Altai Mountains,
Eastern Mongolia
For the Event Group staff, there wasn’t much time to congratulate Sarah and Jack. They all knew that, once word got out, one of the career military officers would have to resign his or her commission. As for Jack and Carl, they had spent the better part of an hour comparing notes on just what happened in Laos. As for Shangri-La, the entire city was mobilizing for both defense and retreat.
The one hundred and thirteen children under the age of fifteen were standing in line, receiving documents and new identity papers. They would be disbursed throughout the world and live among their own kind who were already established in nations throughout Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, and Europe. Saying goodbye to his young people was the most heart-torn day in Master Li Zheng’s long life. As he said goodbye to the last child as the boy joined his parents to be escorted from the mountain, Professor Lee joined his father.
“I have caused you and our people the greatest of sorrows, father. I am the architect of this disaster because I thought I could bring our magic to the world. After your refusal to assist the world in their fight against the Gray invasion, I became despondent and angry. But for this to happen will be my eternal disgrace.” He went to his knees in front of his father.
Li Zheng quickly took his son by the shoulders and made him stand. “In our long history, we made a vow never to bow to any man. This will continue. I cannot blame my son for the very sins of his father.” Li Zheng smiled. “You are me, and I am you. Stubborn, and very most likely, insane. Insanity must run in our bloodline for the arrogance we have shown throughout our history for believing we could live apart from our world. This, my son, was wrong.” He swept his right hand over the saddened citizens of Shangri-La below in the city center. “We had no right to think the Dragon’s Fire Asteroid was meant only for us. Now, it is too late to bring justice to my decisions. Instead of bringing this gift to the world slowly, with trace amounts, we chose to hide it. No, my son, this is what was meant to be. Now go and organize the withdrawal of the children. Professor Ellenshaw has graciously offered to assist the exodus of our people.”
With tears flowing from beneath his glasses, Lee moved off to follow what would be his father’s last instruction to him.
“It’s a hard thing, isn’t it?”
Without turning, Li Zheng knew who it was that was addressing him. “Colonel Collins.” He turned and faced Jack just as Carl joined them. “And Captain Everett.” He took a deep breath and then removed his hat. “In answer to your question, Colonel, yes, it is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. But it must be done.”
“Sarah explained the power of the mineral you protect here in this mountain. She says you cannot blow it up in place. Is this correct?”
Li Zheng toyed with the damaged feather of his hat. His beard trembled as he stood before the two Americans. “It would burn with the fires of hell only. Possibly eventually sinking to the core of our planet. At least, that’s what my children have told me after their tours among the educated of the world. Your Captain McIntire’s experiment is misleading at best, Colonel. She missed one valuable aspect to her brief study. The sample size of the asteroid. It had access to air, or oxygen, if you prefer. The air is what gives the mineral its power. While in its natural state below, it is a whole, not a sliver where air can get to its interior. Thus, it cannot be destroyed in place.”
Jack and Carl exchanged anxious looks. “If we had an operational radio, we could get advice from some very smart people.”
“Ah, yes, your Doctor Compton. Or perhaps your great machine, Europa?”
Jack only smiled. He had been told earlier that Li Zheng had at least one Event Group staff member working for him. The information hadn’t frightened Carl, so he let it pass.
“Radios do not work here, Colonel. The content of the asteroid forbids radio signals from escaping the interior of the mountain. And I am afraid I forbid their use at any rate. Radio signals can be tracked and, in my criminal pursuit of keeping secrets, I outlawed them in and around the mountain. Fool that I am.”
Jack rubbed his two-week growth of beard and thought. “From my observations outside, we have about three hours before your home comes into artillery range. Your plan is to fight with the abilities of your people?”
“Yes, we are all expendable in that pursuit. We must make taking this mountain too expensive. The Russians may fold, but the man coming from the south will not. I will have to face my one-time brother myself.”
“From what Charlie Ellenshaw says, the first Emperor doesn’t have it in him to face you down. The Doc says its not in his personality.”
“If all goes well, I believe I can force his hand. I outran the man for two thousand years. I believe I still have few tricks, as you Americans say, up my sleeve.”
“What can we do to help you draw him out?” Jack said.
Li Zheng thought a moment. Then he replaced his small, round hat on his head. “My people are not strategists, Colonel. They can strike with their abilities, but—”
“They just don’t know where to strike,” Carl said for him, seeing Li Zheng’s problem right off.
“Genghis Khan began his takeover of the known world from here. He used the rolling terrain of the Gobi. I think we can use that to our benefit,” Jack said as he turned away to think.
