The Prisoner's Gold

44

A forty-minute drive through the Yarlung Tsangpo River valley took the team from the airport to the city of Lhasa. At an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet, the city was so high up the Tibetan Plateau that pilots had to be specially trained in high-altitude maneuvers before they were allowed to fly planes into or out of the airport. Luckily, the weather had been extremely pleasant for early April, and the team had flown in on the private Gulfstream without incident.

Before leaving Tokyo, Sarah had dyed her hair dark brown and cut it much shorter. The effect was a stark change in appearance. She looked older and more serene, but still just as lovely. She heightened the change with dark eye shadow and loose-fitting clothes.

Garcia had shaved his head completely, which helped him blend in with the Buddhist monks that filled the area. Maggie had cut her hair short and spiky, and dressed in the jeans and T-shirt of a Taiwanese tourist. She had informed everyone on the team that she was using a Taiwanese accent as well, but to their untrained ears, she sounded just the same.

McNutt had cut his beard and trimmed his hair to a reasonable length, but he had avoided cutting it too short. He had suggested that if their unknown enemies had identified him, they might have done so from his Marine photos, so he didn’t want to be shorn too closely. Cobb had trimmed his week’s worth of stubble into a goatee. It wasn’t much of a change, but it was enough to give a stranger pause — and sometimes that was all that was necessary.

Papineau had made minimal changes to his appearance too. Cobb was fairly certain the Frenchman wouldn’t be on the radar of their unknown pursuers because he hadn’t been in the field at all. Still, a different part to his perfectly coiffed hair and an outfit of khakis and a golf shirt changed his look enough to deflect average scrutiny.

Unfortunately, the new clothes did nothing to improve Papineau’s mood.

They were all seated in a long minibus provided for transport into town. With no other arrivals at the tiny airport they had the vehicle to themselves, aside from the driver. It had not escaped Cobb’s notice that Papineau had not let him out of sight since Tokyo, except in their hotel rooms at night. He had even sat next to Cobb on the flight into Tibet, and then again on the bus. He had been waiting for Cobb to open the conversation, but Cobb hadn’t said a word to him the entire time. As the pristine blue water of the snaking river ran by outside the windows of the bus, the Frenchman could wait no longer.

‘Why did you bring me along?’ Papineau whispered to Cobb. ‘Seriously, what was the point? And when were you going to tell me about the incident in Xinjiang? Am I that untrustworthy? Haven’t I given you everything you asked for?’

Cobb often studied the way people talked with one another. He’d heard communication described as two monologues clashing, with each person waiting for their turn to speak instead of actively listening. He knew all of Papineau’s complaints before the man voiced them, but he still allowed the man to spew, getting the anger out of his system, until he was ready to listen.

Finally Papineau fell silent, his face reddened.

Cobb waited an extra few seconds just to be sure. ‘I didn’t tell you about the rekky because I wasn’t sure it was worth telling you about. As it was, the trip accomplished nothing other than arousing the wrath of the mine’s security forces. And we still don’t know if that was connected to the attack in Guangzhou. Could be two separate groups.’

Cobb spoke softly with an even tone, the pace of his response not leaving an opening for Papineau to object. ‘And honestly, I didn’t fully trust you. You’ve held things back from the team in the past. You’ve spied on us. You’ve been … difficult. But you’re here now, and that counts for a lot. You’ve shown your willingness to get your hands dirty.’

Cobb knew the small compliment would go a long way toward disarming Papineau’s indignant rage. ‘Not everyone needs to know the whole plan. Compartmentalization helps if things turn south, and, as you’ve seen, that happens more often than we’d like. Sometimes I leave things out for Josh or Sarah, too.’

Papineau glanced at them, but they weren’t listening.

Cobb continued. ‘I’ve treated you as an equal member of this team since we got to Hong Kong. I understand why you might have been upset at being left out of things back in Florida, but I think maybe you’ve been letting your emotions cloud your viewpoint since Tokyo. I trust you now. We all do. We’ve just stopped treating you like our boss. After all, we’re all wealthy now. We’re not here for the money anymore — if any of us ever were.’

Cobb turned at last to face the Frenchman, and he saw his explanation had had the desired effect. Papineau was not only defused, but genuinely surprised, and maybe a bit honored to be treated as a member of the team. His face registered a variety of emotions, but anger was no longer one of them.

‘And let’s face it,’ Cobb whispered. ‘You were smart enough to hire us all for those things that drive us. You knew we weren’t here for the money alone.’

Cobb had no idea whether his last statement was true or not, but it was an additional compliment that helped to further bury Papineau’s anger.

‘I don’t know what to—’ the Frenchman began, but his words died on his lips as the bus rounded the curve in the road and the picturesque valley of Lhasa opened up before them.

The second most populated city on the Tibetan Plateau at over half a million people, Lhasa’s name literally meant ‘place of the gods’.

The entire team could see why.

The city sits in a flat river valley, surrounded by 8,000-foot mountains. At this time of year, the snow had melted off parts of the slopes, revealing lush greenery. It looked like swirls of mint up the white hillsides. Below those slopes, but still raised above the city, was the white and brick-red Potala Palace.

As the bus continued around the bend, a ray of golden sunlight pierced the clouds overhead, illuminating the palace like a spotlight. The gilded canopies on the rooftop glittered in the light like diamonds. It was truly a sight to behold.

The rest of the city spread out below the palace looked dull by comparison, full of plain Chinese Communist architecture. The distinction between the stunning view of the mountains, the illuminated palace, and the drab city beneath it was a remarkable study of contrasts.

‘It’s amazing,’ Sarah gasped.

‘It is,’ Maggie agreed. ‘Let’s try not to destroy it.’