The wind was bad. Control was difficult. He veered off course, checked the GPS, made a correction. His altimeter read seventeen thousand feet. Carter looked for the Humvee and saw the chutes below, far to the right, almost down.
Sixteen thousand feet and the ground was coming up too fast. He worked the lines and headed for a flat area. A strong gust made him sheer left. He overshot the spot he'd picked out and came down hard in an area littered with boulders. The shock ran up his bad leg and right into his spine like electric needles.
He lay for a moment as the chute tried to pull him across the rough ground. The pain was like a knife in his back. He wondered if he was going to be able to get up.
It wasn't a good start. He got to his feet and another bolt of pain stabbed his back and radiated down his leg. He struggled with his chute against the gusting wind.
The ghostly moonlight lit the uneven terrain in shades of gray and black. Pools of deep shadow lay among the rocks. He limped back toward the drop zone. Selena was pulling her chute in about a hundred yards away. When he got there, she took off her mask. She took a deep breath of the thin air.
"That was tricky, that wind…Nick, you're limping."
"It's nothing. You see Ronnie?"
"I think he came down over there."
She pointed at a low rise as Ronnie came trudging over it. They high-fived. Ronnie winced.
"You okay?" Nick asked.
"Just a shoulder bruise. I came down a little hard. It's no big deal."
Now they needed to find the vehicle.
"Anyone see where the Humvee landed?"
"It's that way." Ronnie gestured over his shoulder. "I saw it coming in. Maybe a quarter mile from here. That wind screwed things up."
It took twenty minutes of scrambling over rough stones to find it. Nick's back hurt like hell. The pallet had shattered and the Humvee was half off onto the rocks. It appeared undamaged. They undid the lashings. The engine coughed and started. Ronnie drove a few feet away. They dragged a camouflage net over the pallet and chutes, good enough for the short time they'd be there.
Carter spread a map on the hood of the idling Humvee and got out the GPS. His back throbbed with steady pain. He braced against the side of the hood to take the weight off his leg.
"We're here." He tapped the map. "About eighteen klicks west of the mining town. The road is down there on the other side of that rise. Here's the monastery that's our principle landmark and here are the ruins we're headed for."
"That pilot knew his stuff."
"Makes you feel good, doesn't it? I could do without the moonlight, but it'll be gone soon. We've got around seven hours until dawn. With luck we can reach the ruins before light and get under cover. I'm going to call in."
A coded burst to Harker let her know they were down safe and moving toward the objective.
"Ronnie, you drive."
He pointed to a spot on the map where a valley wound its way into the mountains, before the road reached the Gurugem monastery.
"We'll cut north before we get too close to the building and head straight for the ruins."
They put the packs in back and climbed in. They drove off the hillside and onto the road. It was in good condition, gray and flat in the moonlight. The Humvee vibrated as they drove.
Ronnie said, "Steering isn't real good. Something might have got bent when the sled came down."
"Not much we can do about it."
"Nah, we're still making good time. But I wouldn't want to push it."
Now all they had to do was get to the objective and find a way inside.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
In Washington, Elizabeth studied the live satellite transmission from nighttime Tibet. She'd gotten the DIA to task a geostationary satellite to her for the duration of the mission. In daylight, it could define the insignia on a uniform collar from a hundred and twenty thousand feet up. At night, the latest infra-red technology tracked any heat source down to the size of a cigarette.
Elizabeth watched the heat signature of the moving vehicle carrying her team. Nick's coded message confirmed what she could see with her own eyes. They were down safe and heading for the ruins.
She zoomed out and scanned the surrounding area for signs of Chinese activity. The town of Moincer showed up as a leprous green glow west of the moving Humvee. There was no sign of vehicles leaving the town and heading toward the team. So far, so good.
Elizabeth had no illusions about what would happen if something went wrong. Political retaliation would be swift and merciless. China was off limits for armed covert ops. It helped that the team was in a remote region and that it wasn't in Yang's interest to draw attention there if something happened.
It was a long way to Tibet, but Yang was after something important there. Whatever he was after, getting to it first would complicate his plans. Whatever complicated Yang's plans was good, so she'd ordered the team into action, politics be damned.
She wondered if the relationship between Nick and Selena would be a problem in the field. It didn't take a trained observer to see something was going on between them. Elizabeth thought they were probably sleeping together, but there was some unspoken tension between them. Her first reaction had been to say no when Selena asked to go on the mission. But she had skills needed to boost the probability of success. Elizabeth always decided based on increasing the possibility and measure of success.
So far Homeland Security had not raised the alert level. It was always a difficult problem. Raise the level and get everyone upset, without certainty of attack? Or wait for more intelligence and risk missing the window of opportunity to stop something?
Harker was glad she didn't have to make that decision. In her gut, she felt an attack was coming. She had sounded the alarm; now it was up to others. In the meantime, she was doing what she could to disrupt Yang's plans.
Earlier she'd called State to give them a heads up. After the typical shunting around, she had reached the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Cheryl Wilson.
"You're telling me a coup is being planned."
"That is what our best intelligence indicates."
"What is the source of this intelligence?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Ma'am."
"Are you saying I'm not cleared for this information?"
"That's correct."
There was an audible intake of breath at the other end of the line. It reminded Elizabeth of a snake hissing before the strike. There was frost in Wilson's voice when she spoke again.
"Everything about China indicates a strong grasp on power by the party leadership. I cannot conceive of an attempt to overthrow the current regime. Your intelligence must be faulty."
Wilson pronounced intelligence as if the word left a bad taste in her mouth.
"None the less, in our best judgment a coup is in the works." Harker kept the annoyance out of her voice.
"Well, Director, I appreciate your call but I believe you are barking up the wrong tree. There is no possible way the PRC will undergo a radical change of leadership. I suggest you re-evaluate your sources and stick to your domestic mandate. Now, I have a meeting to attend. Was there anything else?"
No, nothing else, you idiot, Elizabeth thought.
"No, Ma'am."
"Then I'll say goodbye." Wilson hung up.
Elizabeth resisted the urge to scream. The arrogance of some high-ranking political appointees never failed to amaze her. They weren't all like that, but with people like Wilson having a say in foreign policy it was a miracle the country got along with anyone at all.
On the monitor, the satellite images showed the Humvee carrying the team had stopped. Dim spots nearby showed low level activity. That must be the monastery of Gurugem, Harker thought, and the team is deciding the best way to avoid it. She looked at the series of clocks on the wall. With almost six hours until daylight on the other side of the world, there was still time to get to the ruins before dawn.