“An excitable boy he was,” Li Zheng said.
“What?” Collins asked upon hearing the implied claim as he turned back around.
“Long story, Jack,” Carl said, knowing that the man standing before them actually once knew the boy that became Genghis Khan.
“If I had a terrain map, I could place your people at strategic locations.” Jack fixed the Master with a hard look. “No matter what we come up with, many of your people may die. Russians in the field are formidable. If we can bloody their noses, it may give you a chance at your brother’s forces, where the attack will be much harder than the Russian attack coming from the Gobi.”
“As long as the children and the young adults are safe, we are all expendable, Colonel. We have lived off the charity of the Dragon Mineral for thousands of years. It’s time we pay back the Gods for those long lives by sacrificing our own.”
“Noble, but if we can plan this right, we can at least give you a fighting chance at your brother. We Americans don’t say it’s an honor to die for your country, sir. You make the other poor son of a bitch die for his. Russians have one thing we can count on. Their soldiers are never too thrilled to fight for anything other than their homeland. Everywhere else they grow weary and timid very quickly.”
“I will bow to your knowledge on the enemy, Colonel. Now, you said you need a terrain map?’
“It would help.”
Master Li Zheng used his sandaled foot to scrape the sand he stood upon smooth. Then he closed his eyes just as Carl pulled Jack back. Li Zheng swirled his hands in front of him as both Jack and Carl felt the breeze freshen around him.
“I think you’re going to see a smaller version of Air Bending, Jack,” Carl said as both Americans stepped back to allow Li room.
The sand at their feet swirled into a small vortex, freshening the breeze a little more. Li squeezed his eyes tightly closed, picturing his home around the mountain he had occupied for close to four thousand years. He slowly raised both hands, palms up, as he concentrated. Then he swirled his hands and the whirlwind of sand fell back to the earth. When the breeze had stopped, Jack and Carl saw small mounds of sand. The largest was an exact copy of the mountain they were inside of. The rest were the small rises of land that comprised the Gobi for at least thirty miles around. It was detailed in its small scale.
“I don’t believe it,” Jack said, as he examined the magical terrain map before him. “Man, you could find work anytime at the U.S. Geological Society.”
“I find myself wondering why I hadn’t chosen a different career path myself, Colonel Collins, believe me.” Li turned to walk away. “Perhaps as an ice cream vendor, or a clerk at a children’s school,” his voice was slowly fading away. “I hope the map helps, gentlemen. You have less than two hours before the Russians arrive.”
Jack leaned over and examined Master Li’s map. He started pointing out choke points the Russian armor had to traverse.
“Pssst,” came a hissing noise from the dark.
Both Jack and Carl straightened to see Major Pierce squatting in the dark near the center waterfall only fifty feet away. They walked over to the old flier and it looked as if he were frightened and ready to bolt as they approached. Carl had explained earlier about Major Pierce and his circumstance. As they stopped in front of the frightened man, he stood and started to run, scared to death after making an attempt to talk to them. Jack knew he had to try something.
“Stop, Major!” he said in a loud and commanding voice.
“Turn about and stand before the Colonel, Major!” Carl said loudly, picking up on Jack’s approach.
Peirce did stop as his arms went straight to his side. He placed his right foot behind his left and expertly did an about-face, and then he stood at rigid attention. His gray and silver hair wild, and his old jumpsuit torn and threadbare. He was at attention with his hands along the seams of his pants.
“Report to the Colonel, Major Pierce,” Everett said.
Pierce tried to speak but it seemed his voice was blocked as if he forgot how to do even that.
“At ease,” Jack said in a calmer voice. “Do you have something to report, Mister?”
Pierce allowed his body to go lax as he attempted to place his hands behind and at the small of his back but failed miserably as he leaned too far to his left and started to go down. Jack sprang forward and arrested the old man’s fall.
Jack looked back at Carl. “How old is he?”
“Ninety-seven.”
“Jesus, I can’t imagine what he’s been through.”
Pierce looked at Jack and then raised an old and wrinkled hand toward Collins’ face. He lightly touched it and then gave Jack a toothless smile.
“Sorry…Colonel…I…don’t…know…what’s…wrong…with…my…legs…they…don’t seem…to…work.”
“You don’t have to explain anything to anyone, Major.”
“Slick Willy is ready and waiting, Colonel, sir. She’s been waiting for…for…for—”
Carl and Jack watched as a single tear flowed down the cheek of the old bomber pilot. Collins turned to look at Carl. He mouthed the words ‘the name of his B-29’.
