Donovans 02 - Jade Island

People in the audience were coming to their feet like corks out of champagne bottles. There was a restless shifting, then a concerted rush toward the stage.
    Lianne didn’t notice. She was staring at the patterns of jade and gold stitching on Farmer’s prize. From where she stood, they were identical with her memories of Wen’s suit.
    Her throat closed around air that was too thick to breathe. She didn’t know which would be worse: being mistaken in identifying the blade and the burial suit, or being right. She tried to get past Kyle, but there was no room.
    “Let me by,” she demanded urgently. “I have to see it close up.”
    “You and every other jade lover. I wouldn’t mind taking a good look myself. But we’re too late. There’s a crowd six-deep heading for it right now.”
    “No, you don’t understand. I must examine that suit. Get out of my way!”
    He looked sideways at her. Her face was pale, strained, and her body was vibrating with the intensity that had her nails buried in his callused palm. She was tugging and pushing, trying to get past him in the tightly packed crowd of people.
    “Why?” he asked.
    Lianne shook her head and said starkly, “Let me by!”
    “Stay close. I’ll break trail for you.”
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” Farmer said loudly. “Please sit down. The suit will be on display for the opening of my Museum of Asian Jade. It will remain on display thereafter. Everyone who wishes will have ample time to see the burial shroud.”
    Perhaps half the people heading for the stage hesitated.The rest just kept on going. Hard-faced guards wearing tuxedos materialized near Farmer.
    Towing Lianne behind him, Kyle made for the side of the room. He ignored the startled curses and outraged looks from people whose feet happened to be in his way. Then he saw the guards form a ring around Farmer, who was yelling at them to protect the suit, not him. Soon the guards would become a solid barrier across the stage.
    Kyle turned to Lianne. “Faint,” he said quietly.
    “What?”
    “If you want to get close to that burial suit, faint. ”
    Lianne crumpled.
    Kyle grabbed her, lifted her in his arms, and began shoving roughly through the crowd.
    “Get out of my way,” he shouted. “She needs air. Clear a path!”
    Quickly Kyle forced a way up on the stage, which was the only place in the auction room that wasn’t crowded. Several guards started toward him, saw the utterly limp woman in his arms, and turned back to control the people who were still on their feet. The curtain thumped down behind Kyle’s back, tangling the most eager members of the crowd in a combination of soft velvet folds and guards whose hands were a good deal harder.
    “Stay away from the jade,” a guard snarled at Kyle.
    “Screw the jade. She has to have air.”
    Before the guard could decide whether to go after Kyle, one of the mainland China contingent staggered out from under the curtain. While the guard was trying to do a little hands-on, cross-cultural exchange, Kyle slipped around behind the coffin-sized pedestal that supported the jade suit.
    “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” Kyle said in Lianne’s ear. “You’ve got maybe thirty seconds before a guard spots us. Ten seconds after that, we’ll be out on our ear.”
    Lianne didn’t need a second invitation. She twisted in Kyle’s arms until she was facing the shroud.
    It was barely two feet away, illuminated by a spotlight so intense that it seemed like a solid column of white.Gold threads twisted and glittered as though alive, but it was only Lianne who was alive, straining toward the immortal jade with an urgency that made her quiver.
    “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!” yelled a guard.
    “Take it easy,” Kyle said. “This is the only decent air in the room.”
    “Take her outside,” the guard said curtly, running across the stage. “Move!”
    “We’re bounced,” Kyle murmured, heading for the exit.
    Lianne didn’t complain. She had seen enough. Too much. Dick Farmer’s beautiful jade prize had once belonged to Wen Zhi Tang.
    The certainty of it stunned her.
    Belatedly she realized that Kyle was still carrying her. “Put me down.”
    “In a minute.”
    “But—where are we going?”
    “Outside.”
    “Why? Is the guard still after us?”
    “No, but I want to see if anyone else is. Got any objections?”
    If Lianne did, she didn’t have time to voice them. Kyle put her down and then hustled her through an outside door