CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
“One incredible thing ties all of this together,” Butcher said.
Bodie studied the young man as he spoke. Clearly, he was passionate about his job, about getting things done the right way and moving forward. But also, just as plainly, Butcher was out of his depth. Unused to field work. Bodie didn’t care about that too much as long as he came through with the right information.
“Give us a clue,” Pang said sarcastically.
“Okay then.” Butcher rose to meet the challenge. “Let me see: It dates back as far as the seventh century BC?”
Pang made a face. Butcher pressed his luck. “Really? Nothing? Well, I’m so surprised.”
Bodie had the impression Butcher was confident enough in his own abilities to continue baiting Pang—which would have been fun to watch—but time was fleeting.
Especially now.
“Go on,” he said. “Heidi and Lucie aren’t getting any safer.”
Butcher collected his thoughts. “Right, well, China was once a place of ragged states, imperialism and nomadic tribes. During the time of the Silk Road, it also needed border patrols. Regulations. Control of immigration. It needed watchtowers, barracks, signaling capabilities, a first-class transportation corridor. Does that make more sense? Can you see what I’m talking about now?”
Bodie noticed the smile on Jemma’s face. “At least one of us does.”
“It makes complete sense,” Jemma said. “You hide your crucible where you can be certain it’s never going to get damaged.”
“Don’t we all?” Cassidy said. “Where’s that then?”
“The Great Wall of China,” Jemma and Butcher said at the same time.
“It’s perfect,” Butcher continued. “Xiao, Han, Qi, Jin and Ming are all either Chinese states it was constructed through, or dynasties that helped build it, Ming in particular. The Silk Road benefited from the wall’s protection and organizational positioning. My guess is the crucible lies where the dragon lines intersect it.”
“That’s a fair stretch,” Bodie said.
“I’ll say,” Butcher drew a breath. “You’re talking 12,000 miles in total, defining a rough arc around the Mongolian steppe. It’s a defensive scheme, one of the greatest in human history.”
Bodie felt a rush of adrenalin. “Listen to me,” he said. “If they’re heading to China right now, then they already have a pretty good head start. There’s no time to waste.”
The whole room moved. Only Pang stayed seated, looking up at Bodie. “They don’t need Heidi,” he said. “Or Lucie. They don’t need them. Are you reading me?”
“Loud and clear,” Bodie said. “But we can’t think that way now.”
“Hey, if we’re lucky, they’ll use them as part of some black mass,” Cassidy said in an upbeat manner.
“Lucky?” Butcher said. “You think that’s luck?”
“It keeps them alive all the way to China,” Cassidy said, pulling on her jacket. “And, yeah, I’d say that’s a big stroke of luck.”
Pang rose with a fluid uncurling of his body. “Make the call. Oh, and make sure there are weapons for everyone on the plane. We’ll be going in hot.”
His words were directed at Butcher. Bodie nodded his appreciation. They were now on two missions— one to stop the Illuminati from causing havoc and two, to save their friends.
“What about Adelaide?” Cassidy asked.
“Bring her along,” Pang growled. “If we have to, we can use her as collateral.”
Bodie nodded again. He could get along with this version of Pang.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
“I can’t believe,” Cassidy said. “That we’re back to working with the freakin’ CIA.”
“I know,” Bodie said, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. “But you have to admit, this is bloody cool.”
A fast jet had initially brought them into China, traveling through dark and dangerous byways that shielded it from Chinese surveillance with a little inside help, and then switched to a slower, bumpier ride—a big Twin Otter, modified for a larger crew. With a large double door, a speedy climb to altitude, short take-off requirement and double turbines, this was the golden child of skydiving aircraft. It was also reasonably quiet and allowed them to clip into their gear en route.
Through darkness, they flew low across a craggy Chinese landscape. Although Bodie could see nothing, he knew the Great Wall dipped and rose and followed sweeps and curves, valleys and high hills, in a seemingly never-ending garrison line. It was one of the few manmade structures that could be seen from space, a list that included the Pyramids of Giza and the palm islands of Dubai. The sound of the airplane’s engines filled the air.
