by Fritz Galt
“You’ve got to do something.”
“Jade and I were wondering how to get down to Yunnan. We’ve exhausted all our capital with the military. President Qian isn’t talking with us, and now I can see why. He’s a busy man.”
“Don’t worry. I can get through to him. Just get to the closest airfield. Do you know exactly where you’re going?”
“Yeah. Brad gave me directions.” He tried to remember what Brad had told him. He had been in the middle of his wedding at the time. But his friend’s urgency had etched the combination in his memory. Once at Yuhu, he would enter the cave and follow the turns on the Kalachakra mandala. What were the turns exactly? Oh yes: left, straight, right, left, right. “Do you want the directions?”
“Don’t tell me. Nobody should know. You and Jade must keep it a secret.”
“So I’ll get rid of Liang and bring you the president back. Anything else I can do to help?”
“That should do it. Now hurry.”
Earl put the cell phone in his jeans and pushed his taped frames back up his nose. “Sully will clear the plane with Qian. Where’s the nearest airport?”
Jade leaned down and planted her moist lips on his. Her tongue worked its way past his teeth, and they locked in an embrace.
He finally came up for air. “By the way, did I tell you that the stock market crashed and the American president is missing?”
She shot him a look. “Let’s get on with this honeymoon.”
And with that, the newlyweds ran down the steps and hailed a cab.
Chapter 65
Dr. Yu led Brad and May to a charming gazebo just beyond President Webster’s quarters. Yu looked exhausted and took a sip from the flask by his side.
Brad still couldn’t get over letting Liang walk away from him. In the past, he would have busted the guy’s chops. Liang certainly deserved it. It must have been Brad who had changed.
“Why is Liang still so nasty?” Brad asked, and took a seat on the bench beside May. “Isn’t there supposed to be total harmony here? I mean, I saw Hitler having tea with FDR.”
“It only works if you want it to,” Yu said. “Liang and the businessmen have ulterior motives for being here.”
“And what is Liang up to?”
Yu rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. “Money.”
“How can he profit from this?” Brad didn’t see any money changing hands. He didn’t even see banks.
“How do you think people such as Chuck, Troy and Walter got here?” Yu said. “They sold the ox for a dog.”
Then Brad remembered the plane with the CEOs taking off. Liang had been angry when he learned they were onboard and said he would have to contact Buford when he learned of the stock market deception. So that was the scheme: “Buford charges a hefty fee and sends them here, where Liang keeps an eye on them.”
Branches swished behind them. Brad turned and saw the President of the United States in swimming trunks. He was heading for the lake. “I wonder how he could afford Shangri-la.”
He looked at Yu, who raised a knowing eyebrow. For an absent-minded professor, he sure had the world figured out.
Brad thought. “T-bills?”
Yu shook his head. Brad was nowhere close.
He guessed again. “Government bonds?”
“Much more.”
“Influence in government?”
Yu shook his head and cocked a thumb to go higher.
Brad frowned. There wasn’t much money in the U.S. Government coffers. All they had was land and power.
“Don’t tell me he sold Alaska.”
“Practically,” Yu said. “He turned over leases to government land and cartloads of money from the latest income tax.”
Brad stared at the carefree figure that toed the water, and then finally dove in. Shouldn’t these characters be brought to justice? Shangri-la sure functioned under pretty lax rules.
Yu took another swig from his flask and rose to his feet. “Both of you look exhausted. Why not repair to my palace?”
Come to think of it, it had been a long day.
The threesome plodded along the mossy path that traversed the hillside. Shortly, they came to the golden building that Brad had spotted from the cave.
“These are my digs,” Yu said. “My palace is your palace.”
A young woman greeted them and knelt before Yu. “I bring an invitation to all from Liang Jiaxi,” she said. “Tonight he is throwing a birthday party for May aboard the royal barge.”
“My barge?” Yu said. “Does he think he’s the kalika?”
“You’d better watch out,” Brad said. “He won’t play second fiddle for long.”
“At least he’s attempting reconciliation,” May said.
How in the world did she know that expression?
Yu took them to separate bedrooms. “You can nap before the party.”
A nap sounded good, but in separate rooms? Brad leaned into May’s room. It was big enough for two.
It was also right next to the royal bedchamber and just down from Liang’s. Sure, Brad liked the simple décor, the tatami mats, the pillows on the floor and the cathedral ceiling, but he saw no need for separate rooms.
May looked into his eyes and slipped the engagement ring off her finger.
“This is how it will have to be.”
They weren’t married, but they weren’t adolescents either.
“There are many beautiful women in Shangri-la,” she continued bravely, and handed the ring back to him. “You can sleep with whomever you please, my lord.”
Didn’t being a lord count for something?
“You’re the only one for me.”
But she turned away.
He stared at the diamond in the palm of his hand. He didn’t want it back.
Yu led him speechless from the bedchamber and down a walkway. Led past May’s terrace, he could hear her crying softly to herself.
He shoved the ring deep in his pocket. She had found her father, and lost her fiancé.
