water from their own hose.
A cheer roared from the crowd. A knot of students hoisted the little nun on their shoulders and swept her toward the site of this momentous victory.
Ernie joined Herman and me as we hurried through the crowd. 'These kids think they're tough shit, but they're going to get their butts kicked,' Ernie said. 'They're just pissing off the man.'
'Yeah,' Herman said. 'They ought to calm down.'
Ernie slapped the side of Herman's head. 'What about you, moron! Driving that jeep while it was still chained.'
'I had to catch Ragyapa.'
'But you didn't. Did you?'
'I came close. I clipped him a couple of times. And after I hit that girl he ran over here. Toward that yoguan.'
It was the same yoguan where the M-l shooter had hidden and fired on me. While Ernie and Herman were arguing, I'd been scanning the crowd, searching for some sign of Ragyapa. Some sign of Lady Ahn.
It was Ernie who spotted them first. 'Over there. Up the alley.'
They were under a lamppost. Lady Ahn on Ragyapa's back, clawing him like an enraged lioness.
'She's kicking his butt.' Ernie's voice was filled with admiration.
'She ought to,' Herman said. 'By the time I got through with him, he could barely walk.'
I sprinted forward, but my progress was excruciatingly slow. I had to push through tightly packed clumps of shoving students. I felt as if I were running through glue.
Another figure appeared in the light of the lamppost. A man. Holding a rifle.
'I thought you took care of him!' I shouted.
'Shot him in the arm,' Ernie replied. 'I didn't want to execute him.'
'What about the damn rifle?'
'I took the magazine out.'
But Lady Ahn didn't know that. The wounded Mongolian thug pointed the muzzle of the M-l rifle into Lady Ahn's face. She stopped clawing and backed off, gasping for breath. Ragyapa hoisted himself to his feet. He started hobbling up the alley, clutching the jade skull. His hired gun covered his retreat.
'They're getting away,' Ernie said. 'With the jade skull.'
'Let 'em go,' I said. 'Who gives a shit about it?'
Lady Ahn stood motionless, breathing heavily. Then she stepped up the hill into the darkness, after Ragyapa and the man with the M-l rifle. After the skull.
'She's got balls,' Herman said.
We finally shoved our way past the last of the demonstrators. The riot police were in total flight now. Their ranks had been broken. Many of them lay wounded and bleeding on the ground, their helmets and shields and batons scattered everywhere.
I felt sorry for them. Sure, they were the symbols of oppression. But in reality they were just a bunch of farmers, beaten up by a bunch of rich students. No one in the government, until now, realized how much rage the assault on the Buddhist nun had released. And no one had been able to predict that the riot police would be outnumbered ten to one.
Ernie once again pulled out his. 45. 'So we go after her?'
'Of course, we go after her. They'll kill her this time.'
'Why the hell is she so crazy about the damn skull? The money?'
'It's more than that to her,' I said. 'It's the restoration of her family's honor. The restoration of her dignity.'
'And she's willing to get killed for shit like that?'
Herman nodded vigorously. 'Sure she is.'
Without hesitation, Ernie slapped him once again on his round skull. 'What the hell do you know about it, shit-for-brains?'
'Hey, I know a lot about that stuff.'
'You guys argue on your own time,' I said. We had reached the mouth of the alley. 'Ernie, you take the left. I'll take the right.' We didn't have any handcuffs-I'd dropped them at the jeep-so all I could count on was Herman's sense of honor as a soldier to stay with us while we were engaged in combat with the enemy.
'Herman,' I said, 'you protect our rear.'
He nodded.
Ernie pointed his forefinger at him. 'And remember, you're still our prisoner.'
'Don't sweat it,' Herman said.
We stepped into the darkness.
36
The alley was cool and damp and the walls loomed over us like moss-bearded gods. Murky water trickled through an open gutter, stinking of decayed flesh.
Covering one another, Ernie and I rounded one corner and then the next. The sun had almost lowered and dark clouds shrouded the rising monsoon moon.
When we rounded the third corner, we saw them. Ragyapa, Lady Ahn, and the thug with the M-l rifle. The thug aimed the rifle at Lady Ann's temple, cursing softly, his finger on the trigger. Ragyapa slumped on the cobbled lane, moaning, rubbing his lower leg, the jade skull plopped in a puddle in front of him.
Ernie whispered. 'She doesn't know it's not loaded.'
There was something I remembered vaguely from basic training, about the M-l rifle. Before I could voice my reservations, Ernie was on his feet, brandishing his. 45.
'Freeze, assholes! And drop that rifle right now!'
The rifleman whirled. The shot sizzled through the air and exploded in a cloud of dust in the stone wall two inches from Ernie's left ear.
That's what I had been trying to remember. Even though you pull the magazine out, if the bolt is forward, there will still be one round in the chamber. Ernie hadn't remembered. Some combat veteran. But at least the guy had missed. Otherwise, Ernie would be an ex-combat veteran.
No more bullets now. I leapt out of the shadows and charged.
The thug trained his rifle on me, pulled the trigger, but didn't have time to hear the metallic click. I barreled into him going about thirty miles an hour. He collapsed backward and I didn't give him a chance. I landed full force on top of him, my knee jamming into his solar plexus. Air exploded from his puffed cheeks, and I pummeled his face and kept pummeling until he went limp under me.
Then I turned on Ragyapa and kicked him in the leg. He howled. I kicked him again, then started punching, not caring anymore whether any of the monsters lived or died.
Ernie pulled me off of him. 'Easy, pal. Easy.'
Lady Ahn pressed against the wall, silent and wide-eyed. In the few seconds that the altercation lasted she had managed to grab the jade skull. Now she clutched it like an infant against her bosom.
For some reason the sight of her cradling that skull made me angry. Even now, I'm not sure why.
'Is that all you care about?' I yelled. 'That goddamn skull?'
Her eyes widened even more, reflecting moonlight across the smooth flesh of her face. And then I realized that she was looking over my shoulder and I turned. So did Ernie.
Up the alley was a line of dark humps. Without any sound or hint of verbal signal, the humps rose, moved forward a few feet, and froze again. I wasn't sure if I'd imagined the movement. I turned and gazed at Ernie. He was just as confused as I was.
He motioned with his hand for me to wait, and trotted forward to the pedestrian lane that intersected the alley. Seconds later he returned.
'Troops.' He whispered in my ear. 'Combat soldiers. Not riot police. They're strung out all across the
