Vanya smiled. "Oh, that I were young enough to wield it with the elegance such a blade deserves. But no, regrettably my advanced age makes that a little foolish for me to attempt."

"So, who, then? Crazy Nails here? She'll bust them gripping the hilt."

"Hsu Xiao will inherit the blade. Yes."

Annja shook her head. "I don't know if that's such a great idea. You see, the sword doesn't like being told what to do. Trust me. I've tried several times."

"Quiet," Hsu Xiao said.

Vanya laughed. "I marvel at your humor. I really do. You know, when the rumors reached us about an American woman who had this mystical sword, at first we suspected it was some type of American intelligence operation. That maybe they had created a super soldier that they could unleash at will."

"Nope. Just little old me."

"Imagine my delight when I learned everything I could about you. Your past is one shrouded in secrecy for some reason and yet I was able to trace your lineage back hundreds of years."

Annja frowned. "You're lying."

"Oh, no, I'm not. I wanted to know everything about you. It was my way of trying to decipher why the sword chose you as its wielder. I thought that if I could uncover what made you so special, then the questions about the sword would reveal themselves to me."

"Interesting theory. Too bad you don't know squat. No one does. I'm an orphan and I've got no family."

Vanya shook her head. "You disappoint me, Annja. I really expected that you would have taken the time to search deeper and go back further than a mere generation. The answers to your past lie in full view, provided you know where to look."

"And why do I find this so difficult to believe? I don't know, could it be because you're a liar?"

Vanya frowned. "I'm not lying. You must think me a fool if you believe I would undertake something of this magnitude and not do my homework. Whatever you may think about me, Annja, know this. I am not lying when I tell you that I have learned every aspect of your past. Every family member who has pa.s.sed his or her genetic material down through your bloodlines to make you what you are today. You are not a mere orphan. You are something wholly incredible. And yet, you fail to realize that, save for the sword being in your possession."

Annja felt her heart beating faster. Was Vanya telling the truth? If so, what answers did she have?

"So tell me something," she said, fighting to remain calm.

"About your past?" Vanya smiled. "Perhaps I will. Right before I kill you and Hsu Xiao takes the sword. At least then you will die with some measure of peace."

Vanya glanced down the corridor. "What is the holdup down there? Bring the body out!" she shouted.

Annja saw the two soldiers approaching. They were dragging a limp body behind them.

"What took you so long?" Vanya said.

"We couldn't find him at first. She must have shot him behind the statue on the far side of the room."

"You saw the bullet hole?"

"We couldn't see anything in the room. It's too dark," the first soldier said.

"There's a blood trail," the second soldier said. "And it's a lot of blood."

Vanya nodded and cleared her throat. "All right then. You've done well. Turn the body over so I can see him."

The soldiers turned the body over. Vanya looked and then frowned. "He still looks alive to me. Put another bullet in his head to be sure."

Vanya looked at Annja. "After all, if he's truly dead, one more bullet won't make a difference now, will it?"

Annja shrugged. "I guess not. Shame he'll have to have a closed casket, though."

"I don't think anyone will really care about that. And why should they when we dump his body into the nearest gorge and be done with it?"

"Disrespecting the dead will come back to bite you," Annja said. "Trust me on that one."

"Trust you?" Vanya asked. "Why would I ever do a thing like that." She turned to the soldiers. "Shoot him again. Shoot him now."

30.

One of the soldiers chambered a round in his weapon and, as he did so, Tuk came alive, suddenly kicking at the exposed knee of the soldier with the gun aimed at him. The gun went off and the round fired wild.

Annja jerked her shoulders up, knocking away Hsu Xiao's hands. Then she pivoted and drove two punches into the a.s.sa.s.sin's exposed sternum. Hsu Xiao recoiled and thrust her hands forward, but as she did so, Annja leaned back, just barely out of range of the slicing claws that would have surely severed her carotid artery.

Annja kicked up at the same time Hsu Xiao backflipped away and Annja's kick hit nothing. She summoned the sword in time to cut down the other solider who was aiming his gun at Tuk.

Annja's blade cut him through the shoulder and ripped a chunk of flesh out of his neck. He went down screaming.

Tuk grabbed the closest gun and aimed a volley of bullets at Hsu Xiao, but the a.s.sa.s.sin twisted away. Annja saw her flick her wrist ever so gently.

"Tuk!"

The throwing spikes embedded themselves in Tuk's shoulder and upper chest. He went down clutching at the exposed pieces of steel.

Vanya grabbed a knife from a hidden sheath in her dress and came up behind Tuk, placing the point of the knife under his right ear. "Drop the sword, Annja. Drop it or he dies."

"You'll kill him, anyway," Annja said.

"I won't. I only want the sword. This man is inconsequential to me."

Tuk grimaced. "Don't listen to her, Annja! She won't stay true to her word. You know this."

Annja held the sword up in front of her. Hsu Xiao came back to stand beside Vanya. The look on her face made Annja's skin crawl.

"Let him go first," she said.

Vanya sniffed. "I'm not a fool, Annja."

"Neither am I. And you don't exactly have a good record of keeping your word. So we do this my way or no way. You let Tuk go. Once he's clear, then I'll surrender the sword. You tell him how to get out of here and he's gone. It's that simple."

"I can't tell him how to leave. He'll bring back help."

