White Jade (The PROJECT) (29 page)

Chapter Forty-
Four

"
Selena, come look at this.
"
Nick
called her over.

The three of
them
stood in front of the mummified figure.

"
What
'
s holding him up?
"
Ronnie held his torch close
. The skin was old and brown and pulled tight over the bon
es of the
skull.
The eyes were black hollows in the face.

"
Must be propped up, under the robe.
"

"
It
'
s one of the priests, like in the paintings.
That
'
s a piece of white jade in his hand.
"
She stepped closer.
"
It's a carved figure of the emperor.
"

Carter
remembered
his
dream of a robed figure in darkness, holding something white out toward
hi
m.
The hair stirred
on the back of
his
neck
.
.

"
What do you think they were doing in here?
"
He
held
his
torch up. The flame reflected off the glass containers on the tables.

"
Caldrons, fire, glass—it
'
s a laboratory. I think they were trying to make an elixir of immortality
,
"
said Selena.

"
It
'
s beginning to look like it. You have any luck with the writing on the walls?
"

"
It
'
s the linguistic discovery of a lifetime. The writing is a narrative and each panel has something written underneath about the painting above.
"

"
Sort of an illustrated book
.
"
Ronnie
said.

"
Yes. This priest with the jade was part of a cult of eternal life. You saw that mural at the end, where everyone is standing around and raising their hands to heaven? The writing says the body
was
prepared for eternal existence. Immortality to these people meant you came back after death, and you had to have a body to do it. No body, no immortality.
"

Nick sat on
a stone bench, trying to take stress off
his
back.
"
Belief in eternal life has been around since the cavemen. Lots of cultures put personal
things
like food and dishes in the grave for the dead person to use after death.
"

"
The Minoans did that,
"
said Selena.
"
Archeologists have found personal objects in Minoan tombs. The
y might
have picked up on the idea from the Egyptians.
"

Carter
tugged on
his
ear.
"
If the Minoans were leaving things in the tombs, they must have thought the body needed those things after death.
"

"
But the Minoans didn
'
t preserve bodies.
"
Selena brushed a wisp of hair away.
"
They buried the dead in collective tombs and kept using the tombs over and over, pushing everything into a corner until it got full. These murals present something radically different
. F
irst you die,
the body's preserved
, then you come back in the
same
body and live forever. That
'
s a huge divergence from what we know about Minoan and early Vedic civilization. The Indians cremated their dead. They still do.
"

"
What
'
s the elixir for?
"
Ronnie asked.

"
I think they wanted to create a real formula for staying alive forever.
"

"
Why here in
Tibet
?
"

"
T
he story on the walls
says
the priests started from here, went to
Crete
and then returned. It doesn
'
t say
when or
why
or
how they could have known about the Minoans. The part about the emperor is clear enough. Huang was brought to this spot, to receive the elixir. That would have been in 210 B.C.E.
"

"
I wonder what they did with him? We haven
'
t seen anything that looks like a tomb.
"
His
back was stiffening up. Time to get back to work.

Ronnie looked at the mummy. The priest grin
ned
back
.
"
What
'
s next, Nick?
"

"
Selena gets videos of everything
. Y
ou and I look for anything that might interest Yang. Selena, if you record all of the writing we can translate it later. Once you
'
ve got your pictures we
'
ll get out and blow the entrance. I don
'
t want Yang down here poking around.
"

"
You want to blow up that statue?
"

"
We don
'
t have a choice. We
got in
easily enough. Whoever Yang sends will have the same information we have. We
'
ll just seal the top. In the future someone can re-open it, if that
'
s the right thing.
"

She shook her head.
"
I never thought I
'
d be part of destroying the archeological find of the century. I
'
d better finish getting my pictures.
"

Carter
reached out to take the piece of white jade from the mummy
'
s hand. It didn
'
t move.
He
tugged on it and the arm came up as the jade came free. As
he
turned to give it to Selena the floor shook under
their
feet.

Something was happening
deep under the stones. The
room
started to shake
. B
its of mortar and trails of dust fell from the ceiling. A glass bowl slipped from one of the tables and shattered.

Taking the jade
figure of the emperor
had triggered some ancient mechanism.
They
ran out of the room, down the steps and into the
great
outer chamber. A thick silver fluid gushed into the channels cut along the sides of the steps and flowed down into the openings by the white slab on the platform.

