Finding North

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  “The map Colin found?” Alex nodded. “It was a copy of the map of Ultima Thule. It seems very old and very detailed but definitely a copy.”

  “It’s not the one you went to see all those times?” Raz asked.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s the same information and picture but not the map that Jesse and I used to look at,” Alex said. “The one we used to visit was an original. The funny thing is that I must have spent a lot of time with the map because I could probably draw it right here.”

  Alex took a yellow pencil from her pocket and took the napkin from under her coffee cup. She quickly and easily outlined the map of Ultima Thule.

  “All those times I went to ‘see’ the map?” Alex asked. “I think I was memorizing it.”

  She shaded in mountains and filled in points for cities.

  “Why would you do that?” Raz asked.

  “I have a sense that it was a challenge for me,” Alex said. “Something to keep my mind sharp. Dad used to have us memorize maps as kids. This one was such an oddity that I probably liked the challenge. I’d just started making the Fey maps for the Intelligence Center. I’m sure I was trying to stay sharp.”

  “Stay sharp?”

  “Jesse and I were so much younger than the guys, inexperienced,” Alex said. “I always felt like I had to be at the top of my game. Jesse felt that way, too. We worked hard in our off time — went to college, took skills courses, practiced all the time, memorized maps — just to try to catch up.”

  “To stay on the team,” Raz said.

  Alex nodded.

  “Do you think it’s a real . . . place?” Raz asked.

  “Not that I’ve ever seen,” Alex said. “It’s possible that the map is so old that it’s a place that existed before the European glaciers melted.”

  Alex shrugged.

  “It’s a place that doesn’t exist in modern life,” Raz said.

  “Not based on satellite imagery or any modern cartography,” Alex said. “But I need to carefully compare this map to other maps. It might be a part of a continent, like the Gobi desert in China or the northern-most portion of Canada or Brazil, for that matter. In fact, it could be some place really small like the Colorado plains or Jerusalem in one of its incarnations or . . . one of the Indonesian islands.”

  “Really big or very small,” Raz said.

  “It could be anywhere,” Alex said. “I have to show it to Max. I’m sure we’ll figure it out, but . . . Right now? I think it’s nothing.”

  “But it has the mark,” Raz said.

  “The compass rose with the eye?” Alex asked. “The symbol is the actual compass rose of the map.”

  “On the front?”

  “Front right,” Alex said. “It must be where I’d seen the mark before.”

  Raz nodded.

  “I wish we were home,” Alex said under her breath.

  “Me, too,” Raz said. “I’m missing my Joey time. I’ve been teaching him how to throw a perfect spiral.”

  Alex laughed.

  “He’s good at it!” Raz said. “Tiny ball. He almost has the hang of it.”

  “But not Máire?” Alex asked.

  “I always just want to baby her,” Raz blushed. “Pretty-baby stuff, not little-rugged-man stuff.”

  “Kinda sexist,” Alex said.

  “That’s me,” Raz said.

  Alex smiled. Raz leaned his head against hers.

  “We’ll figure this out,” Raz said. “Right?”

  “We will,” Alex said.

  “You have no idea how much it means to me to know that you’re on my side,” Raz said. “You’ll help me with any situation.”

  “Always,” Alex said.

  He smiled.

  “There’s something else,” Alex said.

  He cocked his head. Alex took the metal point out of her pocket.

  “Bestat called this a ‘key,’” Alex said. “She said that many humans had lost their lives protecting it.”

  Raz scowled and took the point from her.

  “The cufflinks go here,” Alex pointed to the small holes.

  “The ring?” Raz pointed to the piece of metal on the flat end of the point.

  Alex nodded.

  “Your pocket watch,” Alex pointed to the hole in the middle.

  “That’s why you told me to hold on to the watch,” Raz nodded. “I don’t have it with me. I must have left it in Paris.”

  “I put the watch, Ben’s directional compass, the cufflinks, and even the ring in the safe in the vault,” Alex said.

  “That’s why you went down with Trece?” Raz asked.

  “You were getting changed and packed.” Alex nodded.