Bodie had to shout to make himself heard. “How long?” he asked.
Butcher held up a hand. Five minutes.
Bodie drew a deep breath. Despite everything they’d done, they’d never undertaken anything like this before.
It was the fastest way Pang could devise to get them into the country and down to the Great Wall in, approximately, the right area. Their team had been swelled by nine CIA wetworkers, as Pang called them, men and women culled from nearby Pakistan where they’d originally touched down. These operatives had brought special military tech aboard with them.
Bodie studied it now. These compact military hang gliders could drop out of a slow-traveling aircraft at around two thousand meters and then allow the pilot to fly safely to the ground at a glide ratio of around 1:15. The advanced tech was good enough to adapt for the uninitiated in the manner of most modern tech: it was programmable and computerized.
All Bodie and his team had to do was hang on.
“Target, three minutes,” the pilot’s voice cut through his thoughts.
Countless hours had passed since they left the UK. They had spared no horses, lost no time. It had been a breakneck race. Even Pang showed concern for Heidi and Lucie. And if they hadn’t broken the code defining the location of the crucible that led them here, Bodie was certain they’d have no chance of seeing either woman again.
Almost certain... he knew they were both highly capable. The hope was that they’d already found a way to escape.
“You think we’ve beaten them here?” Jemma shouted in his ear. “The Illuminati?”
Bodie hated to admit defeat and shrugged. “I hope so.” The alternative was terrifyingly bleak.
“We have no ore, no idea where Hades might be, no facts, and two of our people have been kidnapped,” Cassidy said with a harsh frown. “That’s pretty fucking dire if you ask me.”
Bodie held her eyes. “Don’t you think, after everything we’ve done and been through, that we can turn this around? Here, now?”
“We’d better,” Cassidy said as the pilot gave them the one-minute warning.
Bodie braced himself as the big door opened. This manner of skydiving, through darkness and silence, wasn’t something he planned on getting used to. This was a one-off, necessary action to take down the Illuminati for good. Somehow, he doubted they’d be dropping out of a plane in the middle of the night.
“Here we go.” Pang was pumped and standing by the door.
Bodie stepped forward in line, right behind Cassidy. A snarling, hostile wind whipped through the cabin. Men and women leapt out into what looked like a black oblivion. The window for their jump was short. Pang hurried the team along at a rapid rate.
Cassidy stepped to the door and didn’t hesitate: She flung herself out into the night.
Bodie made sure his gear and harness were secure, the retracted hang-glider apparatus correctly clipped and tucked away for the initial jump. Before he knew it Pang was shouting at him and Bodie reacted: He jumped out of the plane.
A savage gale whipped him sideways. A sense of space and utter nothingness struck his brain. There was the feeling of falling, of plummeting through a pitch-black hell, of air-pressure buffeting the slack skin of his face, of endless wind that bit with freezing cold claws.
Se
conds passed. Bodie tried to get a hold of himself. It was a long way down. Holding the straps of his glider, he steadied his body so that it was horizontal to the ground. At least he hoped it was. Looking below, all he saw was a whole lot of nothing. He’d been assured that the glider’s automated landing program would kick in, in about a minute.
Not knowing what to expect, it was a nerve-wracking delay.
Looking down, Bodie began to see folds in the landscape: valleys and hills picked out by the light of the stars. He saw a faint, winding line that, he assumed, was the wall itself. The wind tugged and buffeted him; the long drop sent his heart into his mouth.
Without warning, the hang-gliding computer took over, beeping and whirring into life. Bodie’s body went vertical, propelled by the mechanism. A display flashed before his eyes, projected by his helmet, green numerals showing his trajectory, his altitude and his intended destination.
Everything was in the green. Bodie breathed a deep, calm breath.