Chapter 66
In the last glimmer of sunshine, Earl and Jade landed on a tiny airstrip before an imposing, pyramid-shaped mountain.
He watched out the co-pilot’s window as they rolled past a tiny hamlet of stone structures that comprised the village of Yuhu. In the distant valley, paper lanterns began to illuminate the streets of Lijiang.
The air was quiet and cold when he stepped from the loaner military jet. He looked around for evidence that Brad and May had been there. There was none. The only access to the field was by a stone path from the village. How had Brad ever found the place?
There was an unmarked hole at the base of the mountain. It hardly looked like the gates to paradise.
“Did you grab a flashlight?” he asked his new bride.
She flashed a beam of light his way.
“I’ll take that.”
She flipped it to him. “It’s hard to believe Brad and May came through here just a few hours ago,” she said. “Just to make sure, I’ll ask a villager.”
He nodded and perched on a granite boulder. “I’ll guard the plane, er, from wild antelope.”
She flashed her beautiful row of teeth, then headed down the path.
He stared into the black hole before him. It was hard to picture Dr. Yu and Liang entering it, not to mention the President of the United States.
No, the “other side” of that cave was probably more of the same cold weather and gray rocks.
He leaned to one side and whipped out a small folded poster of the mandala he had picked up at a tourist kiosk in Beijing. He hadn’t enjoyed parting with a hundred and twenty yuan for the blasted thing.
He was no student of the Kalachakra, but he knew the basics. The center of the picture represented where Lord Kalachakra dwelled in Shambhala. He played the light over the poster. The design was intricate, but he could trace the turns Brad had given him.
A series of doors and steps ultimately led up through, and out of, a mountain to perfe
ction. But there were many wrong turns and no clues in the mandala to tell which turns worked. How had Brad figured it out?
Jade’s footsteps approached over the rocky path. She arrived out of breath and squatted down beside him.
“This is the place,” she said. “They reported several airplanes recently.”
“That fits.”
“The first planes since 1945.”
He let out a whistle. “Did they see any foreigners?”
She looked down at the village. “There’s a famous landmark down there. Some old museum for an American scientist. Foreigners come up every once in a while to check it out.”
“That doesn’t tell us much.”
She shook her head, sighed and stood up straight. “Let’s give it a try.”
He stared at the opening before them. “I’m not big on caves. But if the fate of the Free World depends on this, I guess I’m game.”
“Not just the Free World,” she reminded him. “There’s China, too.”
“Oh yeah. The Un-Free World as well.”
So with that dubious reasoning, he rocked to his feet and took his true love through the gates of heaven. He heard a whoosh of air and felt claws in his hair.
“What the—?”
Jade let out a shriek and began to beat her head.
“Bats!” she cried. She grabbed his arm and nearly squeezed the blood out of it. “If there’s one thing that freaks me out, it’s bats.”
The sight of a military hero frightened by flying rodents would be amusing if she hadn’t been his new bride, and he hadn’t been attacked as well.
The bats billowed from the entrance like a cloud.
She headed back to the plane.
“Maybe we’ll sit a spell and let them leave,” he suggested
“I’m locking the doors.”
He sighed and followed her back into the plane. When did the honeymoon start?
Chapter 67
May daintily lifted up her party dress, and the scarlet silk number swished as she stepped onto the royal barge. Liang had gone out of his way to make her birthday memorable. He had asked an exotic dancer to serve cocktails. Dinner lay on tables that stretched the entire length of the barge.
The craft itself was a traditional Chinese boat with a flat bottom. Two dragons adorned the prow. And wooden columns supported a golden tile roof. Liang had invited only a select few, as the barge could comfortably hold no more than twelve people.
Ever the attentive host, Liang introduced May to some politicians and cultural icons that he had invited. But she was especially pleased to see her lord, Brad West, there. The black tuxedo he wore matched that of her father, who was helping himself to the bamboo shoots and noodles.
The ship cast off from shore, ablaze in torchlight. When they reached the center of the lake, she took a moment to gaze out at the dark land. Occasional torches illuminated pathways and palaces. Stars glistened off crystal mountaintops in all directions.
The dancer poked out a tune on her pikko, a traditional Chinese mandolin, and the party grew quiet and contemplative.
Dr. Yu sidled up to May as she leaned on the railing. “Are you happy here?” he asked, with no expectation in his voice.
She was used to his clinical analysis. “Yes. For the moment, I am pleased.”
“And what about your accommodations?”
“Couldn’t be more lavish.”
“And the sleeping arrangements?” The intensity of his gaze unnerved her.
What was she supposed to say? She should be happy for him. This was his kingdom. And what a place. But he didn’t want to be congratulated. He wanted the truth.
“I have resolved to enjoy the evening,” she said. She took a sip of champagne and saw Brad lift a glass to her.
Nearby, Liang clapped his hands for everyone’s attention. “Let’s play a game. It’s a traditional Chinese game called ‘Land Creatures and Sea Creatures.’”
Oh, such a great game. She raised her hand to be one of the leaders.
