The Scent of Death

by Brian K. Lowe

  T.J. frowned. "Poison gas? The Germans were doing a lot with it; maybe somebody found their experiments."

  Damien shook his head. "I don't think so. Kate's stateroom was pretty well closed up. If there had been gas in the room, it should have still been there when she woke up. And even if it precipitated out that fast, I would have found some trace of it on the furniture or the carpet."

  "Whatever it was, there's a good chance my father was supposed to take it back to the States with him. And if all they wanted to do was stop him…" Kate's voice trailed off, but none of them needed her to finish her thought. The desolate path between Quanyu and Ulan Bator offered a thousand places for ambush, and ten thousand spots where bodies could be left to the wolves.

  Ted leaned forward again, his fingers steepled. "I wouldn't give up hope just yet, folks. It's only a theory, and there's a lot we don't know. Besides, my gut tells me that's too simple."

  Kate gave him a wan smile. "I hope you're right."

  "There's no doubt about it. Something's going on. Look at the way the guards treated us when we got here. And when Kuragawa stepped out of line, they almost skewered him on the spot."

  "The king did say his men were nervous," Damien recalled.

  "And they have reason not to trust the Japanese," Kate pointed out.

  "Besides," the Professor interjected, "we're forgetting something else." Everyone looked at him. "Our secret weapon," he whispered, looking around as though someone else might be listening. "Eric. He got here before we did. You know he's been poking around. If there was any evidence that something had happened to your parents on the road, he'd have found it already."

  "So you're saying the fact that we haven't heard from Eric is a good thing?" Damien asked.

  "Yes!"

  "But how do we know he got here ahead of us?" Ted asked. "This isn't the easiest place to reach. He couldn't just fly in."

  "Actually," Kate said, "he could." Ted gave her a doubtful look. "Maybe not here, but he could have rented a plane and flown to somewhere down the road a ways. Or maybe on the other side of the city. We don't know what the ground's like up there."

  "And Eric wouldn't need much of a landing field," T.J. added. "You know that."

  "All right, that's true. Eric wouldn't have gone the caravan route the way we did. He's way too impatient."

  "So the question is, where is he?" Damien asked.

  Kate smirked. "You mean--who is he?"

  T.J. rubbed his hands together. "Ah, now it's getting fun! Personally, I don't think he flew up here at all."

  "Wait a second," Damien said. "You just said you thought he did."

  "Yeah, but if he didn't, then he didn't get here before us, he got here with us."

  Ted ran a head over his head. "Okay. Fine. So who do you think he is?"

  "The same guy who was watching Kate on the ship: Sums."

  "Sums?" Kate repeated. "Are you going to tell me I don't know my own brother when I talk to him? Besides, he was trying to sweet-talk me."

  T.J. arched his brow. "Was he? Or was he just making conversation? And what was he doing down in the hold? He was trying to see what we found out. And he ran because he didn't want me to recognize him."

  "So you'd recognize him, but I wouldn't? Sorry, pal, but you're wrong. And I say that knowing that he did follow you down into the hold, and that he was carrying a gun when he came to see me in my stateroom. If Eric is anybody, it's the person you least expect: Captain Kuragawa."

  There was a moment's stunned silence, then the other three exploded into laughter.

  "Good one, Kate!" the Professor sputtered. "You got us!"

  "You can laugh all you want. I'm perfectly serious."

  The boys finally got themselves under control. "All right, sister," T.J. challenged. "Dazzle us with your theory."

  "It's so simple, I should have seen it before, but things were happening so fast, I didn't stop to think. You remember when Kuragawa met us on the dock and took us to that private car? Well, he said it was because we were guests of the Emperor. The Emperor's symbol is the seven-pointed chrysanthemum. He's the only one allowed to use it. But the cars Kuragawa had waiting for us didn't have the chrysanthemum seal, which they should if they were sent by the Emperor. That means Kuragawa wasn't sent by the Emperor--and why would anybody but Eric put on such a show? With all that going on, nobody would ever suspect who he really was."

