"No!" Russell cocked his rifle and yelled at Sawat, "Where is Master Han?"
Sawat shouted something in Chinese. A guard drummed on the gong till the air vibrated with the metallic sound. The villagers turned and drew their knives.
"Master Han, Master Han," they chanted as they advanced on Russell.
"Holy crap." Howard raced down the hill and grabbed Russell.
Gregori pulled Abigail close. She was trembling.
"Teleport!" J.L. shouted, then he vanished with Rajiv.
Gregori teleported back to the beach with Abigail. J.L. and Rajiv were there.
"In here." J.L. rushed inside the cave and lit one of the kerosene lamps.
Gregori led Abby into the cave and winced at how pale and frightened she looked.
"Where's Russell and Howard?" she asked, then spun toward the cave entrance when the two men strode inside.
J.L. stalked toward the ex-Marine. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Russell's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to find Master Han."
"And what?" J.L. yelled. "If you had learned his location, would you have taken off and left Howard behind? We don't work that way!"
"I can take care of myself," Howard growled.
"Hey!" Gregori interrupted. "Our first priority is keeping Abigail safe."
"Exactly." J.L. took a deep breath. "We keep her safe, find her plants, and get the hell out." He glared at Russell. "That is the full extent of our mission."
"I have her plant." Rajiv pulled out the branch from under his shirt and handed it to Abigail.
"This is it! The Demon Herb." She fumbled in her backpack for a plastic bag. "Thank you, Rajiv."
Gregori wondered why Master Han was collecting so much of the Demon Herb.
"Excellent work, Rajiv," J.L. said. "Let's move on to the next base. Everybody, pack your essentials. Don't worry about sleeping bags. The other base is already supplied. Howard, keep watch outside."
"Will do." Howard lumbered outside and jammed the bamboo door back over the entrance.
"I'm going to stay here," Russell said quietly.
"No." J.L. stuffed his clothes into his backpack. "We need all three Vamps in order to teleport the others."
"Master Han is close," Russell insisted. "We have to take him out."
"We're not risking Abigail's life so you can avenge yourself," Gregori said.
"What about the whole village he's enslaved?" Russell asked.
"We'll come back later," J.L. said.
"I want him now!" Russell shouted. "That bastard stole thirty-nine years of my life! By the time I made it home, my parents were dead, my brother was dead, and my wife had declared me dead and remarried."
Abigail winced. "I'm so sorry."
He dragged a hand through his short hair. "My daughter, she was just a baby when I left for Vietnam. She died two years ago at the age of forty from breast cancer. I never got to see her. So yes, I want revenge. When I get my hands on Master Han, I'm going to rip his heart out and stuff it down his throat!"
"Hey," Howard called through the bamboo door. "You guys need to see this."
They filed outside.
Fires from torches lit the south side of the lake.
"Is it the villagers?" Abigail asked.
"I don't think so." Gregori watched as the newcomers planted the torches into the ground. "They're all young men. And they got here too fast."
"How did they know where to find us?" she asked.
"Good question," Howard grumbled.
More and more torches were planted along the beach till the south side of the lake was well illuminated. Firelight gleamed off the gray karsts, making them gleam like silver daggers pointed at the sky. The men were dressed in white uniforms with red sashes around their waists and across their brows.
"I think they're soldiers from Master Han," Russell said.
Abigail sidled up close to Gregori, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "They didn't bring any boats, so we're safe for the moment."
"We're not staying." J.L. moved toward the cave entrance, then froze. "What the - "
Abigail gasped.
A group of soldiers leaped high in the air and landed, each one perched on top of a karst. More soldiers advanced toward the lake, leaping from one karst to another. Their leaps were high enough that some did somersaults in the air before landing on top of the stone stalagmites. Some of the karsts were pointed on top, and the soldiers balanced on them with ease.
She pressed a hand to her chest. "That doesn't seem humanly possible."
"Chiang-shih," Rajiv whispered.
"Vampires," J.L. translated.
They were all vampires? Gregori swallowed hard. There had to be a hundred of them.
"That explains how they found us," Russell muttered. "They're able to hear our beacon."
"I don't hear anything," Abigail said.
"Only vampires can hear this frequency." Russell yanked the electronic gadget from its hiding place near the cave entrance and stomped his boot on it.
More of the chiang-shih hopped from stone to stone, then they leaped even higher, flying through the air to perch on top of the bamboo trees on the east side of the lake. The bamboo stalks swayed back and forth like pendulums, arcs ever widening until they dipped down to the water and deposited the soldiers on the surface of the lake.
They didn't sink.
"Oh shit." Gregori steered Abigail toward the cave. "Get your backpack. We're going."
"They walk on water?" Rajiv asked.
"I think they're levitating," J.L. said. "Come on. Let's go."
Inside the cave, Gregori slipped on his backpack while Abigail put on hers. He'd never been to the other base, so he would have to rely on the beacon. He wrapped his arms around her, closed his eyes, and concentrated.
"Do you hear it?" J.L. asked. "It's two fast beeps, then a long one."
"Got it." He gave Abigail a squeeze. "We'll be all right, sweetheart."
She nodded and linked her fingers behind his neck.
Everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-six
Abigail didn't let go of Gregori even though they had arrived. The place was pitch-black and cold, and her nerves were frazzled. How could everything go so wrong so fast? For goodness' sake, she was only looking for a few plants. But instead, she'd found a whole village of mind-controlled slaves and a whole army of acrobatic kung fu vampires.
She shuddered, and Gregori's arms tightened around her. It was so dark, she couldn't even make out his facial features.
"We're okay," he whispered.
In the distance, she could hear the low roar of rushing water. "Where are we?"
"A cave in northwest Yunnan," J.L. answered her. A match flickered and he lit a kerosene lamp. "Everyone here?"
"Yes." Russell yanked the electronic beacon off a rock ledge, dropped it on the cave floor, and crushed it under the heel of his boot.
J.L. gave him a wry look. "You could have just turned it off."
Russell scowled at him. "I felt like smashing something."
J.L. retrieved a different phone from his backpack. "We have to use the satellite phone out here." He headed for the entrance of the cave. "I'll call Angus and tell him what happened."
Howard lit the second kerosene lamp. "I hope my donuts are all right." He opened a metal trunk and withdrew a pastry box.
Abigail released her death grip on Gregori and lowered her backpack to the floor so she could get out her sweater. "It's chilly here." She took off her jacket, put the sweater on, then the jacket back on.
"We're close to Tibet." Russell removed a sweatshirt from his backpack. "And we're at a much higher altitude."
"A couple of thousand feet up a damned mountain," Howard grumbled, then bit into a bear claw.
"At least we found a cave that faces south." Russell pulled on his sweatshirt. "We're sheltered from the colder winds."
"And direct sunlight," Gregori added as he retrieved a sweater from his backpack.
"What about all those vampires?" Abigail asked.
"We're over two hundred miles away from them." Russell smirked. "And our beacon is experiencing technical difficulties."
"I keep wondering why they came after us," she said. "Is it because we found that village? And all those plants? Why is Master Han collecting so much Demon Herb?"