First Ordeal The Flight of the FirestoneAustralia December 1, 2007 9 Days Before the 1st Deadline Zou chu lai dao jia ban shang! Wo yao kan de dao ni. Ba shou ju zhe gao gao de!' Translation: 'Hey! Come out onto the deck! Remain in plain sight! Hold your hands up high!' Deleting a final image, Chow did as he was told, kicked back from his desk, and stepped out onto the open foredeck of his barge. The lead gunboat towered above him. It was a modern one, fast, with camouflaged flanks and a huge forward gun. Chinese soldiers with American-made Colt Commando assault rifles lined its deck, their short-barreled guns pointed at Chow. That they held modern American weapons was a bad sign: it meant that these soldiers were elite troops, special forces. Ordinary Chinese infantrymen carried clunky old Type 56 assault rifles -- the Chinese rip-off of the AK-47. These guys weren't ordinary. Chow raised his hands -- a bare second before someone fired and the entire front half of his body exploded with bloody holes and he was hurled backward with violent force. Wizard keyed his radio mike. 'Chow? Chow, are you there?' There was no reply. Then, abruptly, the harness that until now had hung suspended from the well hole in the ceiling went whizzing back up into the hole like a spooked snake, hauled up by someone above. 'Chow!' Wizard called into his radio. 'What are you -- ' Moments later, the harness came back into view... ...with Chow on it. Wizard's blood turned to ice. 'Oh, dear me, no...' He rushed forward. Almost unrecognizable from the many bullet wounds, Chow's body came level with Wizard. As if on cue, the radio suddenly came to life. 'Professor Epper,' a voice said in English. 'This is Colonel Mao Gongli. We know you are in there, and we are coming in. Try nothing foolish, or you shall meet the same fate as your assistant.' The Chinese troops entered the chamber quickly, abseiling down drop-ropes with clinical precision. Within two minutes, Wizard and Tank were surrounded by a dozen men with guns. Colonel Mao Gongli entered last of all. At fifty-five years of age, he was a portly man, but he stood with perfect poise, ramrod straight. Like many men of his generation, he'd been patriotically named after Chairman Mao. He had no operational nickname except the one his enemies had given him after his actions at Tiananmen Square in 1989 as a major -- the Butcher of Tiananmen, they called him. Silence hung in the air. Mao stared at Wizard with dead eyes. When at last he spoke, he did so in clear, clipped English. 'Professor Max T. Epper, call sign Merlin, but known to some as Wizard. Canadian by birth, but resident Professor of Archaeology at Trinity College, Dublin. Connected with the rather unusual incident that took place atop the Great Pyramid at Giza on March 20, 2006. 'And Professor Yobu Tanaka, from the University of Tokyo. Not connected with the Giza incident, but an expert on ancient civilizations. Gentlemen, your assistant was a gifted and intelligent young man. You can see how much I care for such men.' 'What do you want?' Wizard demanded. Mao smiled, a thin joyless smile. 'Why Professor Epper, I want you.'Wizard frowned. He hadn't expected that answer. Mao stepped forward, gazing at the grand chamber around them. 'Great times are upon us, Professor. In the coming months, empires will rise and nations will fall. In times such as these, the People's Republic of China needs knowledgeable men, men like you. Which is why you work for me now, Professor. And I'm sure that with the right kind of persuasion -- in one of my torture...