She gripped the sword.

Took a final breath.

She burst into the room, her blade already starting to spin and cut and slash as if under its own control.

Annja was merely along for the ride.

27.

As Annja entered the room, she took in everything at once.

One soldier on the right, hands off his weapon.

Two soldiers at ten o'clock chatting with each other in low voices.

Guge talking with a woman draped in black who must be Hsu Xiao.

One other soldier sitting at a computer terminal.

A door on the far side of the room, closest to Hsu Xiao.

At Annja's sudden appearance, the room stopped moving. The soldier on her right managed to react first. He gripped his AK-47 and started to thumb the safety off.

Annja's sword cleaved the barrel of the a.s.sault rifle and she backhanded the blade up and into the soldier himself. He screeched as the blade tore into his upper torso, slicing deep into his thorax, dumping blood on the room's stone floor. The soldier twisted in agony and then dropped.

Annja kept moving, making a beeline for the pair of soldiers. The one farthest away brought his gun up and then Annja heard the terrible sound of fully automatic gunfire. The AK-47 selector switch went from safety to full auto and the soldier seemed content to spray the room full of lead.

Annja twisted and leaped through the air, arcing high and then coming straight down at the soldier who was attempting to jerk the barrel of the gun around toward her even as he still unleashed the hail of lead.

Annja sliced down, landed and then cut back up under the gun, driving the sword into the young soldier's lower torso, severing entrails and disemboweling him. Blood sprayed everywhere and the soldier died on his feet.

A bullet ricocheted off the wall nearby as the second soldier abandoned his rifle and went for his pistol instead. Annja flicked her hands up, catching the soldier's gripping hand just beneath the wrist. The soldier screamed as he looked down at the b.l.o.o.d.y stump of where his hand had been seconds before.

Annja spun and cut the man across the throat. He dropped to the floor and lay still.

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw the door open and close quickly. Her consciousness registered that Hsu Xiao had fled the room.

Annja wondered why, but she couldn't afford to get distracted.

As Guge backed up against the wall and attempted to get out of the door, only to find it locked from the other side, the soldier seated behind the computer terminal stood and rushed Annja headlong.

He caught her around the waist and they went down in a tangled heap. Annja lost the sword and then felt the impact of a punch in her face that seemed like it had jarred a few teeth loose. The soldier brought his head down hard against the cheekbone and Annja grunted from the impact.

She pushed him off and tried to get the better position, but his legs came up instinctively, using them against her hips so she couldn't get any purchase.

Another punch caught her in the chest and she gasped as the wind burst out of her lungs. Annja heaved and dropped an elbow onto the soldier's sternum again and again. She drove the elbow hard against the xyphoid process and heard the small bone break. She let her full weight come down and then she felt the soldier stiffen before going slack as Annja drove the fragmented bone into his heart.

She rolled off the soldier just in time to see Guge going for her sword. Annja concentrated and the sword vanished. Guge stood there mouth agape.

"It was just there!"

Annja rolled off the dead soldier and then grabbed Guge by his lapels and tossed him against the stone wall. "It's time you and I had a talk," she said.

Guge shook his head. "Where did the sword go?"

Annja paused and suddenly the sword was back in her hands. She held the gleaming edge of the blade under Guge's chin, pressed it ever so slightly against the skin on his neck and allowed it to bite just enough to score a thin line of blood.

Guge gasped at the pain. Annja pressed her point once more and then removed the sword.

"There. Now that I've got your attention..." Her voice trailed off.

Guge felt his neck and saw that his hand came away b.l.o.o.d.y. "You wouldn't kill me, Annja."

Annja smiled. "What makes you think that?"

"Because we saved you. We rescued you. If it hadn't been for us, you would have died in that cave."

Annja shook her head. "We were fine."

"Mike would have died."

Annja paused. "Perhaps you're right. But don't a.s.sume that means I won't kill you. Especially since it looks like you've been lying this entire time."

"It couldn't be helped."

"The lying?"

"Of course! How else could we accomplish this?"

Annja shook her head. "All right, Guge, or whatever the h.e.l.l your name is. You and I are going to have a nice long talk. And you're going to sit down and explain every last bit of what's happening to me."

She shoved Guge into the chair behind the keyboard. Annja studied the screen but it was filled with complex Chinese characters that she couldn't understand. She pointed at the screen. "Does that have something to do with what's going on here?"

Guge glanced at it. "Of course."

"And you understand what that says?"