“Report the status of your aircraft, Major,” Jack said, as he eased the old man against the wall.
“The Slick Willy and her crew are…down…went down…down…down…down.” Pierce suddenly looked around him as if he were afraid of being overheard. “Can’t let the natives know…no…no…no.”
“Know about what, Major?”
“Camera plane…she went down…first….” Again the look around him. Even Carl was getting the creeps at his weird eye movement and crazed look. “Then…the Japs…the Japs…they got…our weather plane…got her…got her…got her good.”
Jack looked back up at Carl as the navy man shrugged his shoulders as he didn’t know what the pilot was saying either.
“Hey, what’s up?” said a voice behind them as Everett nearly jumped out of his tighty-whities.
“God Ryan, you nearly made me—”
“It is very unusual for a bomb-run to include a weather platform and a camera aircraft.”
Carl and Ryan turned as Jack looked up to see the large Australian, Birnbaum.
“I don’t know that much about wartime bomb runs in the forties,” Jack reluctantly admitted.
“The Thin Man…the Thin Man…oh, a powerful old boy he is…long, tall, drink of cool water he is.”
Pierce seemed to be losing what little mind he had left. Jack shook his head in the doubt the old fella knew anything useful.
“Who is the Thin Man?” Carl asked, seeing Jack’s hesitation at grilling the old man further.
“Oh, he’s the big brother…yes, yes, yes, the biggest brother.”
“Brother to who?” Ryan asked.
“Oh, that’s a secret…big secret…,” Pierce’s eyes bugged out. “Old Curtis Le May said it’s big…top secret…yes,” he leaned into Jack. “The Biggest secret.”
Jack shook his head as he eased the old man up. He made sure he was stable and then faced Carl, Jason, and Professor Birnbaum. “We don’t have the time.”
All four started to walk away.
“The big brother…he is…the biggest brother…yes, oh, yeah.”
They didn’t slow or turn as Pierce leaned against the stone wall with mist from the falls dampening his old jumpsuit.
“The Fat Man is nothing, just like Little Boy is nothing. Oh, not compared to the Thin Man.”
They all four stopped in their tracks. Jack slowly turned to see a smiling and conspiratorial Pierce looking at them. Again, the man came to attention and this time he saluted.
“Fat Man and Little Boy?” Jack asked, as he slowly approached Pierce so as not to frighten the crazed old man away.
A frightened look came over the Major’s face. His head looked left, and then right. “You’re not an agent for Tojo are ‘ya?”
Ryan started to say something, but Jack held up a hand to stop him. Pierce had to say this alone. He had to come to grips with something that frightened him.
“Tojo was hung, Major. We got him,” Jack said, as if the execution of the Japanese Prime Minister for crimes against humanity happened only the week before.
A shocked look came over the Major’s face. “Really?” He lowered his head and the next time he looked at Collins, his face was a mask of anger. “Then why were my boys sacrificed?” He again lowered his head as if his mind was clearing a seventy-five-year fog. “My wife and kids, do they know?”
“Yes,” Jack said. “But Major, the fight’s not over.’
“Yes,” he said as if he just remembered the point he had been trying to make. “Bad guys coming, huh?”
“A lot of them, Major. We need help.”
“The Thin Man…Slick Willy, reporting for duty!” Again, the rigid stance of attention.
“So, there was Fat Man, Little Boy and—”
“The Thin Man. No glory, just a test where no one can see its power.” A strange look came over his face as if he was confused once more. “No glory for Slick Willy…just another bomb-run.”
“Major, report the condition of your aircraft,” Jack insisted.
“Slick Willy has been laid to rest…yes, sir, laid to rest…I follow orders, Colonel Sir…yes, I follow orders. I stayed with Slick Willy as ordered…watched…” His eyes bulged out again as he once more looked around as if spies were everywhere. “Stayed behind…as ordered to do, sir…Slick Willy is buried and no one knows but me…and now…” He looked hard at Jack. “You.”
“Do you know where Slick Willy is?”
“I can show you.”
They turned and saw Professor Lee. He was standing with his hands full of new papers for the last of the evacuating children.
“I am the one who saved Major Pierce and his remaining crew. A little wind and air pressure can go a long way in easing a falling plane back to earth. It’s buried about three miles from here.”
“Jason, get Professor Lee since he knows this area better than us, and take Major Pierce with you and find that bomber. Tram will go with you as cover. Be careful of what’s inside,” he said as he gestured for Carl to come with him as he started to leave the area.
