get inside?” Pau said. “The tomb has never been excavated.”

“You don’t know what they’ve done,” he made clear. “We don’t even know if we’re headed toward Xi’an.”

“We are traveling in the right direction,” Pau said.

“And what if someone’s waiting for us when we land?”

“If that were the case,” Pau said, “why not just allow the fighter to shoot us down?”

Good point.

“What’s in the tomb?” Cassiopeia asked Pau.

“Not what you expect.”

Malone said, “Care to elaborate?”

“I’ll let you see for yourself, once we’re inside.”