The gliders swooped through the night, winged beasts across the Chinese landscape, all heading toward the Great Wall. Strong winds flowed along their aerodynamic shapes as inbuilt software guided their every move. Slowly, surely, the gliders approached the top of the ancient structure.
Bodie had no time to be impressed. Dark shapes filled his peripheral vision: peaks, rises, gorges and deadly basins. The wall itself was a solid, stone structure rushing up to meet him.
Bodie started moving his feet seconds before he was due to touch down, trying to match the speed of landing.
He didn’t make it and fell headlong. The glider’s wings crashed to both sides of him, stopping him from rolling and not allowing him to slide far.
“Not bad.” Pang landed light as a feather to the right, his boots barely making a sound as they came into contact with the stone. “Reminded me of a dying duck I once saw.”
Bodie tried to gather his pride. “Really? Did you shoot it?”
The team gathered on top of the wall. Bodie counted fifteen men and women in total, all of them fully armed and ready for battle. All except Adelaide, who had been brought along against her will and told to fly or die.
A fitting command.
They were also ready to tackle the physically tough challenge of breaking into the crucible room, wherever that might be.
Butcher checked a small monitor attached to his wrist, and tapped a few buttons. The screen glowed faint green. Bodie noticed, with a little amusement, that even Butcher’s skydiving suit seemed a little large and his face shone in the artificial glow with a ghostly white shade.
“Twenty meters that way,” he chopped his hand through the air as he shrugged out of his own skydiving suit, “is where the ley line dissects the wall.”
Staying low, they paced forward. Bodie had his first sense of being atop the incredible structure. The pathway and fortifications appeared to be made mostly of brick, many of them rectangular in shape. Unable to see further ahead than ten feet, the rest of the wall was merely shapes and suggestions but, up here, he had a sense of standing on castle battlements and being able to gaze out over a stunning kingdom.
The team ran between the side walls, following Butcher’s lead. A minute later, he stopped and pointed to the right. “There.”
Bodie stepped to a gap in the parapet, staring out over murky lands. A blast of wind took his breath away. Pang took a deep breath as he stepped in beside him.
“This is bloody high,” Bodie said.
“No sign of your Illuminati.”
Bodie chose not to react. “Maybe we beat them.”
“If only we had the ore.”
“Either way, this is where we rescue Lucie and Heidi.”
Pang turned to his team. “Fix the anchors,” he said.
Bodie winced and offered a silent apology to the ancient builders as Pang’s men set about securing a row of strong bolts to the brick pathway that floored the wall. To these bolts they then fixed abseiling ropes and threw them over the battlements. Bodie listened as they unraveled down the vertical length of the wall.
“Gear up,” Pang said.
Bodie shrugged into a harness, pulled on gloves made for abseiling, and grabbed hold of his rope. He checked the equipment, the descender that allowed the rope to be played out in a controlled fashion, and made ready. Looking along the line he waited for the whole team to signal their preparedness.
Pang jumped off the Great Wall and into the black void.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
With no obvious sign as to where the crucible might be, Butcher had hit upon the idea to rappel to the outermost point where the dragon lines met the great structure. If they came up empty, they would be forced to try the other side.
Bodie climbed atop the rough brick battlements and leaned out, trusting to the dynamic rope and its fixings. Slowly, he used the descender to abseil down the outside of the Great Wall, sliding into darkness, turned away from the icy wind. His muscles ached, his body went taut with strain. It was well known that the Chinese couldn’t monitor all of the wall all of the time, but there could be a random patrol along at any given moment.
The wall beneath his boots was solid. Maybe the crucible was hidden at the base. Maybe there was a hidden tunnel, a door...
Cassidy abseiled to his right, Yasmine to his left. The women dropped easily, shining flashlights to either side. Beyond them, thirteen others did the same. Meter by meter, the entire team dropped toward the ground.
“This isn’t working,” Cassidy hissed from the corner of her mouth. “If Lucie was...”
