After finding the stairs, Katiya returned to the basement. She waded out into the bones, shining her light across the room, now murky from the dust they’d stirred up before.
Where was I standing?
Her beam found an open space about ten feet away. She walked over then stopped and moved her light in a circle.
Thump.
Katiya stiffened at the noise. It seemed to have come from somewhere above. Had Max come back to help her?
“Hello?” As the sound of her voice dissipated, she thought she heard a distant shuffling.
“Max?”
This time there was only silence.
Her heart thumping, Katiya turned her attention back to her search. Job number one was to find the radio. Once she had it, she could worry about who might be upstairs. If it was Tocchet, she was going to let him have it.
She swept her light around again, this time in a closer arc. A few seconds later, she saw the radio, nestled up against a femur a few feet away.
“Thank you, thank you,” she muttered to herself.
She picked the radio up and slipped it in her pocket. She needed to make contact with the others, but that would have to wait. Right now she just needed to get out of this creepy place.
After returning to the stairs, Katiya turned off her flashlight. No sense in drawing attention to herself.
A minute later, she emerged from the temple and raced down the front steps. She stood still for a moment, trying to get her bearings. Amazingly, the fog was even denser than before. Visibility was at most ten feet.
Suddenly, Katiya felt as though someone were watching her. She turned slowly back toward the temple. Her eyes ran up the steps then stopped as they fell on something dark near one of the columns. A shadow? Or was someone standing there? As she tried to determine which, the shadow moved toward the steps then disappeared in the fog.
It’s coming.
Her heart pounding, Katiya turned and sprinted to the edge of the clearing. She didn’t see the trail, so she moved quickly to the right. She wanted to use her flashlight but realized it would only make things worse in the fog.
There!
Just ahead was an opening in the jungle. The trail seemed narrower than she remembered, but that was probably because she was stressed.
Without looking back, she darted down the path. She wanted to stop and radio the others but needed to put some distance between her and the temple first. She wasn’t sure who or what she’d seen at the top of the stairs, but it wasn’t Tocchet.
Suddenly, small tree limbs began to whip across her face, forcing her to come to a stop. Katiya gulped in air as she looked around. Nothing about her surroundings looked familiar. Too many trees pressed in on all sides.
Then the truth hit her like a bucket of cold water: she had taken the wrong trail.
Overwhelmed with exhaustion, she crumpled to the ground. She’d done the best she could, but it was time to call for help. She’d have Max or Artur come back and meet her at the clearing in front of the temple. They were going to lose a lot of valuable time, but at least she’d be safe.
Reaching into her pocket, she removed the radio and turned it on. Seconds later, the LED screen lit up.
Thank goodness.
She lifted it to her face then stopped as a distinct shuffling reached her ears. Something had moved behind her. She turned slowly, facing back toward the temple. She couldn’t see anything, and yet she knew something was there, watching her.
Suddenly the radio darkened.
What the…?
She pressed the power button and shook it, but the screen remained dark.
After setting it down, she heard another noise, this time closer. Something was moving toward her.
“Max?”
Her heart thumping wildly in her chest, Katiya removed her backpack and pulled a pistol from the side pocket. Zane had given it to her after Corporal Wilson had gone missing. It was just like him. Always taking care of her.
She tried to lift it but suddenly felt resistance in her own mind. She tried again but couldn’t move the muscles in her arm. Whatever had turned off the radio now seemed to be controlling her thoughts.
Seconds later, a shadow appeared a few feet away, obscured by the fog. It moved toward her, its form beginning to take shape.
Katiya’s vision turned cloudy, and she swooned. Her mind and body were shutting down.
A cloud of fog swirled across the path, and in its wake a pair of black, menacing eyes materialized in front of her.
She tried to cry out, but the scream died in her throat.
The last thing she remembered was spindly, gray hands reaching out for her.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Private Lin Jiang smiled from his hiding place behind the crumbled wall. He’d just watched as the long-haired American slipped into the building across the street. Lin had been trailing him for the last two blocks, staying just far enough behind to avoid being seen.
He had purposely not alerted Colonel Zheng. If he’d done that, then Ho would’ve been dispatched to finish the job. Instead, it would now be Lin who killed the leader of the American team, giving them some measure of revenge for the deaths of the Chinese soldiers on American soil. He could already imagine the accolades that would come his way when they returned to Beijing. Ho be damned.
Suddenly there was movement across the street. The American had made it to the second floor.
As Lin rose, a sharp voice crackled through his headset. “Lin, give me a report.”
It was Zheng. Lin cringed, then a response formed quickly in his mind. “I thought I heard a noise inside an old building. Probably an animal, but I’m going in to check it out.”
There was a long pause, and Lin’s pulse quickened as he waited for Zheng’s response. Had the colonel realized he was lying? The man was notoriously suspicious.
Finally, Zheng said, “Be careful. Contact me immediately if you find something.”
Lin exhaled in relief. “Yes, sir.”
The only thing left to do now was to kill the American. The dumb brute Ho wouldn’t be happy, but Lin already had a plan to cover his tracks. He’d say the American had ambushed him, forcing him to defend himself. No one would criticize him for that. Not even Zheng.
After checking both ways, he sprinted across the street and paused outside the door. Hearing nothing, he entered slowly, his weapon raised. He was standing in a corridor running down the center of the building. He knew from where the American had come out on the second floor that the stairs must be on the other end, so he began moving in that direction.
After finding the stairwell, Lin ascended one step at a time. When he neared the top, his foot crunched down on a piece of gravel. He stopped, listening for any sounds that might indicate he’d been heard. As he waited, the only thing that reached his ears was the faint voice of someone talking on a radio.
He smiled. Fate was delivering the American right into his hands.
After waiting for a couple of minutes, Lin stepped out onto the second floor then paused to get his bearings. Everything was in tatters. It reminded him of the pictures he’d seen of the bombed-out German buildings at the end of the Second World War.
This floor was arranged like the first, with a central corridor and rooms on either side. The voice had seemed to come from one of the rooms on the left, so he moved to that side of the hall.
Lin stopped at the first door. After waiting a few seconds, he leaned forward and peered inside. Empty.