"
That looks like mercury,
"
Selena called above the rumble of moving stone.

It was mercury, a hell of a lot of it.
They
stood at the foot of the steps and watched a rectangular white block slowly rise in the center of the platform. After a minute the flow of mercury in the channels slowed to a trickle. The rumbling vibration died away.

They
walked over to the block. It was chest high and illustrated with elaborate scenes of life in ancient
China
. Selena ran her hands over the carvings.

"
This entire container is made of white jade.
I think it
'
s a crypt, or a sarcophagus.
"

Carter
stood next to her.
"
What do you think is inside?
"

"
Not what, who. I think the
First
Emperor
of China
"

"
Still alive, you think?
"

"
Smartass. You want to take a look?
"
She trained her video camera on the sarcophagus.

"
Give me a hand, Ronnie.
"
The lid was sealed with a sticky resin.
They
used
their
knives to dig it out.

They
fumbled for a handhold and moved the lid away from one corner. Inside
Nick saw a
foot wearing an elaborate brocaded slipper.
A foul smell seeped from the crypt.

"Phew." Ronnie turned his head away.

"No place for the stink to go after they sealed him up"

"
Slide the lid
further over
, Nick.
"

"
It can
'
t weigh more than a couple of hundred pounds. Let
'
s set it down.
"

They
lifted the lid off and rested it against the crypt.
Nick
looked in. The
First
Emperor
of China lay on his back, on a golden pillow, wrapped in robes of golden silk
embroidered with thousands of pearls. He wore
a tall headdress of
jade
. On his chest lay a
heavy
disk of white jade, hung on a thick gold chain and inset with
a large golden dragon
. A
small
box
of white jade
was placed at his feet. But it wasn
'
t the box that caught
Carter's
eye. It was
the emperor's face
.

He looked as if he had died yesterday.

"
Jesus,
"
Ronnie leaned over the coffin.
"
My doctor doesn
'
t look that good and he
'
s a lot younger. He looks like he
'
s sleeping.
"

The emperor
'
s face was pear shaped and sallow. Thick black mustaches drooped down on either side of his mouth. His lips were full and his cheeks rounded. There was a hint of cruelty in his features.

"How did they do this?" Nick said. "It makes the Egyptians look like amateurs."

"It must be the formula." Selena laid a hand against the Emperor's neck. Soft. Cold as death. "The formula wasn't for living forever. It was for preserving the body. That
fits
with what I read on the walls."

Nick
reached down and lifted the box from the emperor
'
s feet. Inside was a stoppered bottle of glass, filled with a light green liquid.
He
held it up. Flecks of golden light danced within the fluid.

"
Anyone want to take a shot at living forever?
"

Chapter Forty-F
ive

Charlie Chan put the phone in his pocket
. He
shuffled papers on his desk and thought about the conversation he
'
d just had with Colonel Wu. His cubicle was small, in keeping with his status in the FBI
'
s Asian Criminal Enterprise Unit. Mostly he did grunt work, interviewing Chinese speaking immigrants and shop owners, translating odd pieces of information. The last few days there
'
d been nothing but the most boring assignments. He couldn
'
t see the relevance of what he was working on
. S
oon it wouldn
'
t matter anymore.

He was rattled. What if Wu wasn
'
t telling the truth? If there was going to be an attack, Charlie wanted to be far away when it hit. The FBI and everyone else would go into search and destroy mode, looking for any possible connection. He
'
d always been careful, but you never knew. It was time to get out.

There was plenty of money in his offshore account, enough to start over, maybe in
Hong Kong
, where the PRC had a tolerant capitalist policy
. H
e would be back among his own people, where no one made fun of his name. For years he
'
d listened to jokes about the Chinese detective of black and white movie fame. Well, now the joke would be on them.

Charlie took the picture of his parents off his desk and put it in his briefcase. He closed the briefcase and stood up just as Zeke Jordan and two other agents came to his cubicle. They
blocked
the way out.

"
Going somewhere, Charlie?
"

Charlie put on his best number one son smile.

"
Got to interview a shopkeeper in
Chinatown
. Someone
'
s threatening to break his windows and worse if he doesn
'
t pay up. You know how it is, Zeke. It
'
s hard to get anyone in the Asian community to talk, but this one seems cooperative. I want to get a statement from him.
"

Zeke turned to the other agents standing with him.
"
Get a statement. Charlie
'
s really on it, don
'
t you think, guys?
"

Charlie didn
'
t like the way they were looking at him.