  Damien stroked his beard. "That all seems like a lot of work, even for Eric. I mean, I don't doubt he could do it--at least the make-up part. But the cars? The hotel? The customs officials?"

  "Not really as difficult to arrange as you might think. I mean, I told you the story about meeting the Emperor when I was a little girl. Eric knows that story; it could have given him the idea. And don't forget, this is the Far East, not the United States. People here accept authority a lot more easily. Once he sent a wire on The Spanish Queen, all he had to do was find an Imperial Japanese Army uniform and start telling people that I was on my way. I mean, who's going to question you when you say you're on a mission from the Son of Heaven? Of course the customs people fell all over themselves. And the cars and the hotel? You just tell them to send the bill to Imperial Minister Who's-it or General What's-his-name, and if anybody sends a bill at all, they're not going to notice it hasn't been paid until long after you're gone. And even then, who sends dunning letters to the Emperor?"

  There was another few seconds of silence before Ted spoke. "That's not bad. You could be right. I mean, I think you're completely nuts, but you could still be right." Kate stuck her tongue out at him. "Damien, what do you think? The Professor, or Kate? Or neither?"

  "Well, the only other possibilities are that he was one of the guides, but since we picked them at random, I doubt that. Besides, one of them got himself shot in the hand, and Eric would never do that." He looked around at the ring of faces and realized his mistake. Eric had been shot on the deck of the San Francisco just over a month ago, leaving them all to think he was dead. "I mean--he'd--never mind. I have no idea who's right. They both sound fantastic, especially yours, Kate, but I've seen Eric do some amazing things. If anyone's capable of it, it's him."

  T.J. rose and stretched. "And on that decisive note, I think it's time we turned in. Good night, everybody." He left the room abruptly. Ted and Damien exchanged shrugs, then followed suit, leaving Kate to prepare for bed.

  Ted preferred to sleep in a dark room, so he tamped down the fire and adjusted the shield. He had just settled in under his heavy blankets and closed his eyes when he heard an almost inaudible sigh of sound: Someone was sneaking into his room.

  Quietly as he could, he slid out of bed, circling around its foot, staying away from even the weak glow from the fireplace. In the last sliver of light before the door closed, he glimpsed the figure of a man moving very carefully. Breathing through his nose, Ted could just make out the barest scuff of a shoe on the stone floor before the intruder reached the heavy area rug next to the bed. He was little more than a shadow, but there was enough firelight to pinpoint his position.

  The man leaned in, then further, patting the bedclothes as if looking for the occupant, and Ted jumped him.

  There was muffled "oof" as the man fell into the soft bed with two hundred pounds of former lineman on top of him. Unable to get any leverage, he was helpless as Ted pinioned his arms, surprised to find no weapon.

  "All right," he hissed. "What's your game, buddy?"

  "It's--me. T.J. …"

  "What--?" Ted pulled himself off the bed. "What are you doing? You're lucky I didn't brain you with a fireplace poker."

  T.J. tried to catch his breath. "I--wanted to test my theory."

  Ted felt his heart stop. "You what? What did you do? What did you do?"

  "I snuck into Sums' and Kuragawa's rooms. I figured they'd be asleep and I could see if either one of them was wearing make-up."

  Ted put his face in his hands. "What were you going to say if--never mind. Did you find out anythi
ng? Tell me you didn't get caught."

  He could almost hear the Professor's grin. "It would've been hard for either one of them to catch me. They're both gone."

  Chapter Twenty

  A Secret Visitor

  Once the boys had departed, Kate found herself staring into the fire, at once too relaxed to move and yet too wound up to go to sleep. It was, she reflected, becoming a habit with her. If they were going to continue with this life, it was a habit she was going to have to learn to break. There might be times when she would have to go without sleep for long hours, even days; she had to learn to grab rest when she could, the way the boys had told her they did in the trenches all those years ago.

