Rogue Angel - The Spirit Banner Part 22

Mason thought about it for a moment. "Well, it would probably be one that was important to the Khan, wouldn't it? Someplace that held special meaning for him?"

They sat in silence for a few moments, thinking, until Annja suddenly exclaimed, "Khokh Lake!" and grabbed the map, looking it over as she explained. "Genghis Khan was named clan chief on the sh.o.r.es of Khokh Lake at the foot of Khara Jirgun Mountain. The Mongol name for it was the Blue Lake by Back-Heart-Shaped Mountain. Just about every single historical account we have about Genghis's life notes this as significant. That's got to be the place!"

But it wasn't.

Khokh Lake was fed by two rivers, not three.

That started them down a list of major events in the Khan's life, and it wasn't long before they figured it out. The boy who would later become the Khan of khans had been born along the Onon River, near the spot where the Onon, the Tuul and the Kerulen all began. Looming over them was the tallest mountain in the Hentiyn Nuruu range, Burkhan Khaldun, or G.o.d Mountain, as it was called.

Annja pointed to the spot on the map about three or four days' hard drive from where they were. "That's it. That's the place. It's got to be. That's where we'll find the next clue."

23.

The night pa.s.sed without incident. They broke camp with the rising sun and headed north toward the Hentiyn Nuruu mountain range. They kept their vehicles in the same formation, but now everyone paid more attention both to the traffic they pa.s.sed on the road and to the clear sky above, looking for the helicopter Chingbak claimed Ransom had arrived in.

It wasn't long before they left the last remnants of civilization behind and headed into the heart of the Mongolian steppes. Annja had seen pictures of spring in the steppes: the vast green plains stretching as far as the eye can see, wildflowers and herds of wild horses occasionally breaking the ocean of green with a riot of color and motion, all framed by the clear blue sky above that just seemed to go on forever.

Unfortunately, they were just a few short weeks from winter at this point. Those endless green plains were now dull beige in color. The wildflowers were nowhere to be found and the horses had gone south for warmer pastures. The blue sky was the same startling color, but even that seemed colder and harsher to Annja than it had in the photographs.

Just about midday they came upon an old chain-link fence stretching across the road and disappearing into the distance on either side. The gate had been forced at some time in the past; it lay bent and pulled to one side, the chain that once secured it now draped across the road.

A sign with Cyrillic letters, pockmarked with bullet holes, hung about five feet to the left of the gate.

"Restricted Zone," Mason read aloud. "Violators Will Be Shot."

They had reached the edge of the land Genghis Khan had called home.

Annja knew that after Genghis Khan was secretly buried in his homeland, his soldiers sealed off several hundred miles of pristine countryside. No one but members of the Khan's family could enter. A special group of soldiers was a.s.signed to protect what would become known as the Ikh Khorig-the Great Taboo. Annja knew that even long after the Mongol Empire had collapsed and other cultures had invaded the area, the Mongol people had still prevented anyone from entering this sacred land.

When the Soviets arrived, there was concern that the Mongol people would use the memory of Genghis Khan as a rallying point for nationalism. To prevent this, they kept up the age-old habit of preventing entry into the region, even going so far as to stop referring to the area by its Mongol name and recla.s.sifying it as the Highly Restricted Area, an innocuous bureaucratic designation if there ever was one. Not satisfied with that, they surrounded the Highly Restricted Area with another equally large buffer zone they named the Restricted Zone.

Neither roads nor bridges had been built anywhere within this zone during the Soviet era. With so many other issues occupying the Mongol people's attention, nothing had been built since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It was going to be a different ride from here on out.

With a wave of his arm, Mason ordered the convoy to continue forward into the Great Taboo.

F ROM HIS POSITION ROM HIS POSITION a few miles behind, Ransom sat and watched the blip on his tracking device that represented Davenport's convoy as they crossed into the Restricted Zone. He wondered exactly where they were headed. His team had struck out twice so far, first with the translation of the journal and then again at the monastery. Clearly, Davenport and his pet archaeologist knew something he did not. a few miles behind, Ransom sat and watched the blip on his tracking device that represented Davenport's convoy as they crossed into the Restricted Zone. He wondered exactly where they were headed. His team had struck out twice so far, first with the translation of the journal and then again at the monastery. Clearly, Davenport and his pet archaeologist knew something he did not.

But what?

