Mike grinned. "Just being honest with you. Figure I owe you at least that much for putting up with me not telling you about Tsing earlier."

"Forget it. Let's concentrate on getting this done. We can handle Tsing another time and place."

Mike nodded. "All right. We'll make a quick stop at Jomsom for fuel and then take off again. We've got the entire day before us and we should be able to get some great perspectives on the area once we're north of Jomsom."

Annja stared out the window of the plane and marveled at the landscape below them. Overhead, bright blue skies streaked with wispy clouds flanked the snow-topped peaks of the Himalayan mountain ranges. The roof of the world, Annja thought, never looked so utterly amazing.

"I suppose it's easy to see why so many people pictured this as being home to Shangri-La," she said a few moments later. "It's incredible up here in this part of the world."

Mike smiled as he pointed out a variety of landmarks. "The n.a.z.is thought that Shangri-La was home to a superior race of Nordic people like them. In 1938 they sent an expedition to Tibet led by a guy named Schafer. They never found anything, of course, but it didn't stop Hitler from imagining that there might be a link to this part of the world."

Annja sighed. "I know a lot of areas up here claim t.i.tle to Shangri-La, but that's mostly for tourism, right?"

"Sure. There's even an airline named after it that operates in this region. They had a serious crash in October '08. Sixteen tourists and two crew were killed two miles short of the runway at Jomsom. Terrible accident."

"Which we won't be reliving today," Annja said.

Mike smiled. "No chance. Look." He pointed out ahead of them. "Dhaulagiri, up close and personal."

Annja looked out the front winds.h.i.+eld and saw the giant mountain ahead of them. "It's eight thousand meters, right?"

"Yep." Mike nosed the plane down toward the river valley. "We're on final approach to Jomsom now. I'll need to talk to air traffic control for a moment."

She listened to Mike informing Jomsom control that they were coming in. He nodded and then turned to Annja. "Ready for our first landing?"

"Sure."

Mike guided the plane down and in at a steep descent. As the runway loomed before them, Annja could see that the river valley wasn't that wide at all. The fact there was an airstrip up here was a miracle in itself.

Mike flared the flaps and then tucked the plane down on the runway with a slight b.u.mp. They raced along and Mike pressed the brakes, easing them to a stop. Gradually, he pulled the plane in and parked it next to another DHC-6 and then shut down the engines.

"All right, let's get this baby ga.s.sed up and get back up there. I don't want to lose any time."

He pulled off the headset and hopped out of the plane. Annja unbuckled herself and eased out of the seat and climbed onto the tarmac. She stretched and felt marvelous moving around again. She hadn't realized how cramped the interior of the plane was until just then.

Mike came walking back, directing a ground crew toward the plane. They dutifully led a hose to the gas tanks and started pumping.

Mike tossed Annja a can of soda. "Last gasp of civilization in these parts. From here on up north into Mustang, it gets downright spooky."

"Spooky?"

"Well, there's little up here to remind you of home. Pony caravans carry all the goods and, like I said earlier, most people are on foot or horseback. This is the frontier. h.e.l.l, parts of the region we'll be flying over are off-limits to us on the ground. We'd need someone from the government to tag along."

"Why is that?"

Mike took a gulp of the soda and then belched appreciably. "Who knows? Maybe the government knows where Shangri-La is and is just protecting it. Or maybe it's because some of the less intelligent tourists would blunder over the border into Tibet if someone wasn't around to stop them. No sense having an international incident if you can avoid it."

Annja took a sip of her soda. "Makes sense."

Mike watched the ground crew finish pumping the plane full of gas and then paid them from a bundle of cash he had in his pocket. He glanced at Annja and shrugged. "Mr. Tsing thought of everything. You all set to get back to it?"

"Yep."

Annja climbed into the c.o.c.kpit and strapped herself in. Mike climbed in a moment later and looked at the back of the plane.

Annja glanced at him. "Everything okay?"

"I guess."

