Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs (24 page)

"I understand, Dr. Jones," Turi said. "You wish to make Khan happy so that his long quest for inner peace may end."

Turi swung up on his dappled pony, then shouted something in his native dialect to villagers standing near the pool.

A cheer went up all around the village.

"What did you tell them?" Indy asked.

"I told them that you and Loki are responsible for the death of Tzi and the False One. Perhaps now there will be less fighting between us."

Indy mounted and looked down at Loki.

"Coming?" he asked. "I know your paws are sore and this would be a good place for a rest. You can stay if you'd like."

"Jones, you've gone insane," Granger shouted. "You think that dog can understand you?"

Loki barked.

Indy couldn't help but grin.

"This one does," he replied.

The mountain loomed above the desert floor, a craggy mass of huge sandstone slabs tilted oddly, as though the earth beneath it was slightly out of kilter when volcanic forces pushed it through to the surface. Indy looked over his shoulder to watch dust from Turi's horse boil into a cloudless evening sky as he rode back to his village.

Near sunset the fierce desert winds died, leaving empty land around the mountain as still as quiet water. Indy rode slowly to the base of a steep slope, where he got down, leaving his pony to graze on short, sun-curled grass between piles of rock.

It was then that he noticed Loki's strange behavior. The Alsatian looked up at the mountain and began to whimper. It was a sound almost akin to human crying, unlike any noise the dog had ever made before.

"You know who's up there?" Indy asked.

Loki turned his pale blue eyes on Indy, and the moment Indy saw them he knew instinctively that they did not belong to an animal. "The question is," Indy whispered, "who are
you
?"

Loki stared at him a moment longer then he started up the mountain alone. Indy stood there until he realized he was being left behind, and he began to scramble up the rocks.

Half an hour was needed to approach the peak. Loki limped badly near the top, winding his way between boulders, appearing again on barren slabs of stone with Indy close on his heels. A silence gripped the mountaintop, only the sounds of Indy's boots interrupting the quiet. Almost out of breath, Indy gave the last few yards every ounce of determination he possessed, until he came out on a flat spot overlooking miles of desert in every direction.

On the far side of the plateau a figure in a flowing robe stood with his face to the sky, palms outstretched. Even when he was imploring the All-Powerful for mercy, Khan cut a figure of nobility.

Indy hurried toward him, but it was Loki who found new energy, breaking into a run across the plateau until he reached Khan's side.

Khan turned suddenly, startled. He saw Indy, then he looked down at the animal near his feet. He slowly lowered his hands to his sides.

Indy walked over, reading Khan's expression as he stumbled to a halt. "I don't believe you expected to see us again," he said quietly, out of breath after the difficult climb.

Khan shook his head as he knelt down.

"No," he said in a distant voice, reaching for Loki's nose.

Loki licked Khan's hand gently, but he made no sound.

"Buddha's first great truth is that life is suffering," Khan said. "I had climbed this mountain seeking understanding of that truth, to shoulder my great sorrow. And now I find that the universe is laughing with joy."

"What do you mean by that?" Indy asked.

"You have returned my best friend to me."

"What?"

"The dog," Khan said. "He has always been my best friend, during several lives. The Buddha reincarnated him as a dog for this one."

"But—"

"Tzi cut off his ear and sent it to me," Khan said. "I feared that he was dead. But I see now that Tzi attempted to make him a part of the dog pack, to force him to eat human flesh or starve."

"It didn't work," Indy said.

"Of course not," Khan said. "A spirit as great as Zolo's cannot be broken by torture."

"This is hard to believe," Indy said. "I was sort of hoping to keep the dog for my own."

Khan laughed.

"You would be better hoping to own the wind."

"So this dog is the reincarnation of your old buddy—what's his name, Zolo?—that has been at your side for several thousand years, that's what you're trying to tell me?"

"I can only tell you this, Marco Polo/Indiana Jones. There are things in this world we do not always understand. As mortals, we can only know what a mortal can know."

Khan fixed his gaze on Indy.

"This is not a dog, nor can I explain what he is. It is written that only a Lama can see true enlightenment. Buddha reveals all knowledge of what lies beyond only to those who take his vows. This will be very hard for you to believe; however, I can only tell you that this animal is much more than what he seems. He is the embodiment of an ally and friend, long-dead and yet unborn, a place of habitation for a man's soul."

Indy hesitated a moment.

"I believe," he said sadly, "that there is something special about this dog. If you say that he is your friend, then I am glad that you are reunited."

Khan smiled.

"You are very wise for one who does not know the path to enlightenment."

Khan touched the top of Loki's head affectionately and said something in a foreign tongue Indy did not understand. Loki rested on his haunches, watching Khan's face intently.

"He saved my life," Indy said. "He killed Tzi."

Khan's smile widened.

"He has avenged the death of my family well," Khan said. "Of course, the False One is dead as well if this is so."

"Yes," Indy said.

"Splendid. I hope he suffered."

"Khan," Indy said. "I am somewhat attached to this dog. I will miss him, but this is where he belongs, and I guess I've known that all along."

Khan came to his feet and embraced Indy.

"You are indeed a good friend. You have saved many of my people from smallpox, and now you return with my closest companion. I must find a way to repay you for all of your kindness."

"You owe me nothing," Indy said.

"Nonsense," Khan said.

"What we found in the desert was payment enough."

"You found what you were looking for?"

"And more," Indy said.

He turned to the sunset.

"I should be going," Indy said. "My friend in New York anxiously awaits word. Unfortunately, we do not have the excellent system of water-hole telegraph."

He reached down and gave Loki a scratch behind his ear.

"So long, partner. We had our share of close calls. Thanks for warning me about Chang, and thanks for what you did when Tzi found us."

