White Jade

Chapter Forty-Six

The contents of the bottle swirled and sparkled with dancing glints of gold in the light of the burning bowls. Selena brushed back a loose strand of hair.

The smell of decay from the sarcophagus was getting stronger. The fresh, life-like tone of the Emperor's face was taking on a bruised look, the color darkening.

Nick took the bottle and placed it back in the box. He put the jade box back at the emperor's feet.

"How about the pictures on the walls, Selena?"

"I've already got most of it. Just a few more."

"Make it quick. We're running out of time before someone shows up. Ronnie, let's look around one more time."

In the workshop they searched through the objects scattered about on the tables. They steered clear of the chest with the uranium ore.

Selena called out. "Hey, I'm done."

"All right, let's get out of here."

"What about the emperor?" said Selena.

"What about him?"

They glanced over at the emperor. He wasn't looking good. Pools of putrid fluid were forming in the crypt. When they'd unsealed the lid, the air had started a chemical reaction. Immortality wasn't what it was cracked up to be.

"Shouldn't we put the lid back on? It seems the right thing to do."

Ronnie and Nick looked at each other, shrugged, and went over to the crypt. The bones of the face were already showing through the rotting flesh. The stench was terrible. They wrestled the lid on.

They shouldered their packs.

They went back the way they'd come, climbing over the pit and past the spear trap to the ledge at the foot of the stairs. Torches still burned in the passage. At the top of the stairs the statue was where they'd left it. Carter took C-4 from his pack and began shaping charges. Ronnie stood guard at the entrance. Selena photographed the garuda.

He placed the charges to collapse the floor around the stairwell and demolish the main doorway into the temple. He thought about it and placed a few more. The roof might come down, but he wanted to make sure no one else would get in. At the least, the entrance to the chamber would be closed and the stairs filled with rubble. He inserted the detonators and hooked up the timers.

"All set. I'm giving it ten minutes." He activated the timers.

They left the torches burning on the floor and stepped out into the daylight. Nick called Harker. As she picked up he heard the noise of trucks grinding up the mountain.

"Director, we're ready to get out of here."

"Where are you?"

"We're just outside the entrance to the building in the center of the ruins. I hear vehicles."

"All right, I see you on satellite right now. There are four vehicles approaching, three trucks and a command car. You've got company."

Her voice was distorted, fading in and out. There was a lot of interference from atmospherics.

"I'm having trouble hearing you. Can you call in a strike?" He waited for the delay.

"Not without starting World War III. I'll call for extraction. I can see what's happening and let you know what the Chinese are doing, but you've got to handle this yourself."

In Washington, Elizabeth watched the three members of her team duck back inside the building. On the western edge of the complex, the Chinese convoy halted. Soldiers jumped from the trucks and began to deploy. An officer gestured and pointed. Elizabeth zoomed in. Rank insignia of a Senior Colonel. Wu, she thought.

"Nick, about thirty bodies plus an officer, I think Wu. They're deploying along the west of the ruins and to the south. They're cutting off access to the valley. Now they're beginning to move into the complex."

Ronnie and Selena could hear Harker in their headsets. They knew what was happening.

"Okay, Director. Keep talking. I won't be answering much."

He looked at his watch. Six minutes until the charges blew. From the archway where he stood he couldn't see any troops over the rubble beyond the courtyard. They still had a little time.

"We'll go out low and fast to the east," he said. "There's plenty of cover once we're out of the square. Selena, stick close to me, stay low. I'll take the point, Selena in the middle, Ronnie, you bring up the rear."

They dropped low.

"All right, let's move. Go!"

They ran across the open courtyard and behind some large standing stones without getting shot at. His earpiece crackled.

"Good move, Nick. They're across from you to the west and below to the south. Half of them are moving toward the center, you should see them soon, the others are working their way along the wall."

The transmission was clearing up.

A dozen soldiers scrambled over the rubble and ran toward the entrance to the temple. Ronnie tracked them with his weapon. Selena looked worried, but she had her MP-5 ready.

Quietly, Carter said, "Hold your fire." He laid his hand on her arm. "Remember, short bursts. Try to keep your breath easy." She nodded.

I can do this, she thought. I can do this.

More soldiers appeared in the square and fanned out along the perimeter of the courtyard.

Nick signaled. They moved away from the square, zigzagging between clumps of stone and half standing walls, working eastward. Harker's voice came loud and strong over the link.

"You are still clear to the east. Soldiers are entering the central building. Wu is on the edge of the square directing them in. There are ten hostiles moving toward your position."

Carter looked at his watch. Thirty seconds to detonation.

"Get ready," he said. "When it blows everyone's going to be busy for a few seconds. Make a run for it, over there." He pointed to a gap in the outer wall, thirty yards away.

Ten seconds. Five. The explosion was big. Maybe he'd used a little more C-4 than he needed. There was no time to look.