  But then, was that the life she wanted? She'd had no choice in the beginning. She'd been drafted by events beyond her control, men who thought she was someone else, or that she could give them what they wanted, if only by providing leverage against someone else again. Certainly she had never asked to be kidnapped, dragged to the Amazon jungle, and nearly killed!

  In the wake of those events, finding that Eric was still alive, gaining revenge on her captors, freeing the Vine People, Eric had made the decision that this was to be his life, that if he was thought dead, so be it. What better disguise could there be for striking out at those who themselves hid from the light of day and the forces of justice? And in the heat of the moment, Ted, Damien, and T.J. had pledged to join him. As had she.

  Still, she and the others weren't "dead." If they kept at this quixotic mission, their names and faces would become known. They could be in danger--they had already almost been killed half-a-dozen times! Ted was a policeman; that was his life regardless. But Damien? T.J.? Damien was a chemist and T.J. a geologist. Those were not normally considered dangerous occupations. And yet, even they had fought in a war. They had risked death, and dealt it.

  But herself? She loved her brother, she loved his friends, but what about the other kind of love? What about children? The thought of what she might be giving up made the flames in the fireplace begin to blur before her eyes.

  A small noise jerked her awake. She blinked. She had not even realized she had fallen asleep in the chair. What had woken her?

  Her eyes were pulled to her chamber door. It was opening, slowly, and she realized that the sound that she had heard was someone tapping on it. Now that someone, having figured out she wasn't about to wake up, was coming in. Why hadn't she locked it when Ted and the others left? This was exactly the kind of carelessness that was going to get her killed someday.

  But not tonight. She sat squarely in the light of the fire; there was no way to slip out into the shadows of the corners of the room. Opening her eyes the merest slit, with little fear her intruder would realize she was awake in that dim light, she watched a figure slip inside.

  It was Princess Quanyu.

  Kate suppressed a start of surprise. The fact that Quanyu was a woman did not mean she could not be dangerous. Although the princess was last on the list of probable enemies, they had also agreed that they could not trust anyone in the palace. Kate watched her approach; her hands were empty, but if she smelled of flowers…

  When the princess was within arm's-length, Kate's hand whipped out and caught her reaching hand. Quanyu yelped and jumped, but Kate held her fast in a firm but gentle grip that could easily be transformed to a painful wrist lock. Until Kate decided otherwise, the princess was not going anywhere.

  Quanyu broke the hold.

  She jumped back, keeping her hands out of Kate's reach. "Please, Miss Reinhold, I am sorry, I meant no harm!"

  Kate looked down at her hand as though it had somehow betrayed her. "How did you do that? My sensei told me he would have trouble escaping that hold."

  Quanyu smiled, making her even more impossibly lovely. "The priests of our temple have a technique they brought with them from China, five hundred years ago. They are forbidden to teach it to outsiders, but years ago my uncle persuaded them to show me this." She shrugged. "It is all I know."

  "Well, it was good enough to break that hold, so I think they did pretty well by you. Now--what can I do for you? It must be the middle of the night."

  "I apologize, but I needed to speak to one of you, and sneaking into one of the men's bedchambers…"

  "No--that would be a bad idea."

  "…if I were caught in a man's bedchamber alone after dark, I would have to marry him."

  "Oh! Very bad idea. You don't want to marry any of my friends, although I suspect they'd have a different opinion." She indicated a chair. "Please have a seat. What was so important you had to see me in secret?"

  When Quanyu had sat and Kate had regained her chair, the princess resumed: "My father was not able to tell you everything he wanted to today in the throne room. There were too many people about." She hesitated, looking away. "It is very hard to say, because Quanyu is such a small country, and I feel like I know everyone, but there are some we cannot trust, and we do not know who they are."

  "Then you've come to the right place. We just got here, so we don't trust anybody."

  Quanyu smiled a little uncertainly, as if unsure she had caught Kate's meaning. "For five hundred years, we have lived here mostly in peace. At first, the bandits tried to take what we had, and once the Emperor of China sent men to bring my ancestors back or kill them, but we fought them off. The hills behind Quanyu are many and there are trails that only we know. But then, four hundred years ago, our ancestors found something very deep in the mountains, which we now use to defend ourselves. It is so terrible that the bandits dare not attack us, and we are so remote that no one else has bothered us."

