The old man swung the hunting rifle over his shoulder as he churned across the loose gems and coins. He nearly fell twice.
By then Annja was in full motion, streaking for her backpack. She reached inside for the flare gun, brought it up, and took aim. Kelly was exchanging fire with Ngai's remaining two men. One of them fell as Annja squeezed the trigger.
The flare leapt from the emergency pistol, streaking across the intervening distance like a flaming arrow. Annja had aimed at the center of Ngai's chest, but the flare veered off-course and slammed into the face of the man beside him.
Annja rushed forward as the wounded man screamed and swiped at his burning face. The flare had caught him in the mouth, breaking teeth and lodging inside. His screams sounded strangled. As he jerked, he smashed into Ngai.
Before Ngai could recover, Annja was on him. He tried to bring up his pistol, but she slashed his hand and forearm with one swipe. She followed that with a deadly blow. Then she realized she'd seen Roux go down.
Feeling scared and helpless, Annja turned toward the old man.
Roux was dragging himself onto Sha Wu Ying's throne, grabbing the bony knees for support. Blood covered his lower back and one of his legs.
Garin stood, the assault rifle dangling at his side. His face held disbelief and pain as he looked at Roux.
Stubbornly, Roux reached for the jade ogre. He wrapped his arm around it and fell backward, coming to a seated position at the foot of the throne. He clasped his bloody hands over the statue's head, like he was keeping it from hearing anything he said.
"Garin!" Roux's voice was loud and commanding.
Annja stepped in front of Garin, holding the sword within inches of his face. "Stay back," she ordered.
The ceiling continued to drop.
Angrily, Garin spat fierce curses. For a moment Annja though he was going to go for the assault rifle hanging at his side.
"Annja," Roux cried. "Let him through. I need him."
"He tried to kill you," Annja argued. "More than once." But she didn't know if she would be able to shoot him if it came to that.
Roux cursed loudly. "We don't have a choice."
Suddenly aware of a frightful green glow taking shape behind her, Annja glanced over her shoulder.
Roux held the jade ogre tightly. Light leaked through his hands and arms. "It's activated, Garin. We have to stop it."
"That's not my problem, Roux," Garin snarled. "You knew it was going to activate the instant you touched it. If anyone's to blame, it's you."
"You're the only one who can help me," Roux said.
"I was your apprentice once, old man. You don't own me now."
The jade ogre smoked and smoldered, and Annja thought it had to be hot enough to scald or burn Roux. Still, the old man hung on to it. Blood smeared over the statue.
"If you don't help me, it's going to kill us all," Roux said.
"Let it." Garin switched his attention back to Annja. "Kill me or let me go. Either way I'm not going to stay here and be crushed."
Annja didn't know what to do. She fully expected Garin to try to pull the assault rifle into position. If he did she'd have to kill him. She had no choice.
Slowly, Garin turned to go.
Only a few feet away, Kelly pointed both of her weapons at him.
"No," Annja said. "Let him go."
The light from the ogre grew stronger. The ceiling was within leaping distance. Annja knew they didn't have much time.
"Garin," Roux called. "Please. In memory of the boy I took from his father's cold hearth and gave as much of a life to as I knew how."
For a moment, the words hung in the room in spite of the grinding going on around them.
Garin froze, then turned to face Roux. "You owe me, old man. Swear on your life and your black soul that you owe me."
Roux hesitated. "I swear to you, Garin. You shall one day have my favor."
Without another word, Garin ran to Roux. Together they put their hands on the jade ogre and started chanting words that Annja couldn't understand. The light coming from within the ogre alternately grew stronger and weaker, pulsing faster and faster.
In the next instant, the statue exploded.
The detonation rendered Annja deaf for a moment, and the flash blinded her. Disoriented, her head swimming, she lost her grip on the sword and sank to her knees. She thought she'd blacked out. Then the shrill grinding of the ceiling continuing its downward spiral ate through the cottony deafness in her ears.
Annja forced her eyes open. Ahead of her, Roux and Garin were slumped on the floor. Pushing herself up, Annja looked around, then saw that Kelly was rising, as well. Both of them had been out of the main blast radius.
Going to Roux first, Annja found the old man unconscious. She tried to rouse him and couldn't get him to acknowledge her.
"Is he all right?"
Glancing over her shoulder, Annja saw Garin forcing himself up. "He's breathing," she said. "Other than that, I don't know."
