False Horizon

by Alex Archer

  Something was definitely not right.

  And where was Mike?

  Annja wanted him around now especially so since there was apparently some kind of assassin in the grounds. Was it the Hsu Xiao character that Garin and Tuk had mentioned? Or was it someone else eager to dispatch the outsiders who had come into their land?

  Annja headed left of the courtyard, following her gut instinct. Ahead of her, she could see flickering torches in the distance, illuminating aspects of the stone corridors. She passed the giant carved Buddhist sculptures and bizarrely colored tapestries and paintings all showing universal conflicts.

  Where the hell was everyone?

  She walked faster and then heard something in the distance.

  Voices.

  She slowed to a stop and strained her ears to pick up anything of importance. She frowned. They weren’t speaking English.

  She listened closely.

  Annja frowned. Someone was speaking Chinese. Did that mean they were on the wrong side of the border? And if that was the case, then Annja was in serious trouble.

  She stalked farther ahead, keeping the sword tucked behind her back to avoid its gleam giving her away. She stayed in the recesses of the shadows and hugged the wall farthest away from the torch brackets.

  Annja could hear them more clearly now. They seemed to be arguing. And one of the voices sounded familiar.

  Guge?

  She waited and then almost gasped when she saw Guge stalking away from someone dressed in combat fatigues. A lone red star appeared on his shoulder epaulets. Chinese military.

  Here?

  But this was supposed to be a sacred land far removed from the outside world. How was it possible that the Chinese were here? And if they were, why so? What was their purpose?

  What did the people of Shangri-La have that would interest the Chinese military so much? She sighed. Maybe the geothermal theory was right. Maybe the Chinese wanted free energy to run part of their country. Already the global economy had hit China hard. Thousands of laborers had been laid off from shuttered factories reliant on American consumerism. And with so many people to take care of, energy costs might push the government to the brink of almost anything. If they couldn’t keep their people happy, they’d have a serious revolt on their hands. And China couldn’t afford bad will. Another Tiananmen Square incident would turn the world against them. And that would cost them billions upon billions of dollars.

  So what was the alternative? Find Shangri-La and plunder its geothermal supply for Chinese use only?

  Annja frowned. She really needed Mike.

  And it wouldn’t hurt to have Garin along, too.

  She knew how much he would have loved to hear Annja say that to his face.

  Fat chance of that happening.

  Annja snuck down the corridor closer to where she’d heard the men speaking. She could feel the cold air now. How deep was she into the mountain? It almost felt as cold as it had back in the cave they’d been taken from.

  Guge strode away from the Chinese soldier, leaving him behind. He seemed to be intently watching something through a pane of glass. But what? And where had Guge gone?

  Annja decided she couldn’t worry about him right now. She needed to see what the soldier was looking at. Perhaps it would clear up this mess.

  But how was she going to get close enough to do it?

  She could just run him through with the sword, of course. But, despite her apprehension at the appearance of the Chinese military here, so far they hadn’t done anything to warrant murder.

  Annja might even be the one breaking the law if she was on sovereign Chinese territory. She could just imagine the scope of the international incident if she attacked the solider for doing nothing other than peering through some glass.

  Still, she needed—wanted—to look and see what he was watching. She regarded the soldier. He was armed with a pistol on his right side, but otherwise, there didn’t seem to be another weapon about. Annja figured him for an officer. They were the ones who normally wore sidearms.

  Annja returned her sword to the otherwhere and then flexed her muscles. She would sneak up and take him down with a choke hold. She’d been practicing some of them at the traditional jujitsu school that had recently opened in Manhattan. But this form of jujitsu wasn’t like the mixed martial arts silliness. This was authentic jujitsu from Japan, with holds and chokes designed to immediately incapacitate or kill an opponent.

  Annja stole down the corridor toward the solider. She prayed he wouldn’t turn around and see her.

  She drew closer.

  And then she immediately leaped up and onto his back, wrapping her left arm around his windpipe and using her right arm to tighten the hold. She positioned her head down at the base of his skull.

  The soldier’s instant reaction was to snap his head back, trying to head butt Annja in the face to make her release him. When that didn’t work, his right hand scrambled for his pistol.

  But Annja twisted him off his feet and brought him down to the ground. She could feel his strength waning already as he convulsed once, twice and then went still.

  Annja kept the hold on for a few seconds longer and then released him. She checked his pulse and breathing. Both of them seemed fine. The soldier would recover in a few minutes.

  But it didn’t give Annja much time.

  She rose and looked through the glass.

  “Tuk?”

  He sat there on the stone floor in almost complete darkness. What the hell was Tuk doing in there?

  Annja searched, trying to see if there was a button she could punch so she could speak to Tuk. She found one and keyed it. “Tuk? Can you hear me?”

  She saw him scramble to his feet. “Annja? Is that you?”

  “Yeah, what the hell is going on around here? Why are you in this…whatever it is?”

  “I asked Guge how to cross over and then he pointed me to this doorway. My phone started to ring and then he pushed me through here. I don’t know what’s going on!”