“Mind if I tag along? I feel like a bloody seventh wheel here,” Professor Birnbaum said.
“More company can’t hurt,” Ryan said. “By the way, Colonel, just what in the hell are we looking for out there in the sand besides an old bomber?”
Jack stopped and turned to face Jason and the others.
“You’re looking for the big brother of Fat Man and Little Boy that Major Pierce says is out there. It can only be one thing, Commander.”
“Well?” Ryan persisted, angered he wasn’t catching on as had the others.
“Mister Ryan, Major Pierce was on a special operations mission. One that was never meant to see the history books, or one they deemed important enough to make a movie about,” Carl said. “The Manhattan Project designers were so afraid that their so-called ‘Apparatus’ would fail, they had a third bomb specially designed for a test run. That test run was over the unoccupied portion of Mongolia.”
“Major Pierce was the pilot chosen to drop the first of three Atomic bombs, Jason. You’re going on the hunt for The Thin Man—the big brother of the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
Pierce cackled like a hen laying an egg as the stunned men moved off.
“Big Boom!”
Sarah, Anya, and Charlie had both Jack and Carl cornered. If men could be murdered by just eye contact, both men would have been dead by now.
“After all of this time together, I really thought you had lost your macho-man attitude toward women in danger, Jack,” Sarah said angrily.
“And I don’t even know where to begin with you,” Anya agreed, poking a sharp finger into Carl’s chest.
Charlie Ellenshaw took a step back as he saw the look of murder in the former Mossad agent’s eyes.
“Perhaps I should wait outside,” Charlie said timidly, but Jack took him by the arm and held him in place.
“Stay right here, Doc, I have instructions for you too.”
Crazy Charlie looked deflated.
“Jack, when I get back to Nevada, I am resigning my commission anyway, so what makes you think you can bully me away from what I see as my duty?”
“Okay, you two, listen to me, and Charlie you file this away for any future field related work. You three are here to follow the orders of a superior officer. What makes you think I will let you stand here and squabble about what orders you will or will not obey. I can see you have a growing attachment to the situation here. These people have made the hardest decision in what amounts to close to four thousand years. We will honor that decision. Now, I am going to do something for the first and last time. I will explain to you why you have to go. Sarah, you know the strata of this mountain almost as well as the people who live here. Guide the children south to the Great Wall. Anya, you speak fluent Chinese, and that just happens to be the language they speak in China. You show up on China’s back porch with a bunch of children you may have to explain. Charlie and Anya will act as security.”
“Jack, what about one of the Shangri-La adults, they can guide the children to safety,” Sarah said, folding her arms.
“For the next hour until you leave, it’s Colonel, not Jack, Captain. When we get home, you can give me the silent treatment for as long as you want, but for today, you will follow my last orders to you. Is that clear, Captain McIntire?”
Silence.
“Look, Li Zheng said he needs every young and older adult to slow both factions down enough until we can see if we have a shot at destroying that thing down there. I’ll take him at his word. You three are about to see young children and babies being separated from their parents and they will be terrified. Parents will be saying goodbye and knowing the odds are that they will never see their families again. And you two are complaining about how life is not fair because you’ve been ordered out?”
Both Anya and Sarah could not hold either man’s eyes. Sarah cleared her throat. “Jack, you once told me that when Douglas MacArthur was ordered out of the Philippines before the fall of Bataan, you said that would have been one order you would have had to refuse. You said you believed it was a blot on MacArthur’s legacy because he obeyed a Presidential order. Why do you expect us to have a different attitude?”
“Because MacArthur wasn’t responsible for an army full of children. At least he left behind men. Now get the hell out of here.”
Sarah, while not surrendering, walked up to Jack and laid a hand on his chest. “Yes, sir,” was all she said as their eyes met.
Anya just smiled softly toward Carl as she grabbed Charlie by the arm and pulled him away.
“And Mrs. Collins?”
Sarah smiled upon hearing her new last name spoken aloud in front of others for the first time, but then erased it from her lips before she turned back to face Jack.
“In a couple of days, we’ll have breakfast in Hong Kong, deal?”
Her left brow went up in the way that irritated Collins to no end.
“Oh, you think it’s that easy?” She turned away and then stopped and turned to face him once again. “See ya, Jack.” She turned and left with a smiling Anya and a frightened Charlie Ellenshaw following.
Both men watched them leave with sadness clouding their minds. Then Carl cleared his throat.
“Jack, in case you hadn’t noticed, ever since you told the world about your clandestine marriage, no one has seen or heard from the Frenchman. The Master Chief has also vanished.”
