Chapter
4
She couldn’t breathe.
This damn altitude.
Catherine took several deep breaths to fill her lungs as she moved up the slope toward the palace. It was still dark and snowing. Both good things to hide her from the sight of the guards. She’d slipped the white protective parka and suit on in the helicopter, and she hoped she blended into the landscape. She’d also memorized the guard stations as well as the layout of the palace. There should be a sentry a hundred yards around the next bend …
Go around him or kill him?
It would be easier to avoid, but she might have to face him on the return trip to the helicopter with Erin Sullivan.
Get rid of him now.
No gun. Silence. Knife or injection.
He’d be dressed in the same layered garb she was, and injection would be too chancy. She took out her knife and glided toward the bend.
There he was, holding an AK-47 and facing the road leading down the mountain. Tense, huddled with cold, standing near the rocky path to the palace. He was probably wishing he was the hell out of this weather and back at his quarters.
Move silently. Unless his instincts were superb, he shouldn’t know she was behind him.
His instincts sucked.
Three minutes later, she lowered the guard to the ground and wiped her knife on the snow before she returned it to her holster. The guard wasn’t supposed to be relieved for another forty-five minutes. It should give her enough time.
Maybe. No place to hide the body anyway. Just his absence from his post would set off an alarm.
She set off up the path. The wall to the north was the least guarded according to Caudell. Climb it. That would put her into the courtyard. Get rid of the guard at the steps leading to the roof. There was another staircase across the roof that led down and emptied into a hall approximately ten feet from Erin Sullivan’s quarters.
And that might be the most dangerous part of the mission. Catherine could count only on herself. Erin Sullivan was a wild card. She might panic and cause them both to go down.
Stop worrying. She had freed hostages before and not lost them.
Focus on getting to that roof.
Then she’d concentrate on Erin Sullivan.
She checked her watch. The guard in the courtyard was due to be changed in thirty minutes.
She had to take down the guard and get Erin Sullivan out of the compound by that time.
Her pace increased to a trot as she headed for the north wall.
Thirty minutes.
It was going to be damn close.
SEVENTEEN MINUTES
Catherine pressed back against the wall of the stairwell as she slowly opened the carved-wood door that led to the hall of the palace.
The scent of mildew, spice, and the candles in sconces on the walls assaulted her.
No one in the hall. Caudell had said Sullivan had the run of the place, but she hadn’t been sure that could be correct. She hoped that he was right. It would help if she didn’t have to spend time picking that lock. It could mean the difference between success or failure, and that meant life or death.
No time to waste. Find out. She’d still have time to get out of here if rescue wasn’t possible. She moved out of the stairwell to the door.
The door swung open.
Darkness.
“Again, Kadmus?” The woman’s voice was weary. “Come ahead, it won’t do you any good.”
“Erin Sullivan?” Catherine asked softly as she moved into the room toward the bed and shut the door. “Catherine Ling. I’ve come to get you out of here. I’m going to turn on my flashlight. Please don’t ask questions. I don’t have time to answer them.” She turned the flashlight on the dimmest setting. “I have to make sure you’re Sullivan and able to travel.”
She could see the woman tense, heard the sharp inhale of her breath. “I’m Erin Sullivan.”
Catherine focused the light on her face. “Yes, you are. Bad bruises. Anything worse?”
“Burns. Pulled muscles. No broken bones.” She swung her legs to the floor. “This isn’t one of Kadmus’s tricks? Who sent you? Cameron?”
“Cameron? I don’t know any Cameron. I’m CIA.” She opened her backpack, pulled out a pair of boots, and tossed them to her. “Put these on. We don’t have time for you to put on anything else but a parka. Where’s Kadmus? You thought I was him when I opened the door.”
“His bedroom is in the other wing.” She smiled bitterly. “But he likes to surprise me. He thinks it weakens me psychologically.” She already had the boots on. “Where’s the parka?”
Catherine tossed it to her. “We’d better hope that this isn’t one of the nights he chooses to do that.” She checked her watch. “Come on. I’ve got ten minutes to get you over the wall and down the mountain to the helicopter.”
Erin was on her feet and awkwardly shrugging into the parka jacket. “Who else is here?”
“No one.” She headed for the door. “Hurry.”
“You’re crazy,” Erin said. “Kadmus has more than fifty soldiers at this compound. We’ll never make it.”
“We’ll make it.” She turned, and said fiercely, “I have a son, and I intend to go home to him. And I can’t leave you because I’ll just have to come back for you. So get your ass in gear and help me.”
Erin gazed at her for an instant. Then she was moving after her. “Which way?”
“The roof.”