"
Make any phone calls lately, Charlie?
"

"
What do you mean? I make calls all day.
"

"
I meant long distance calls. You know, overseas, maybe even
China
?
"

"
I don
'
t know what you
'
re talking about. What
'
s going on, Zeke?
"

"
How are you planning to spend all that money?
"

Charlie felt his chest constrict. How did they know about the money?

"
What money?
"

"
The two hundred and fifty thousand or so you
'
ve got down in the Caymans.
"

"
You
'
ve got to be mistaken, Zeke. How would I get that much money?
"

"
Now that
'
s a real good question, Charlie. Isn
'
t it, boys?
"

"
Real good.
"

"
Charles Chan, I
'
m taking you into custody under authority of the Patriot Act on suspicion of aiding and abetting a terrorist conspiracy. Hook him up.
"

The two agents moved in
. O
ne pulled Chan
'
s arms behind his back and handcuffed him. He wasn
'
t gentle about it. The other took Charlie
'
s gun and badge.

"
Hey, take it easy, that hurts. You got this all wrong. I want a lawyer. I
'
ve got rights.
"

"
No lawyers, Charlie. As for rights, traitors still get a few, but I don
'
t remember right now what they are.
"

Jordan
reached into Charlie
'
s jacket pocket and removed the phone.

"
I wonder what we
'
ll find here? Should be some interesting numbers. Take this scumbag downstairs and lock him up. Get
him
out of my sight.
"

All work on the floor stopped as the agents frog-marched Charlie away, struggling and protesting. After a moment the sounds of the office resumed.
Jordan
went back into the cubicle and sat down at Charlie
'
s desk. He didn
'
t think he
'
d find anything but he was going to look just the same.
H
e took a few deep breaths.

Zeke loosened his tie, waiting for his blood pressure to return to normal.
H
e forced himself to sit quietly. His doctor had him on meds but sometimes they didn
'
t seem to have much effect.
His wife
was always trying to get him to eat salads and take vitamins and lay off the burgers and fries. Rabbit food, he called it, the stuff she served him. There was always McDonald
'
s on the way to work.

After a few minutes he felt better.
A rotten apple like Charlie tainted everything. It made him angry.

He called for a tech to take the computer and phone in for analysis. During the next hour he went through Charlie
'
s files. He would give Chan a little more time to realize the full implication of his situation and then begin the interrogation. Zeke didn
'
t think Charlie would be much of a challenge. They had him cold, his only hope was to tell what he knew and try to bargain for lighter punishment.

They were making progress. With Cathy Chen and Chan in custody they had hampered Wu
'
s operations.
Jordan
knew Wu was back in
China
, so the big question was whether it would make any real difference.

He called Director Harker.

"
We
'
ve got our mole in custody.
"

"
Have you begun the interrogation yet?
"

"
Not yet. I
'
m letting him sweat a little. His phone and computer are in the lab now. We had his cubicle bugged and recorded him making a call to Wu.
They've
probably got the intercept at NSA.
"

"
What was the number?
"

Jordan
gave her Charlie
'
s cell phone number.

"
We didn
'
t hear Wu
'
s end but Chan told him we knew about his plans, so
by now
Yang knows we
'
re on to him. Should be interesting to see what happens.
"

"
It might not change anything, but it
'
s got to have Yang worried. Stress causes mistakes. I
'
m hoping he
'
ll make a few.
"

"
You get any help from State, yet?
"

"
No. As far as they
'
re concerned I should mind my own business and stick to finding second rate terrorists, which is pretty much what they think we do over here. That mostly works to my advantage, but the tradeoff is sometimes people don
'
t take
us
very seriously. It
'
s State
'
s problem, anyway.
"

"
I
'
m beginning to see you do a lot more than analyze possibilities, Director.
"

"
I
'
d appreciate your discretion about that. I keep a low profile.
"

"
Working with you has turned this into the most interesting week I
'
ve had around here in years. Low profile works for me.
Anything you need from me?
"

"
Not at the moment. Let me know what you learn from your mole.
"

"
I will.
"

Jordan
flipped the phone shut and put it in his shirt pocket. Time to go talk to Charlie.