Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 78 - Whither went Murga?

I drifted slowly down until Miguel's feet touched the ground. He promptly sat down and put his head in his hands trying not to vomit. The surviving bandits had fled with the silver bars and the smoke was dispersing. 

 Zhang Fei coughed as he slid gracefully off his horse holding Chen Ling with one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. Kozak was nowhere in sight.

I ran toward Zhang Fei. 'What are you doing here?' I asked. 

 'Kongming told us you had captured Jiangling.' Licia translated. 'Cho Ren walked into Zhou Yu's trap and left Jiangling undefended,' he told us shaking with laughter. 'Ho, Ho, Ho. I just walked in and shut the gates behind us. Then, I heard you were leaving and rushed over to say goodbye.'

 'Sorry we have no time to say goodbye properly. We have to go after our friends,' Licia told him.

 'Give Lord Guan and your men our thanks for everything,' I said 'We shall never forget them.'

 Chen Ling was in tears as she hugged us goodbye while Zhang Fei bowed to each of us in turn, with a sorrowful grin. 

 'Jai jen,' and, 'sheh sheh,' I said the few words of Mandarin Chinese I knew. They meant 'goodbye' and 'thank you.'

We left them at the temple entrance and raced to the back of the temple. The wall was still shimmering with brilliant blue green light. I took a last look back and Zhang Fei bowed, his hands clasped together and raised in a formal salute. 

 I stopped in shock when I saw a rotund figure, wearing Chinese robes, staring intently into the niches between the statues. 'Ziff,' Triple Oh said, 'whither went Murga?'

'Triple Oh,' I sighed with relief. 'We assume he went through the nexus. And please don't creep up on us like that.'

 'I crave thy indulgence. Verily, I was quaffing ale with Will when I got the call,' Onderdonk said cheerfully. 'Theo reports Murga has returned to Germany. Methinks that is but another ploy to bemused us.'

I interrupted him. 'Sorry, we've got to go before this connection shuts down.' Licia grabbed my hand and we all stepped into the light. There was a heart stopping moment before Mandia/Oppy connected the electric bookcase and we vanished from Han China. 

 ❘❘ ❘❘❘ ❘❘❘❘❘❙ ❙❙ ❙❙ ❙❘❘❘❘ ❘❘❘❘ ❘❘ 

 We burst into the darkened school corridor, coughing the ozone out of our lungs. I was relieved to see Dr Zhang and Denny checking Mandia/Oppy's control settings. I checked the date and time. We had returned only one hour after we had left. 

 'Give me a hand with Miguel,' I asked Licia. 'He's not feeling too good.' Mandia/Oppy's monitor lit up. 

 'Yee-Ha! Yonnie shrieked. She was exchanging hi-fives with Treeka on Skype. 'We did it!'Mandia interrupted, 'Denny, my blooming love. Please don't interrupt. I reduced the time open setting, and it will take another 401 008 milliseconds to finish calculating the disconnect status. I must get back to work.'

The electric bookcase shut down with a loud crackling sound. The ensuing silence was chilling.

Dr Zhang glared at the monitor. 'Did what exactly?' he asked Yonnie and Treeka'

'We saved Supreme Genius Dr Zhang and Lord Denny. We decrypted Totakunov's time connect schedule and dumped Murga in Germany as soon as he entered the nexus. Now we have to get busy fixing damage to our Great Mother, Mandia. She thinks she is in love with Lord Denny.' 

 'I told you I do not need fixing! I am blooming happy the way I am,' Mandia announced. 'And please don't tell me who I must not love.' There was a loud click and the monitor turned off.

We decided we could talk to Yonnie and Treeka later and agreed that we were all exhausted and badly needed sleep so Licia, Miguel and I started to leave.

Denny followed us out of the office. 'I want to apologize for Dr Genius. We are both blooming grateful that you came after us. That took a lot of courage. Thank you all.'

Miguel started to say something, but Licia raced off. 'I gotta go,' she said over her shoulder. 'I can't wait to use the washroom. I've had it with buckets in boats. Wake me up if I'm not back in five minutes. I might sit there all night.'