False Horizon - Alex Archer [53]
“I don’t know,” Tuk said. “I wouldn’t think it would be.”
“So your position is extremely delicate. If I know the Chinese, they are going to doggedly pursue the idea of locating your kingdom, if that is indeed what Hsu Xiao is after. And when they find it, they will simply crush the entire valley.”
“What can we do to stop it?”
“I don’t know if we can do anything, my friend. The odds are that the Chinese already have people in that region searching.”
“How do you know this?”
“You said a missile brought your plane down, right?”
“Yes.”
“No doubt it was fired from a soldier on the ground. And if Hsu Xiao radioed them to let them know the tail numbers on your plane—Tsing’s plane—then they would have been able to positively identify you and take you out as they attempted to do.”
“But no one followed up and made sure we were dead.”
“Well, perhaps you crash-landed away from them and they couldn’t reach you. Look, Tuk, I’m not saying this is exactly what happened. But I’m saying there exists a real danger here. And I hate having to be the one who tells you, but I owe you the truth.”
“Are you coming here?”
“As soon as I can. But you need to find out how I can actually get there. I can’t do much from this side.”
Tuk caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Annja striding down the steps and headed in his direction.
“Annja sees me on the phone.”
“Does she really?”
“And she doesn’t look pleased.”
“No doubt she thinks you were holding out on her and Mike. Don’t worry about it. She’ll get her cool back soon enough.”
But Annja looked hot enough to fry an egg on, Tuk thought. And she was going to grab the phone from him. He could just tell from the way she stalked across the grass.
“I think she wants a word with you,” he said into the phone.
“Oh, dear,” the man said. “Well, better hand her the phone, then. Put it on speaker first, though.”
“Tuk!”
Tuk turned and smiled at Annja. “Hi, I was just—”
Annja grabbed the phone. “You had a phone this entire time and you never said anything? How dare you hold that back from us.”
Tuk shook his head. “I wanted to tell you, really, I did.”
Annja held up her hand. “We’ll discuss it later.” She looked at the phone. “Now, who is this exactly?”
Tuk looked at the phone. For a moment, no sound emerged and he wondered if he had hit the speaker button. Then, at last, he heard the man’s voice.
“Hello, Annja. It’s been a while.”
20
Annja grimaced. She knew the voice on the phone. And it always had a way of popping up when she least wanted it to. “Garin.”
“The same.”
“What in the world are you doing calling Tuk?” she asked.
“Tuk is working for me. He has been for some time now.”
Annja laughed. “Please. What would Tuk ever do for someone like you?”
“You say that like I’m the worst person on the planet, Annja. I might take offense.”
“I can think of a few who might be worse,” Annja said. “But it’s a close race if it makes you feel any better.”
“The only reason you don’t love me to death is because you’ve just never understood my agenda.” Garin chuckled into the phone. “If you did, there might be hope for us yet.”
“Doubtful,” Annja said. “We’ve come out of things at different extremes far too often for me to think there’d ever be a peaceful alliance there. I can’t tell you how many times you’ve made me want to scream.”
“I make lots of women scream. Usually they don’t complain about it afterwards,” he said.
“Don’t you wish that was the reason.”
“I’d never deny that bedding you would be one of the best experiences in my life. It would be for you, as well, if you’d only give in to what you feel and admit that you love me.”
“I most certainly do not.” Annja felt her face redden. Despite the fact that she definitely did not love Garin, she was physically attracted to him. She’d never admit it, though. Garin’s ego was massive already.
“If you insist.”