They stopped a mile from Shang-du, at a small ridge before the descent. The jeeps came to a halt, with their vehicle in the lead. Night had fallen and the stars were out, burning fiercely, dominating the sky before the full moon’s ascent.
Nina leaned forward. “I say we kill the headlights, come in slow. We don’t know what’s down there.”
“Yes,” Montross said, “we do.” His eyes popped open, having been closed for the past ten minutes. “Colonel, do as the lady says. Kill the lights.”
Nina smiled, and between the two adults Alexander squirmed. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Nina frowned. “Again?”
He lowered his chin. “Too much water.”
“Hurry,” said Montross. “Colonel, go with him.”
“What?” Hiltmeyer turned in his seat. “I’m no babysitter. Private Harris here can-”
“You both go.”
Alexander looked from one to the other man. “I can go by myself, really.”
“No way. Flight risk,” said Hiltmeyer. “We’ll go. I need to talk to my men in the other jeeps anyway. What’s our plan?”
“I’ll tell you,” said Montross, “when you get back.”
Hiltmeyer shot him a concerned glance, then opened his door.
Alexander slid out, helped along as Nina pushed him out the door. “Be quick.” When the doors had closed and they were alone, Nina asked, “What’s up? What did you see?”
“It seems,” said Montross, “that our colonel has other loyalties.”
Alexander found a cropping of small bushes. He unzipped and turned away from the man who had lit up a cigarette, watching him. He glanced over his other shoulder, toward his jeep, where two shadows in the back seat bent in close to each other.
“Wonder what they’re talking about,” Alexander said, loud enough for Private Harris to hear.
“Shut up and pee, kid.”
“I bet they’re talking about you.” Alexander zipped up, folded his arms over his chest and turned around, shivering. He could see his breath. He looked up and saw Orion, low and sideways, with Sirius poised above the tree line.
“What?”
“I see things too, you know.”
“Yeah?” Harris had a buzz cut, heavier and black at the top of his head, which Alexander thought made him look like a rooster after getting his head stuck under a lawnmower.
“Well, I saw-”
Harris leaned in. The ash dangled on his cigarette.
“-you.” Alexander, trembling even more, his eyes wide so as not to blink and see the vision again, added, “With a rusty spike through your chest.”
The soldier’s face went pale, the cigarette dropped from his mouth. “What?”
“Harris!” Colonel Hiltmeyer yelled. “Back in the jeep. We’re moving.”
“But-”
“Now! You too, Alexander.”
Head down, he followed, staring at the colonel’s boots as they crunched into the hard ground. Suddenly Hiltmeyer spun, pressed a hand against Alexander’s chest and leaned in.
“Quick. Tell me what you saw.”
They rode in slowly around the south side of the site while the other two jeeps approached from the east and west. Hiltmeyer was on the walkie-talkie, coordinating with his men as their jeeps descended into the valley. He glanced back at Montross. This was going to be tricky.
They stopped on the ridge and Nina stepped out, going to the trunk for the sniper rifle. “We’ll provide teams A and B cover from up here,” she said.
Hiltmeyer nodded, then flashed Harris a look. They stepped out of the jeep. Montross and Alexander got out last. “Now we watch,” said Nina, setting up a tripod, then passing around night-vision goggles. “Pick out our targets, and then-”
Suddenly she spun, kicked away the tripod, and aimed the rifle at Hiltmeyer, even as he was going for his gun. Montross pulled out Nilak’s gun and pointed it at Harris’s forehead.
“Now,” said Montross, disarming Hiltmeyer and Harris, “Colonel, kindly get on your walkie-talkie there and tell your teams this is for real. We’ve already given them information on where Renee’s commandos are hiding out, and with any luck, your men might live through this.”
“But-”
“Yes, we know. Renee’s men are your men too.” Montross gave him a slanted look. “I guess you need to make a choice here.”
Nina stepped in, reversed the rifle and slammed Hiltmeyer in the ribs. He swore, then lunged for her, but she had the business end back on him in a flash. “Talk to them. Now!”
Groaning, holding his side, Hiltmeyer reached for the walkie-talkie and stopped, catching Alexander’s eye. He saw pity there, maybe even sympathy.
Damned psychics.
Colonel Hiltmeyer brought the phone to his lips and closed his eyes. I’m sorry, he thought, and pushed the button. “Do it,” Hiltmeyer ordered. “Turn on your lights, go in strong!”
Nina turned and set up her rifle as Montross kept his gun trained on Hiltmeyer and Harris. She sighted with her scope, and as soon as the headlights pierced the blackness from two directions, she chose her targets and began shooting.
Alexander shrank back as far as he could, all the way against the side of the jeep. He put his hands over his ears, but couldn’t help but watch the firefight on the field ahead. Cringing with each of Nina’s shots, he imagined bodies plucked from the shadows, heads exploding, men dropping without knowing what hit them.
He heard automatic gunfire, shouting and screaming in a foreign language. More gunshots. He watched Harris and Hiltmeyer, standing impotently, fists clenched. Then he saw Nina reload, sight, track a target and fire. And in the flashes after each shot, he saw the rush of excitement on her face. And finally, as the blasts subsided, a contented smile.
“Done,” she said at last, after scanning the field with her binoculars. She stood, disconnected the tripod and returned the rifle to the trunk. Business-like and efficient. Then she pulled out her Beretta and jabbed it against the Colonel’s ribs.
“My men?” he asked.
Nina led him to the back seat, pushed him in. “Colonel, I’m sorry to report that nobody from either side survived.”
They stood around the pit before the archway and the first six stairs descending into the earth.
And a lot of dead bodies.
Montross stood on the edge, looking down while holding up the Emerald Tablet like a lantern. It glowed faintly, pulsing along with the charm on his necklace, lying against his chest.
“It’s time,” he said. “Alexander, you’re with me. Nina, escort our guests. They’ll be going first.”
“No way,” insisted Colonel Hiltmeyer. “I’m not going down there. I heard what the boy said.”
“That’s right,” Private Harris agreed. “No way.”
Nina slammed the back of her Beretta against his forehead, turned him around and then shoved him ahead, sending him tumbling down into the darkness.
“I’ll kill you-!”
“Enough!” Montross yelled. “Colonel, it’s up to you. You go first, or Nina puts a bullet in your head so you can stay up here with your men.”
“You’ll kill me anyway.”
“No,” said Nina, “we’re pretty sure what’s down there will do that for us. But at least you’ll have a chance.”
“And,” Montross said, “look at it this way. Now you get to see history in the making. People have been searching for the tomb of Genghis Khan for eight hundred years, and you’re about to find it.”
Hiltmeyer grit his teeth. “All right, but if I get hit with something down there, I’m going to do my damndest to make sure I take all of you with me.”
“Or maybe,” Montross said, hefting the tablet, “along the way you’ll realize you and your boss are on the wrong side. You can’t fight us.”
Hiltmeyer shook his head. “You don’t know anything. All your abilities, and that thing you carry, you don’t even know who or what you’re fighting.”
Nina jabbed him in his side, then pushed him ahead. “Lead the way, Colonel. Genghis awaits.”