“One of Kadmus’s men guards the staircase down to the courtyard.”
“Not any longer.”
“What about the wall?”
“I have a fireman’s ladder that’s attached to the top.” Catherine was in the stairwell and running up the curving stone steps. “Listen, I know what I’m doing. No matter what happens, I need you to do what I tell you. Will you do that?”
Erin nodded. “Yes.”
“Then don’t talk until we get out of the compound. No noise. Just follow me.”
“Right. I’ll do—” When Catherine gave her a glance, she shrugged. “Sorry.”
Erin Sullivan had nothing to be sorry about, Catherine thought. Considering her condition and the hell she had gone through, she was behaving with extraordinary guts and intelligence. She just hoped Erin didn’t make a careless mistake that would blow it for both of them.
She was on the roof and running toward the exterior staircase. Still no one in the courtyard, and she had stashed the guard’s body beneath the staircase.
Erin Sullivan was her shadow as Catherine flew down the stairs, then dashed toward the north wall.
Seven minutes.
They reached the wall, and Catherine pushed Erin toward the fireman’s ladder she’d fastened to the top.
“Up and over,” she whispered. “And then straight down the slope toward the—”
“And what do we have here?”
Catherine froze as she turned to face a tall, blond man in a navy parka. The accent had been South African, and he had to be Brasden. He was smiling and pointing an automatic weapon at them as he strolled forward. “Going for a stroll, Erin? And who is your friend?”
Two more steps, and he’d be within range. Catherine had to get him to take those steps. “Climb the ladder, Erin. Get over the wall and take off. He won’t shoot you. Kadmus wants you alive.”
Erin didn’t move.
“You promised me that you’d do what I told you. Do it.”
Erin started to quickly climb the ladder.
“Stop, you bitch,” Brasden said harshly. He took three steps toward the ladder. “I won’t kill you, but I’ll put a bullet in your—”
Close enough.
Catherine did a karate kick that struck him in the throat, then leaped forward, and her hand came down on the side of his neck.
He fell to the ground.
Catherine grabbed his automatic rifle and hit him in the head with it. The next instant she was on the ladder, pushing Erin ahead of her. “Move!”
Erin didn’t speak. She was climbing quickly and reached the top of the ladder.
Catherine was right behind her and reversed the ladder. “Three minutes,” she whispered, and she pushed Erin toward it. “Head for the helicopter. Don’t wait for me. I’ll be right behind you, but I may have to stop to clear the way.”
Erin nodded and started down the ladder.
Catherine glanced back at Brasden. Was he stirring? She’d hit him hard, but he’d been wearing that damn parka. It had probably cushioned the blow.
No time to worry now.
She followed Erin down the ladder and jumped the last three rungs. Erin was streaking over the hard-packed snow ahead of her in the direction of the north ledge.
Good. No hesitation. They just might get out of this alive.
Catherine tore after her, past the body of sentry she’d had to kill on her approach to the palace, down the rocky path to—
A bullet whistled past her. Then more gunfire, shouts as the gates of the compound were thrown open.
Shit.
It didn’t matter whether Brasden had recovered from the blow she’d dealt him or that the other guard she’d taken down had been found. They were blown.
She cast a glance over her shoulder.
The moonlight was glinting on the two missile launchers that were being carried out of the compound.
No way she could take them down.
And they could blow the helicopter out of the air.
She put on speed and caught up with Erin.
“We’re not going to make it,” she said. “I have to tell the helicopter to take off without us. Once we get off the plateau and can’t be seen, head for the road that leads down the mountain.”
Erin didn’t argue. “I know that road. There are a few places we could hide if we get past the village. But it’s the—” She broke off as another spatter of bullets rained around them. “There are at least two guards who patrol that road.”
“Not right now. They’ll all be headed here.” She pulled out her phone. “Caudell, take off. There’s no way we’ll be able to make it before they blow you out of the sky.”
“I can wait a little—”
“Take off. Now. But if you can put on a show after you get a safe distance away we could use the distraction.”
“You’ve got her?”
“I’ve got her.” She added grimly, “And I’m going to keep her. I’ll be in touch.” She hung up. They had reached the edge of the plateau, and Erin was half running, half sliding down the slope. Catherine followed her.
Dammit, Caudell hadn’t taken off. The idiot was trying to give them a chance to fool Kadmus that they were on board the copter. The soldiers from the compound would be here in just a few minutes, but they were out of sight now that they’d left the plateau.
If they could get down the rocky path toward those few stunted trees in time, it might work.
Erin was already flying toward those scrubby trees.
And Catherine had asked her if she could function, she thought ruefully.
Erin slipped on the ice, tumbled, fell to her knees, and hit the ground!
