Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 72 - A Long Knife

We followed a trail that I thought was going in the right direction. The pain in my chest forced me slow down and I had to listen to Licia telling me I needed more exercise. I couldn't spare the breath to argue. We walked on and on until we skirted a small rocky hill. The moon, popping in and out of the clouds, cast surreal shadows making it difficult to follow the trail.

'I think we must be going the wrong way,' Miguel said. 'I'm sure the monastery is not this far from Jiangling.' Licia groaned. 'We probably confused the east gate with the south gate. They all look exactly alike.'

'That's the whole idea,' I pointed out.  'Invaders can easily become disorientated.' 

 We sat on a rock arguing about which way to go until we heard the noise of horses. In a flash of moonlight, we saw four horsemen on the trail. One wore a blue shirt. Another wore funny glasses. Murga and the bandits! Definitely not a rock group. 

 We ducked behind the rock but one of them shouted. He had seen us.

'Run up the hill,' I yelled. 'The rocks are too steep for the horses.' But the horses must have been half goat. 

 I stopped to catch my breath as Licia and Miguel jogged past me. 'I thought you said they couldn't follow us,' Licia panted sarcastically. Murga shouted directions to the bandits scrambling after me. Kozak translated Blue Shirt's answer. 'If we don't get paid for this, I'm going to cut them up for the crows.'

The moon disappeared and we scrambled higher in the dark. My legs were hurting, my heart pounding and I was gasping for breath. We squeezed into a gap between two large rocks, as the moon reappeared through a gap in the racing clouds and lit up the rocks like daylight. I couldn't see them, but the bandits must have been on foot as they had left their horses down the hill. The cold wind whistled through the rocks and the moon disappeared. As we crept silently up the hill, I could hear the bandits cursing as they stumbled over the rocks below us. I was feeling for a foothold on a steep ledge, when something made me look up. 

 The moon outlined a terrifying figure. A huge head, with long hair flying loose, looking down the hill. Enormous eyes bulged from a hollowed-out face. A monstrous insect had materialized only metres above me. Licia grabbed my arm in a death grip. She had seen it too. 

 My mind was working but my body was frozen in primeval terror. With an enormous effort I ran down the hill as fast as my trembling legs would carry me. Licia bounded passed me. Murga suddenly seemed less dangerous than the monster. With a triumphant shout one of the bandits grabbed Licia. I took a blind leap into the darkness toward Licia, but loose stones slid under my shoes, and I crashed onto my back. As I tried to get up, Blue Shirt loomed over me, his teeth gleaming in a triumphant grin. A long knife glittered in the moon light. I was terrified but this was like an old horror movie, quite funny and not happening to me. 

 I heard a twang and a thud. Blue Shirt grunted, stepped back and raised his knife. Another twang and another thud. The moon lit up the rocks like day. Blue Shirt was staggering away backwards. He fell. I looked up the hill and caught a glimpse of the monster outlined against the moon and the racing clouds. Its eyes shone eerily. Long antennae, waving like tentacles, grew out of the moon light reflected from its bald head. Bristles stuck out from the sides of where its face should be, but the face was in shadow. The monster pointed something down the hill and cranked a lever.