  Annja looked around but saw no way to free him. “I can’t see how this cell works. Is there a door in there?”

  “None that I can see. Annja, what is this all about?”

  “I’m not sure. But I’ll get some answers. Do you know this place is deserted out here? I saw your father speaking Chinese to a soldier.”

  “They want to know where Mike is. And who Garin is. I didn’t tell them anything.”

  “Not much to tell,” Annja said with a grunt. “I don’t know where Mike is and trying to explain who Garin is would take a very long time.”

  She kept looking for a release button or panel or something that would free Tuk but she saw nothing. What kind of place was this?

  She looked back inside. Tuk was right up against the Plexiglas and he looked scared. “Annja, I don’t think that’s my real father.”

  “I’m starting to think that, too.”

  “I can’t see you, by the way. This glass is one-way.”

  “All right. I’m trying to get you out, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to trip the door release.”

  “If there even is a door,” Tuk said. “I can’t see anything in here to tell you where it might be. The four walls appear completely solid.”

  Annja frowned. “Well, there’s got to be a release somewhere. Just hang on.”

  “Garin was trying to reach me when I was put inside. Find my phone and maybe you can guide him here.”

  Annja shook her head. “I have no idea how I’d even do that, Tuk. I’m not sure where we are anymore. If I even knew at all.”

  “We’ve got to be somewhere close to the mountain we stayed in. They couldn’t take us too far, could they?”

  “There’s no telling how strong that gas was they used on us. We could be in Brazil now and not know it.”

  Tuk sighed. “You’re right.”

  “I’m going to keep searching, but you just—”

  Annja felt her legs kicked out from under her.
She crashed to the ground and nearly snapped her head against the stone floor.

  “Annja?”

  She rolled, ignoring Tuk’s voice, and concentrating on the Chinese soldier who had a quicker recovery time than she’d given him credit for.

  As she rolled she saw the pistol in his hand and immediately lashed out her leg, knocking the firearm out of his grasp. It skittered away across the stones. He watched it for a second, determined it was too far away to go after and then glanced back at Annja with a grin on his face.

  “So, the mighty Annja Creed makes her appearance at last.”

  Annja groaned. “I’ve been here all day. It’s not my fault you’re late to the game.”

  He whipped out a knife and the blade caught the flickering torchlight. “It will be my pleasure to kill you,” he said.

  Annja blinked and had her sword out in the next instant.

  The soldier’s eyes went wide with awe. “So, it is true.”

  “What is?”

  “The sword. The mystical sword we’ve heard rumors of.”

  Annja slashed at him. How had they heard of the sword? As far as Annja knew she’d managed to keep its existence secret from all but a few individuals over the years. And now this Chinese soldier was telling her that he knew of it?

  “What have you heard?”

  The soldier ducked and came back at Annja with a stabbing shot aimed at her heart. Annja deflected the blow and the soldier caught her with another quick kick that scraped Annja’s shin and sent pain echoing through her body.

  “You’ve been in too many battles for your enemies not to notice the sword’s existence, Annja. And not all of your enemies died as you thought. It’s funny what people tell you when you help them live for vengeance.”

  “Vengeance?”

  The soldier cut back at her. “How do you control the sword? Where does it come from?”

  “If you don’t know, why should I tell you?”

  He smiled. “Because I’m not going to kill you, Annja. I’m going to disable you and then torture you until you tell me every last secret of that blade.”

  “You think so?” Annja cut down at him again but he managed to vault out of the way. Whoever the solider was, he’d been extremely well trained in hand-to-hand combat.

  “I know so. You can hold out for a little while, but eventually you will cry and weep with joy when you tell me what I want to know. When I’m done with you, you will give me the sword.”

  Annja smiled. “I’ll give you the sword right now.”

  The soldier stopped. “You will?”

  Annja plunged the blade directly at him so fast, the soldier had no time to react and the blade stabbed through his fatigues and directly into his heart. Blood spurted out, coating the floor. The air was thick with the smell of copper and death.

  Annja yanked her blade back out and let the soldier slide down to the floor, his eyes already wide-open and unfocused as he died.

  “You should be careful what you wish for,” she said.

  26

  Annja turned back to the window. “Sorry about that, Tuk.”

  “What happened? I can’t see a thing in this place but I heard you fighting.”

  “We were momentarily interrupted.” Annja cast a quick glance at the dead solider and the rapidly expanding pool of blood spreading out from his corpse. “I don’t think it will happen again.”

  “You killed him?”

  “I had no choice.”

  Tuk stayed silent for a moment. “Well, now you most certainly have to figure out how to free me. If you’ve killed one of their people—whoever they are—then they will hold me responsible for his death.”

  Annja shook her head. “How could you kill him if you were inside this cell? They can’t blame you for it.”

  “All the same, I’d rather take my chances with you.”

  Annja searched the dead soldier’s pockets and found nothing to indicate how the cell operated. She patted him down and didn’t even find an identification card. Annja frowned. There were no tags of any type except for one red star on his epaulets.

  She stood and walked over to the other wall, but again, could find nothing to indicate how the stone walls operated. As far as Annja could see, they were set perfectly flush with the other part of the corridor.

