The Mongol Objective (30 page)

“That’s right.”

“I bet I would. I want to know.” Alexander fiddled with his flashlight as he dragged his feet behind Montross. “I saved your life, by the way. Did you see
that
before it happened?”

“Nope,” he said. “Most likely because you were already on the path to save me, so I didn’t need to change anything.”

“Still, I saved you. The least you can do is tell me why. What it is you’re trying to do, why—” He stopped moving, and Nina walked right into him, almost knocking him down. “Why is my mother dead? Tell me that much.”

Montross turned and gave him a look of tired sympathy.

“I can’t tell you because if I did, you couldn’t handle it. I need you sharp. And if I tell you, you won’t be able to function. Fear would crush your confidence, and your abilities would wither away to uselessness.”

Alexander shook his head. “Fine, then. I’ll guess.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“All right, I won’t guess. I’ll view it. For real.” He stopped and closed his eyes, furrowed his brow.

But then Nina slapped his face, hard. “No! Stay with us. No more trances until we get to the mausoleum.”

She shoved him along, grumbling, but he knew he’d hit a nerve, and he knew they were afraid. Afraid he could see their plans.

And that filled him with just enough confidence to try.

#

They approached the centerpiece of the city, the grand blue-tinted dome situated over an octagonal building the size of a football field. So immense, Nina could scarcely imagine what it contained, or how it had been fashioned down here, so far from the light. Such a feat of marvelous engineering. Like everything in this city. But already she knew one thing for sure would be inside, besides the body of Genghis Khan.

If Montross’s plan didn’t work, her body would soon be joining his.

Still, she was grateful his attention had been diverted from questioning his past, but she knew he’d come back to it soon. It was a secret she couldn’t keep from him much longer.

As if he had read her mind, Montross slowed before the entranceway, then turned. He held up the Emerald Tablet so the eight-foot-tall arched door glowed in the aquamarine radiance. An ancient script appeared, scrawled over the top like a rainbow. But he ignored it. Instead, he sat, pulled out his pad of paper from his pack, set the tablet down and picked up a pencil.

“Sketch time. Alexander, you may want to join me. Nina, pick one of us to tag along with. We’ve got some targets to view and a little time before my
brother
shows his face.”

Nina gasped, and Alexander just frowned. “Your brother?”

Montross smiled at him. “I’m just going in to confirm it now, but given Nina’s reaction and my sudden affinity for you, kid, I’m fairly certain I’m your uncle. Half-uncle at least.”

Nina lowered her head. “I—I wanted to wait till I was sure.”

Alexander froze wide-eyed. “I’ve been dreaming about brothers. Before a door under that Sphinx thing. And one of them—”

Montross’s face lit up. “Yes . . .?”

“One brother,” Alexander said, “can open the door with the right keys.”

“Now I know,” Montross said with a wide grin. “My father . . . I was so blind, not realizing I had a higher connection to all this.”

“So that’s why you’re psychic,” Alexander said excitedly. “Like my father and me.”

“And one more,” said Nina. “A third brother. My guess is he’s the one pulling the FBI’s strings in this venture.”

Montross nodded. “I’ll check it out, now that I know the right questions to ask. Meanwhile, you and Alexander need to figure out this door.” He closed his eyes, lowered his head, and grabbed his pencil.

And Nina sat beside Alexander. She took his hand, which he offered now with little resistance, his mind still processing Montross’s revelation. She closed her eyes and tapped into Alexander’s thoughts, opening to his visions, guiding him to the door, but not quite yet.

There were other things that she needed to see first.

12.

Caleb and Phoebe helped Orlando up, pulling him away from Commander Chang and the other soldiers. They were just recovering when they heard the two gunshots echoing through the access tunnel.

Phoebe stopped what she was doing. “Uh oh.”

Holding his side, Orlando coughed and spit up blood. “I think I just got my ass kicked for nothing. I’m sorry.”

Caleb waited, and then his heart sank when he saw Renée climb back down the ladder.

“I think,” Phoebe whispered, “you should have taken that chance up there.”

“What chance?” Orlando asked.