"What?"

Mike shrugged. "Probably just my mind playing tricks on me. That d.a.m.ned wine took me for a whirl last night."

"What is it, Mike?"

"Thought I saw movement in the back of the plane." He shook his head. "Nothing to it. You were climbing in when it happened and you must have jostled the plane. That's all." He switched on the propellers and smiled. "Let's get out of here."

Annja slid her headset back on and then felt the lurch as the plane started to move again. Mike keyed the microphone and spoke again to air traffic control. In seconds they hurtled down the tiny runway and shot back up into the sky. Annja leaned back in her seat, enjoying the rush of gaining alt.i.tude so fast.

Mike climbed and then banked around, continuing on their original northwesterly course. He leveled the plane off and then set a course that would take them farther into the Mustang region.

Annja wondered what the future held in store for them.

8.

"The curious thing about Mustang is how the entire region pokes up into Tibet," Mike said. "It almost looks like a thorn in the side."

"Hence, the reason it made such a great staging area for the Khampa guerrillas," Annja said. "They didn't have to travel as far or retreat as much to get back to safety. It made sense to stage there."

Mike piloted the plane and brought them over a particular vista. Annja looked down and saw green fields. "That looks rather lush for the area."

"Concentrated irrigation," Mike said. "It's not indicative of the entrance to the garden of Eden." He smiled. "I know the temptation to call it such, but the farmers up here have adapted quite well to the parameters of their environment." He pointed ahead of them toward where the mountain called Dhaulagiri rose up like a towering majesty. "I want to fly a little higher. See if maybe we can spot something from up there."

Annja looked at the peak. She could see storm clouds cl.u.s.tering around it. "Are you sure that's such a good idea? That doesn't look too inviting."

Mike nodded. "We'll be all right as long as we don't get too close. The most important thing is to get as high as we can in order to observe more than we can see skirting this level. We keep doing this, all we're accomplis.h.i.+ng is burning fuel."

"If you say so." Annja leaned back as Mike brought the stick back toward them and the plane responding by climbing. Annja could see snowfields out of the c.o.c.kpit window. The wind suddenly buffeted the plane. Annja winced. Turbulence was something she didn't care for.

"It's a little choppy up here," Mike said.

"You don't say."

Out of the window, Annja thought she saw something glint across one of the snowfields. She frowned and squinted again. "Did you see that?"

"What?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure. I could have sworn I saw something down there across that last field we buzzed."

"Like what?"

"A glint of something. Maybe metallic. Maybe someone was signaling us?"

Mike shook his head. "We're pretty close to the border of Tibet here. I doubt very much there's a party down there trying to signal us. Doesn't seem likely."

"I saw something."

Mike glanced at the instrument panel. "I can take another pa.s.s if you want me to check it out."

"Might be worth a look."

Mike nodded. "Hang on." He banked the plane and Annja saw the vista s.h.i.+ft to the left. Mike kept the heading on course and then leveled off. "Over there?"

The snowfield loomed in front of them, about halfway up the side of Dhaulagiri.

"Yeah, just down there," Annja said, pointing.

Mike eased the stick forward and the plane descended a little. "All right, here we go."

Annja heard the engines whine as the plane dipped and buzzed the snowfield. They were probably a thousand feet over the top of the field when she saw it again. "There!"

Mike turned his head and frowned. "That looks like-"

"Mike!"

But Mike had already seen the sudden flash and jerked the stick hard to the left. Annja looked back and saw the flare as a rocket went streaking past the right wing. "What the h.e.l.l!"

"Someone's shooting at us," Mike said. He drew the plane back to the right and then angled it so it was in a steep climb. "Hang on!"

Annja clutched at the armrests on her seat as Mike jerked the plane all over the sky, trying to make it a smaller target. Annja strained to look over the back of her seat and see behind them. But the ma.s.s of bags in the rear section made it impossible.

"I can't see!" she shouted.

