False Horizon. Alex Archer

line of cold sweat that broke out along his spine almost made him start to move. He didn’t think he’d ever experienced this kind of fear before, and in all of his years working with the intelligence community he couldn’t recall ever feeling anything like it.

      She knew he was there.

      Tuk felt certain of it. He heard something in the darkness and realized that she had clicked her terribly long fingernails together. They looked like claws in the twilight. Tuk had little doubt they could effectively shred anyone she wanted. He realized that she reminded him of a feral cat that knows it has its prey cornered.

      Just then Burton came around the corner and headed straight at her. She blinked and, in that instant, Tuk knew he was safe. Her concentration broken, she seemed to suddenly mask herself again in the guise of a servant.

      Burton regarded her. “Mr. Tsing wants you to clean up the wineglasses. Make sure you use hot water on them.”

      She bowed low, took one final look at Tuk’s hiding place and then slipped away. Tuk watched her turn a corner and vanish.

      Burton wandered into another room.

      This was his chance.

      Tuk eased over to the main door and cracked it open, passing out of it as quickly and noiselessly as he could manage. He heard the soft hiss as the door closed behind him and then he was fairly running to the stairwell, shooting down to the floors below the penthouse.

      Once there, he hopped on the elevator and sank to the lobby. He walked out as easily as he’d entered and then took up a position outside of the hotel. He would be able to see Burton and Kurtz remove Annja Creed and the fellow known as Mike.

      He removed the cell phone from his pocket again and pressed the number two. It was answered immediately.

      “Were you successful?”

      “Yes,” he said.

      “Tell me everything you heard and saw.”

      Tuk faithfully recounted the entire escapade, delving into detail about the conversation and then also about the mysterious woman in the apartment.

      The man on the phone seemed especially intrigued about her. “You said she seemed to know you were there.”

      “Without a doubt. She knew I was there. In another moment she might have killed me, such was the feeling she gave me.”

      “But when the man you called Burton came around the corner, she assumed the guise of a servant woman again?”

      “Yes.”

      “Very interesting.”

      “Terrifying,” Tuk said.

      “She is no doubt some type of plant on Tsing. Of that we can be certain. But for what reason?”

      “I don’t know,” Tuk said.

      “Where are you right at this moment?”

      Tuk glanced around. He was again hidden in the shadows and certain no one would see him. The only way he could be discovered was if someone overheard him talking on the phone.

      “I’m hidden across the street from the hotel entrance.”

      “You said Tsing’s men will take them to the airfield?”

      “Yes.”

      “Is there a back entrance to the hotel they might opt to use instead of the front?”

      “There is,” Tuk said. “But it leads only to an alley too small for a car to travel down. If they want to use a car to transport Annja Creed and her friend, they will need to come out the front entrance.”

      The man grunted. “They’ll wait, then, until very late. When there’s a skeleton crew on duty in the lobby. That way they’ll be able to pass without too much interest in what they’re doing.”

      “That is my guess, as well,” Tuk said. “I will stay with them all the way.”

      “Good. I need to look a little bit further into this strange woman you spoke of just now. I want to know more about her and who she really is.”

      “May I ask what your feeling is about her?”

      “I’m not sure yet. But it may be assumed that she is no mere servant girl. She is obviously positioned close to Tsing for some reason. But for what, I don’t know.”

      “She scared me. And I’ve never felt fear like that.”

      “You did well,” the man said on the phone. “You acquitted yourself admirably and performed excellently. I’m very pleased with the results of your reconnaissance. Now I must decide what to do about this new wrinkle.”

      “I do not envy you.”

      “Just continue to make certain that Annja Creed stays safe. If Tsing lives up to his word, then all should be fine. But I want you around just in case.”

      “And if it appears that Burton and Kurtz mean them harm?”

      The man paused for the slightest moment. “I don’t wish to tell you how to handle that situation if you are not comfortable with it. However, my primary concern is that Annja Creed remains safe. As such, any steps you think wise to ensure that may be taken.”

      Tuk grunted. “Understood.” He calmly fingered the folded kukri in his pocket. Dispatching Burton and Kurtz would please him.

      “Don’t be in a hurry to exact vengeance on those who have wronged you, my friend. Act only if the situation calls for it. But if you must act, then do it swiftly and boldly. You must strike first and be without restraint in order to win the day.”

      “I will.”

      “Keep me informed of any developments.” The line disconnected and Tuk was once more alone in the darkness.

      A stiff breeze blew out of the northwest and circled around his body. Tuk thought about what he’d heard in the penthouse and marveled. Even he knew of the legend of Shangri-La. It was supposed to be a mystical place of untold beauty and wondrous lands. The people who lived there were supposedly a master race of supremely intelligent and wise, peaceful people who knew the secrets of the universe.

      But did such a place really exist?

      It seemed too incredible to be real. And yet, here was the most powerful criminal in Katmandu telling Annja Creed and her friend Mike that he firmly believed it did exist. And here was an apparently famous adventurer and a learned man saying they believed the same.

      If they thought the legends true, then Tuk supposed all that remained was to find out if it truly did exist.

      He wondered what it would be like to discover such a land. With so much of his own past steeped in doubt and question, Tuk found the idea of seeing a place like Shangri-La a tempting diversion.

      Perhaps when he was done working for the man on the telephone, he would try to find the place on his own. He didn’t have to become a farmer. He could wander the countryside and find his own path. And there was no telling where it might lead.

      Nepal, after all, was a land of legends and myths. The swirling mix of religions and peoples made for all sorts of craziness. Tuk grinned as he thought about the creatures said to exist outside the boundaries of civilization.

      The yeti still walked according to legends he heard told by traders who came down to Katmandu from up north. Tuk wasn’t sure what to make of that particular story, but he had enough memory of being outside the city to know there were many parts of the country that seemed to defy the modern age. Who knew what existed in the crevices of the vast mountain ranges that jutted out of the earth?

      Anything seemed possible, he decided, when standing in the middle of the night in the shadows of the hotel.

      Tuk frowned. This wasn’t like him. Seeing that woman upstairs had shaken him. He recognized that the fear had welled up from the bottom reaches