Instead, Liang chose the dancing girl and himself to be leaders. Had he forgotten that it was her party?
“Everybody line up,” he said.
The guests formed a single line in front of the two leaders.
Liang turned to the other leader. “Now we choose a fruit or candy. I’ll be pineapple.”
The girl thought a moment. “I’ll be a moon cake.”
Then the two linked hands and formed an arch through which the others could walk.
“Oh, I get it,” Brad said. “London Bridge.”
May nodded. “Same tune, my lord.”
“Start singing,” Liang commanded.
May had sung the song since childhood. “A bird is falling in the water…”
She looked at her father. “…In the water, in the water.” He was singing, too. At that moment, he seemed fifty years younger. He had played that game with her in front of their small house when she was a child. And who else had been there? She imagined the face of a woman who was laughing. She looked lovely. Her cheeks were red and plump. Her teeth were white and straight. Her hair was pulled back with a clasp.
It must have been her mother, a person she had never known.
She stored the image in her heart and vowed to never forget it. What a beautiful person shined through the clouds of her memory after all those years.
Her father stepped under the arch just as the song stopped. The arch fell, and caught him.
“Choose, choose,” May said. He had to choose between eating a pineapple or moon cake.
“I like pineapple,” he said.
Liang directed him to take a seat on his side of the deck.
“A bird is falling in the water…” the song resumed.
Several iterations later, May was caught in Liang and the dancer’s grip. She wanted to be with her father, so she chose to eat a pineapple. Never mind that it put her on Liang’s team.
Liang directed her to take a seat.
Brad was the last in line, and the party required him to wander endlessly through the arch until they finally caught him. He was good-natured about it all.
Then he had to choose sweets, and picked a moon cake. “I like them,” he said of the small, dry cakes. “I really do.”
Finally both teams were seated and faced the other team. May was in good company, namely President Webster, her father, one of several Mongol kings named Khan and a young Russian woman named Anastasia that she had seen skipping through the meadow that afternoon.
On the opposite side of the barge, Brad was accompanied by some real heavyweights: the British Prime Minister, Chairman Deng, and Richard Gere and Jane Goodall who had dropped by for a visit.
“Now here is where I will introduce a rule change,” Liang said.
May was disappointed. “Aw. I wanted to be a creature.”
Liang held up a hand. “You can still be one. But before blindfolding a player, I will tie one creature’s hands behind his back on each team.”
Excitement ran through the group.
“My team will be land creatures, and yours will be sea creatures,” he announced. Then his team huddled together to choose a type of mammal, insect or bird for each member. Yu stated right away that he wanted to be a shrew.
It wasn’t so easy for May. “I’ll be a golden eagle,” she finally decided.
She glanced across at Brad as his team chose the sea creatures they wanted to be.
At last the teams had chosen their animals. In the flickering torchlight, Liang went behind each team member to tie the hands of one of them. He made a great show of putting a hand in his dinner jacket, pulling out rope and pretending to tie each person’s hands.
When he reached May, she tensed. Liang had done this to her in the past. It had never aroused her passions, and once again, it left her feeling cold and vulnerable. She heard him reach into his pocket. She stiffened as a silk ribbon fall against her wrists. He worked quickly. He had chosen her. In short order, he had bound her hands
together and attached them to a rung at the back of her chair.
For the sake of the game, she pretended to struggle.
In short order, Liang finished his trip around the room. It was time for the leaders to determine who would start first. “We will throw fists to determine this. I’ll call first.”
On the count of three, the dancer held up seven fingers, just as Liang said, “Three warring kingdoms.”
He had guessed the wrong number of fingers, and Brad’s team cheered.
So now he threw his fists.
“Days in week,” the dancer said.
She was wrong, as he had shown two fingers.
May let out her breath. She glanced across at Brad. He was enjoying this. She always appreciated how he tried to fit in.
The fist throwing went on, with some clever guesses by the caller. Liang thought it might be a “Frog’s legs,” and the dancer called a “Double three.”
In the end, Liang called out “Gang of Four” just as the dancer held up four fingers.
May and her father, the US president, the Mongol and Anastasia erupted with cries of happiness, while diligently keeping their hands behind their backs. If anyone were watching the golden eagle, the shrew, the weasel, the horse and the red panda, one would not be able to tell whose hands were tied.
“I get to sing now,” Liang said. “But first, I have a fun variation.”
He reached into a pocket and produced several silk scarves. Then he walked from player to player on both teams, fastening a blindfold over each person’s eyes.
This created a tremor of excitement in the group. She had never been thrown such an elaborate party before. It almost made up for missing her wedding.
She took one last look at the row of sea creatures across from her. She would need to match each face with a creature of the deep. Brad bared his teeth at her just as he disappeared behind his scarf. He had to be a shark.
“Okay. I’m finished,” Liang reported. “Are you all comfortable?”
May squirmed in her seat. She felt uneasy being the one with her hands tied behind her back and to be blindfolded, but she would not let the other team know and give herself away by complaining.
