great scientist in the making. “I have no doubt he saved my life,” she said.
“He’s a student, Miss Natay,” Gao said in a polite voice. “In China there are far too few universities of the first rank. If he engages in questionable conduct he will be banned. There are a thousand other qualified students waiting for his place.”
“She says she can help me to qualify for university in America,” Thomas blurted out.
Gao ignored his nephew. “Thomas has a great career ahead of him after he settles down. Heinz and I have conquered the mysteries of the earth. Thomas will conquer mysteries off the earth. I have decided to remove him from the temptations he has here. I am sending him to Beijing. I spoke to his parents this evening.”
The color drained from Thomas’s face as he stared at his uncle. “But you said you would give me another chance,” he protested.
“I reconsidered. I began to realize how many lies you must have told us. You stood in front of us and lied about Miss Natay going to Tashtul. Your uncle Heinz has been put to a lot of trouble to find her.”
“But it was to protect me,” Abigail said.
Gao ignored her. “Thomas has been crossing over the mountain frequently, deceiving us, knowing we forbid it, telling me he is looking at wildlife.”
Shan considered the words a moment. Gao must have spoken on the phone with Kohler, now in Tashtul. “Thomas could be useful here,” Shan interjected. “He is helping us discover the murderers of Tashi and Dr. Ma.”
“The truth stares you in the face.” Gao’s patience was wearing thin. “But you refuse to accept it because it is so mundane. The killers were miners. They are greedy, opportunistic creatures, rats that salivate as soon as a bell is rung. Was there ever any doubt as to what would become of wealthy strangers who stumbled into their lair? Every one of them is a criminal by definition. I am sorry, but the moment word spread that you were trespassers without protection, your party was doomed. Once they knew no one would miss you, no one would complain of your absence, your fate was sealed.”
“We’re not wealthy,” Hostene interjected.
“To people like these, all foreigners are wealthy. You became a target the moment you set foot on the mountain. Your companions should have known better, and they paid for the mistake with their lives. Americans are notorious for not taking no for an answer. But it’s finished. Go home. When you think of your tragedy in the future tell yourself it was an attack by wild animals. An accident of nature.”
A brittle silence fell over the table.
Shan, who had been looking down, felt Gao’s gaze.
“I see Inspector Shan disagrees,” Gao observed.
“What you say could be true,” Shan responded. “I don’t know. What I do know is that one thing connecting the acts of violence on this mountain has been the kora. It is like a common thread in a long bloody fabric.”
“That’s nonsense,” Gao said. “You’ve spent too many years locked up with old Tibetans.”
Shan gazed at Abigail as he continued. “Every killing has been at a station of the pilgrim path. You have been studying the path, trying to find its upper terminus, as has the hermit Rapaki for forty years. It’s like a three-way contest.”
“Three-way?” Hostene asked.
“Abigail, Rapaki, and the killer have been converging.”
Abigail stared at Shan, searching his face as if for an answer. Then she began making small talk like a good hostess, asking Thomas about his life in Beijing, about Chinese rock and roll.
Her uncle tossed the fragment of burned sweatshirt onto the table as Shan asked Abigail, “Did you meet a man named Bing?”
The American professor looked at her burned sweatshirt in confusion, then nodded. “Twice. The first time I found him sitting on a rock, watching me as I worked. Tashi came running up as if to protect me, but Bing seemed very polite, almost charming. They spoke for a few minutes and then Bing left.” She fingered the charred fabric. “This was left in our camp that night. The last night.”
“What did Tashi and Bing talk about?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t hear it all. The weather, the wolves. . Tashi told him I was Tibetan, from Lhasa. I don’t know if Bing believed him.”
“And about gold?”
“Of course not.”
“Did Tashi seem to know Bing already?”
Abigail hesitated. “Tashi was from the village. I expected him to know people here. He was paid to be our guide. That included guiding us around the people. We couldn’t afford to let anyone know what we were doing.”
Bing was not native to the mountain. He had only arrived the year before. And Tashi had been away for several years.
“You said twice,” Shan pointed out.
“I saw Bing again just a couple days ago. He was throwing things off a cliff when I came up the trail. He didn’t notice me at first.”
“What things?”
“They weren’t new. They may have been washed down one of the streams after a storm. It happens.” Abigail shrugged. “What do you do with them? It’s awkward. Most people simply want to be rid of them.”
Hostene leaned forward in his chair. “I don’t understand, Abigail.”
“Bones. I saw a tibia, a fibula, at least one femur.” She spoke the words with such ease it almost seemed she was speaking about the weather. It took a moment before she noticed that everyone else had stopped eating.
“Bones, Miss Natay?” Gao asked.
“Bones. Old bones. It’s to be expected. In my business I encounter them all the time. People have lived on this mountain for hundreds of years. He threw something else after the bones. I couldn’t see it clearly because I’d hidden behind a rock. He scared me a little. It was something he could toss with one hand. When he had finished he came down the trail so quickly he was in front of me before I realized it.”
“What did he do?”
“He hesitated, then came to shake my hand in a friendly way.
He seemed to be in a hurry. I spoke in Tibetan, only Tibetan, like the first time. He smiled and bowed. He looked at my pack, at my cameras, then he waved goodbye and trotted down the trail. A few minutes later I saw him on the slope below, riding one of those red mountain bikes.”
Shan asked Gao for the map Kohler had used, and Abigail pointed to each of the spots where she had seen Bing. One was near the old gold mine, the other near the ridge that the miners believed to be haunted.
“It will take a day to make arrangements,” Gao informed them as he poured tea for his guests at the end of the meal.
“Arrangements?” Shan asked.
“By tomorrow night we will have transport lined up. Professor Natay and her uncle will be taken by helicopter to a quiet border post whose commander is a friend of mine. They will leave the country without undergoing a lot of uncomfortable questions from Public Security. On its return the helicopter will pick up you and Thomas.”
Shan felt his stomach tighten.
“Thomas,” Gao continued, “will be taken to the airport in Lhasa for a flight to Beijing, with a soldier for his escort. The helicopter will stop at Drango village and soldiers will remove your friends from that man Chodron’s custody.” Gao folded the map and tucked it under his arm, then fixed Shan with a cool gaze. “Their orders will be to drop you and your Tibetan companions anywhere you say in Lhadrung County, where you came from. A high ledge miles from any town will not be objectionable.”
“A generous offer,” Shan admitted. “But there is still a murderer out there.” He fought the temptation to embrace Gao’s proposal. He and both his old friends could soon be far removed from the agonies of Sleeping Dragon Mountain if he accepted it.
“Wolves have a way of settling disputes within their own packs.”
“I have my work still-” Thomas’s protest was cut off by a glare from his uncle.
“Thomas! Feng Xi,” Gao said, his voice growing heated. “You are like a son to me. That is why I am doing
