“Rou and I wanted to make sure they got on the road,” Rinchen explained. “We rented an electric scooter in Nisai and rode over to the village where they’re staying. Then we staked out their hotel.” He chuckled. “Just like you thought, their driver loaded up their bags and off they went.”
Rou giggled as well. “The one you call Daniel seemed nervous as he got into the car. The one called Hunt looked very sour.”
“We must have really thrown a scare into them.”
“This is hardly a laughing matter,” Griffin rebuked them solemnly.
“Why didn’t you call?” Cassie demanded. “It’s not like the villages don’t have cell service.”
Rinchen regarded them both with wry amusement. “You do realize we’re all about the same age, give or take five years, but you two are carrying on like fretful parents.”
“That’s because when it comes to the Nephilim, we’ve got what amounts to decades of experience over you both,” Cassie retorted.
“You truly have no idea what they’re capable of,” the scrivener added. “We’ve seen things...”
“I get it.” Rinchen raised his hands in surrender.
In a chastened tone, Rou said, “We are sorry to have upset you.”
“Apology accepted.” Griffin’s stern expression softened.
The pythia smiled. “OK, guys. Lecture over.”
Relieved to be off the hook, Rou immediately changed the subject. “You must tell us what happened when you were inside the cave with them.”
Griffin moved toward the door. “Since it’s well past dinnertime, I suggest we postpone that discussion until we’ve found a place to eat. Now that the Nephilim have left the area, we are at liberty to move about the village.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Rinchen eagerly approved.
***
Ten minutes later, the four Arkana operatives were wandering down the main street of Luoshui Village to find a restaurant. This wasn’t hard to do since the entire Lugu Lake district seemed to specialize in outdoor barbecues. They found an open-air eatery and seated themselves. Rou and Rinchen claimed a wooden bench together while Cassie and Griffin took the bench opposite. Between them sat a rectangular stone table with a recessed charcoal grill in the middle. A waiter provided them with plates, chopsticks, sauces, and food on skewers to cook and eat. Their meal consisted of pressed chicken and assorted chunks of vegetable including mushrooms and eggplant. They were also given yak butter tea and Sulima beer to wash it all down. As one or another of them turned the skewers and tended the food, they caught up on the events of the afternoon.
“Now you have to say what happened after the Nephilim entered the cave,” Rou urged.
“They totally bought it.” Cassie smiled triumphantly. “I took a run at the door like I was trying to escape. It’s a good thing I gave you my stun gun because they searched me.”
“Just as you thought they would,” the girl noted.
“That was a pretty big risk,” Rinchen said. “I mean, to dangle yourself as bait. That cowboy might have shot you point blank.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t do that,” the pythia countered. “Leroy hates me too much to kill me outright. He’d want to taunt me first. Besides, Griffin and I have run into them often enough to know what makes them tick. Daniel needs us to get his artifacts, and Hunt needs Daniel to stay employed. I figured we’d be OK.”
“It was a clever plan if I do say so myself,” Griffin interjected. “We knew we wouldn’t have enough time to hide the artifact.”
Cassie flipped a skewer of vegetables to brown them evenly. “Which turned out to be a good thing since there was no guarantee those nimrods would manage to find it even if we did have time to hide it.”
The scrivener handed plates and chopsticks across the table. “So, we needed to stage a scene to make it look as if we’d been caught in the act of taking the relic.”
“Stage a scene is right.” Cassie picked up the narrative. “You should have heard Griffin. He really sold it. Called me ‘love’ and everything.”
“Why would he do that?” Rou squinted in puzzlement.
“The reason seemed pretty obvious to me,” Cassie replied casually.
Griffin abruptly dropped a bowl of dipping sauce with a clatter.
“Careful, butterfingers, or you’ll be wearing your food.” Cassie absent-mindedly righted the dish before resuming her explanation. “Griffin called me ‘love’ because it made our story more convincing. It would seem far less suspicious that he’d surrender the relic without a fight if the Nephilim thought we were involved. Right?” She turned to the scrivener for confirmation. “That is why you said it.”
Griffin stared at her open-mouthed. After a few seconds, he rallied. “Yes... um... Of course. That’s why I said it. ‘Love’ is a common endearment among the British. We apply it to everyone. Greengrocers, postmen. I thought it lent a certain verisimilitude.”
“And you should have seen Daniel’s face when Griffin threatened to destroy the inscription.” Cassie laughed.
“I wish we had a video.” Rinchen sounded wistful.
“And by the bye, thank you for lending me your pistol. It came in quite handy,” Griffin said to the agent.
“No problem. Good thing you remembered to hand it back to me on your way down the mountain. I wouldn’t have been a very convincing bandit without it.”
“Speaking of which,” Cassie prompted. “How did your part of the act go? Give us details.”
Rinchen slid a cooked piece of chicken onto a platter. “First off, Rou can mimic the worst Chinese accent I ever heard. ‘Harro?’” He turned to the girl with mock surprise. “Since when did you forget how to pronounce an L?”
Rou laughed softly. “You are a fine one to point a finger at me when you say things like ‘Where we?’”
Noting the puzzled faces of his listeners, the agent explained. “I needed to distract the cowboy with something, so I pulled out a map and asked him for directions.”
“And while he read the map, I stunned him,” Rou summed up proudly.
“He never saw it coming?” Cassie asked.
“Nope.” Rinchen winked at Rou. “I have to say, this girl has a great future as a field agent.