They ran full out. Rocks and chunks of stone from the explosion rained down around them. Ten yards short of the gap the distinctive chatter of Chinese QBZ-95 assault rifles sounded behind them. Chips of stone sprayed around the team as they dove through the opening.

Swirling black smoke and yellow dust rose high over the courtyard. The tall pyramid roof of the temple was gone. Ronnie was firing, shiny brass cases ratcheting from his H-K and bouncing off the stones. Selena looked stunned. Nick reached around the corner of the gap and fired blindly, risked a glance, fired at a soldier as he tried for cover and brought him down. Ronnie ejected a magazine, jammed another one in.

Harker's voice came through.

"Still three in front of you. More coming around from the south. They'll see you in a minute. Extraction team is in the air, ETA sixteen minutes."

Nick took out a grenade, pulled the clip and the pin, let go of the handle and threw it over the wall. He heard screams as it went off.

"Ronnie, go!" He pointed and Ronnie took off along the wall for the northeast corner.

He pulled Selena to her feet. "That way."

A Chinese soldier came over the wall and clubbed him with his rifle. Carter went down hard, his eyes blurring. Sound stopped. He struggled to move. He watched the Chinese raise his weapon, everything moving in silence and a strange light and slow, fluid motion, the soldier silhouetted against the cloudless sky.

He thought of Megan.

Red spots blossomed on the soldier's chest, stitching a neat pattern across his uniform. His eyes opened wide. Blood bright as fire gushed from his mouth and he fell sideways to the ground. Nick stumbled to his feet. Suddenly he could hear again.

Selena stood ten feet away, looking at the man she'd just killed, her MP-5 held close by her cheek. He watched her face register what she'd done.

Nick picked up his weapon and grabbed Selena's arm. They ran for the far corner. The ground along the wall was flat for twenty feet or so until it dropped away in a steep slope to the right. They ducked and dodged between piles of fallen stones from the broken walls. Bullets whined and ricocheted all around.

Ronnie was almost to the corner when a clatter of automatic fire came from behind and he went down. Nick turned and fired, Selena beside him. They brought down the shooter. When they reached Ronnie, they dragged him around the corner.

His leg was bloody. There were two holes on the back of his uniform, but his body armor had deflected the rounds and kept him alive.

"Shit," he grunted, face tight with pain.

"How bad?"

"Thigh shot. Probably broken ribs. God damn it!"

"Selena, cover us. Keep your head down, quick looks, reach around the corner and fire in their general direction."

She nodded, grim-faced, stuck her H-K around the corner, and began firing short bursts. Nick cut Ronnie's pants leg away. The bullet had gone all the way through, from the back to the front of his thigh. Nick bound him up with a strip of cloth torn from the pants.

"Looks like it missed the bone and artery, amigo. Think you can stand on one leg?"

"Yeah."

Ronnie was pale. Things had just gotten more difficult.

Harker's voice sounded in his ear.

"ETA for extraction, eleven minutes. I can see eight hostiles still moving around plus Wu and Choy."

"Tell them we've got wounded. Tell them to expect ground fire. I'm going to try to get to the northwest corner."

"Roger that."

The sky was a dirty yellow color, dust from the explosion drifting everywhere. He knelt by Selena.

"How's your ammo?"

"Getting low."

He gave her another magazine. "We have to get to the next corner. There's a chopper coming. We need to stay alive and knock down a few more of them."

"How's Ronnie?"

"We'll have to help him. You're doing great. You help Ronnie, you and he watch the front, I'll cover the rear. Up there." He pointed. "Go!"

She jumped up and helped Ronnie to his feet. They started toward the far corner, Ronnie hopping on one leg with his arm around Selena's shoulder. Nick risked a look around the wall, ducked back as flying chips cut into his face. He reached around, firing, and saw another enemy soldier collapse.

Selena and Ronnie had made it to the end of the wall. He caught up with them. They crouched behind a tumble of rock at the corner.

"ETA six minutes." The voice of the Director was distorted again by atmospherics. "Wu and four others are back at the trucks. Four coming toward you, around the corner."

"Coming this way." He pointed. "Let them get part way down the wall." They waited, weapons leveled. Four men appeared, running low and hard. Selena and Ronnie and Nick opened up at the same time. The storm of bullets ripped through the soldiers and turned their crisp uniforms into bloody rags. They crumpled and slid down the side of the hill.

"Just five left, now, down there." He gestured toward the Chinese trucks parked fifty yards away, visible in quick glances between the rocks giving them cover. "They have to come to us. Let's wait here."

"Suits me." Ronnie looked white and haggard. Blood stained the improvised bandage on his leg. Selena looked flushed. Carter's face was swelling where he'd taken the blow and his jaw hurt. His back felt like it was in a vise.

"ETA three minutes." Harker's voice echoed in his ear. "You should hear them any minute now. We sent you a Pave Hawk with Apache escort."