  Raz nodded.

  “Bestat said there are two more items to make the ‘key’ functional,” Alex said. “She said I have one of the items. I have to find the other. She thought it would be in China, in the Mogao Caves.”

  “In the caves,” Raz repeated. “Does she know about the package you got last year?”

  “The ugly bee?” Alex asked. “I don’t think so, but who knows what she knows?”

  Raz nodded. Alex shrugged.

  “She said she would explain everything,” Alex said. “We still need to get to Egypt.”

  “With the current turmoil . . .” Raz said.

  “It’s going to be no easy trick,” Alex said. “We won’t be able to go in as a US military team, that’s for sure.”

  “Let’s just focus on what’s right in front of us,” Raz said.

  “Good idea,” Alex said. “When I think of the larger picture, I just want to go home and play with the babies. Let the world sort itself out. My life is pretty good. Stuff like that.”

  Raz nodded.

  “What do you expect at the Mogao caves?” Raz asked.

  “No idea,” Alex said. “You?”

  “Another adventure,” Raz said.

  Alex gave him a tired smile.

  “Rest?” Raz asked.

  “Sure,” Alex said. She held onto his arm and put her head on his shoulder. “I’m really glad to be doing this with you.”

  “You know what?” Raz smiled.

  Alex leaned back to look at him.

  “I’m glad I’m here, too,” Raz said.

  “Wherever ‘here’ is,” she said.

  They laughed.

  F

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Friday mid-day

  May 20 — 7:22 p.m. China Standard Time

  Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China

  “This way,” Amam Ibn Hinna hissed.

  Alex swallowed hard and looked to her left. Nodding, she followed him through the darkened plaza. Unsure of the situation, Jesse lingered close. They were taken by car from the Dunhuang Airport to the Mogao Caves compound. She and Raz were instructed to leave the team at the Mogao Hotel, a thousand feet across the plaza from the caves.

  They hurried across the bridge over the wide, sandy riverbed that separated the hotel from the large Mogao complex. They moved in near darkness, as the moon hadn’t risen yet. On the bridge, Alex could hear the flow of spring melt-off in the riverbed below. They reached the entrance of the park and hurried under the classic Chinese wooden archway. Raz touched her arm.

  “They’ve made the roof,” Raz said in her ear.

  She looked back and saw Leena, Vince, and Margaret’s headlamps as they set up on the roof of the Mogao Hotel. While they had to leave their firearms on the plane in Beijing, Leena, Vince, and Margaret were setting up to videotape anything that happened.

  Entering the park, they traveled across the concrete path past groves of white birch, cottonwood, and other deciduous trees. Many of the trees were in full bloom, while the non-flowering trees were just beginning to leaf out. She heard the soft whistle of Troy, Royce, and Joseph. They were following close but using the trees and bushes as cover.

  As they passed a white stone statue of Quan Yin, the goddess of compassion, Alex pointed to the beautiful statue of a maiden standing on a
dragon.

  “She saved that one from being eaten as a fish,” Alex said.

  “What?” Raz said.

  Alex shook her head.

  “This way,” Amam Ibn Hinna turned and smiled. “We are almost there.”

  For a moment, Alex caught an unholy gleam in his eye. She wished Zack or Bestat were there to deal with this creature. As if he could hear her wish, he gave her a jagged-toothed grin and continued forward.

  “He looks like the Cheshire Cat,” Raz said in her ear.

  “He looks like he wants to eat us,” Alex said.

  Raz laughed, and Alex smiled.

  “This way, this way,” Amam Ibn Hinna said as they passed under another ornate gate. “This way.”

  “Willy Wonka,” Raz said.

  Alex laughed.

  “This way,” Amam Ibn Hinna said.

  They had to jog to keep up. In front of them lay a complex of close to a thousand caves carved into the sandstone cliff by Buddhist monks. Each cave was a celebration to Buddha in the manner of the time. Sealed and abandoned in the 15th century, the caves were rediscovered in the early 1900s. In modern times, the Chinese government had stabilized this series of caves with cement, brick, and mortar. With the rise of tourism in China, the government had created easy walkways to discourage people from invading the unexplored caves further to the north.