For an instant, she didn’t move but then she was on her feet again and running.
They reached the trees just as the helicopter lifted off the ledge.
Shouts!
Shots!
Soldiers appeared at the edge of the plateau and began to run down the slope toward the ledge.
“Come on, we can’t stay here,” Catherine muttered. “We have to get down this road before they stop thinking we might have made it to that helicopter.”
They ran.
The helicopter roared over the heads of Kadmus’s men, then turned and headed toward the side of the mountain.
More shouting.
Catherine glanced over her shoulder.
Oh, God, they were loading the missile launcher.
Caudell showed himself for the briefest moment, then flew again behind the outcropping of the mountain.
A moment later, a missile blew that stony outcropping to bits.
“Enough, Caudell,” Catherine murmured. If he played hide-and-seek any longer, his chances of making it away from the mountain intact were nil.
Erin was looking back, too. “What is he doing?”
“Giving us time. Where’s this village?”
“Straight ahead. But we can’t go through it, or they’ll send word to Kadmus. He has everyone on this mountain terrified.” She nodded at a side path. “That will take us around the village. There’s a cave near there that was used by the monks for prayer vigils over a hundred years ago. Everyone has forgotten about it by now. We should be safe there for a little while.”
“If everyone’s forgotten it, how do you know about it?”
“I was told.” Erin looked at her. “By someone I trust. The cave is there, Catherine.”
Another missile explosion.
Dear God, Catherine hoped desperately that was the mountain being shattered again and not the helicopter. She turned and started down the path that went around the village. “Then let’s go find it.”
* * *
“You’re not going to like this,” Venable said when Hu Chang picked up the phone. “So I’m going to say it fast, then let you explode or offer a suggestion.”
“I will not explode,” Hu Chang said. “You’ve lost Catherine. Does Kadmus have her?”
“I don’t know. She got Erin Sullivan out of the palace, but they weren’t able to make it to the helicopter before all hell broke loose. She told Caudell to get out, and she’d contact him later.”
“But you don’t know if Kadmus captured them or if she’s still trying to get away from him. That is inexcusable.”
“It’s only been an hour. Even if she’s free, if she’s anywhere near Kadmus, she won’t use phone or radio since he could pick up the signal. I’m exploring the situation.”
“Not good enough.”
“You have contacts. Perhaps you can have them put their ear to the ground and get answers.”
“I don’t want answers. I want Catherine back in one piece. I want Erin Sullivan to survive. I want Kadmus dead. Is that understood?”
“Do you think I don’t want that, too? First, we’ve got to find them.”
“You should never have lost them.” Hu Chang was silent, trying to control himself. “You should never have lost Catherine. Now, you will do everything you can to locate her and let me know every step of the way.”
“And what will you do?”
“I will find her.”
“And you’ll return the favor and inform me of any progress you make?”
“Perhaps. If I have use for you. Otherwise, stay out of my way.”
“Dammit, I told you that we’re on the job searching for her.”
“I have little faith in you.”
Venable drew a deep breath. “Look, you’ll need me. Kadmus has a small army. If necessary, I can send a support force into the area.”
“I’ll have my own support force.”
Venable muttered a curse. “Shit. No direct confrontation. You’re not to cause an incident with Beijing.”
“Do you believe China owns Kadmus? I think not. But it would not matter to me. I find it interesting that it matters to you. And that’s why I have little faith in you.” He hung up.
He sat there for a moment, calming the anger and fear. For many years, he had worked on obtaining complete control of mind and body, and he’d had considerable success.
But not where Catherine was concerned. She was the exception to every rule.
Gradually, serenity returned, and he could ponder the options.
Contact Cameron now or wait?
Wait. He’d already told him of the possible problem. He’d get into position for action before he involved him directly. And perhaps Cameron already knew. Hu Chang was never sure about him at any given time. Cameron probably preferred it that way.
But there was one thing he had to do immediately.
He got to his feet and strode out of the study in search of Luke.
DAKSHA, TIBET
The cave was almost inaccessible. It was hidden behind a screen of trees, and once they reached it, they found the opening behind it covered by boulders and smaller rocks. It took Catherine and Erin almost thirty minutes to clear the opening enough to crawl inside the cave.
It smelled of wood rotting in a pile of against the far wall. Other than that, Catherine smelled nothing but the dirt on the floor and the moss on the stones beside the opening. She lit her flashlight and let the beam play around the space. “It’s not as small as I thought from the outside, but those monks wouldn’t have been able to do much more than pray and sleep.” The area was barely eight by twelve, and the roof of the cave was about ten feet high. “Definitely, no group prayers.”