  Tuk was trapped.

  “I can’t find anything,” she said to Tuk.

  “There’s got to be a way. Some kind of trip switch. When I was pushed inside, the wall slammed shut quickly. There’s got to be an activation button,” he said.

  Annja turned her attention away from the walls of the cell to the area behind her. She had to take care not to slip in the soldier’s blood. But her heart thundered and she knew that if she didn’t find the trip switch soon, she’d have a lot of company to worry about.

  Finally, on the third time around the walls, she found a shallow depression painted exactly to match the color of the stone walls. She pressed into the depression and heard the rumbling sound of walls sliding away.

  Turning, she saw Tuk standing there looking relived. He rushed over to her and smiled. “Thank you!”

  Annja nodded. “We don’t have any time. We’ve got to get out of here and figure out what happened to Mike.”

  “We need to get my phone back, too,” Tuk said. “It’s critical that we find a way to get Garin here. He can help us.”

  Annja nodded. “Much as I hate to admit it, I’m sure he can. But how are we going to do that. Didn’t you say that Guge took it?”

  “Yes. He told me that for me to cross back over, I couldn’t have any technology with me.”

  “Probably just a con to get you to give up the phone.”

  “I know that now.”

  Annja indicated the corridor running off to their right side. “He went that way after he and the soldier had a few choice words.”

  Tuk looked down the darkened hallway. “I suppose we should go that way, too, huh?”

  “As much as I’d rather get the hell out of here, yes, we need to go in that direction,” she said.

  “What about Mike?”

  Annja shook her head. “I don’t know what to do about Mike. As far as I know he’s on his own somewhere. Right now our priority is to get the phone, get Mike and then figure out a way to get some help to get out. This place is no longer a paradise. And I have serious doubt as to whether it ever was.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning this whole thing feels staged.”

  “For whose benefit?”

  Annja frowned. “Mine, yours, who knows? Whatever it’s for, it’s not anything good.”

  Tuk nodded. “All right, Annja. I’m with you. Let’s go.”

  Annja summoned her sword from the otherwhere and they stole down the hallway. Annja would have liked to dispose of the soldier’s body properly but there was no time. And they would have had to clean the blood off the floor, anyway—a nearly impossible task given the little time they had. They would have to take a chance that there were too few people around to notice the body for a while.

  Something told Annja it wouldn’t happen that way but there were no other options.

  Ahead of them, the corridor forked and Annja frowned. She wanted to cover both hallways at once, but she’d only just reunited with Tuk. And splitting their forces didn’t seem prudent at this point.

  “Which way?” she muttered.

  Tuk sighed. “Left?”

  Annja nodded. “Left, it is.”

  The hallway descended and the air grew starkly colder. Annja’s breath appeared in front of her face. Just where were they? Annja wondered. Behind her, she heard Tuk’s teeth chattering. She glanced back and put a finger to her lips. “Keep the noise down, Tuk. You’d be surprised what people can hear in the darkness,” she whispered.

  Tuk clamped a hand over his mouth and they traveled on. Annja’s sword lit the hallway for a small area around them, reflecting the flickering torches up ahead.

  The floor started t
o slope back up and then Annja stopped.

  She could hear voices.

  Tuk had stopped immediately, keenly aware of Annja’s movements, as she suspected he would be given his past as a tracker. Annja crept up inch by inch and heard more voices.

  “Mandarin,” Tuk whispered.

  Is this entire thing some type of Chinese operation? she wondered. And, if so, how high up did it go? All the way to Beijing?

  She took a calming breath and moved forward a few more feet. The torches ahead seemed to bracket a doorway carved out of the tunnel. Annja wanted to see what was beyond that doorway.

  More soldiers?

  The shadowy figure she’d fought before?

  Guge?

  She frowned. She couldn’t just burst into the room, although it was tempting. Not being able to see what lay beyond was a problem. She didn’t know if she could get that close without alerting them to her presence.

  She felt Tuk nudge her from behind. She turned and saw him gesturing to himself. Annja frowned and then understood. Tuk wanted to do the recon.

  She raised her eyebrows. Are you sure?

  He nodded. He could do it.

  Annja moved out of his way and watched as the little man crept soundlessly up the corridor toward the twin torches. Fortunately, because the torches were in front of him, they cast Tuk’s shadow behind.

  The little spy moved easily and quickly and Annja almost thought at one point that he had become part of the wall. It was easy to see why Tuk’s skills had been so highly valued by the intelligence services of so many countries.

  He must have some stories, Annja thought.

  She looked back down the corridor and then up at Tuk. At any second, they might be discovered. Annja kept a firm hand on her sword and then watched as Tuk reached the periphery of the doorway, sank down on his knees and, ever so slowly, peered around the corner.

  Don’t stay too long, Annja thought. Just get a glimpse of the room and then come on back.

  The little man seemed to know exactly how much time he had and retreated back down the corridor toward Annja quickly and silently. He motioned for her to follow him back into the darkness and there he squatted. Annja crouched next to him and whispered, “What did you see?”