“I noticed. Its always nice having a wild card in the deck, and now we have two. For Henri, he just may have lost his warm and fuzzy feeling for our little band of merry men. As for that mean bastard Jenks, maybe he met one of those large spiders, or even a giant bat that is maybe just as mean as him. In either case, those two can take care of themselves.”
They heard a moan come from the small dwelling next to their quarters.
Jack and Carl went through the door and saw three women coming from a room with bowls of water and bloody rags. Jack and Carl exchanged looks. Jack placed his palms together and then placed them in the prayer position as the last woman came by. He half-bowed. Then to the surprise of Carl, Jack asked her, in what Everett thought was passable Chinese, who was in the room lying injured.
The young woman looked at Jack and then back to the room confused. Then she smiled. “You can speak English, Colonel, as I am fluent in sixteen languages. Perhaps you should brush up on your Chinese. You asked who we were eating inside.”
“Good one, Jack,” Carl said, trying to stifle a laugh.
“Shut up, smart ass.”
“He is Professor Anderson. He no longer needs a guard. He is dying. Brain hemorrhage, I believe,” she said and then walked off.
“The Russian agent,” Carl said as both he and Jack stepped inside to see the prone man on the bed of feathers. His forehead was covered with a bloodstained wrap and his eyes were moving fast behind his lids. “Well, that Birnbaum fella really cracked him a good one, didn’t he?”
Collins got a curious look on his face. He moved further into the room. He practically ran the few feet to the bed. His mouth was ajar as Carl followed him inside.
“You say the Australian followed him into the nether regions where the Dragon Asteroid is buried, and hit him with a rock just before the guards showed up?”
“Yes, that’s what Professor Lee said at any rate. What is it, Jack?”
Collins sat on the edge of the bed and then eased the thick bandage and wet cloth up that partially covered the man’s eyes.
“Oh, no. Harry,” Jack said as he raised one of Anderson’s eyelids. “Harry, Harry Thompson, it’s me, Jack.”
“Harry?” Carl asked, astounded that Jack would know this Russian agent.
Jack reached out and took the cloth from the bowl of cold water next to the bed. He placed the cloth on the man’s forehead and then wiped his face and head. “Come on Harry, wake up.”
“Jack, the man’s done for. Half of his head is caved in.”
The dying man’s eyes fluttered open and then closed. His hand reached out just as Jack thought he had died. His hand took Jack’s.
“Jack…Jack…you damn well took…your sweet…bloody time…getting…here.”
“Harry, what in the hell is going on?”
“Lord Durnsford said not…to trust…anyone on the…field…team. I didn’t…know…it was your…people.” The man that Jack knew as Harry, sat up and took both of Jack’s hands. “That little Geologist…and her…gangster Mossad…friend, are…rather rough on…people…they don’t…like. I think Sarah broke at least…three of my ribs.”
“Harry, why in the hell did MI-6 attach you to the field team?”
He squeezed Jack’s hands even tighter as a bolt of pain shot through his head. Collins stilled him with kind words.
“Our analysis…of the satellite…data confirmed…the instability of the mineral.” He was wracked once more by a spasm of pain. He again calmed. “My orders were to…confirm…and if possible…destroy it…”
“Harry why—”
He sat up further and took Jack by the collar. “Birnbaum…he’s…he’s…”
The man known as Harry slumped forward into Jack’s arms. Collins laid him easily back on the bed and then quickly saw that his pupils were fixed and dilated. He cursed, checked his pulse to be sure, and then pulled the silken sheet over his head.
“Jack, who in the hell is this?” Carl asked. “I mean, Sarah and Anya were convinced he worked with this Siberian Group.”
Jack finally stood. He looked from the covered body to face Carl.
“Harry Thompson. MI-6 and former SAS Captain. We trained together in the old days. He was once the best man in the world when it came to intelligence gathering in field operations. He helped track down Bin Laden toward the end. He was a good man. So good that our friend Lord Durnsford basically retired him after 2014. I guess this mission was supposed to be a cake walk.” Jack bit his lip as he thought things through. “If Harry had orders to destroy the Dragon Asteroid, the British may have known about it for years. That’s the way Durnsford plays. He had little trouble sacrificing lives during the Gray invasion, as you remember.”
“That means the Australian Birnbaum is not what he claims to be.”
Jack turned and started for the door. “And he’s with Ryan, Professor Lee, Tram, and Major Pierce!”
Carl started after him. “It seems we may be getting a little slow on the uptake lately, Jack.”
“That’s a situation we are about to remedy.”