Guge smiled.

Annja frowned. "Don't even think about lying to me again. I heard you speaking Chinese right before I freed Tuk."

Guge looked shocked. "You freed Tuk?"

"Of course I freed him."

"How did you figure out how to do that?"

Annja sighed. "I'm not a moron, Guge. I discovered the depression in the wall. The b.u.t.ton disguised as a part of the rock. It took a little time, but I found it."

"You must be proud of yourself."

"I'm not proud of anything. What I am is beside myself with wanting to know what exactly is happening in this place. And you're going to tell me."

"h.e.l.lo, Father."

Annja looked up as Tuk entered the room. "Tuk, maybe you should stay outside."

He shook his head and looked at Annja's handiwork. "It smells a lot worse than I thought it would."

"Stick around a while and it gets much, much worse."

Tuk knelt and removed a pistol from one of the dead soldiers. He slid the magazine out and made sure there were still bullets inside. Then he slapped it home again and racked the slide.

"Tuk, tell Annja to let me go."

Tuk looked up and almost laughed. "I'll do no such thing. I'm as anxious to hear your answers to her questions as she is."

"But I'm your father, Tuk. You can't do this."

Tuk rushed over before Annja could stop him and placed the barrel of the pistol on Guge's left knee. In an instant, there was a m.u.f.fled pop and Guge screamed as if he'd been set on fire.

"Tuk!" Annja said.

But Tuk had already placed the gun barrel next to Guge's other knee. "Are you my father? Tell me!"

"No! No! I'm not your father!" Guge's face was pale and sweat boiled off his head, running down into his neckline. He clutched at his wounded knee and Annja could see that the bullet had effectively hobbled him.

"Tuk, let me do this, will you?" she said.

Tuk stepped clear of Guge. "Well, at least we've established that he is not my father."

Annja glanced at him. "What if he had been?"

"Then I would apologize for crippling him. But that's a moot point now, don't you think?"

"Apparently."

Annja looked at Guge, who was moaning and clutching his injured leg. "As you can see, Tuk is pretty upset with you for lying to him."

Guge rocked back and forth, cradling his leg. "My G.o.d, it hurts."

"It's going to hurt even worse if you don't start telling us the things we want to know."

Guge looked up at Annja. "You don't understand what's happening here. You don't get it."

"That's our point. You're going to tell us now."

Guge shook his head. "She'll kill me if I tell you."

Annja leaned in closer to his face. "And I will kill you right now if you don't tell me exactly what I want to know."

Guge looked at her and then nodded. "Very well."

Annja leaned back. "First, where is Tuk's cell phone?"

Guge gestured at his right leg. "In my pocket. The cargo pocket halfway down my leg."

Annja felt around for the phone and found it. She handed it to Tuk. "Call Garin. Find out where he is and if he's any closer to finding a way to get through to this place."

Guge laughed. "He'll never find it. It's too well hidden."

"You thought I wouldn't be able to find the cell release for Tuk and I found that easily enough. Garin's a pretty sharp guy. Something tells me he might just figure it out even without our help."

Guge looked up at her with hatred in his eyes. "You'll never leave here alive, Annja Creed."

"Why not?"

"Because this is all about you. From the top down, this is all about you. Don't you get it yet?"

Tuk looked up from the phone. "I'm not getting a signal."

Annja frowned. "I thought that thing could get reception anywhere?"

"I thought so, too. But the walls of this place must be extra thick or something."

Guge laughed. "They are thick. You're inside a mountain. You won't be able to reach anyone by phone while you're in here."

"We need to get outside," Annja said. "You'll get a signal out there."

Guge moaned. "Good luck. The alarm will have already gone out and you'll get a very different reception than the one we staged for you this evening."

"What do you mean this is all about me?" Annja asked.

Guge shrugged. "Well, in truth, it's not all all about you. You are just one person, after all. But combined with everything else, we thought this would be a very nice way to take care of some loose ends all at once." about you. You are just one person, after all. But combined with everything else, we thought this would be a very nice way to take care of some loose ends all at once."

Annja regarded him for a moment. She needed Garin here. But Tuk couldn't reach Garin unless they went outside. But outside meant more troops presumably. At the very least, Hsu Xiao would be waiting for them.

Annja made a decision and dragged Guge to his feet. Instantly, as weight came down on his hobbled knee, he shrieked. "I can't walk on that leg."

Tuk looked up. "What are you doing?"