Claustrophobia gripped him. His rapid breathing echoed in his ears. His flashlight’s glow was too close against the tight walls.
Then something gurgled in the void above him and Stretch’s blood went cold.
“Er, Jack…”
Up in the doorway of the Teacher’s Way, Jack assessed the three cast-iron levers in the wall, one on top of the other, next to the Chinese symbol for “dwelling”: none of the levers bore any marks or carvings; they were completely plain.
“Er, Jack…”came Stretch’s voice.“Whatever you have to do up there, please do it soon…”
“Pull the bottom lever,” Wizard said. “Now.”
Jack yanked on the bottom lever—
—and at the same moment, down in Stretch’s route, a slab of stone slid across the ceiling and the cylinder rotated another ninety degrees, and suddenly, Stretch saw a new chamber on the other side, a cube-shaped stone room.
He quickly stepped out of the deadly cylinder-doorway and said, “I’m though. Thanks, guys. Scimitar, your turn.”
In the upper tunnel, Jack turned to Wizard: “How did you know?”
Wizard said, “Famous quote from Laozi. ‘In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In dwelling, live close to the ground.’ Since our clue was ‘Dwelling,’ I picked the lever that was closest to the ground.”
“Nice.”
After getting Scimitar through the same way, Jack, Wizard, and Astro just stepped through their open entry door, its trap disabled by the concrete of Mao’s troops.
THE CRAWLING TUNNEL
Both sets of men were now met by identical cube-shaped rooms.
Four life-sized terra-cotta warriors—all magnificently detailed—stood in the corners of each room. In West’s room, their mouths had been plugged with cement, while in Stretch’s they yawned wide, revealing only darkness within.
“Don’t step near the statues,” Wizard warned.
On the far side of each room was a low tunnel at floor level. Barely two feet square and pipelike, it was the only exit from the stone room.
Jack peered into his: it stretched for about a hundred yards, maybe more. Along its length were numerous tennis-ball-sized holes cut into the floor, all of which had been filled with concrete.
“Spike holes,” Wizard said. “Stretch?”
“We got a tunnel down here, low to the ground, looks long, and it appears we can only get through it by crawling on our stomachs. Lots of holes in its floor.”
Jack said, “Careful with those holes. Iron spikes.”
Wizard found an inscription above his tunnel, this time accompanied by a single lever that could be pushed up or down. The inscription read:
“Genius,” Wizard said. “It’s the Chinese symbol for ‘genius.’”
At either extremity of the lever were two images: above it was a carving of a beautiful tree, below it was a picture of a very plain seed.
“Ah…” Wizard said, nodding. “‘To see things in the seed, that is genius.’ Another maxim of Laozi. Pull the lever down, Jack.”
West did so.
“OK, Stretch, you should be safe,” Wizard said into his radio mike.
“Should be safe?” Scimitar scowled, looking at Stretch. “This whole situation troubles me greatly.”
“It’s a trust exercise. It’s only troubling if you don’t trust your friends.”
Scimitar eyed Stretch for a long moment. “My sources tell me it was the Old Master himself who put that massive price on your head. “
Stretch froze at the name. The “Old Master” was the nickname of a Mossad legend, General Mordechai Muniz, a former head of the Mossad who many said, even in retirement, was still the most influential figure in the organization; the puppet-master who pulled the strings of those ostensibly in charge.
“Sixteen million dollars,” Scimitar mused. “A good price, one of the highest ever. The Old Master wants to make an example of you.”
“I chose loyalty to your brother over loyalty to the Mossad,” Stretch said.
“And perhaps this is why you have become such friends. My brother thinks too often with his heart and not his head. Such thinking is foolish and weak. Look where it has got you.”
Stretch thought about Pooh Bear up in the entry chamber. “I would lay down my life for your brother, because I believe in him. But you do not. Which makes me wonder, first son of the Sheik, what do you believe in?”
Scimitar did not answer that.
Shaking his head, Stretch crouched and entered the low tunnel, belly-crawling through it. It was a tight
