Part 16 (1/2)

Wizard found an inscription above his tunnel, this time accompanied by a single lever that could be pushed up or down. The inscription read: ”Genius,” Wizard said. ”It's the Chinese symbol for 'genius.'”

At either extremity of the lever were two images: above it was a carving of a beautiful tree, below it was a picture of a very plain seed.

”Ah...” Wizard said, nodding. ”'To see things in the seed, that is genius.' Another maxim of Laozi. Pull the lever down, Jack.”

West did so.

”OK, Stretch, you should be safe,” Wizard said into his radio mike.

”Should be safe?” Scimitar scowled, looking at Stretch. ”This whole situation troubles me greatly.”

”It's a trust exercise. It's only troubling if you don't trust your friends.”

Scimitar eyed Stretch for a long moment. ”My sources tell me it was the Old Master himself who put that ma.s.sive price on your head. ”

Stretch froze at the name. The ”Old Master” was the nickname of a Mossad legend, General Mordechai Muniz, a former head of the Mossad who many said, even in retirement, was still the most influential figure in the organization the puppetmaster who pulled the strings of those ostensibly in charge.

”Sixteen million dollars,” Scimitar mused. ”A good price, one of the highest ever. The Old Master wants to make an example of you.”

”I chose loyalty to your brother over loyalty to the Mossad,” Stretch said.

”And perhaps this is why you have become such friends. My brother thinks too often with his heart and not his head. Such thinking is foolish and weak. Look where it has got you.”

Stretch thought about Pooh Bear up in the entry chamber. ”I would lay down my life for your brother, because I believe in him. But you do not. Which makes me wonder, first son of the Sheik, what do you believe in?”

Scimitar did not answer that.

Shaking his head, Stretch crouched and entered the low tunnel, bellycrawling through it.

It was a tight journey, claustrophobic in the extreme. The tight, wet walls brushed against his shoulders.

Then he slithered over the first hole in the floor, and he held his breath, waiting for- -but nothing sprang up from it.

Scimitar followed close behind him and the two of them wriggled along the tunnel until they emerged into standing room once more, finding themselves at the top of a steep, downwardsloping hallway.

On the wall behind them, above the exit to the low tunnel, was a lever just like the one West had pulled, with the Chinese symbol for ”knowledge” alongside it.

Above this lever was a picture of an ear below it, a picture of an eye.

Stretch relayed this to Wizard and West.

”The correct answer is the ear,”Wizard replied.”Since you're in the Student's Way, your riddles are Confucian, Laozi's most talented and trusted student. Confucius said, 'I hear and I know, I see and I remember.' Knowledge is then hearing. As for us, once again, thanks to Mao's concreters, we don't need your help on this one.”

THE GRAND HALL OF THE WARRIORS.

It took them a while, but soon West's team was through their low tunnel. Now, like Stretch and Scimitar, they stood at the top of a magnificent downwardsloping hallway.

It was absolutely beautiful-with soaring corbelled ceilings at least twenty feet high and lined with gigantic warrior statues, each one seven feet tall and bearing a weapon of some kind.

The hallway seemed to stretch for over a hundred yards, sloping sharply downward but with no stairs to get a foothold, delving deep into the bowels of the Earth. The floor was wet and slippery. Batterypowered lamps left by Mao's men lined the walls like dim runway lights.

Distantly, West heard something coming from the end of his superlong tunnel.

Voices.

Accompanied by the movement of lights and glowsticks.

It was Colonel Mao and his men, held up at a trap at the bottom end of the tunnel.

They'd caught up.

ASTRO CAME up beside West and they peered together down into the darkness, in the direction of the voices.

Without a word, Astro held up a grenade, this one with a yellow stripe on it.

West turned, saw it. ”Do I even want to know what's in this one?”

”CSII. Variety of tear/nerve gas, with covering smoke,” Astro said. ”It's a little stronger than the usual kind of CS gas you use in hostage situations. Designed for situations like this, where you need to get past an enemy force holding an entryway but don't necessarily want to kill them. Although if you want to dothat- ”

”Tears and unconsciousness will be fine, Lieutenant,” West said. ”I don't like killing someone if I don't have to. Max, oxygen kit.”

At this point, Jack grabbed his trademark fireman's helmet and attached its full face mask and oxygen kit. The others did the same.

Moments later, three of Astro's yellowstriped grenades came bouncing down the hallway and entered the midst of Mao's Chinese force gathered at its base, at the edge of the abrupt vertical drop there.

Flash-bang!

Hissing gas and dense smoke engulfed the dozen or so Chinese troops. They instantly began coughing and gagging, their eyes watering uncontrollably.

Through this hazy gasfilled environment, three figures moved like ghosts.

Wearing fullface oxygen masks and moving quickly, Jack, Astro, and Wizard slipped between the screaming Chinese as they fell to the floor, losing consciousness-although Jack did take the opportunity to give Colonel Mao a sharp blow with the b.u.t.t of his Desert Eagle on the way past, breaking the Chinese commander's nose and dropping him.

Then he came to the spot where the hallway's floor just fell away into nothingness.

”Mother of G.o.d...” he breathed.

Mao and his men had set up a diesel generator and some arc lights to illuminate the area, and now, in the haze of the gas, the vast s.p.a.ce that opened up before Jack took on a mystical, almost otherworldly appearance.

A vast chasm dropped away in front of him-perhaps thirty yards across and of unknown depth. On its far side was a sheer polished stone wall. This wall was literally covered in round holes, hundreds of them laid out in a grid, each about the size of a human hand.

And in the exact center of the wall was a small square tunnel, heading deeper into the mountain .

Standing on the edge of the chasm, Jack kicked a dropped Chinese gun over the edge.

It sailed down into the darkness.

Silence as it fell.

Long silence.