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The three of us turned off our flashlights and continued cautiously, taking cover wherever we could find it. We quickly drew close to the source of the flashlight beam, and our quarry came into view. He was less than thirty feet away, wearing a Japanese military uniform, and moving things into the oxskin raft. The man appeared on alert. He kept looking all around. Then we saw the film canister. It was already in the raft. I crouched behind several gunnysacks, revealing only the top half of my head as I watched. He was wearing a gas mask. I swore. Even now he still wouldn’t reveal his identity.

Wang Sichuan gave me a glance and motioned noiselessly. You draw his attention, he was saying, while Ma Zaihai dives underwater. I nodded. He prepared to hurl the bulu. Then, just as Wang Sichuan was about to signal, the man suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked around in alarm, as if he’d noticed something. Wang Sichuan and I ducked back down at once. This guy’s alert as hell, I said to myself. He really is a professional spy. We waited a long time, then looked back out. His movements had sped up. Clearly he was afraid.

Wang Sichuan made no more movements and gave us only a glance. Ma Zaihai immediately dove underwater. Straining my eyes, I watched as he swam under the raft. He was ready. Wang Sichuan nodded to me. Taking a deep breath, I muttered a mental “Buddha preserve us,” then ran out, roaring madly, “Don’t move!”

Immediately the flashlight beam was on me. I made it two steps before he opened fire, the bullet whizzing past my head. That’s not good, I thought. That bullet was way too close, and he probably couldn’t even see me yet. This son of a bitch really knows his way around a gun. Instinctively, I rolled to the ground. Two streaks of flame flew past where I had just been standing. One second later and I would have been toast. Luckily Wang Sichuan was no slouch himself. A moment after I hit the dirt, I heard the characteristic hollow smash of the bulu. This had to be his most powerful throwing style—the one he said was used to take down wild oxen. Then came a series of noises followed by a splash. I knew we’d done it. Leaping to my feet, I sprinted toward the noise.

Water splashed in all directions. Wang Sichuan must have already jumped in. I was about to do the same when I saw the black iron film canister. It was sitting magnificently on the floor of the raft. I stepped into the raft and grabbed it, then picked up the burning-hot rifle and aimed it at the water. It was two against one and Wang Sichuan was there. They wouldn’t need me. Safeguarding the data seemed more important.

The water roiled for some time. Ma Zaihai’s head was first to emerge, but then he went back under. With everyone twisted together, there was no way I could determine who was who. I didn’t dare fire. After tossing and turning for who knows how long, the water suddenly went still. With a thump Ma Zaihai climbed into the raft, his mouth wide and gasping for breath. I very nearly smashed him with the butt of the rifle before I saw who it was. “What happened?” I asked him, but he couldn’t say a thing, just panted so hard it seemed he might die. When I went to help him up, he didn’t have the strength to even take my hand.

After several seconds Wang Sichuan popped out of the water as well. With his great big lungs, he was barely panting. Paddling in every direction, he looked around. The water was calm. I shined my flashlight across it. There was nothing to see.

“Goddamn it,” Wang Sichuan swore. “He got away! Do you have the goods?”

I raised the iron canister. Shaking his head, he climbed into the raft and pulled Ma Zaihai to his feet. “If only we hadn’t eased up in the end, a merit citation would have been ours for sure.”

I stared down at the pitch-black surface of the water. Somewhere, I knew, there was a pair of eyes staring right back at us. Looking over at Ma Zaihai, I could tell from his expression how much he wanted to get out of here. “What now?” he asked. “Should we just set out directly?”

To tell you the truth, upon seeing the raft, my only desire was to leave at once. I could barely consider anything else. I nodded. “Screw it,” I said. “For the safety of the film, I think we should head back right away.”

Ma Zaihai was overjoyed and began hauling in the anchor. I looked over at Wang Sichuan. He remained stock-still. My heart thumped and I looked straight at him. “What is it?” I asked. Did he still want to wait for Old Tang and the others? The situation had changed. Our plans had to as well. I knew leaving them like this was an irresponsible move, but with such a great excuse in my hands, I couldn’t bring myself to worry too much about it. Wang Sichuan’s sense of justice was too strong. Did we always have to do the heroic thing?

His expression was a little odd. He hesitated for a moment, then spoke. “I was just thinking about whether we should first head back to the projection hall.”

“The projection hall?” said Ma Zaihai in amazement. “What do you want to go back there for?”

Wang Sichuan tipped his head toward the iron canister. “If we just hand this thing off to our superiors, we’ll probably never in our whole lives know what’s on it.”

We looked at one another. And then I understood. “What you’re saying is that thirty or forty years from now, might we not regret heading back straight away? That just maybe, in only a couple of hours, we could be privy to the most incredible thing in human history.”

EPILOGUE

I nodded in response to Wang Sichuan’s idea.

We reached the projection room two hours later and started up the projector. The film began to roll. To this day I still don’t know whether we made the right decision, but I do know that whenever I think of what I saw in that room, my blood runs cold.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With over a million subscribers to his microblog and five million books sold, Xu Lei is one of China’s most popular and highest-grossing novelists. Born in 1982, he was inspired by his parents’ travel stories to write fanciful tales about tomb raiders, which he then posted online. The series became Secrets of a Grave Robber, which now boasts eight volumes in print, three of which have been published in English. Search for the Buried Bomber, the first book in the Dark Prospects series, was hailed as China’s most spectacular suspense novel of 2010. Xu Lei currently lives in Hangzhou, China.

Beijing Guomi Digital Technology Co., Ltd. is a young and enterprising publishing house based in China. Their goal is to bring the best Chinese books to global readers.

Search for the Buried Bomber was first published in 2010 by Beijing Guomi Digital Technology Co., Ltd. as .

Website: www.hotinchina.net

Contact: hotinchina@126.com

ISBN-13: 9781611097948

ISBN-10: 1611097940