White Jade (The PROJECT) (22 page)

Except for that kid.
He got up and went into his bedroom
and shut the door
.

Selena sat on the couch and watched the door
close
behind him.

What had she gotten herself into? Harker had asked if she'd be able to
shoot
someone.
She'd said yes, but could she? Would she have to?

If the Emperor was really in Tibet, if somehow the Minoans had anything to do with that, she wanted to be there
. It was the adventure of a lifetime. No adventure worth a damn was without risk. Risk didn't bother her. Killing people might.

Stupid of her, to say what she did to Nick.

Nick was a different kind of risk. What was she afraid of?

Carter
was still awake
when
his
door opened. Selena came in, slipped out of her robe and crawled into bed with him. She was naked.

"I'm sorry, Nick."

He turned to face her.
"I thought you said
it was too much right now. Sex
.
All that.
"

"I changed my mind."

S
he reached down and grasped him in both hands and felt him swell between her fingers. He stroked her face
and moved his hand to her breast and kissed her.

Suddenly they were clinging to each other, their hands moving over each other, trying to meld into each other. When he entered she
clenched her hands on
his buttocks and drew him in as far as she could and wrapped her legs around him.

"Jesus, Selena."

"Nick."

Sleep
came later.

Chapter Thirty
-One

The Project was Elizabeth's life. She spent more time
here
than in her Georgetown home. No one waited for her there.
She
'd given up on the idea
anyone ever would.

It wasn't supposed to work out like that. She'd been married for a
time,
back when she was still young and idealistic, thinking she could juggle a career at Justice and a husband
and family
at the same time.

Wasn't that the new role model
for an educated woman
?
Crack
the glass
power
ceiling,
ma
ke a lot of money, go to fabulous places
in a Prada suit
with a great guy who appreciated your mind along with your body
, have a couple of kids and commute in a BMW?

The American myth
of having it all
.
There wasn't anything wrong with the myth,
if you could get it without selling your soul,
but sometimes people and events didn't cooperate.
She'd never had kids. He
eH
hadn't wanted them. Maybe children would have made a difference, but Elizabeth suspected it would have only made things worse.
Her former husband had been with ATF. He was still with
ATF. He was also still with the last woman he'd been
cheating with
before Elizabeth dumped him. Lately she'd heard that wasn't going so well. It was a small satisfaction, but the truth was she didn't
really
care.

She drove an Audi, not a BMW. She had power,
she had the President's ear,
she had money, she had a very nice home in the heart of elegant Georgetown.
She even had a
couple of
Prada suit
s
in her closet.
None of that mattered
much
. What mattered
to Elizabeth
was making a difference, and she was doing that. The picture
of the Twin Towers
on her desk reminded her of why she did it.

H
er
life had
turned into
a study in black and white. She preferred the simplicity of dress black and white offered, but it was more than that.
She
could not understand people who thought compromise
was always the solution
. T
hat negotiating with evil was possible
.
The irony of working in Washington with that attitude did not escape her.

Politically correct rationalizations about why terrorists had good reason for their tactics of fear and murder and how negotiation was the answer struck her as naïve and dangerous.
T
he terrorist organizations were an enemy with philosophies of political and religious fanaticism leaving no room for compromise or peace. As far as
Elizabeth
was concerned, the world would be a better place if they were all destroyed.
If her father were still alive he would have agreed.

Judge Harker had been well-liked in the small town where she
'd grown
up.
Traditional values
of hard work and honesty still
flourished on t
he western slope of the Rockies. In
her father's
private
world, a man’s word was his bond, a handshake an agreement written in stone.
On the bench, he was impartial and fair. Whatever doubts he might have had about the judgments
the
law required him to
mete out, he left them in the courtroom.

When Elizabeth was growing up,
t
he
J
udge would sit in his big green chair
in his study
, a glass of bourbon on the table beside him
, and tell Elizabeth
stories of a vanished
America
.
Stories of the Revolution, the Founders, the Civil War. Stories of  sacrifice, of heroism and
wisdom and
courage.
She absorbed the history
,
and with it a love for her country
. She still believed in the essential goodness of America
, tarnished as it was
.
Maybe it was out of style, but i
t sustained her when the self-serving nature of
Washington
politics began to wear her down.

The Judge believed in hard facts, concrete evidence and fair play. He would not have liked the shadow world she lived in, but he would have been firm on the need to protect the country and proud of her for doing it. She wondered what he would think about this latest threat. A threat coming into view but not yet defined, potential trouble with a nation capable of annihilating a good part of America.

Nick and Ronnie came in
to the office, interrupting her thoughts
. Time to brief them.
A satellite photo of western
Tibet
filled the big screen behind her desk.
When they were settled s
he used a laser pointer to indicate the landmarks.

