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Strangely, the rooms were empty

He remembered more of what Sima Qian had written And there were ht from afar The rooarments, ceramics, headdresses, crowns, belts, ornaments, bronze and tin funerary objects, lacquerware, wooden figurines—everything the emperor would have needed in his afterlife

Yet there was nothing

He noticed ornaular intervals and realized that laht from Pau Wen, the ones Pau had proht the emperor’s way and nourish the spirits of the dead

But there were no lamps

Which meant no oil

Nothing

Only a blue-and-white urn, perhaps a meter wide and at least that tall in the center of the next cha la a wick afloat He stepped close and peered inside, hoping that soht remain, but the container stood dry

Viktor advanced into the next chamber, the two brothers in tow

Tang lingered, his hts

Qin Shi’s toh that electricity had been run and lighting installed This could not have occurred during the last decade His h, Ni Yong knew about what had happened here

“Ni Yong,” he called out “It is time to settle the matter between us”

MALONE FROZE AT THE SOUND OF A VOICE, THE WORDS ricocheting through the silence like a gunshot Cassiopeia reacted, too, and they both crouched to one side of the jade plinth, identifying that the voice had come from beyond the hall’s main entrance

Was the Mandarin being spoken to them?

If so, they had no way of understanding

“That wasn’t Pau Wen,” Cassiopeia whispered

He agreed “And we don’t have many options”

They were positioned in the center of a hall, the plinth their only cover He risked a glance and noticed shadows in the next chamber, perhaps thirty yards away Doubtful he and Cassiopeia could h which they’d entered without being spotted

He saorry in her eyes

They were trapped

TANG ADVANCED TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE BURIAL CHAMBER and called out again, “Ni Yong, there is nowhere for you to go”

Froround palace The ceiling twinkled with thousands of lights, the floor a surreal three-di with the shimmer of mercury froovernment had resisted all requests to open the tomb The site was bare Except for a jade table, alive with carvings, in the center, where surely the First Emperor once lay

The two brothers approached from behind

“There are annex chambers,” one of them said

He’d seen the dark doorways, too “And there is another way out of here” He pointed across the burial hall to a break in the hty meters away “Where is Viktor?”

“Checking the annex rooms”

He pointed at the distant exit “Let us see if Ni Yong went there”

NI SOUGHT REFUGE IN ONE OF SEVERAL ROOMS THAT OPENED off the three anteroo and three other men marveled at what he’d already been stunned to see

Though he was out of their iht, there was simply no place to hide The dim room he’d entered was bare except for a collection of ’s declaration and knew that he’d have to shoot his way to safety

This

That’s what the premier had told him Was this what he meant?

I will not involve anyone else, or allow you to do so

Unfortunately, Tang had not come alone Could he take all four? It seeain, except this time he possessed no savior

He hoped the burial chah that he could slip out the way he’d entered But before he could retrace his steps and make an escape, the doorway out was blocked by aa semi-automatic pistol

Aimed his way

The foreigner stood with his body backlit, spine straight, eyes locked ahead Ni held his gun at his side, the barrel pointed to the floor

He’d never lift it in time

Two shots popped

TANG STUDIED THE FLOOR AS HE CAREFULLY ADVANCED TOWARD the hall’s center He’d just crossed a narrow causeway that spanned as surely the China Sea In Qin Shi’s time that would have been the empire’s eastern boundary The “sea,” an areaby that many wide, shimmered with quicksilver He was initially concerned about toxicity, but he noticed that a thin layer of mineral oil had been applied over the mercury

Soht ahead

That was not an ancient innovation