  Fong Song’s life work was opening new caves. There were still more than four hundred caves that had yet to be explored. Alex and Raz stopped for a moment just to look at the sheer number of caves.

  “Fong wanted to meet you in the library cave,” Amam Ibn Hinna said. He hopped the wooden fence in front of the structure. They followed him over the fence.

  There was a complex of caves called the library cave. Originally stacked floor to ceiling with rare manuscripts, the library cave had been “discovered” by French and British explorers in the early 20th century. They returned home with more than a hundred thousand manuscripts, including original texts of the Christian Bible, the Koran, and the I Ching.

  “Come along!” Amam Ibn Hinna said.

  He waved to his right and picked up the pace. They jogged down a brick lined path past three stories of individual caves devoted to the worship of Buddha.

  “There is a really big Buddha back there,” Amam Ibn Hinna said, as they ran past. “Carved by hand inside the nine-story building. You’ll have to see it sometime. Truly incredible.”

  He went to a stairwell and started climbing.

  “Come along,” Amam Ibn Hinna said. “This is the way.”

  Alex stopped walking.

  “The library cave is on the first level,” Alex said.

  “Yes, but Fong and Ji are up here,” Amam Ibn Hinna said and pointed up the stairwell.

  Alex gestured for Amam Ibn Hinna to go up the stairs first. Raz followed him, and Alex came last. Their guide continued to the third floor. He stopped to make sure they were following before he plunged into the dark sandstone cave ahead. Raz stopped at the entrance to wait for Alex. They entered the dark cave together.

  “Five people.” Alex took a deep breath to smell the air. “At least two military. Fong’s perfume. Fear.”

  “Suffering, blood,” Amam Ibn Hinna hissed in a low voice. “I hope we’ve come in time.”

  Raz nodded, and they stepped into the grotto. They saw only the inky black.

  “We are here,” Amam Ibn Hinna said to someone they could not see.

  Three freestanding floodlights came on. Alex had to shade her eyes from the bright light.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Amam Ibn Hinna’s eyes seemed to adjust immediately. His voice was indignant. “We mean you no harm. We are here on an errand of diplomacy. We were invited here by your government.”

  Amam Ibn Hinna’s protestations didn’t get them to dim the lights. After a few moments, Alex saw that they were standing in the middle of a cave, surrounded by five soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army. There was a three-foot-high brass Buddha on an altar on the right side of the cave. The rest of the cave was set up as meditation space.

  “Where are Ji and Fong?” Alex asked in Mandarin.

  The Chinese soldier near the back of the cave gave a partial bow and indicated that they go further into the cave. Alex stayed rooted in place. She looked from face to face. The Chinese soldiers were armed and edgy.

  The Chinese were ready for battle.

  The soldiers intended to kill them.

  Alex glanced at Raz. By the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing. They shifted their positions to be ready.

  “Let me go first,” Amam Ibn Hinna said.

  Alex followed Amam Ibn Hinna to the back of the cave. She got to the edge of a hallway and stopped.

  “Cigarette,” Alex said under her breath.

  Raz nodded.

  Amam Ibn Hinna started down a low, rough-hewn hallway in the very back of the cave. Alex glanced at Raz. She had to bend over at the waist to make it down the hallway. With his hand on her back, Raz followed right behind her. Passing rooms on either side of the hallway, they went nearly fifty feet before Amam Ibn Hinna turned left into a room. Alex followed him into the room, where she was able to stand. Raz remained hunched over in the doorway.

  “Ah, you are here,” a man said in Mandarin.

  Another set of floodlights came on. Alex was standing near the doorway of a small room. A large statue of Buddha took up most of the back of the room. Fong and Ji were tucked to one side of the statue in a corner. Fong stood defensively in front of Ji. Alex caught Ji’s eyes. Her old sparring partner was terrified.

  A colonel in the People’s Liberation Army stepped forward. He dropped a cigarette butt on the ground, and Fong gasped at the impropriety of his simple act. The colonel chuckled and crushed the flame with his foot.

