The Emperor's Tomb (With Bonus Short Story the Balkan Escape): A Novel by Steve Berry

Author:Steve Berry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thrillers, General, Fiction, Action & Adventure, Men's Adventure, Historical
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2010-11-23T02:59:02+00:00

Malone kept the plane’s altitude at around 5,000 feet. Never had he thought that he’d be leisurely cruising across Vietnamese airspace. Below stretched a panorama of jagged mountains and sloping hills, many striated by terraced rice farms, towering over lush green valleys shrouded in mist.

“We’re approaching the border,” Cassiopeia said to him. She’d been studying the chart Ivan had provided.

“The local officials in Yunnan province,” Pau said, “have good relations with their neighbors. They front not only Vietnam, but also Laos and Myanmar. Beijing is a long way away, so their allegiance has always been more local.”

“I hope that’s still true,” Malone said. “We’re not carrying much in the way of armament.”

“During Mao’s purges, many fled to Yunnan. Its remoteness offered refuge. The terrain north of here, in China, is similar to what is below us now.”

Ivan had told them to follow the Kunming–Hekou railway, a line the French built in the early part of the 20th century through Vietnam, into China, past the heavily populated cities of Gejiu and Kaiyuan.

“You work with the Russians often?” Pau asked him.

“Not usually.”

“What is their interest here?”

“Like we’re going to tell you,” Cassiopeia said, turning around and facing Pau. “How about this? You tell us why you’ve come home and we’ll tell you why the Russians are here.”

“I’m returning to stop a revolution.”

“More likely to start one,” she said.

“Are you always so aggressive?”

“Are you always so deceitful?”

“You apparently have no knowledge of guanxi.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Throughout our history, to weather tough times, the Chinese have relied on friends and family. People who may be in a position to help. It is called zôu hòu mén. ‘Through the back door.’ Of course, if a favor is offered and taken, the receiver is obligated to return it. This keeps the guanxi in balance.”

“And what keeps you from leading us straight into a disaster,” she asked.

“I am not the enemy. Karl Tang has that distinction.”

“I see the border,” Malone said.

Cassiopeia returned her attention out the windows.

The railway line snaked northward, crossing a highway that Ivan had said now connected China and Vietnam. The roadway veered west, the rail line north. A bridge spanned the Red River, clogged with cars stopped at a checkpoint.

Malone dropped to just above 1,000 feet.

“Here we go.”

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