Annja shook her head. "We're out in the middle of nowhere. What help is going to come for us?"

Vanya's eyes narrowed and she had a whispered conversation with Hsu Xiao. Vanya nodded. "All right. I will tell him how to get out of here. Once he's gone, you turn yourself over to us."

Annja pointed at Hsu Xiao. "Crazy Nails stays here with us the entire time. Once Tuk has enough time to get away, then I'm yours. Not a moment before. You try anything at all, any kind of ambush, any funny business, and Tuk's death will be the least of your worries."

Vanya sighed. "Fine. You have my word." She pushed Tuk away from her. "But make it quick. I have a schedule to keep and, right now, I'm behind."

Annja leaned over Tuk and tugged the three spikes out of him while he gritted his teeth. "You going to be okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes. I think so. None of them went too deep. Hurts like h.e.l.l but I can endure it."

"Get clear of this place. You hear me? Get clear and don't stop to look back. You can bet as soon as they're done with me Hsu Xiao will be on your trail. She's going to want to make sure there are no witnesses. You understand?"

"I understand." He looked into Annja's eyes. "Thank you for doing this for me. I don't think I've ever had a friend like you."

Annja smiled. "Hey, you watched over me. This is the least I can do."

Tuk looked at her and nodded once. "All right, then."

Annja smiled. "All right."

Tuk turned to Vanya. "I'm ready to leave now."

Vanya sighed. "Fine, fine. Go back to the statue room and continue to where your cell was. Beyond the doorway is a false wall. Press it and a door will open to a small staircase. Travel up the staircase and you'll come to a trapdoor in the floor of the cave you and Annja were in when the yeti found you. That's your way home."

"A trapdoor in the floor of the cave? That was the big secret?" Annja said.

Vanya smiled. "No one ever checks the floor. All anyone thinks about is the wall having some type of contraption." Her eyes flamed. "Now go before I change my mind and have Hsu Xiao kill you all."

Annja gripped the sword. "That would be a grave mistake."

Vanya nodded at Tuk. "He gets ten minutes. No more. If he's not back on the other side by then, it will be his own fault."

Annja looked at Tuk. "Run and don't stop for anything. Understand?"

"I understand." He smiled. "Goodbye, Annja."

"Seeing you," she said.

Tuk dashed back into the temple corridor and vanished from view. Vanya calmly glanced at her watch and then back at Annja. "Ten minutes from now. Are we agreed on that?"

"Sure."

Hsu Xiao stayed stock-still. Annja could sense her desire to rush into the temple and strike Tuk down before he could get clear. "I think your dog wants off her leash," Annja said.

Vanya smiled. "She does. Very much so, in fact. But she's a good girl and she'll do what I say. Besides, there will be time enough for her to kill Tuk once we're done with you. Who knows, perhaps she'll even use your sword to do it."

"She'll have to get the sword away from me first," Annja said. "And the truth of the matter is, I don't think she'll be able to."

"I suppose Guge told you our theory?"

"He did."

Vanya shook her head. "He always did talk too much. I should have had him killed years ago."

"I'll tell you the same thing I told him," Annja said. "It's not going to work."

"How do you know?"

Annja shrugged. "Well, considering it's my sword now and I'm the one who's been living with it for years, I think I have a better insight into how the sword behaves than you do."

"That may be true for some things, but one might also argue that you lack the perspective to see a possible means to separate the two of you."

Annja nodded. "I'll give you that. But what happens if this grand old theory of yours turns out to be one big mistake? What then? I'll be dead and you'll lose the only chance you have of getting the sword."

Vanya crossed her arms. "That's a chance we're willing to take."

"Wonderful," Annja said. "See, if I were you, I'd keep me alive and just try different ways to get the sword."

"You're too powerful to keep alive, Annja. Surely you must understand that. If you die giving us the sword or if you don't give us the sword, either way you will at least be dead and gone and no longer a threat."

"I find it difficult to believe that you consider me such a big danger to you or to your government."

Vanya sniffed. "What makes you think I give a d.a.m.n about my government and all it stands for? Hasn't anyone ever told you that all disputes in the world boil down to the smallest common denominator? And that denominator is money and power. That's it. Show me any despot, any religious zealot, any tyrant-they all want the same things. Money and power make the world go around."

"And that's all you want?" Annja said.

Vanya checked her watch. "Five minutes, Annja. Five minutes to go."

"Answer the question. Is that why you've done everything here? So you can set yourself up as some sort of power mogul?"

Vanya sat on the low stone wall closest to them and stretched her arms. "I have existed in the inner circles of male dominance in China. As a woman, I've been told I'd never get anywhere of import and yet I rose to a position of great power within the intelligence service. And I've been able to keep an eye out for other promising women so I can help them along, school them in the ways in which we will take power, and then keep them by my side when I need them."

Annja glanced at Hsu Xiao. "I a.s.sume she's talking about you."

Hsu Xiao gave a curt nod.

Vanya laughed. "Hsu Xiao wants nothing more than to face you in mortal combat, Annja. Do you know that?"

"Well, I can respect that," Annja said. "At least she's not a coward like so many others who just want the fruit without doing any of the work."

"But I can't afford to lose her to that blade of yours. Not when I have so many plans for it."

"What kind of plans?"