Thunder God

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Hawke was now face to face with Sheng Fang for the second time since all this began, and as far as he was concerned that was two times too many.

Before anyone had a chance to think, Sheng told Luk to order the men forward, and they proceeded toward the next chamber. Ahead of them lay the final of Qin’s lethal challenges — the trial of metal.

Amid a serene sense of triumph, Sheng turned the final bend in the tunnel and saw with horror an enormous shining lake stretching out before him. The glare of the glow-sticks reflected brightly in the surface of the water as he ordered two men to move forward to the lake’s shore and report their findings.

The men nervously descended toward the water and Sheng watched with interest as they stooped to investigate. Moments later both men collapsed into the lake, dead. Luk glanced anxiously at Sheng and mumbled something about the curse of the tomb and a burning sky, but Sheng was undeterred.

He called two more men forward and ordered them down to the water to investigate further and collect the bodies. They looked at the corpses on the shore in the cavern below and objected, so Sheng had Luk shoot one of them. Their lives meant nothing to him, so long as they were able to help him achieve his destiny and fulfill the prophecy. Any man who refused to obey his orders was of no use.

The second man looked at the body of his dead colleague and swallowed hard. He was left with no choice but to make his way down to the shore and report back to his leader.

At the shore, he too began to swoon, and then he fell with a syrupy splash into the water. Luk turned to Sheng and spoke next: “It’s not water. It’s mercury. This is the test of metal.”

Sheng’s mind began to whir. Mercury was lethal, both to touch or to breathe, and the evidence of that was the three corpses on the shore a few hundred yards below him. He smiled in appreciation of Qin and his sadistic ingenuity when constructing the defenses of the tomb. He ordered Luk to confirm it was mercury and watched him make his way down to the lake.

All of this only strengthened his belief that the map must be hidden in the tomb — why else would the emperor go to such extraordinary and lethal lengths to protect the place? Now, he watched Luk trudge back up the path, holding a black cloth up to his mouth and nose.

“And?”

Luk removed the cloth. “Definitely mercury, and the men are terrified of going any further. They don’t want to end up like those three.” He flicked his hand behind himself for a moment in a dismissive and casual gesture to indicate the three dead men. “And to be honest, I can’t blame them. I’ve looked around and I can see no way across the lake at all.”

“Wrong — there is a way, look.” Sheng pointed at the far end of the cavern where a ledge of natural rock stuck out over the lake of shimmering mercury. On the far side of the cavern opposite it was another rock ledge, but much smaller. Once, a long time ago, a natural rock bridge must have connected the two sides.

“No man can jump that,” Luk said. “It must be twenty-five feet.”

Sheng nodded appreciatively at the distance and snapped his fingers. Two goons dragged Hawke over to him.

“What do you think, Mr Hawke? Twenty-five feet like my man here says, or perhaps even wider?”

“No,” Hawke said firmly. “I’d say your pet monkey has a good eye for distances.”

Luk moved forward aggressively, but Sheng stopped him with a raised hand and a few short words barked in Cantonese. Luk obeyed immediately and returned to his place behind Sheng.

“Always with the jokes. Perhaps a little mercury vapor will make you more serious. You will jump that gap and take with you a length of rope in order that we may all cross. If you miss and fall in the mercury, I will kill your three friends here by making them go for a swim in this delightful little lake, understand?”

Hawke nodded grimly and approached the ledge. Thanks to his parkour he knew Luk had been right in his estimation of twenty-five feet, the only problem was that his personal record at a running jump in parkour was twenty-three feet. He knew that two feet didn’t sound like much, but he also knew from his parkour how long two feet was if it was two feet further than you could jump.

Sheng pushed the gun into Lea’s neck. “Now, Mr Hawke.”

Hawke took a deep breath and then a long running jump, and leaped into the air using everything his parkour training could give. For a few seconds, he was mid-air, sailing above the terrifying mercury lake like a wingless bird. Now was too late to reconsider his actions — if he had misjudged the width of the gap he faced a desperate and toxic death.

He landed with a savage crunch in the loose gravel that was strewn over the far ledge. With no small measure of relief, he dusted himself down and returned his gaze to the others standing on the other side. Lea looked so small, standing in between Sheng’s goons.

“And now the rope, Mr Hawke,” Sheng said “Throw it back, if you please.” He raised his gun to Lea’s temple. She closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

He knew had no choice but to follow Sheng’s instructions. He secured the rope around one of the boulders on his side of the cave and tossed the other end back to Luk, who caught it in one hand and then lashed it around a boulder on their side. Moments later, Luk led the way by traversing the taut rope with what Hawke silently acknowledged was a pretty impressive commando rope crawl. Han, and Reaper followed, and then Lea. Hawke watched anxiously as she crawled along the rope, slipping only once, but it was a heart-stopping moment for the Englishman.

Sheng and the last of his goons followed up the rear, and then they were on their way again. Hawke and the others were forced to go in front of Sheng at gunpoint in case there were any other nasty little surprises in the emperor’s tomb.

They walked for several minutes until they finally reached an impressive arch carved out of the stone with Chinese dragons carved into each supporting column either side of it.

Sheng gasped when he saw them. “We are here! Behold the dragon — the symbol of the Thunder God. We have finally reached the real tomb, the sacred inner sanctum of the great Emperor Qin himself, and final resting place of the Map of Immortality, kept hidden from mankind until now and it’s all mine!”

“So, do we get the runner-up prize or what” Hawke said.

“Silence!” screamed Sheng, and Luk punched him to the ground. Reaper darted forward in his defense but he too was struck down by two of the men who had been holding him. “Any more heroics and Luk will start shooting people, understand?”

Hawke clambered to his feet, followed a second later by Reaper.

“It was only a question, Sheng…” Hawke mumbled.

“Wrong. It was an impertinent question, asked by a mortal man to a God.”