“No,” Erin said. “But it’s safe, isn’t it? No … predators?”
“No, all the predators seem to be on the outside,” Catherine said. “Maybe a few jumping spiders. They’re the only ones that live this high up.”
“Safe…” Erin’s voice was a weak breath of sound. The next instant, she was sliding down the stony wall of the cave and closing her eyes. “I think I’ll let you take care of the spiders. I’m very … tired.”
“Erin?” It occurred to her that Erin had been very slow helping to clear the cave entrance. Catherine dropped to her knees beside her. “You had a fall back there. Were you shot? Hurt?”
“No, I’m just tired.” Erin opened her eyes. “I’ll be fine in a little while.” She tried to smile. “I’m sorry. I’m not as strong as I was before Kadmus started to work on me. It doesn’t take much to exhaust me. I’m glad I was able to keep up.”
“You more than kept up. You were ahead most of the time. You have nothing to be sorry about,” Catherine said. “You told me at the palace that there was nothing seriously wrong with you. Was that a lie?”
“No.” She paused. “I do have a dislocation in my shoulder that’s extremely painful. It slipped out of the socket again when I fell. And the index finger on my right hand is broken. The rest is manageable.”
Catherine felt a surge of anger. Just the matter-of-fact way Erin had mentioned those injuries made the thought of their being inflicted the more terrible. “That son of a bitch. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We were in a hurry. You wanted to know what condition would keep me from being able to help free myself.” She looked her in the eye. “Nothing would have kept me from doing that. If I’d had a broken leg, I would still have made it here. I didn’t have the slightest doubt that I’d hold out until we were safe.”
Catherine grimaced. “I would have had a small doubt or two if I were you. Why were you so certain?”
Erin shrugged. “I don’t know. I just knew I’d do it.”
“Adrenaline?”
“Maybe something like that.” She added quietly, “And, besides, I wouldn’t want to let you down. You seemed very passionate about getting home to your son. I’m sorry that everything went wrong.”
“So am I. But we’ll work through it.” She got to her feet. She shrugged off her backpack and dropped it to the ground. “But right now I’d better go back and erase any sign of our footprints. When Kadmus figures out that we definitely weren’t on that helicopter, he’s going to go on the hunt. He may have started already.” She started toward the cave opening. “I should be back in thirty minutes or so, and I’ll see what I can do about that shoulder and finger.”
“Be careful.”
“Always.” She smiled grimly back at her. “There’s no way I’d let Kadmus catch us now. You’re out of that hellhole, and you’re not going back.”
“No, I won’t let myself be taken. Not again.” She closed her eyes. “Don’t hurry. I’ll just sit here and rest until you come back.”
The finality of Erin’s words sounded ominous. She had no doubt undergone mental as well as physical torture and would take any other path rather than go back to it. Who could blame her? Catherine would feel the same. She just hoped that Erin meant that she would not give up her life but would be determined to take Kadmus’s.
“I won’t be long.” Catherine strode out of the cave and picked up a branch from beneath one of the sparse trees in the grove. She pulled out her knife and cut it down to a manageable size for her purpose. She moved swiftly back up the path.
Keep busy. Work fast. Do the job at hand. Don’t think of that bastard or what he had done to Erin Sullivan. Venable had told her that there was torture involved, but it was always different when you actually met the victim. It was doubly upsetting when the victim was Erin Sullivan, and the courage shone beacon-bright through that hideous darkness surrounding her.
“I was right to come, Luke,” she whispered as she started carefully brushing the traces of their footsteps from the stony path. “I didn’t want to leave you. I thought I’d be back almost before you missed me. But it was right that I got her out.”
But Erin Sullivan wasn’t out yet. Now they had a long, difficult way to go before they escaped. She mustn’t think of Luke or Hu Chang or anyone else right now. She had to concentrate on a plan to get them through the mountains to a point where Caudell could pick them up.
If the helicopter hadn’t been blown to kingdom come.
She didn’t think that last shot had gotten Caudell, and she hadn’t heard any more explosions as they had hurried down the path toward the village.
So assume that Caudell was alive and had told Venable that Erin was alive and free and running for her life. Catherine could not use any electronic device to request pickup unless she knew that Caudell was in the immediate area. Surely, they would stay close in case she was able to communicate.
She couldn’t assume anything except that while she remained on this mountain, Kadmus would be able to zero in on her if she tried to reach anyone. She’d have to get off this mountain, and even then, it wouldn’t be certain.
Think about it. Work it out. She was competent, and Erin Sullivan was not going to be a handicap. They’d get away from this mountain that Kadmus thought he ruled.
She just hoped she got the chance to kill the bastard before they did it.