That made him smile, even though it hurt. The Pave Hawk only had a couple of fifties or 7.62's on it, but the Apache was a different animal altogether. Colonel Wu was about to get a big surprise.

"Tell them to take out those vehicles as soon as they can get a lock. Make sure they know where we are. I'll make smoke."

"Roger that."

He pulled a smoke marker from his pack. In the distance, he heard the choppers.

"ETA two minutes."

He pulled the pin and tossed the marker. A bright orange plume of smoke billowed upward. Chips flew off the rocks around them from a barrage of automatic fire that said Wu knew where they were. It wasn't going to do him much good now.

Three helicopters popped up over the next ridge, laboring hard in the thin air, two Apaches leading the way. A big man stood up by the Chinese trucks with a shoulder launcher. Carter recognized the man from the porch in California and locked him in the sights of his MP-5. He gave him a full magazine. Choy went over backwards as the launcher fired.

The missile snaked straight up into the air, stretching a white plume of smoke behind. It wandered uncertainly, then turned and headed straight for one of the Apaches. Carter held his breath.

A dark shape streaked out of the lead helicopter and met the missile in mid-air. The explosion slapped against their ears.

The Apaches launched rockets.

Nick hit the dirt. The blast rocked the ground. Stones tumbled off the wall, bouncing around them. When he looked again, two of the trucks were engulfed in flame. The gunners on the Apaches opened up with 30 millimeter chain guns and the burning trucks and remaining vehicles blew apart. The smoking remains of an engine sailed out of the sky and buried itself in the ground ten feet in front of him.

The Pave Hawk settled down hard on a flat area. Six troopers jumped from the hatch and fanned out to form a perimeter while the Apaches hovered overhead. Carter stood.

"Selena, you take one side, I'll take the other."

They carried Ronnie at a trot toward the helicopter. A medic came out to help and lifted him in. They climbed in after him.

"Good Morning, Gentlemen."

The voice belonged to a Captain wearing Army Rangers flashes on his uniform. His name tag said Riggins. He looked surprised when he saw Selena.

"And Lady. Strap yourselves in. We're leaving. Just the three of you?"

"Right. Nice to see you, Captain. The Gunny here took a hit in his leg.

"Saw that. We'll get to it right away, Colonel."

He didn't ask any questions. Captain Riggins said something into his radio. The troopers on the ground pulled in and boarded.

The Pave Hawk lifted and turned south toward India.

Carter looked out the open hatchway. The courtyard of the temple was littered with bodies. The temple was a jumbled pile of broken stone. Nothing moved but dust and smoke eddying in the chill wind. No one was going to visit the Emperor for a while.

Flames rose fifty feet into the air from the remains of the Chinese convoy. There was no movement on the ground, no weapons fire toward the chopper.

Safe.

He felt the tension start to drain away. His back was an agony of fire. He shifted on the hard seat and turned to Selena.

She was staring out through the open hatch, watching the Himalayas slide by as the helicopter descended into a long, wide valley toward India. Overhead, the steady beat of the blades drummed away.

She turned toward him. Nick had seen that look before, when someone came face to face with their own, violent death. When they began to understand the power of life and death they held over others.

In combat everyone was an instrument of death. The initiation wasn't easy. Some broke. Some got stronger. He could see Selena was one of the strong ones.

"You're all right."

She said nothing.

"People go through months of training to prepare for something like that and screw it up. You did everything right. You could have been a Marine."

She almost smiled. Then a distant look came into her eyes. After a few seconds she said, "Now I know what you meant."

"About what?"

"About shooting back. About defending yourself. I felt like a different person back there. I don't know who that person is."

"It takes time to make room for that, find a way to fit it in."

She took off her helmet, ran her fingers through her hair, her eyes reflecting some new thought, some undefined reality.

"You've been doing this for years."

"Yes."

"Does it get easier?"

"No. You have more familiarity with it, but it's never easy. It's just something that has to be done. You do it and think about it afterward."

His words would never replace what Selena had left back there with that dead soldier by the wall, the moment she pulled the trigger.

His earpiece sounded.

"Nick, you there?"

"Yes, Director."

"No sign of life at the complex. I think you got them all. You're minutes from Indian airspace and the Chinese won't follow you there. They scrambled fighters out of Chengdu, but they won't get to you in time."

"That's good news."

"You'll be landing in a restricted area on an Indian airbase. We have an understanding with the Indian government about using their facility. We don't want them to know what you were doing. A C-130 will be waiting. How's Ronnie?"

"He's good. A thigh wound and some cracked ribs. The medic gave him morphine and he's a happy guy right now."

"Selena?"

"She's fine, Director."

"What did you find?"

"What we went for and more. We've got our evidence, but I'll wait for the debriefing. Director, we made a mess down there. The Chinese aren't going to be happy about it."

"I'll worry about the Chinese. I'll see you tomorrow in Washington. I'm signing off for now."

He leaned back against the armored plate and closed his eyes. It had been a long, long day.