Mike banked the plane now. They'd climbed in alt.i.tude and he swung the plane to the left. "We should have an angle on them in a second," he said.

But as they came around again, Annja saw nothing to cause concern. "I don't see anything."

"Neither do I, but someone very obviously shot a missile at us." Mike keyed the microphone and cleared his throat to speak to air traffic control. Annja listened as he relayed what had happened and notified the tower that they were returning to Jomsom. He switched off and turned to Annja. "It's too risky for us to be out here. If someone's got missiles and they're shooting at us-"

"But why would they?" she asked.

Mike shook his head. "d.a.m.ned if I know. But we can't risk our lives trying to figure it out. The best thing to do is land and see if we can get some information from somewhere about this. Maybe Tsing can help us."

"Tsing? Why would he-?"

"Because he wants to find this place as badly as we do. And if someone is causing us problems, then they're causing Tsing problems, too. He won't tolerate that. And I'm sure he can bring some muscle to bear on it."

Annja frowned. "Seems like we're getting deeper into debt with him if we do that."

"You've got a better suggestion?"

Annja sighed. "I guess not."

Mike nodded. "I know it's not ideal. But we've got to use what we have. And if Tsing is desperate to find Shangri-La and can figure out who wants to blow us out of the sky, then that's all the better. Like you said, we can handle Tsing later on. What I don't want to handle right now is a missile while I'm flying over one of the largest mountains in the world."

"I understand," Annja said. "And you're right. We should land and get out of danger. I just don't understand why anyone would want to shoot at us."

"It's worthless trying to figure it out now. We don't know anything about who it might be. We're wasting time up here."

He banked the plane again and brought them on a course away from Dhaulagiri, back toward Jomsom. "Won't be long now," he said.

In the next moment, Annja heard a sudden explosion off the right side of the plane. The plane jumped from the impact of the rocket as it struck the right wing. Alarms sounded from the c.o.c.kpit instrumentation. Mike shouted for Annja to hold on.

They were already rapidly losing alt.i.tude. The plane started spinning and plummeting toward the earth. Annja looked at what was left of the right wing and saw it was on fire. Black smoke poured out, swirling about them as they spun and fell through the sky.

"I can't control it!" Mike shouted. "We're going down!"

Annja grabbed the microphone and switched it on. "Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is-"

She could barely hear herself talking. The alarms were so loud. Looking out of the c.o.c.kpit through the dense black smoke she caught brief glimpses of white snow. And then of Dhaulagiri looming in front of them again. The plane almost seemed to be climbing, but that couldn't be possible. She glanced at Mike and saw him straining to pull the stick this way and that, trying to fight the plane to a softer landing than the one Annja expected them to receive.

The plane toppled through the sky; the altimeter needle spun like a pinwheel and the numbers shot past. Annja tore her eyes away and braced for impact.

When it came, the plane slammed into the side of the mountain with a deafening sound of metal being crushed and torn apart. The c.o.c.kpit window shattered and cold snow and ice filled the plane.

The plane seemed to keep sliding for a distance and then, at last, it came to a merciful halt.

Annja heard herself screaming.

And then saw nothing but blackness.

WHEN A ANNJA CAME TO, daylight had already started to dip below the horizon and night was rus.h.i.+ng back to claim its birthright. Annja groaned and twisted in her seat. She was wet from the snow and ice that had surrounded her and melted from her body heat. She fought to release the harness around her, scrabbling to dig through the snow to reach the release. daylight had already started to dip below the horizon and night was rus.h.i.+ng back to claim its birthright. Annja groaned and twisted in her seat. She was wet from the snow and ice that had surrounded her and melted from her body heat. She fought to release the harness around her, scrabbling to dig through the snow to reach the release.

As she s.h.i.+fted, she felt a sharp punch of pain in her side and took a gasping breath.

She felt her ribs gingerly. One, maybe two, on her left side felt badly bruised or broken. She ignored the pain and struggled to release the harness.