He was growing more frustrated with each pa.s.sing hour. Where were they getting their information?

His inside source was due to report in later that evening, so it was only a matter of time before Ransom would have a handle on where Davenport's team was headed. And once he had that, he could set up the next stage of his plan.

As if on cue, the rear door opened and Santiago slid into the seat beside him.

"Well?" Ransom asked.

"We're set. All we need is the cash to pay them off and they'll do whatever we ask them to do."

Ransom smiled and it wasn't a pleasant smile. "Good. And they know not to touch anything they find?"

Santiago nodded. "I made it quite clear."

"Excellent!"

Ransom turned back to the GPS monitoring device and watched the blip continue on its forward journey. "Let's see how Davenport deals with a little unexpected company, shall we?"

24.

The trip became more surreal the deeper they went into the Restricted Zone. The Soviets might not have wasted their time building bridges or roads, but that didn't mean they shied away from building everything else. The first thing they encountered, less than half a mile from the boundary, was an abandoned tank base.

At least, that's what Annja a.s.sumed it to be, given the rusting hulks that sat still and silent off to each side of the road and the cl.u.s.ter of buildings they could see in the distance. The tanks looked as if they had been in the midst of maneuvers when the call had come for everyone to drop things where they were and walk off the set. It was an eerie feeling driving by those abandoned tanks; there was sense of fearful expectation about them, as if they were just waiting for the right stimulus to reawaken, to suddenly return to life and their deadly missions. Annja's imagination quickly went into overdrive as she imagined the turrets suddenly rotating in their direction, the squeal of steel on steel as long-unused ammo cases suddenly dropped a round into the firing mechanisms and...

That's enough of that, she told herself firmly as the tanks disappeared into the distance behind them.

That was just the beginning of the weirdness, however.

They pa.s.sed a long stretch of flat country filled with craters and strewn with the wreckage of trucks, tanks and what seemed to be the partial remains of aircraft. Any interest in examining them was quickly stifled when unexploded artillery sh.e.l.ls were found in a nearby crater. Collapsed buildings and complexes also showed up regularly along their route, lounging empty and all but forgotten among the waving gra.s.slands.

More than once they were forced to detour around large pools of stagnant water mixed with unidentifiable chemicals that shimmered in the sunlight like Christmas lights. Far more often than not the banks of such oases were lined with the decaying carca.s.ses of animals that had crept down to the water's edge for a drink and never managed to leave. Even the air seemed to be against them, with strange smelling vapors rising from the cracked and cratered landscape as they drove farther and farther from civilization.

They had been driving for eight long hours when Mason called a halt. It would be dark soon and he wanted to have camp set up while they could still see. A quick conference with the other drivers resulted in the choice of a suitable location. The tents were pulled out and set up while two of Mason's men set about making dinner for the rest of the team.

The food was good and the coffee afterward even better. Annja found that she enjoyed Mason's company and the two of them stayed up much later than the others, swapping stories. Annja talked about the various expeditions she'd been on and what it was like working on a popular cable show, while Mason filled her in on all the craziness that came with being the personal bodyguard to one of the world's richest men. By the time they were both ready to call it an evening, it was close to midnight.

Mason banked the fire, ensuring that there would be hot coals to restart it in the morning and they both retired to their tent.

Annja, however, was unable to sleep. She'd had too many cups of coffee after riding in the truck all day and nature called. She really didn't want to go outside in the cold, but sharing the tent with two men didn't leave her any other option.

Trying to be as quiet as possible so that she didn't wake her companions, she dug around in her pack until she located the packet of tissues she'd set aside for just such an event and then, flashlight in hand, stepped out into the night air.

The moon had yet to rise and the camp was shrouded in darkness, but she refrained from turning on the flashlight as she didn't want to call attention to herself should anyone still be awake. She figured she'd get beyond the ring of trucks at the edge of camp and then switch it on.

The dying embers of the fire gave her enough light to see by and so she crossed past its remains, headed for the trucks parked just beyond.

In the darkness on the other side of the vehicles, a horse snickered softly.

Annja froze.

A horse? Way the heck out here?

She waited, her pulse raising and her ears straining, trying to decide if she'd heard what she thought she'd heard or if she'd simply been imagining it.

A few seconds pa.s.sed and right when she had just about decided it must have been something else, a light chuffing sound reached her ears, as if a large animal had just blown air out of its nostrils.