The Explorer's Quest

The Passage of the Great Khan

As the gate opened, the interior revealed itself to be a long corridor, lined with blazing torches and golden-brown walls. Hugo worked his way back down the cliff and met up with the rest of the group. He was congratulated with compliments and pats on the back by nearly everyone. Everyone except for Brutus. Brutus stood outside the small crowd and waited impatiently for everyone to be ready to journey through the corridor.

When the excitement had calmed down, Brutus shouted, "Are we all ready then?" Everyone silenced themselves immediately and turned to face Brutus. The frown on his face brightened into a half-smile, and he said, "Let's go get us some treasure!"

*****

They walked down the passageway in an almost single-filed cluster, with Brutus leading. It was a very long passageway, Johnny found himself wondering when it would end. Luckily it was warm enough inside to keep everyone from getting frostbite. Johnny also remembered agreeing to accompany Brutus for the rest of the journey, and he wondered how he was going to stop Brutus before he got to the Chintimanni Stone.

Johnny's leg throbbed and began to cramp. It started to burn in pain. He looked down at his loosely wrapped thigh and winced a little when he touched it. His wound seemed to be healing, but it still stung a bit when it was disrupted.

Vanessa caught up to Hugo and began to walk beside him. "Hey, I wanna thank you for doing that back there. I mean standing up for me," she said. "It sure takes a lot of guts to do what you did."

Hugo smiled at her and said, "Yeah, well he shouldn't really treat anyone the way he does."

"I'm amazed you climbed that whole cliff up and back down! You must be sore and at least exhausted, do you want some of my water?" she said.

"Ah no thanks, I have this chi stuff I got back in the village," he said and pointed to Grant, implying that the chi was in Grant's backpack.

"Oh," she said, soundly only slightly disappointed. The two continued to walk next to each other silently for a bit, both ignoring the conversations all the others were having. Eventually she broke their silence with, "I'm sorry about all that's happened with me."

Hugo looked back at her, puzzled. "What do you mean exactly?"

"You know, the whole 'betrayal' thing back in India, and just leaving you guys on the spot like that. I'm sure you must've thought I was a dirtbag traitor," she said.

"Well you did betray us, and yeah we did kind of think you were a dirtbag. We were more shocked than angered really. Were you working with CLOVER the whole time?"

"Yes. It was my job to get the journal from the museum since I worked there, but when I learned that you guys were taking it with you on your own expedition I had to join you guys.

Hugo thought for a minute and then said, "We've worked at the museum for a while and it seems that I have only just now met you for the first time. I guess I now understand why you've been so introverted all this time."

While Hugo and Vanessa were talking, two mercenaries at the end of the line noticed a door on the side of the passage open up. The two stopped dead in their tracks, looking around to see if maybe somebody else noticed the doorway as well. One of the men was overtaken by curiosity and he began to walk into the dark doorway. The other man grabbed his arm and said, "Noah wait, we don't know what's in there."

The man called Noah said, "Then let's go inside and find out!"

"No, I think we should just catch up with the rest of the group."

"Charlie think about what could be in there. Maybe some extra loot for us to keep for ourselves," said Noah.

Charlie shook his head and said, "Fine! You go in there yourself and you can keep whatever you find in there! I'm going to catch up with everyone else."