"Not at the moment. Let me know what you learn from your mole."
"I will."
Jordan flipped the phone shut and put it in his shirt pocket. Time to go talk to Charlie.
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.