"
Following the clues in the book we focused on
the
area near
Mount
Kailash
.
"
She indicated the mountain with a red dot from the pointer.

"
This is
a coal mining village called Moincer.
"

The dot paused on a cluster of buildings west of the mountain, moved again.

"
This is Kyunglung, a complex of caves used for religious rituals. The caves are shown on the map and
are
known as the
'
Silver
Palace
of the Garuda
'
. At first
I
thought what we
'
re looking for might be there, but its just caves, nothing more. It was used for centuries by Bon magicians.
"

"
Who are the Bon?
"
Nick's
ear began itching.

"
Bon was the religion practiced in
Tibet
before Buddhism. It
'
s still practiced today, but with Buddhist elements.
"

Harker tapped her keyboard.
The
scene
changed to show a satellite photo of a bleak hilltop covered with the ruins of a small city. The camera zoomed in on a whitewashed
complex
built into the side of the hill.

"
The building is Gurugem, a Bon monastery. Those ruins above it looked promising, but
they've been picked over for years. There's nothing there.
However,
I
think
I've found what we're looking for.
Following a line north, about fifty kilometers, there
's
another set of ruins.
"

The satellite focus shifted to
the remains of an
ancient
,
square fortress on top of a hill. The outer walls were about the length of a football field on each side. Ruined buildings and rubble surrounded a square, open area with a large building
set in the center.

"
A deep sonar scan shows a cavern underneath those ruins, with some
thing
in it.
My
guess is that this is where the emperor was taken.
It matches up with the map
in the book
.
If anything is still left, that
'
s where it will be.
T
here isn
'
t any military presence
nearby
. That
'
s the good news. The bad news is the site is exposed and the terrain is
rugged
.

"
You
'
ll go in when it
'
s dark to avoid being spotted from the monastery. You
'
ll be in uniform and wear rank insignia, but no unit flashes or nametags. Nick,
I'm
making you a
bird
colonel for this.

"
Your clearance will be Umbra
. N
o one is going to question you. Your mission is to penetrate the area, find entrance to the underground complex, retrieve and document whatever information found there of value and bring it back.
"

"
You forgot
the bit about the tape self-destructing at the end
.
"

"
Excuse me
?"

"Mission Impossible. Remember?"

"Very funny, Nick."

Ron
nie
ran his hand over his buzz cut.
"
Where
'
s the drop zone?
"

"
I
t
'
s too dangerous
to drop right on the ruins
. The mountains and air currents there make it high risk for you and for the aircraft.
"

Back to the broad shot, the laser dot moved west to a valley between the caves and the Bon monastery.

"
We
'
ll drop you here. It
'
s flat, you won
'
t have
too
far to travel and you
can
get in and under cover before anyone knows you
'
re there. Once you
'
re north of
the monastery
you shouldn
'
t run into anyone.
"

"
How are we going to get into that underground complex?
"

"
There
'
s no way to tell until you get there.
Selena and Stephanie are working on the translation right now, looking for anything that will help. Selena will have it with her.
There has to be something in the book or on site that can show you how to get in, now that we know it
's there
.
"

"
Any entrance might be buried under tons of rock. We could get there and wander around like tourists until Yang shows up. This isn
'
t good, Director.
"

"
Nobody said it was easy, Ronnie.
You
'
re wheels up tonight from Andrews for Dyess.
I
'
ve got 24/7 watch on the surrounding area and
I
'
ll keep you informed if we see any military presence coming toward you. I will monitor the mission on live satellite and stay in voice contact.
"

"
How do we get out
when
we
'
re done?
"
Carter asked.

"
Helicopter extraction from
India
. It
'
s not far to the Indian border, but the route on foot is difficult, through the Lipu Lehk pass. It helps that you
'
re going in summer, but the plateau is high, the air
'
s thin and it
'
s cold up there. It is the
Himalayas
, after all.
"

"
And if we run into opposition?
"

"
Take care of it. No rules of engagement. We
'
ll have the copters standing by across the border but you
'
re on your own.
"

On your own, Carter thought. Meaning deniable.

"
When you
'
re ready, call for extraction. Get it done as fast as you can. Yang is bound to send someone down there when he figures it out.
"

"
He must have by now,
"
Carter
said.

"
So far we don
'
t see any activity in the area, but that could change anytime.
"

"
What are we looking for?
"

"
Anything
to confirm
the existence or location of a possible uranium deposit. If Selena
'
s translation is correct there should be a map
or records
of some kind showing where all the ingredients for the elixir can be found. I don
'
t think you
'
re going to find the secret of immortality, but look for anything unusual. You won
'
t know until you get there and see for yourself. Any other questions? Ronnie?
"