False Horizon

Tsing waved her concerns away. “Do not worry. I’m merely taking steps to ensure that you will do as you’ve promised. You won’t be harmed. And tomorrow, you’ll be on your way to finding the mystical kingdom of Shangri-La. For now, sleep well.”

6

Tuk could hear Tsing’s voice issue his commands. “Let them sleep and then deliver them to the airfield. Get them into the plane. When they wake up, they’ll be fine.”

Tuk shrank away from the conversation. He had to get out of the penthouse before he was discovered. He slipped back toward the front door. Already Burton and Kurtz were moving around too much for Tuk’s comfort. He’d done what he’d been asked to do and now it was time to get out of there and report back to the mysterious man who had hired him.

As he backed away, his instincts suddenly screamed at him and Tuk had barely enough time to shrink into a shadowy recess before the main door opened. The woman in the mandarin gown came gliding back into the penthouse.

She froze.

Her eyes swept around the darkened penthouse like lasers. Tuk averted his eyes from her. From experience he knew that even glancing at someone could often trigger that primal awareness of being watched.

But Tuk felt genuine fear. Something about the woman unnerved him. She was someone other than the house servant she appeared to be. He could sense power in her.

She moved forward, closer to where Tuk squatted, hidden by the darkness. His heart thundered inside his chest and he willed it to slow, fearing she might even hear it. What was it about her that filled him with fear?

She paused again and he heard her sniff the air. How could she smell anything over the heavy mist of incense? Tuk marveled at her sense. She was completely attuned to her environment and knew something was out of order.

She couldn’t tell just then what it was.

But her senses served her well. And now she moved even closer to where Tuk was hiding. Her eyes seemed to pierce the darkness in front of her. Tuk imagined that she had some sort of robotic night vision optical sensors or something equally outlandish.

The line of cold sweat that broke out along his spine almost made him start to move. He didn’t think he’d ever experienced this kind of fear before, and in all of his years working with the intelligence community he couldn’t recall ever feeling anything like it.

She knew he was there.

Tuk felt certain of it. He heard something in the darkness and realized that she had clicked her terribly long fingernails together. They looked like claws in the twilight. Tuk had little doubt they could effectively shred anyone she wanted. He realized that she reminded him of a feral cat that knows it has its prey cornered.

Just then Burton came around the corner and headed straight at her. She blinked and, in that instant, Tuk knew he was safe. Her concentration broken, she seemed to suddenly mask herself again in the guise of a servant.

Burton regarded her. “Mr. Tsing wants you to clean up the wineglasses. Make sure you use hot water on them.”

She bowed low, took one final look at Tuk’s hiding place and then slipped away. Tuk watched her turn a corner and vanish.

Burton wandered into another room.

This was his chance.

Tuk eased over to the main door and cracked it open, passing out of it as quickly and noiselessly as he could manage. He heard the soft hiss as the door closed behind him and then he was fairly running to the stairwell, shooting down to the floors below the penthouse.

Once there, he hopped on the elevator and sank to the lobby. He walked out as easily as he’d entered and then took up a position outside of the hotel. He would be able to see Burton and Kurtz remove Annja Creed and the fellow known as Mike.

He removed the cell phone from his pocket again and pressed the number two. It was answered immediately.

“Were you successful?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Tell me everything you heard and saw.”

Tuk faithfully recounted the entire escapade, delving into detail about the conversation and then also about the mysterious woman in the apartment.

The man on the phone seemed especially intrigued about her. “You said she seemed to know you were there.”

“Without a doubt. She knew I was there. In another moment she might have killed me, such was the feeling she gave me.”

“But when the man you called Burton came around the corner, she assumed the guise of a servant woman again?”

“Yes.”

“Very interesting.”

“Terrifying,” Tuk said.

“She is no doubt some type of plant on Tsing. Of that we can be certain. But for what reason?”

“I don’t know,” Tuk said.

“Where are you right at this moment?”

Tuk glanced around. He was again hidden in the shadows and certain no one would see him. The only way he could be discovered was if someone overheard him talking on the phone.

“I’m hidden across the street from the hotel entrance.”

“You said Tsing’s men will take them to the airfield?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a back entrance to the hotel they might opt to use instead of the front?”

“There is,” Tuk said. “But it leads only to an alley too small for a car to travel down. If they want to use a car to transport Annja Creed and her friend, they will need to come out the front entrance.”

The man grunted. “They’ll wait, then, until very late. When there’s a skeleton crew on duty in the lobby. That way they’ll be able to pass without too much interest in what they’re doing.”

“That is my guess, as well,” Tuk said. “I will stay with them all the way.”

“Good. I need to look a little bit further into this strange woman you spoke of just now. I want to know more about her and who she really is.”

“May I ask what your feeling is about her?”

“I’m not sure yet. But it may be assumed that she is no mere servant girl. She is obviously positioned close to Tsing for some reason. But for what, I don’t know.”

“She scared me. And I’ve never felt fear like that.”

“You did well,” the man said on the phone. “You acquitted yourself admirably and performed excellently. I’m very pleased with the results of your reconnaissance. Now I must decide what to do about this new wrinkle.”

“I do not envy you.”