The Bone Labyrinth (49 page)

“Enlarge that image,” she ordered the tech.

Murmurs rose behind her, coming from the other stations. A glance around revealed the same video playing in the corner of
all
of the camera monitors. Chang joined her, his eyes pinched with confusion.

“What is this?” he asked.

“You tell me.” She pointed to the screen. “This is your system.”

“Someone must have hacked into it.”

He shifted closer as the technician zoomed into the new feed. The image grew enough to reveal the face of the threatened soldier. Jiaying recognized the familiar features, even with a mouth gag in place.

“Is that your brother?”

Chang balled a fist at his side. “Gao . . .”

Jiaying pointed to the scrolling number at the bottom of the screen. It was a demand to call a secure radio channel. She could guess who would answer that call.

“Can you trace where this is coming from?” Jiaying asked.

Chang exhaled sharply. “Yes. It will take a minute or so.”

But would the Americans still be there by then?

Chang gripped the technician’s shoulder, both urging him and threatening him to obtain that information swiftly. The man typed vigorously, chasing through screens.

Jiaying glared at the monitor. “As I suspected all along, it appears your brother
was
the source of the leak. Whether inadvertently or not, he must have led the enemy to our doorstep.”

Chang seethed, clearly recognizing the same.

She turned and jabbed a finger into the lieutenant colonel’s chest. “So clean up your brother’s mistake. Lure those intruders out into the open by any means necessary and eliminate them.” She glanced toward the feed from the Ark. “I’m heading off to protect our assets before all of this comes to ruin.”

She stormed out of the security hub, intending to regain control, but her mind already ran through various contingencies if matters grew out of hand.

During the construction of this facility she’d had countermeasures covertly built into the infrastructure. She would not be brought down. She would not suffer the dishonor of this facility being wrested from her hands.

If I fall, we all do.

12:12
P
.
M
.

The radio buzzed in Monk’s hand.

Looks like it’s showtime
.

He climbed into the electric vehicle they had commandeered: a military green truck with an open bed in the back. Sergeant Chin took the wheel, while Kong and the Shaw brothers hauled the unconscious Chinese driver into a neighboring lab.

Monk lifted the buzzing radio as he joined Kimberly in the front seat. “Call’s coming on the secure channel. Seems your message was received.”

He leaned closer to her as he pressed a speaker button so his partner could listen in and translate if necessary.

A voice answered sharply in Mandarin.

Kimberly whispered. “He’s demanding to know who we are.”

Monk lifted the radio, trusting the caller spoke English. “You know who we are. And I’m guessing this is
Zhōngxiào
Sun.” He hoped he had pronounced the rank of lieutenant colonel correctly. “Brother to Gao Sun.”

There was no response. As radio silence stretched, Monk tapped Chin’s shoulder, setting the truck in motion once the Shaws and Kong were aboard, jumping into the back bed.

Monk cast a worried glance toward Kimberly.

If this didn’t work—

Then an answer came, the speaker’s words stiff with fury. “This is Lieutenant Colonel Sun. If you wish to live, you will turn yourselves in immediately . . . and free my brother.”

Monk heard the catch in the other’s voice at the end.

Good.

Kimberly had obtained additional information about the two brothers from her intelligence sources. Chang was the older of the two, married, with a young daughter. Gao was single. The pair had lost both their parents when they were teenagers and joined the army shortly thereafter, rising within the same unit. Kimberly estimated that such a tragedy and circumstance likely bonded the two very closely.

Now to turn that to our advantage
.

Monk raised the radio. “If you ever want to see your brother alive again, you’ll listen to what I have to say.”

As he waited for a response, the truck swept down a long hallway, passing a series of sophisticated labs, chock-full of stainless steel equipment and cages. So far they had encountered only a handful of personnel. It seemed the alarms had triggered some sort of facility lockdown.

“What are your demands?” Chang asked tersely.

“Simple. You help us. We help you.”

Another long pause, then Chang’s voice returned, softer now. “How?”

“If you assist us, we will leave your brother safe, and with ironclad intelligence that will implicate Major General Lau as a co-conspirator in all of this. She will be the scapegoat. For every
win
you help us achieve over the next hour, she
loses
.”

Monk held his breath. The success of this plan hinged on the animosity between Chang and his superior, but would professional ambition outweigh loyalty in this regard?

“How do I know you can do what you claim?” Chang asked.

“Have we not penetrated your facility?” Monk asked. “That should be proof enough of our skill and expertise.”

“But why should I trust you?”

“You don’t have much choice. If we fail to give an all clear to our operatives in Beijing, your brother’s body will be discovered near the U.S. embassy, with clear evidence that he was trying to escape to that safe zone.” Monk ratcheted up the threat. “And on his remains will be found evidence implicating you and your wife as American spies.”

Monk let that sink in for several breaths, then finished. “Listen. If we get what we want, you turn out to be a hero, while Major General Lau is taken down. We fail, and you suffer along with your family, while Lau basks in the glory of stopping us. The choice is yours,
Zhōngxiào
Sun.”

This time, there was not even a pause. “What do you want me to do?”

Monk grinned at Kimberly, then spoke. “Tell us where the others are and clear a path for us to them.”

Kimberly had her satellite phone out. She pulled up a schematic of the facility that she had hacked from a computer terminal earlier.

As Chang passed on the necessary information, she nodded. “Got it,” she whispered. “I know where they are.”

“What else?” Chang asked bitterly.

“Just one more thing.”

“What?”

Monk told him, then signed off.

Kimberly faced Monk, letting out a long sigh. “Can we trust him?”

He pointed ahead. “We’re about to find out.”

As they set off on the path given them, another worry set in.

What if we’re already too late?

12:13
P
.
M
.

