“Or insane,” said Scarlet. “Depending on how you look at it.”
The soldiers looked confused.
Ryan stepped forward. “Sheng Fang believes he is the reincarnated spirit of Lei Gong, a Chinese mortal who became a deity, more specifically the God of Thunder. He thinks he has located the source of eternal life in the tomb of the Emperor Qin, and when he finds it he will fulfill some kind of ancient prophecy. We believe he is waiting until he has secured the map which leads to the elixir before he orders his people to destroy your capital city.”
Silence, and then the men fell about laughing.
“Immortality? Now I’ve heard everything!”
The sergeant laughed for the longest, until the laughter finally subsided and he wiped the tears from his eyes. Only then when he saw the expression on Scarlet’s face did he realize this was no joke.
“You’re being serious?”
Scarlet nodded. “Of course, darling. I’m always very serious.”
The sergeant was quiet for several minutes. “But I can’t believe it. If Sheng is searching for this elixir, then who is setting the device up here in Tokyo?”
“We don’t know his name, but the device was imported into Japan by an unknown Russian with some kind of connection to Sheng Fang. Our people are still looking into his identity, but we don’t believe he’s going to activate the device. We think that little job has been left to one of Sheng’s underlings, in this case a psychotic assassin who calls herself the Lotus.”
The sergeant shook his head in disbelief as he slowly came to terms with the madness he was hearing. “Then we have no choice but to kill all of them and deactivate this weapon.”
“And that’s the mission,” Ryan said. “We only have until Sheng locates the map, and then you can kiss this whole city goodbye.”
“And probably our lives as well,” said Sophie.
Scarlet checked her gun and looked up at the soldiers. “And make no mistake about it — he will use the device to totally destroy Tokyo and kill millions of people.”
“Not to mention devastating the Japanese economy for decades,” Ryan added.
“And,” Karlsson said, addressing everyone in his California drawl, “the only people in the world who can stop him are sitting on board this helicopter, especially the nerd here, because he’s the only one who can figure out where this device is. At the moment we know only that it’s in the central Tokyo area, the rest we have to figure out as we go.”
Scarlet stared at the sergeant, her face deadly serious. “So not such a nerd after all, it turns out.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The first Hawke knew about Hart’s terrible fate was when Lea alerted him to it. She had seen the Commodore’s brutal murder and then called out to Joe. He looked back with horror at her body sprawled out on the marble floor of the lobby, but he knew he couldn’t stop.
Having blasted through the men defending the entrance to the mausoleum, he stepped forward with caution. They moved silently along a corridor and emerged in the main part of the mausoleum where the terracotta soldiers were all lined up around the tomb. They entered into the tomb, using the same route Sheng and Luk had taken, and moments later they saw where the Thunder God and his minions had blasted a hole in the back wall of the newly discovered tomb, opening a new pathway into the hidden labyrinth deep beneath the public area.
They moved inside and soon found themselves in a narrow tunnel with sandstone walls and a dusty, sandy floor, illuminated by several fading glow-sticks. Hawke checked the safety was off his gun and calmly looked down the ancient corridor using the remnants of the glow-sticks to see.
He tried hard to settle his turbulent mind, but after all that had happened it was still almost impossible. Despite everything he told himself about focusing, he just couldn’t stop thinking about the Commodore. Olivia Hart was one of his oldest friends in the armed forces, and seeing her lifeless body sprawled out on the floor like that had ignited something inside him he hadn’t felt for a long time — pure hatred. The unfamiliar feeling was accompanied by a renewed burning sense of revenge that he hadn’t felt since that day in Hanoi.
He knew Sheng would be made to pay in the most brutal way possible, and at his own hands if he had anything to do with it. It was weak of him, but it was primal, and couldn’t be fought. But he also knew how to move on — how to use adrenalin surges to his advantage, and most of all he knew he couldn’t avenge Hart’s death if he lost his focus now and got himself killed.
Refocused now, he was back in the moment and ready for action. “Han, tell me more about the Five Trials that Jenny Tsao mentioned.”
The Shaolin monk was only a few steps behind Hawke and armed with nothing more than his wits. He had refused point-blank to take a weapon back at the chopper when they landed at the tomb, and that made Hawke thought he might be a little crazy.
“Emperor Qin was a very intelligent man, but like all great, powerful men he was vain and paranoid. That is why he had himself buried among all this magnificence. He had the Map of Immortality buried with him because he never wanted another mortal man to find the source of the elixir…”
“It’s that live and let live attitude I love so much,” whispered Lea, her voice bouncing off the cold stone walls in the eerie silence.
“Not only that, but legend says he made extra sure that no other man would ever get his hands on the map by creating a series of trials based on Wu Xing or the Five Elements. Any man brave enough to enter his tomb would have to pass these trials to secure the map.”
“I feel like I’m in a sodding Indiana Jones movie, Joe,” Lea said.
Hawke smiled. “Fun isn’t it!”
“Not really… if you set off a load of blow darts I’m going jump out of the way and let you handle it, okay?”
“Fine.”
“But that’s not going to happen, right?” Lexi asked, her voice unusually nervous.
“No,” Han said calmly. “This not some stupid movie. The tests devised by the Emperor are dangerous and cunning, and not ridiculous.”
“Hey,” Lea said, “that was not a stupid movie! That was a freaking amazing movie.”
Hawke saw that they were nearing the end of the tunnel and were now faced with a set of smooth steps which descended into almost complete darkness. He struck another glow-stick and tossed it down the stairs where it bounced a few times before settling at the bottom of the steps.
“Down we go again, I guess,” Lea said, looking at Hawke for reassurance.
“We’ll be fine,” Reaper shouted from the rear, his voice rich and heavy in the damp silence. “I want my dinner, so if we hurry this along I would be most grateful, merci bien.”
They descended the second set of steps and found themselves faced with another long corridor, this one at a sharp angle to the first.
“We keep going,” Hawke said firmly, and ordered everyone forward with a hand signal. There was still no sound or sight of Sheng.
Hawke spoke quietly over his shoulder. “Carry on, Han.”
“The Five Trials are what they say they are — five tests, and they are designed to kill you, not let you pass. In Chinese culture, wu xing, or the five elements — or as they are sometimes called the Five Stages — are very important. They are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Qin thought protecting himself with the five elements would be lucky — lucky for him, not for us. They are not fair, so don’t be complacent.”
“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Lea said, “but that’s just what I wanted to I hear.”
They pressed on. Hawke had finally cleared his mind of his ghosts and was now focused on the mission. Ahead of them there was potentially the greatest discovery in the history not only of archaeology, but of all world history. For now, he knew they were sworn to secrecy, but how long could the discovery of immortality really be kept from the world?