Caleb was holding his head. “Qara wanted me to set off the warriors when I reached you. If I had acted, she might still be alive.”

“Ah.” Orlando combed back his hair. “Well, I’m inclined to thank you for your restraint. Not sure if I was up for dodging arrows.”

“Move,” Renée ordered, motioning with her gun. “I’m not wasting any more time with fanatics. Or psychics.”

Caleb started splashing ahead. “You seem to be forgetting who got you this far.”

“And you’re forgetting who has the weapons.”

“Oh, you won’t let us forget that.” Leading his sister and Orlando, Caleb waded cautiously ahead, with small steps. “Phoebe,” he whispered. “Can you see anything? Orlando? How about you? Are we good here?”

“Far as I could tell,” Orlando said, “the path was the only thing I saw. Just follow along and we should be copasetic until the end.”

“Phoebe?” He looked back and saw, with some surprise, that his sister and Orlando were holding hands.

“Hang on,” she said and closed her eyes. Cocked her head, then peered out. “All clear. But at the end, like Orlando said, there’s something. We go up, and there’s a portal. And beyond that I see something bad. Blood, a lot of it. Death.”

“Ours?” Orlando asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Traps?” Renée asked, right beside them now.

“No. Not that I can see. Although, I’m not sure how the portal opens.”

“Maybe we need Qara,” Orlando suggested.

“Well,” said Renée, “that option’s no longer available to us. You’ll get us in, or we blow it open.”

“Not too smart,” Caleb said. “Unless you want a cave-in.”

“I’m confident you’ll figure it out. Now move.”

#

After nearly thirty minutes of trudging through water that gradually numbed their feet, the cold traveling up their legs, they rounded a bend and came to a complete dead end. Just a blank wall.

One soldier approached cautiously, then abruptly disappeared. Lights blasted at his last location and they highlighted his escaping air and submerged body, thrashing as he sank into the murky depths.

“Gone,” Chang whispered, standing at the end of a rounded pit in the floor, shining the light down into the pool. “I see no bottom.”

All the flashlight beams then turned up, converging on a rounded, twenty-foot-wide barrier, a circular door above the pit. The center was a pure black onyx material that absorbed the light. The outside frame was an exotic marble structure etched with more script all the way around.

Orlando whispered. “Anyone watch
Stargate
?”

“Huh?” Renée asked.

“Never mind. But since you killed our translator, what do we do?”

“Stand back.” Renée said. “Chang, set the C-4.”

“But we cannot reach door. Nothing to stand on.”

“Then position it carefully as far in as you can. We’ll blow the area around it.”

Caleb shook his head. “Wait, give us a chance.” He was shining his light about the corridor, checking the ceiling, the walls, even stabbing it into the water, looking for switches or levers.

“Hurry,” Renée said. “You’ve got until the charges are set.” She glanced at Chang, who was busy with their packs, assembling the explosives.

“Ten minutes.”

Renée crossed her arms and nodded to Caleb and Phoebe. “You heard the man. Do your stuff in ten minutes, or I do it my way.”

#

Phoebe pulled Orlando closer to her, took both his hands and got up on her tippy-toes to whisper in his ear. “We’ve got to cover for Caleb, so let’s do this.”

“A little hard to concentrate,” he said, “with you so close. My thoughts are kind of running amok.”

“They can run amok later. The door. Now. How do we open it? Think about nothing else.” She withdrew her lips from his ear.

“Easier said than done.”

She closed her eyes as Caleb splashed over to them. “Give it a try, big brother. Whatever comes.”

“All right.”

But that was all she heard, as the surroundings melted away and the water around her feet dried up. . . .

“
It is ready, my lord Ogadai.”

A man stands in the shadows behind the smoking torches.

“
The markings around the door . . .”

“
As you instructed, master. The scribes have written the curses your father chose. The usual horrors to be visited on any who choose to violate the mausoleum beyond.”

“
And the door, once set?”

“
Can be opened only from the other side.”

“
And only when Temujin rises.”

The man nods. “For he will need a way out, should life be restored.”

“
Pray,” said Ogadai, “that his spirit prefers the next world to this one. But if not, at least his city awaits. He may rule here as he wishes.” He lowers his head. “Seal the door, and let us depart.”

