False Horizon (21 page)

“Turns out their containment structure is pretty amazing. It kept most of the gloop inside where it needed to be. The Shangri-La structure atop the waste box simply fell in and vaporized or whatever.”

“But all that radiation…?”

“Currently being piped to a new treatment facility. One we’re helping the Chinese build so they do it right.” Mike shrugged. “It ain’t a perfect world, Annja, but it’s pretty much the only one we’ve got.”

“And what about me?” Annja asked.

“What about you?”

“I ate a peach off one of the trees in the land we were in. So am I going to get radiation poisoning?”

“Nope.”

“You say that so positively.”

“I am positive. You weren’t exposed to any radiation. Nothing showed up on your tests.”

“What tests?”

Mike smiled. “The ones you took while you were in the hospital.”

“I don’t remember those tests.”

“Blood work, mostly,” Mike said. “I had my friends check you out to make sure there was no lasting damage to you. You’ll be sore from your other injuries, but otherwise, you’re good to go.”

Annja frowned. “And what if I don’t feel like keeping what happened here a secret? What if my conscience demands I tell people about it?”

Mike scowled. “Then I’d have no choice but to let my superiors know about that incredible sword of yours.”

Annja stopped. “You’re blackmailing me?”

“It’s not blackmail, Annja. It’s just an agreement. We help each other here. You don’t get hassled by the government and you keep quiet about that thing you witnessed. Everybody makes out just perfectly.”

“What about Tuk? He saw the same things I saw.”

“Tuk’s not a problem. He’s being paid a handsome annuity to stay quiet. And he says he wouldn’t say anything, anyway.”

Annja stayed quiet for a moment. “All right.”

Mike clapped his hands. “Great. Thanks, Annja.”

“So, answer me this. How did the Chinese know about Tuk? And how did they find all those people to look like him? He really thought they were his long-lost tribe.”

“Hsu Xiao reported Tuk to Vanya and they figured it out from there. As for the workers, they’d been carted in from a small village in southwestern China. Turns out everyone there is that size and no one really knows why. Who knows, maybe that’s where Tuk is really from.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Annja said. “Vanya killed them all.”

Mike nodded. “One of the tragedies of this whole thing.” He pointed at the cab. “We should get going.”

Annja slid into the cab and rested her head back against the seat. The enormity of what Mike was asking her to do was something she would have to reconcile on her own time.

Mike started the engine and drove back out onto the street. “Look, I know it might take you a while to get through what I’m asking you to do, but I’ve got something that might take your mind off of that.”

Annja almost laughed out loud. “And what, pray tell, is that?”

Mike tossed something into the backseat. Annja picked it up and saw that it was a laminated map. She unfolded it. After a moment, she looked back up. “Is this what I think it is?”

Mike nodded. “Yep.”

Annja smiled. “I don’t know if I should go looking for another Shangri-La so soon after this one.”

“Annja, this is the real thing! Honest! I got this map from a friend of mine who swears the real Shangri-La is in the Kunlun Mountains. Hey, it’s better than the Himalayas, right? Not nearly as cold there. Well, maybe it is cold there, too, but you know…”

Mike kept talking, but Annja just stared out the window. She was headed to the airport, that much was certain.

But beyond that, she had no idea.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-8840-3

FALSE HORIZON

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Jon Merz for his contribution to this work.

Copyright © 2011 by Worldwide Library.

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