The Project 01 - White Jade

gigantic boulders and falls of rock. The wind was relentless, a freezing, brittle wind . Loose stones rolled like uneven marbles under foot. Carter kept slipping. His back was on fire . H is pack felt like it was full of lead.
    The sky showed signs of dawn . He lo oked at the others. Selena was sweating in the cold air . Ronnie looked grim.
    " Let ' s take a break, " he said.
    They stopped. He had to do something about the pain. He got out the med kit, took out a couple of pain pills , thought about it and put one back. This wasn ' t a good place to risk mistakes in judgment.
    T hree hours after they'd left the Humvee, they topped the final rise. A cold sun bathed the mountains in brassy, ominous light that offered no comfort from the chill wind. The prospect before them was daunting.
    The ruins covered the crest of the hill in a jumble of stone. The outer walls were twenty feet high , built of flat stones fitted together . They stretch ed for over a hundred yards in each direction to form an outer square. T umbled gaps gaped in the walls where stones had fallen. A building topped by a tall, stepped, pyramid- shaped roof dominated the center of the compound .
    Carter pictured attacking those walls on foot with spears and swords and bows and arrows. In its day, the fortress would have been impregnable.
    The silence was immense . T he only sound was the constant keening of wind through the ruin s .
    The mountain dropped away from where they stood in a sweeping vista of snow-capped mountains and valleys. A waterfall that must have been two thousand feet high dropped straight down to a river winding below along the valley floor. A herd of yaks grazed on the side of a mountain in the distance, thirty or forty tiny black dots. A lone, golden eagle glided past, a thousand feet below.
    Carter had never seen space like that. It wasn ' t only that the mountains were big . I t was the distance around them, the way they forced themselves up into the thin sky. The scale of nature was overwhelming. It made him feel the size of an ant.
    He consulted his GPS and pointed at a spot on one of the satellite photos.
    " We ' re here, at the southwest corner of the outer walls. These four lines look like streets between buildings. We ' ll go along this wall and follow one in. "
    " They all converge at the center, " Selena said, " at the building and the square around it. "
    " Isn ' t the center a big deal in these parts ? "
    " Yes. Mt. Kailash , over that way, was supposed to be the center of the world. That building is the center of this complex and the cavern is under it. "
    Ronnie spoke up. " Then why don ' t we start there? "
    Another pre-coded burst let Harker know they had arrived and were proceeding. Carter put the phone back in his pocket and they set out along the west wall. Halfway down, they came to what was left of a gateway. The gate was long gone. A broad uneven avenue of frost-heaved grayish stone led straight toward the building with the pyramid spire at the center.
    They headed in. Standing walls of gray stone and piles of rubble lined the street. Selena pointed out a carving of a giant bird on a tall, weathered column of rock.
    " That ' s a garuda, same as the book name. "
    " What were all these buildings for ? "
    " Shops, quarters, stables. This place is a small city. "
    The wind moaned through the deserted stones , lifting a thin, gritty dust into the air. Selena paused at a building on the edge of the square . The roof was still intact. She stepped inside , into the ruins of a broad atrium .
    The floor of the atrium was about thirty feet square. U neven colored tiles formed an elaborate picture on the floor. Lichen grew between the tiles and m any of the pieces were missing, but the design was still clear enough.
    At the corners, curled leopards stood guard. In the center , a woman reclined on a low couch with curved ends. She wore a blue robe . She had long, black , curling hair circled by a gold band . Three women in robes of white attended her . O ne play ed a flute, another b ore a basket of fruit, a third pour ed wine from a jug. All three had black , curly hair bound with a headband and lifelike eyes made from black and gold tiles. Above the scene, two women rode in a chariot, blond hair streaming behind them. The chariot was pulled by two winged griffins. Above everything flew a large bird.
    " Th is is Cretan, " said Selena. " This is amazing . The one with the wine is pouring from an amphora. It's definitely