Phoebe’s eyes bolted open, and she stared at Orlando.

“Crap,” Orlando said. “I didn’t see anything about the way in from this side.” He nodded grudgingly to Renée. “You’re going to need to blow it open.”

“Unless,” said Phoebe, “Montross is already up there.”

13.

Nina was pulled out of the vision too soon, hearing a rumbling, grinding sound that made the very floor shake and dust fall on her from overhead.

But she had been there, in that other vision again . . .

. . . somewhere so very high up, an impression of being inside the eyes of a giant, a colossus wading into the sea. Looking down over churning waves and boats of all sizes traveling below.

Her arm hurts, as if struggling to keep something raised high.

And then she senses two children, as if perched on her head, clinging to her hair, staring down in awe and excitement.

And then she was ripped out of it and saw Alexander standing a little wobbly as he pulled his hand away.

“The door,” he whispered. “It’s already open.”

Nina stood before the mausoleum entrance. She held her head, dizzy, and glanced around. “Where’s Montross?”

#

Set in the walls, across each of the eight sides of the chamber, hooded brass lamps came on, their lights dim in the glare of the flashlights.

“Turn off your lights,” came Montross’s voice.

Behind him, Nina and Alexander switched off their flashlights. Oil lamps, set in horizontal runners, sparked to life, flickering and then illuminating a cathedral-like interior with a high apex at the crest of the dome overhead.

“Wow,” Alexander said. “Freakin’ wow.”

The glow extended and the chamber began to breathe a sound like an exhalation, as if a giant had been holding his breath for centuries and only now let it escape. Everything scintillated with gold; it was plated onto the floor, pounded into the walls, ringing the base of the dome. In marvelous artistic design, beautiful tiles created the shapes of zoological creatures, familiar species and some far more fanciful beasts, all composed of gold, with gems for eyes. They crawled across the floor, scaled the walls, bridged the gap and stretched onto the dome above. Sapphires and rubies blinked in the spreading dawn, and night-black mouths yawned. Oxen frolicked with elephants, reindeer with tigers. Polar bears swam in the night sky over giant scorpions while centaurs rode the backs of sea turtles and gryphons carried immense spiders in their talons.

“Look at that,” Alexander said, pointing here, then there, walking around open-mouthed. “I guess some of the treasure’s right here.” He hadn’t gotten his fill of the designs and the artwork yet when the centerpiece of the otherwise barren chamber caught his eye and held it fast. An interior tower, a minaret without doors, windows or stairs of any kind, stood in the center of the room like a rocket in a silo. It was plated with gold, ringed in silver highlights like stars in a golden night sky. But at its top, just below the domed roof and level with the sole open window, was a flat surface. A plateau instead of a point, supporting what looked like a coffin made of dazzling gold and surrounded by nine banners. But from this angle, it wasn’t possible to see if the lid was open or closed.

“We’ve found it,” Montross said. He still held his sketchpad in one hand, the Emerald Tablet in the other.

Nina caught her breath. “How did you get in?”

Montross’s gaze remained fixed on the pedestal. “I just opened the door.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t locked.”

“Then why did you—?”

“Have you focused on it? Frankly, I wanted you thinking about something else. Clearly Alexander’s mind is still elsewhere. With you assisting, I figured you might learn something that could help us later on.” He turned now, lowered his head and fixed her with his steely blue eyes. “So, did you?”

“I saw something.” Nina shook her head, but pulled her eyes away and looked at Alexander. “I don’t understand it yet.”

Montross pointed to Alexander. “What about you, nephew?”

Alexander shrugged, still blinking at all the gold. “I don’t know. I just got this weird feeling of
height.
Like I’m floating or flying. And there are these two kids.”

Montross tilted his head. “Interesting.” He gave Nina a long look, uncertainty and distrust flashing in his eyes. Then he continued to the base of the narrow tower and looked up.

“Wait.” Alexander pointed to Montross’s sketch pad. “What did you draw?”

Montross tore off a sheet of paper, folded it four times and then, after putting his pad back in this pack over his shoulder, gave it to Alexander. “Look at that later.”