The ground trembled as the massive silverback pounded toward Kowalski. Still, on his hands and his knees, he couldn’t do much more than brace himself against what was to come. Still, he rolled toward the snoring bulk of the younger black-furred hybrid sprawled to his left, doing his best to seek any shelter.

Fat lot of good it’ll do me.

Then a screeching howl echoed throughout the habitat, seeming to come from every direction at once as it reverberated off the rock walls. The cry was full of anger and threat.

Now what?

He lifted his head to see the silverback skidding to a stop a yard away. It leaned on one arm while craning around for the source of the sound.

Kowalski did the same while taking the chance to retreat farther back, crawling toward the boulder pile in the center of the habitat.

Then he spotted a dark shadow bound away from the wall below the observation windows. The shape moved swiftly, leaping and racing toward Kowalski. It took him half a breath to recognize Baako.

No . . .

What was he doing down here?

With a final hurdle, Baako landed in a crouch next to Kowalski. Panting, the little guy faced the mountain of muscle only yards away. He lifted to his feet and thumped his chest with both fists, challenging the alpha beast of this habitat.

Not smart, kid.

“Baako, go!” Kowalski yelled, waving an arm, which triggered a fresh flare of agony from his broken ribs. “Get outta here!”

Baako held his ground.

The silverback remained rooted in place, clearly trying to comprehend this intrusion into its domain, not to mention the defiant posturing of such a small creature. But the confusion quickly wore off, replaced with irritation and anger.

A bellow burst from its wide chest. The half-ton beast lunged forward and lashed out with a thick arm—but Baako was no longer there.

The young gorilla leaped high, springing and somersaulting over the silverback’s shoulder to land on the monster’s rump.

The silverback reared up, flinging around.

Baako jumped away as another arm came swinging at him. This time he failed to get completely out of the way in time. An elbow clipped his hip and sent him flying. Still, he managed to twist before landing and rolled on a shoulder, tumbling across the floor.

The silverback thundered after him, pounding its fists into the rock.

The other denizens of the habitat—initially stunned by the strangeness—slowly reacted. With the silverback’s attention diverted elsewhere, they closed toward Kowalski.

Not good.

He continued his retreat toward the boulder field while watching Baako flee from that avalanche of muscle and claw behind him. Kowalski reached the rock pile and ducked behind a boulder. In one hand he grabbed a chunk of stone and in the other a concrete limb that had broken off one of the fake trees. He intended to go caveman on these monsters if necessary.

He flattened his back against the rock, noting Baako had begun to slow, clearly tiring out. The silverback now huffed at his heels.

Kowalski cringed, afraid to watch; then Baako juked to the left, ducking clear of the other’s path. The silverback could not turn so swiftly. The momentum of all that mass could not match Baako’s lithe agility. Still, the silverback heaved around and skidded through loose shale, bunching its tree-trunk-sized legs under its bulk. Before even coming to a stop, it bounded after Baako, who was unfortunately aiming straight for Kowalski’s hiding spot.

Kowalski rose into view, waving Baako off, pointing to the open window.

“Get your ass up there!”

Like everyone else in his life, Baako ignored him.

The little guy made a final leap in his direction, his arms straining for Kowalski, but luck and speed could last only so long. The silverback caught Baako by the ankle and swung his small body to the side, ripping Baako away from Kowalski’s reach.

No!

12:14
P
.
M
.

Pain rips through Baako’s leg as his body is wrenched around. The rock walls blur. Still, he knows he must keep struggling. Deep in his chest, he knows anything else is death.

Still caught, his body is flung high above the monster. The beast is a horror out of one of Mama’s bedtime stories. It intends to swing him down and smash him to the floor. Knowing this, Baako wriggles around and bites the hand clamped to his ankle.

A roar rises; the grip loosens.

Baako yanks free and tumbles toward the ground. His arms and legs flail, seeking some way to catch himself. Then monstrously powerful fingers snatch him around the waist, grabbing him out of the air, squeezing so hard that he cannot breathe.

The monster has him again, bellowing with rage and blood. Jaws open wide. Fangs dive for Baako’s throat. His eyes roll in terror, finding a face far above, so scared like him.

He gets enough breath to hoot to her.

Bye, Mama . . .

Baako’s final feeble bleat reached Maria, shattering her heart.

She squeezed her rifle’s trigger in a maternal need to protect, but the pin struck an empty chamber. She had already used the last of the tranquilizer darts, reloading three times during the brief battle below. She had concentrated her fire upon the silverback, but the beast had moved too fast, escaping the darts. The only shot that had struck home was one that hit a lumbering female that had gotten too close to Kowalski’s hiding spot.

The sting of that impact had been enough to frighten the creature away, but it would take another minute or so for the sedative to knock it out.

That’s if one dart was even enough for such massive beasts.

With an empty rifle and no more ammunition, she could do nothing but watch the silverback prepare to rip out Baako’s throat.

Suddenly a large rock flew through the air and struck the silverback between the eyes. The beast paused long enough to look up, more surprised than hurt by the assault.

Kowalski mounted one of the boulders, bearing aloft a club of concrete.

“Pick on someone your own size, you furry bastard!”

12:15
P
.
M
.

Not that I’m your size . . .

Even standing on the boulder, Kowalski was dwarfed by the towering silverback. It still clutched Baako, the little guy forgotten for the moment.

“C’mon!” Kowalski challenged the beast, beckoning with his weapon, hoping it would let Baako go.

The silverback stepped toward him, then stumbled slightly to the side. It caught itself by grabbing at one of the concrete trees. Branches snapped under its teetering weight. The beast fell to a knee.

What the hell . . .

The rock he’d pitched couldn’t have done
that
much damage. It was like wafting a pea at a bull.

Still, the silverback let go of Baako and planted a fist on the ground to keep itself upright. Free now, Baako scampered over to the boulders.