  “I have met your father,” the colonel said. Alex shook his hand. “It’s a pleasure to be introduced to his daughter.”

  “Lieutenant Colonel Alexandra Hargreaves, sir,” Alex said. Because he’d addressed her directly, she took authority in the conversation. “This is my partner, Department of Homeland Security Agent Rasmussen. We are here with Egyptian diplomat, Amam Ibn Hinna.”

  “Yes,” the colonel said.

  The colonel held out his hand to Raz, who shook his hand. The colonel smiled at Amam Ibn Hinna and gave him a little bow.

  “I took it upon myself to secure Ms. Song and her son,” the colonel said.

  The colonel got close to Alex, and Raz shifted his body between them. The colonel raised his hands as if he meant no harm. Alex indicated for Raz to back off.

  “Mister Fong is in great danger,” the colonel said in a low tone. Alex swallowed hard. Ji had been stripped of his rank. “There are many after him. He is injured. You brought your famous medics?”

  Alex gave a curt nod.

  “Did the colonel cause these injuries?” Amam Ibn Hinna asked in English to Fong.

  “No,” Fong said in English. “My son was injured when the colonel brought him here. The soldiers out there beat him, and I . . . The colonel told them he was taking us to this cave to murder us.”

  Amam Ibn Hinna looked like he was going to eat the colonel.

  “Ji!” Alex said in English. “Are you able to get out of here?”

  “No,” Ji grunted.

  Alex nodded.

  “If you’re finished . . .” The colonel scowled at Alex. “I will show you out.”

  “It’s very dark,” Alex said. “I’m wondering if you would mind if Agent Rasmussen assisted Mr. Song.”

  “Of course,” the colonel said.

  Raz went toward Fong, and she moved away. Alex gasped. Ji’s right ankle was broken, and he was bleeding from missing toes on his left foot. His knees looked as if they had been destroyed. His face was a mottled mess of healing and fresh bruises. He moved as if his ribs were broken, like each of his fingers. His eyes held the haunted look of someone who had been tortured. Raz put his arm under Ji’s should
er to see if he could tolerate it. Ji groaned.

  “I’ll need to carry him,” Raz said.

  The colonel nodded.

  “Mr. Ibn Hinna?” The colonel asked. “There are two . . .”

  The colonel gestured behind the statue. Amam Ibn Hinna went behind the statue.

  “Lieutenant Colonel, if I may?” Amam Ibn Hinna asked for Alex’s help.

  Raz shook his head, but Alex shrugged. She jogged behind the statue. She found Amam Ibn Hinna standing over two dead bodies. The male had similar injuries to Ji. Amam Ibn Hinna pointed to the woman’s arms. They carried the body of the woman into the center of the cave. They jogged back behind the statue. Together, they carried the body of a man.

  “Murderers,” the colonel said. “Executed this morning. We must leave.”

  Fong was so relieved that she lost her balance. Amam Ibn Hinna grabbed her before she hit the floor.

  “You are dead, Mrs. Pershing,” the colonel said, emphasizing Fong’s married name. She was no longer Fong Song, resident of China. Fong nodded that she understood. “You will never return.”

  “Thank you, father.” Fong gave him a low bow.

  “Don’t thank me,” the colonel said. “Thank her.”

  The colonel gestured to Alex.

  “The debt owed to her is large,” the colonel said. “This is only a small gesture of gratitude.”

  “And Ji?” Alex asked.

  “He is dead,” the colonel said. “Killed trying to escape capture. But Joe Pershing will leave China tonight and never return.”

  The colonel nodded.

  “I will show you out,” the colonel said.

  He strode out of the small room and turned left at the door. In order to avoid injuring Ji’s further, Raz scooped him up like a lover. They followed the colonel out the door. Alex put her arm around Fong to help her. They bent over and ran down the hallway. Slumped over and carrying Ji, Raz was able to keep up with the colonel. Amam Ibn Hinna followed behind. They stopped on the edge of an open room. The colonel turned his back to the room.

  “There are security cameras from here forward,” the colonel said.