Page 84 (1/2)

me at the same ti I can do

The next day he wrote:

Have now learned the truth Only one way to salvage what I’ve done Making one more trip to the cave Imperative that Xiao Da never knohat I’ve found Must send photos to Angela in case it’s too late I’ve been very stupid

During the last eighteen days of his life, Brian escheords, preferring to sketch local land the of the river next to the symbol for river, the doors of country houses and how they related to the character for door He’d done the sae he’d attempted unsuccessfully to draw the face of a child but then had scratched it out Next to it he’d written the character for good, which was corams for mother and child

The s, the nized the perimeter of Site 518, with the various pits where artifacts had been found Another showed the river, Bashan, the dig, and the Wu house with archaic characters dotted here and there In the es, one sheet had been torn out Finally, and most important, Brian had become very tense and fearful, which was made even clearer by his final, sad entry written two days before his disappearance

July 17—Don’t knohat to do I can’t tell what I know and I can’t do the right thing either without putting other people’s lives in danger I hope Angela understands what I sent her Angela, if you read this and you haven’t figured it out yet, look at the photos Really look! I love you and I’m sorry

Instead of signing his name, he’d carefully drawn the characters of aabove a tre, but as the characters suggested, he’d been powerless to stop it

David closed the journal Brian and Lily had died because of the ruyi Bill Tang—who had been sent to Hong Kong to buy it—had nearly killed David Whoever had the artifact noas a target

David juht a wave of dizziness and nausea, then rushed into the bathroom He pulled his sodden clothes out of the hah them until he found Stuart Miller’s card

DAVID RAN OUT THE BACK DOOR OF THE HOTEL AND JOGGED through the storm, away from the harbor and the business district toward Victoria Peak He saw no cars or taxis plying the streets A few one past the entrances to the Peak Tram, the YMCA, and the Botanical Gardens The area becareat aparts burned with the effort of running uphill The wound on his head throbbed, and his side hurt al had kicked him David ran every day but not with this kind of pain He stopped for a ain his breath Then he pushed off his back leg and continued on

Land was at a preht of the an to pass so close He turned onto another street and trotted another few hundred yards to Stuart Miller’s property The electric gates were open, but all of the ere shuttered against the storm David bounded up the front steps, looked around, then as quietly as possible tried the doorknob It turned David hesitated He could be wrong about all this If he was, he’d be breaking into Stuart’s house If he wasn’t and he opened the door, the sound of the storht alert whoever was inside

David entered the house and closed the door behind him Dr Ma was sprawled in the middle of the foyer A bullet had obliterated half his face, and blood had pooled around hi David edged around the body and peered into the living roohts were on, but the room was empty The walls had been painted in muted earth tones, and the furniture blended into the sepulchral gloo focused attention solely on the art that lined the walls and perched on risers in the living room Even to David’s untrained eye, the value of the art was incalculable He readily spotted works fro spent sonized bronze pieces fro Dynasty, some of which had to be nearly four thousand years old

He syste of the shutters, tree branches hitting the sides of the house, the shrieking wind—until he heard voices upstairs As stealthily as possible he cli hallway extended in front of hiht, more risers with archaic bronzes and carved pieces of jade Hebefore each open door to listen before crossing in front of the opening He got to the end of the hall and one last open door He recognized the voices of Stuart Miller and Bill Tang David edged around the doorjamb Stuart was tied to a chair His face was puffy and bruised Blood ringed his lips and dribbled down his chin Tang had his back to the door Another door on the far right of the room was open, but David couldn’t see as inside He pulled back and glanced around for a weapon The heaviest thing he could see was a tableau carved in jade He reached for it and hefted it in his hands It weighed a few pounds The tableau was rounded, but the bottoe David shifted the piece in his hands He took a deep breath, rushed into the roo’s head The lieutenant crumpled to the floor, and David dropped the jade

“Untie ainst the rope

David untied Stuart, and together they used the rope to bind Tang’s feet and hands The lieutenant didn’t budge David felt for a pulse Tang was alive, just out cold