  "Until now," Kate guessed.

  "Yes." Quanyu nodded eagerly. "We have heard of the troubles in China, and we were very glad when your parents accepted our invitation to visit us here. Quanyu and the United States have been friends for a very long time, ever since an American explorer, Colonel Highgrove, became lost in these mountains and was rescued by our people. He was a cousin to your President Buchanan. When he returned to America, he took a message from our king which was very well received."

  Kate's eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute. You invited my parents here?"

  "We invited your president to send an emissary to visit us here. We were so pleased that your father and mother came. We enjoyed their visit very much."

  "But why did you invite them? We were told they were sent in order to reassure your father that the United States would stand behind him if the Japanese got too close."

  "This is what we agreed would be said, both in America and here. But that is not why they came."

  Kate waited, but Quanyu was no more forthcoming. "Can you tell me the real reason?"

  The princess shook her head. "I am sorry."

  Letting out a deep breath, Kate asked: "Well, then, why did you come to see me in the middle of the night? To be honest, we could have figured this out for ourselves." She kept quiet about the fact that they already had.

  "I came to ask you for your help. You are strangers in Quanyu, you know no one, so you have no allies, no secret friendships. And you are here to search for your parents. If you can find them, then we will know who among us has betrayed us."

  Kate sat upright. "If we can find them? You mean, they're still in Quanyu?"

  The princess bit her lip. "Perhaps I have said too much, but it is too late now. The reason I did not go back to America with your parents is that they vanished the night before we were to leave. My father wanted to tell you--! But as I said, we do not know who to trust. He has tried to find them, but we have no police force, no spies--even if we could trust them."

  Suddenly Kate was anything but relaxed, despite the warmth of the fire and the lateness of the hour. She was of a mind to sneak into Ted's room herself. But that, under the circumstances, could prove problematic, even more so because the idea was an enticing one. She mentally slapped herself back to business.

  "But you think they are still alive?"

  "A few days after th
ey disappeared, a handkerchief belonging to your father was found here, in the palace. It was left where it could not help but be seen, so we know your father did not simply forget it there. We took that as a message that your parents were being held hostage against my father giving our secret weapon to anyone else. Every day we wait for some new demand, but so far, nothing."

  "Do you and your father have any idea who could be behind my parents' disappearance? As you say, there can't be that many people in Quanyu who could have done it." Or who could have arranged for that bandit attack, she realized now, but she kept that to herself, as well, for fear of being sidetracked.

  "There are three people in Quanyu who have the resources to hide two Occidentals," Quanyu said. "Xi is the general of our army. It is small, but very loyal to him. My father believes he can trust the palace guards, but the rest… The second is Ko, the master of the Quanyu temple. Why he would betray us, I do not know, but certain priests over the years have been jealous that our weapon has ever been entrusted only to the royal family. The priests know what it is, but they cannot use it. Whether Ko feels the same we do not know, but he might."

  "And who is the third?"

  "The third," Quanyu said with a reluctant sigh, "is my uncle, Ruyan, my father's advisor. He is the younger son, and many younger sons have wanted to take the throne for themselves. It is the way of the world."

  "But you have no clue as to which one it might be?"

  Quanyu was plainly close to tears. "Each of them is like a member of my family. To accuse any of them, even to think such a thing, is very painful. And none of them has acted in any way suspicious, so we are suspicious of all."

  Kate stood and put a hand on the princess' shoulder. "I'm very glad you came to talk to me. I'll talk to my friends tomorrow, and we will keep everything you said in the strictest confidence."

  "You will not tell the Japanese soldier?"

  "Especially not Captain Kuragawa. Now, we'd both better get some sleep."

  "Thank you," Quanyu said. "You make me feel there is some hope." She headed for the door. "And since no one knows I have come here, no one will know what I told you."