White Jade

Chapter Thirty-One

The Project was Elizabeth's life. She spent more time here than in her Georgetown home. No one waited for her there. She'd given up on the idea anyone ever would.

It wasn't supposed to work out like that. She'd been married for a time, back when she was still young and idealistic, thinking she could juggle a career at Justice and a husband and family at the same time.

Wasn't that the new role model for an educated woman? Crack the glass power ceiling, make a lot of money, go to fabulous places in a Prada suit with a great guy who appreciated your mind along with your body, have a couple of kids and commute in a BMW?

The American myth of having it all. There wasn't anything wrong with the myth, if you could get it without selling your soul, but sometimes people and events didn't cooperate. She'd never had kids. He hadn't wanted them. Maybe children would have made a difference, but Elizabeth suspected it would have only made things worse. Her former husband had been with ATF. He was still with ATF. He was also still with the last woman he'd been cheating with before Elizabeth dumped him. Lately she'd heard that wasn't going so well. It was a small satisfaction, but the truth was she didn't really care.

She drove an Audi, not a BMW. She had power, she had the President's ear, she had money, she had a very nice home in the heart of elegant Georgetown. She even had a couple of Prada suits in her closet. None of that mattered much. What mattered to Elizabeth was making a difference, and she was doing that. The picture of the Twin Towers on her desk reminded her of why she did it.

Her life had turned into a study in black and white. She preferred the simplicity of dress black and white offered, but it was more than that. She could not understand people who thought compromise was always the solution. That negotiating with evil was possible. The irony of working in Washington with that attitude did not escape her.

Politically correct rationalizations about why terrorists had good reason for their tactics of fear and murder and how negotiation was the answer struck her as naïve and dangerous. The terrorist organizations were an enemy with philosophies of political and religious fanaticism leaving no room for compromise or peace. As far as Elizabeth was concerned, the world would be a better place if they were all destroyed. If her father were still alive he would have agreed.

Judge Harker had been well-liked in the small town where she'd grown up. Traditional values of hard work and honesty still flourished on the western slope of the Rockies. In her father's private world, a man’s word was his bond, a handshake an agreement written in stone. On the bench, he was impartial and fair. Whatever doubts he might have had about the judgments the law required him to mete out, he left them in the courtroom.

When Elizabeth was growing up, the Judge would sit in his big green chair in his study, a glass of bourbon on the table beside him, and tell Elizabeth stories of a vanished America. Stories of the Revolution, the Founders, the Civil War. Stories of sacrifice, of heroism and wisdom and courage. She absorbed the history, and with it a love for her country. She still believed in the essential goodness of America, tarnished as it was. Maybe it was out of style, but it sustained her when the self-serving nature of Washington politics began to wear her down.

The Judge believed in hard facts, concrete evidence and fair play. He would not have liked the shadow world she lived in, but he would have been firm on the need to protect the country and proud of her for doing it. She wondered what he would think about this latest threat. A threat coming into view but not yet defined, potential trouble with a nation capable of annihilating a good part of America.

Nick and Ronnie came into the office, interrupting her thoughts. Time to brief them. A satellite photo of western Tibet filled the big screen behind her desk. When they were settled she used a laser pointer to indicate the landmarks.

"Following the clues in the book we focused on the area near Mount Kailash." She indicated the mountain with a red dot from the pointer.

"This is a coal mining village called Moincer."

The dot paused on a cluster of buildings west of the mountain, moved again.

"This is Kyunglung, a complex of caves used for religious rituals. The caves are shown on the map and are known as the 'Silver Palace of the Garuda'. At first I thought what we're looking for might be there, but its just caves, nothing more. It was used for centuries by Bon magicians."

"Who are the Bon?" Nick's ear began itching.

"Bon was the religion practiced in Tibet before Buddhism. It's still practiced today, but with Buddhist elements."

Harker tapped her keyboard. The scene changed to show a satellite photo of a bleak hilltop covered with the ruins of a small city. The camera zoomed in on a whitewashed complex built into the side of the hill.

"The building is Gurugem, a Bon monastery. Those ruins above it looked promising, but they've been picked over for years. There's nothing there. However, I think I've found what we're looking for. Following a line north, about fifty kilometers, there's another set of ruins."

The satellite focus shifted to the remains of an ancient, square fortress on top of a hill. The outer walls were about the length of a football field on each side. Ruined buildings and rubble surrounded a square, open area with a large building set in the center.

"A deep sonar scan shows a cavern underneath those ruins, with something in it. My guess is that this is where the emperor was taken. It matches up with the map in the book. If anything is still left, that's where it will be. There isn't any military presence nearby. That's the good news. The bad news is the site is exposed and the terrain is rugged.

"You'll go in when it's dark to avoid being spotted from the monastery. You'll be in uniform and wear rank insignia, but no unit flashes or nametags. Nick, I'm making you a bird colonel for this.

"Your clearance will be Umbra. No one is going to question you. Your mission is to penetrate the area, find entrance to the underground complex, retrieve and document whatever information found there of value and bring it back."

"You forgot the bit about the tape self-destructing at the end."

"Excuse me?"

"Mission Impossible. Remember?"

"Very funny, Nick."

Ronnie ran his hand over his buzz cut. "Where's the drop zone?"

"It's too dangerous to drop right on the ruins. The mountains and air currents there make it high risk for you and for the aircraft."

Back to the broad shot, the laser dot moved west to a valley between the caves and the Bon monastery.

"We'll drop you here. It's flat, you won't have too far to travel and you can get in and under cover before anyone knows you're there. Once you're north of the monastery you shouldn't run into anyone."

"How are we going to get into that underground complex?"

"There's no way to tell until you get there. Selena and Stephanie are working on the translation right now, looking for anything that will help. Selena will have it with her. There has to be something in the book or on site that can show you how to get in, now that we know it's there."

"Any entrance might be buried under tons of rock. We could get there and wander around like tourists until Yang shows up. This isn't good, Director."

"Nobody said it was easy, Ronnie. You're wheels up tonight from Andrews for Dyess. I've got 24/7 watch on the surrounding area and I'll keep you informed if we see any military presence coming toward you. I will monitor the mission on live satellite and stay in voice contact."

"How do we get out when we're done?" Carter asked.

"Helicopter extraction from India. It's not far to the Indian border, but the route on foot is difficult, through the Lipu Lehk pass. It helps that you're going in summer, but the plateau is high, the air's thin and it's cold up there. It is the Himalayas, after all."

"And if we run into opposition?"

"Take care of it. No rules of engagement. We'll have the copters standing by across the border but you're on your own."

On your own, Carter thought. Meaning deniable.

"When you're ready, call for extraction. Get it done as fast as you can. Yang is bound to send someone down there when he figures it out."

"He must have by now," Carter said.

"So far we don't see any activity in the area, but that could change anytime."

"What are we looking for?"

"Anything to confirm the existence or location of a possible uranium deposit. If Selena's translation is correct there should be a map or records of some kind showing where all the ingredients for the elixir can be found. I don't think you're going to find the secret of immortality, but look for anything unusual. You won't know until you get there and see for yourself. Any other questions? Ronnie?"

He shook his head. "I don't have any."

"All right, then. Transport at 1800. Good luck."

Out in the hallway they waited for the elevator.

"What do you think, Nick?"

"About what?"

"About the whole deal."

"I think we're in for what our Chinese friends call an interesting time."