Garin stumbled over to Roux's side and pressed his fingers against the old man's neck.
Annja reached for her sword and felt it in her hand.
"I wouldn't hurt him." Garin didn't look at her when he spoke. "There'd be no honor in that."
Annja didn't see Garin as an honorable person. But maybe he was talking about a more personal level of physical combat rather than life in general.
"He needs a doctor," Annja said.
"I know. You're going to have to get one for him when we get out of here."
Annja thought Garin's plans for them getting out of there needed serious review.
"The front door is jammed," Kelly said, "but there's the secret entrance we came through."
Annja squatted and tried to pull Roux to his feet. The old man never made a sound, just lolled helplessly.
Stooping, Garin scooped the old man up in his arms. He was so tall and broad that Roux looked tiny and frail in his arms. "Go," Garin growled. "I've got him." He could no longer stand fully upright under the descending rock slab.
With the walls losing height, the flames in the channels weren't enough to light the heart of the treasure room. Or maybe whatever fueled them was running out. Annja didn't know.
She took a flashlight from the ground and charged toward the back of the room. The secret passageway was half-closed from the descending ceiling. Annja crawled through, then turned to help Garin pull Roux through the opening.
Once they were through, Garin hoisted Roux once again.
"Where does this go?" Garin asked.
"Back to the main chamber eventually." Annja took off. Garin and Kelly followed.
****
They made good time, winding up back at the torture chamber in short order. There was brief consternation when Professor Hu and his crew recognized Garin as an enemy.
Before they could get into an argument or discussion about who was on whose side, one of the workmen pointed to the top of the stairs. "Look! There's sand coming down through the hallway!"
Several flashlights aimed at the doorway to the torture chamber. As Annja watched, puffs of dust roiled into the room.
"Quickly," she ordered. "Let's go." She led the way out.
****
In the main chamber, a solid column of desert sand poured onto the middle of the floor. The deluge pushed treasure chests and mummified bodies in all directions. The sand kept coming.
"That's what pushed the ceiling down after it was freed," Garin said. "There's no telling how much is going to come through."
Across the room, the sand began to lap at the door to the hallway. With both exits that she knew of blocked, Annja knew there was only one way out.
"Let's go." She set out at a brisk pace, running down the steps as fleetly as she could.
Once she reached the floor, she headed for the doorway. Her feet sank into the powdery sand and running became harder, but she pushed herself.
"Did you leave any traps intact back the way you came?" she asked Garin.
"Nothing."
Good, Annja thought. They didn't need anything else to slow them down.
The sand came faster, and Annja had to believe that wherever it was coming from, it had to be draining the entire Lop Nur. She felt it pounding at the backs of her legs.
Two of Ngai's men guarded the doorway that led to the spiral stairs. They unlimbered their weapons, but they froze, stunned by the approaching wall of sand.
Kelly didn't wait for them to recognize the threat for what it was. She pointed her weapons and opened fire. The bullets knocked the men down, spilling them across the hallway.
At the doorway, Annja stepped to the side and urged Kelly on. "Take the lead. In case there are any more of them."
Kelly nodded. She entered and started running.
Annja wished she had another surgical mask – anything to keep the choking dust out of her lungs. Her mouth and throat felt raw and dry.
Garin carried Roux up next.
Annja waited until Professor Hu and his team were safely up into the spiral staircase. By that time the sand was swimming around her knees. It had washed over the two corpses and hid them from view.
Hacking and gagging, Annja followed the last man up into the spiral staircase. Starving for air, head swimming, she went as quickly as she could, dizzy from the lack of air and the constant circling.
She kept the person in front of her in sight, making certain she didn't run up their back. Briefly, she flicked the flashlight down and made certain the sand wasn't rising any higher. It had peaked far below.
Only a few minutes later, Annja was stumbling through the entrance they'd made in the cave's side. Garin still held Roux, looking down at the old man as if he were gravely concerned.
"Is he all right?" Annja asked.
Garin nodded.
"What did the two of you do to the ogre statue?"
Garin sighed. "We destroyed it. Something so full of power, and now it no longer exists."
"The sword returned to the world."
Smiling at her, Garin said, "Some things don't, Annja. That statue was one of them."
"What did it do?"
Garin shook his head. "I don't know. I would have kept it and found out."