The shepherd panted in response.

"Wait," Khan said.

He opened his robe and drew out a dagger with a strangely curved blade. The handle sparkled with brilliant jewels, rubies and emeralds and sapphires.

"This is the knife of Genghis Khan," he said. "It has been handed down in my family for many generations. Let this be a symbol of our friendship for as long as we both shall live—and beyond!"

Khan extended the knife in both hands.

"I can't accept it," Indy protested. "It must be worth a fortune."

"Bah!" Khan said. "True worth is measured in the hearts of one's friends. Take it!"

Indy allowed Khan to place the knife handle in his palm. It was then he saw etchings on the blade, a map of sorts and an inscription, difficult to read in fading sunlight.

"What are these markings?" Indy asked.

"A secret," Khan said, "that even I cannot decipher. This knife was said to be old even in the Great Khan's time."

His face turned grave.

"Can you read it, Indiana Jones?"

"Perhaps with some work," Indy said. "These characters appear to be the name of Qin-Shi-Huang, the first emperor of China. I know very little—nobody does, really—other than that his tomb is reputed to be a scale model of the universe, with jewels portraying the constellations and constantly flowing streams of mercury representing the rivers."

"Now you play upon my disbelief," Khan said.

"Well, that's the story," Indy said. "I didn't say it was true. Thank you for such a beautiful gift. It will remain one of my prized possessions."

Indy tucked the knife in his belt.

"Farewell," Khan said. "May your journey be safe—but not too safe. That would be boring!"

Indy smiled. "I could stand to be bored for a while."

"Then, may you find peace." Khan gazed across the desert as purple shadows formed below rocks and sand dunes. "Inner peace comes from the mind," he said knowingly. "It has no special place, no special time. Buddha has granted all men the opportunity to find peace. So few know where to look for nirvana. It lives within the minds of men."

Indy stuck out his hand. "See you next time around," he said.

"Good-bye, Indiana Jones," Khan said. "And be careful of what you go in search of—you just might find it."

They shook, and Indy gave Loki one last pat on the head. Then he left and did not look back.

Three weeks later the horse-drawn truck rolled into Kalgan. They sold the contraption to the blacksmith, then used the money to buy passage on the train to Shanghai. While they waited to board the train, Indy prepared a cable for Brody. It read:

MARCUS BRODY
C/O AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
NEW YORK CITY
FOUND STARBUCK STOP LOST PARADISE STOP WIRE MONEY TO CATHAY HOTEL SHANGHAI STOP JONES STOP END

They boarded the train at Kalgan, leaving the Shen Shei peaks behind. The pounding of the steam locomotive seemed to ease Indy back toward the twentieth century.

"Well, Jones," Granger said. "Do you suppose the world will ever know? Or will Starbuck and his daughter simply become lost in the mists of time?"

"I can't say that I would blame them," Indy said, looking out the window at a truck convoy of Chinese troops with bristling bayonets, waiting for the train to pass. "And I wonder if we aren't the ones lost in time, hurtling forward with all the sound and fury of a dive-bomber."

Epilogue
Grave of the U-357

Off the coast of Denmark
December 31,1933

The
U-357
had torn open her starboard ballast tanks while attempting to put into a narrow fjord where an unmarked truck waited to take the Crystal Skull to Berlin.

Driven by the fear of ripping open her pressure hull on the jagged rocks, the captain of the
U-357
had limped her back out to sea, but had discovered too late the true extent of the damage to the ballast tanks. The air trapped in the recesses of her starboard tank provided enough buoyancy to maintain the boat in the shallow fjord, but as more water and pressure built above her decks in the open sea, the critical balance between floating and sinking had been lost in a fraction of a second. Despite the best efforts of her electric motors to drive the boat back to the surface, the
U-357
had yielded to the inevitable embrace of the deep.

She had gone down bow-first in a hundred and twenty feet of water and, without the use of the starboard tank, had been unable to regain positive buoyancy. There had not been time to trail a long wire, the underwater antenna needed to communicate at depth, so the location of her final resting place remained a mystery to Berlin. Even the jack-booted men who waited in the truck were unsure of her location, since she had entered the fjord submerged and under radio silence. The time and coordinates of the transfer had been established days before.

Her crew had no choice but to brace themselves for a white-knuckled ride of no return as the submarine slid deeper and deeper into the freezing waters. When her bow finally snubbed against the bottom, flooding the forward torpedo room but leaving the rest of the hull uncompromised, a spontaneous cheer had erupted from the crew. It was not for any hope of rescue—each and every man knew the boat was beyond hope—but from a sense of relief. They would eventually suffocate, choking on the poison expelled from their own lungs, instead of drowning. They spent the time waiting playing cards, reading, or writing a last letter to families that would never read it.

Indiana Jones found the submarine at the coordinates Belloq had provided, although he had not expected the boat to be perched on a shelf overlooking a five-hundred-foot drop. Belloq had not volunteered to Indy how he knew the location of the missing submarine when Berlin did not, or why he had chosen to share this information. The latter, Indy suspected, had to do with the Nazi's treatment of Belloq—
Bellosh!
—as an employee. But whatever his reason, Indy didn't care. The important thing was that the Crystal Skull was again tantalizingly within his reach, if not quite within his grasp.

But soon, Indy told himself as the brass diving helmet was bolted into place over the breastplate of the nylon diving suit. Soon. Then he stepped off with his lead boots into the freezing waters and began his descent.

He landed almost on the deck of the
U-357,
thanks to good soundings by the crew of the French salvage ship
Jules Verne.
Although he had done some hard-hat diving before, he had never attempted such a deep or a cold dive. His breath was coming in gasps. He forced himself to gain control before proceeding.