Bodie didn’t ask her to finish. The sentiment was clear, it was ominous, and it occupied his every thought. On the one hand, he hated to think of the stillness but on the other, he was forced to. The land around them had been covered in a blanket of silence since they landed. The Illuminati were simply not here.
What if they’ve already been... and gone? They’ve had several hours head start. Bodie steeled himself. This wasn’t the time.
He noticed Adelaide dawdling near the top of the wall and heard Pang’s harsh voice through the ear-based comms system they were using. “Fly or die. The directive still applies.”
The figure shot down several feet, catching up. Bodie kept going, searching the wall by flashlight. Butcher had indicated where the ley line cut through, and they’d traveled straight down. Maybe it was at the very base.
Endless moments slipped by. Bodie kept an eye out across the hills as well as on the wall. He guessed it was around 3:00 a.m., and as silent as a cemetery. Concentrating as hard as he was, Bodie staggered when his boots struck solid earth.
Cassidy landed at his side and stepped clear of the wall. Together, they turned and studied the darkness. “It’s so quiet, it’s unnerving,” the American said. “Know what I mean?”
“Especially when you know one of the most violent and extreme societies ever to walk the planet are headed this way,” Bodie said.
“Or could already be here,” Jemma’s voice burst through the comms, reminding them it was an open line.
They checked the base of the wall. Bodie fell to his hands and knees, scrabbling in dirt and sand, and scraping brick and stone.
“Maybe it would be clearer in daylight,” someone said.
“Unlikely,” Butcher replied. “If that were the case it would already have been found.” A good point.
Bodie guessed another twenty minutes passed then, mostly in silence.
Finally, Pang voiced all their thoughts. “There’s nothing here. I think we seriously need to think about checking the other side, or getting out of sight and waiting for the Illuminati. Maybe we can follow them.”
“Wait,” a pained voice crackled out. “Something moved.”
Bodie’s first thought was to check the eerie landscape. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but the lack of proper vision filled him with consternation. Rolling hills and deep gorges might hide all manner of enemy until they were a fast step from your exposed back.
“Where?” Butcher asked.
“Three to the right of you. Right at the base of the wall. I think I just fell onto a buried stone, and it moved.”
Bodie left the rope behind and made his way through tangled shrub, keeping a hand on the enormous wall at his left. Soon, they were gathered around a single point, their flashlights combining to give a clear view of the earth at the CIA agent’s feet.
“What is that?” Yasmine asked.
Butcher was lying on his front, one arm thrust deep into the new hole. An act Bodie thought was either highly foolish or incredibly naive. Not everyone would just shove their entire arm into a fresh hole like that. In any case, Butcher scrabbled around for a while and then pushed.
Nothing happened.
Pang sighed. “This is a—”
“Just... give me... a second.” Butcher crawled further forward so that he could hang into the hole, headfirst, and root around even lower down.
Bodie flinched as a shiver ran up his spine. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, mate.”
“He’ll be fine,” Pang said. “What could possibly happen?”
Bodie cringed in anticipation. Sure enough, seconds later, a deep roar rose through the earth, the tortured groan of something giving way. The soil rumbled, the stones churned, and then the ground they were standing on crumbled.
Bodie reached out for a handhold but there was nothing to grab. The very foundations broke beneath him, and he was in freefall. Rubble and vegetation plummeted with him as the entire area beyond the wall collapsed.
Bodie had no time to think. Seconds later, he hit solid ground. A barb of pain rammed through his already weakened knee. Cassidy rolled over him, a boot catching his skull. The roar that filled their heads died away to be replaced by the steady trickling of small stones and clods of earth.
“Ow!” Cassidy said.
Bodie didn’t move, but looked cautiously around. They were at the bottom of a pit, its sides perhaps eight-feet high. He realized that the displaced earth had disappeared mostly to his left, where a line of square stones marked the border of an even deeper crater beyond.
The Illuminati Endgame (The Relic Hunters 7) Page 13
