"There's a comforting thought."

"I think maybe he crawled back there when he realized he was dying."

"Which means whatever killed him is still in here."

"Yes."

"Swell."

Ken sighed. "Just one more thing to think about as we explore."

NEZUMA STOPPED and frowned. and frowned.

He could hear voices. The sound of lots of voices was coming from behind the door down the hall.

They were excited about something. And from the numbers he heard, there was no way Nezuma could successfully take down all of them without the risk of injury or death to himself.

He did what made the most tactical sense to him.

He waited.

"I FOUND SOMETHING FOUND SOMETHING."

Annja followed the sound of Ken's voice to another wall. "What is it?"

"A series of three holes in a horizontal line, s.p.a.ced about twelve inches from each other."

"How big are the holes?" Annja asked.

"Only big enough to get my hand into."

Annja took a deep breath. "Why is it I'm having flashbacks to when I went scuba diving and the dive masters told us to never stick our hands into the holes in coral because of the moray eels that lived there?"

"I was thinking there might be spiders up here," Ken said. "But I understand what you're saying."

"You think there's any other way to do this?" Annja asked.

"Have you found anything else?"

"No."

"Neither have I." Ken sighed. "Yes, I think this must be it."

"I don't suppose you can see anything by looking in?"

Ken chuckled in the darkness. "I didn't stick my eye right up to the opening but I tried to squint and see. Nothing."

"Figures."

"I'm going to do it, Annja. I have to stick my hand in one of these holes and see what happens."

Annja heard him breathing deeply and knew he'd be closing his eyes to check with his instincts about which hole might be the safe one.

"Okay," he whispered.

"You know which one you're going to choose?"

"The middle one," he said.

"Good luck, Ken."

"Thanks. Here I go."

Annja held her breath. She heard the rustle of skin against stone as Ken stuck his hand in.

"It's deep."

Annja waited.

Ken breathed out in a rush. "There's something in here."

"Pull your hand out, Ken!"

She heard him bringing his hand back. He was breathing fast. What could have bitten him? Annja wondered. Would they be able to get help? Where were those stupid monks?

"Annja." Ken's voice sounded like a faint whisper.

"Yes?"

"I think I have the vajra vajra."

As soon as the words registered, Annja felt like screaming. But she didn't because the next thing she knew, the entire room was filled with brilliant golden white light.

Annja couldn't see a thing.

36.

When she finally managed to blink her way back to full vision, Annja saw that they were in a large room surrounded by roughly twenty monks including Eiji. All of the monks smiled, but Eiji's smile was larger than any other.

"You found it," he said.

Ken held it aloft. "Yes."

Annja looked at the golden vajra vajra. Ken handed it to her. "I couldn't have found it without your help."

Annja took the vajra vajra and found it heavier than she'd expected. It lay across her palm, roughly six inches long with five p.r.o.ngs at either end curving in toward the center. Ornate metalwork adorned the length of it. Just holding it, Annja felt as though she might be powerful enough to rule the world. and found it heavier than she'd expected. It lay across her palm, roughly six inches long with five p.r.o.ngs at either end curving in toward the center. Ornate metalwork adorned the length of it. Just holding it, Annja felt as though she might be powerful enough to rule the world.

She handed it back to Ken. "This belongs to you and the Yumegakure-ryu."

He accepted it and stood facing Eiji and his monks. "Thank you all very much for your service in the protection of this relic. My family and I thank you most sincerely for your time and devotion to its protection." He bowed low and Eiji and his monks returned the bow.

Ken helped Annja to her feet.

Eiji regarded them both. "You found it without too much hardship?"

Annja smiled. "There were a few times I thought we might not reach it."

"Ah, thought," said Eiji. "That devious little inclination we all have to reason things out can often cause us more harm than good. Imagine if our prehistoric ancestors had stopped to consider a rational solution to the sudden appearance of a saber-toothed tiger?"

"We wouldn't be here today," Annja said.

"The labyrinth was designed to only let those through who could trust their instincts and know that they would be safe no matter what appearances presented themselves," Ken said.

"Not an easy lesson," Eiji said.

"As evidenced by the dead who have tried before," Annja said. "Speaking of which-"

"Yes?" Eiji asked.

"There's a corpse back in the room before this one. You might want to take care of it."

Ken frowned. "One thing before you do that."

Eiji smiled. "You want to know if I lied to you when you asked if I knew how to defeat the labyrinth?"

"You could have just brought us to this room and we could have gotten it much more easily than we did."

"I did know about the existence of this room," said Eiji. "We all do. But it would do no good for you to have forced me here. The vajra vajra can only be retrieved going the route you traveled. Trying to force it out the back way would have had terrible consequences." can only be retrieved going the route you traveled. Trying to force it out the back way would have had terrible consequences."

"Like what?" Annja asked.

"This monastery is built over a fault line, and whoever designed the labyrinth made sure that any fraudulent attempts to get it would result in a ma.s.sive cave-in that would kill everyone in the mountain and forever trap the vajra vajra under tons of rock." under tons of rock."

Ken nodded. "Sounds fair."

Eiji turned and spoke quietly to two of his monks and then turned back to Ken and Annja. "They will take care of the body." His eyes twinkled. "I imagine that must have been a big surprise."

"Something like that," Annja said.

Eiji nodded. "You must be tired and hungry. We will celebrate the return of the heir to the Yumegakure-ryu with a feast."

"I don't think so," a voice said.

Annja turned and jumped. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?"

Nezuma stood in the doorway, holding a gun in his hands. Judging by how he held it, Annja guessed he knew precisely how to use it if he needed to.

Nezuma grinned at her. "Nice to see you again, Miss Creed."

Annja frowned. "You didn't get enough of me at the budokan budokan tournament?" tournament?"

"Oh, I had plenty of you there. I imagine you're healed up nicely now? Your ribs all better?"

"Still sore."

"Ah, pity." Nezuma shrugged. "Couldn't be helped, though. I'm sure you understand. Just a friendly match and all."

"That doesn't explain you being here, though."

"Doesn't it?"

Annja glared at him. "I a.s.sume you want the vajra vajra."

Nezuma nodded. "How quickly you forget our arrangement."

"What arrangement?"

"If you like," Nezuma said, "I can come over there and whisper in your ear the way I did in your hotel room."

"That was you?"

"Of course."

Annja gritted her teeth. "If you weren't holding that gun, I'd knock your teeth down the back of your throat."

Nezuma smirked. "No. You'd try to do that. And of course, you'd end up getting your a.s.s handed to you the way I did it back at the budokan budokan."

"I drew blood, too, Nezuma. Don't forget that," Annja said.

"Every dog has their day. You were bound to get lucky once or twice. I wouldn't bank on that saving your life today."

Annja caught a subtle movement out of the corner of her eye. One of Eiji's monks moved.

Nezuma's gun swiveled and spit two rounds into the monk's head. It happened so quickly that the sudden explosion of bullets caught Annja completely unaware. She clapped her hands over her ears and cried out.