The Project 01 - White Jade

to a grudging admiration.
    The thought of the shooter dead in the mine made him feel better. He ' d report in, give as few details as possible and hope for the best. Choy began humming to himself. Everything would be fine.

Chapter F if teen

    Colonel Wu smoked and th ought about the failed attempt to secure the Connor woman. Now he had f ive dead agents to explain . There was a knock on his door.
    " Yes. "
    " Choy, Sir. "
    Wu stubbed out his cigarette and opened the door. One look told him he was not going to like what he heard. He gestured and Choy entered the room. Wu closed the door.
    " Report, Sergeant. "
    " Sir. We ran into trouble. The woman, Connor, was at the house when we arrived but there was a man with her. He was armed and we got into a firefight. Li and Chung are dead. I chased the woman and her companion into an abandoned mine. The entrance collapsed and they were buried inside. They must be dead. I searched the house and the book was not there. I did get the name of the man who was there and confirmed the identity of the woman. "
    Choy handed Selena ' s license and the slip from the car to Wu. He had decided to omit the reason the mine collapsed and his thought the book was buried with the Americans. Better to let Wu think it was still out there somewhere.
    " What did you do with Li and Chung? "
    " Sir, there ' s more. I p ut the m in the trunk of the car. On the way here I was stopped by a policeman. It was some sort of safety check. He was going to let me go when he saw blood leaking from the trunk. He reached for his gun and I shot him. That was about a half hour ago. "
    " You shot an American police officer. " Wu ' s voice was flat.
    " Yes, sir. I had no choice. "
    " Where is the car? "
    " In the garage below. "
    " Give me your pistol. "
    Choy handed over the gun.
    " Choy, you have disappointed me. I expected more discretion from you. You are certain the book was not in the house? Did the woman have it with her when she fled? "
    " The book was not in the house, s ir. If the woman had it with her, I did not see it. "
    It was true, he hadn ' t actually seen a book in the woman ' s hand.
    " You are leaving tonight for home, Sergeant. I will arrange passage on one of our freighters. Go to your room and wait there. You will be escorted to your ship. As soon as you arrive in Beijing , report to me. "
    He gave Choy a hard look.
    " Dismissed. "
    " Sir! " Choy snapped to attention, turned and left the room . The door closed behind him.
    Wu picked up his phone and began making arrangements to clean up the mess Choy had created. He was angry. The book was not found. If it was in that mine, how would he retrieve it? Wu would wait to inform the General. Yang was not a man who tolerated failure. He'd sleep on it and decide what to do tomorrow .

Chapter Six teen

    Carter saw a dark object thrown into the tunnel and heard it clink against the rock floor and knew what it was . He jumped into the cart right on top of Selena, knocking her to the rusty floor, pressing her body under him .
    The explosion blotted out thought . Shrapnel ricocheted off the sides of the cart. The entrance to the mine collapsed with a thunderous roar, shutting off the light.
    Rumblings and falls deep within the mine faded away.
    Total blackness.
    Carter lay rigid, waiting for the ringing in his ears to stop.
    She coughed. " You mind getting off me? "
    He was pressing her down under him, the .45 still in his hand. He holstered it, climbed out of the cart in the dark.
    " I can ' t see a damn thing. " Selena coughed again.
    " I can fix that. "
    Nick reached into his jacket pocket for the mini flash he always carr ied . He clicked it on.
    Something crawled across the back of his hand.
    A large, black spider.
    He slapped it away, almost losing the flash. Something crunched under his foot.
    He helped Selena out of the cart and tried not to think about spiders. She was covered with dirt and had scrapes on her face. Her silk designer blouse was ripped and stained with red dirt and rust , exposing most of her breast .
    The entrance to the mine was blocked by tons of rock reaching to the ceiling. Thin streams of d irt trickled from the roof of the tunnel.
    " We ' re not getting out that way , " he said.
    " The whole side of the hill must have come down. "
    He took out his phone. No signal.
    " Is there another entrance? " He flicked the thin beam of the flash around the tunnel . Something moved at the edge of the light.
    " I think so, but I don ' t