Her eyes flashed to his and she gave him a fanged grin. “What? You wanted to practice your Mandarin, didn’t you?”
“Yes, so obviously we went to a place where half the population doesn’t even speak it.”
“So you can learn some Uyghur, too.”
“Tenzin.”
She flew up and hovered over him on the bed. “Don’t be cross.”
“I’m not. I just want to know what we’re really doing here.”
“I have an errand to run. And I thought you could keep me company.”
“What kind of errand?”
She clammed up. Typical.
Ben sighed and leaned back against the headboard. “You know, I heard Xi’an is really nice. And the terra cotta army—”
“All the tourists go to see that. Don’t be boring.”
“They see it because it kicks ass, Tenzin.”
She sneered. “It’s packaged history.”
“So is any museum. What are we doing here?”
“I just have a few things to take care of, then we can—”
“Tenzin.”
“I’ll let you know when you need to know.”
“Listen,” he growled as he leaned forward. “You needed me here, otherwise you wouldn’t have suggested I come. So tell me now or I’m out of here.”
She said nothing, hovering with her back against the far wall, a petulant expression on her face.
He shook his head, swung his legs over the side of the bed and walked to his suitcase. “Packing now. I’ll see you back in LA.”
“Benjamin—”
“Nope. Done now.”
“Don’t be like this.”
“Like what?” He unplugged his laptop and slid it into the case. “Impatient with your pathological secrecy?”
“You’re being immature.”
“Nice try, playing that card.” He pushed down the loose pants he’d been wearing to sleep and pulled on jeans. “But it stopped working a few years ago. This is not me being immature. This is me being sick of your shit.”
“Ben—”
“Xinjiang isn’t top on my dream destinations list, so if you don’t want to tell me—”
“I need to move approximately twenty million dollars’ worth of gold and antiquities out of a cache in Kashgar before the old city is demolished.”
Ben froze.
“And obviously, I need a human to help me. Since you had time before school started, I thought it would be fun.”
She thought it would be fun? Of course she did.
He took a measured breath. “Twenty million?”
“Approximately.”
“In gold?”
“And antiquities. Some porcelain. Jewelry.” She floated down to the edge of the bed. “A few rugs, but those might be damaged.”
“Yeah, that can happen with rugs.”
She shrugged. “They’re silk, so they might still be good. I’m mostly concerned with the gold.”
“Twenty million?”
“Mostly in gold.”
He nodded silently, then went to sit down next to her, rubbing a hand over his face. “When was the last time you moved this cache?”
Tenzin scrunched up her face. “Maybe… two or three hundred years ago? I was still killing vampires with Gio. Sometime then. We had a job in Samarkand, and I had some extra time.”
“Of course you did.” He cleared his throat. “Two or three hundred years? Are you sure it’s still there?”
“There is a family who guards it. They don’t know what it is, of course. They just guard it. Nima handled all of that. Of course, I don’t know if anyone is paying the family anymore, so they might be gone…” Her eyes were distant for a moment until they snapped back to his. “I forgot about it until that news broadcast.”
“You forgot about twenty million in gold?”
She shrugged.
“How many gold caches do you have?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
Ben took another deep breath and blew it out slowly. “And do you have a plan to get this gold out of the People’s Republic of China, who might have a problem with you taking valuable cultural treasures—that are probably worth a lot of money—out of the country?”
She frowned. “But they’re my treasures.”
“I know that, but—”
“Mine. I’m the one who…” She considered her words. “…acquired them. I stored them. They’re mine.”
“I realize that, but the government might think differently.”
“I have a plan.”
Ben nodded. “That’s good.” Twenty million dollars? “Plans are good.”
Especially when you’re trying to move twenty million in gold.
Tenzin smiled. “I know a relatively trustworthy pirate who owes me a few favors.”
“A pirate? Like, an actual… pirate?”
“Yes!” She seemed delighted. Of course she did. Because pirates were so delightful. “Well, I don’t think he’s a pirate anymore. Precisely. He’s relatively—”
“Trustworthy. Yeah, I heard that part.” Ben stood up and raked a hand through his hair. “Is the sun down? I need food.”
“Oooh!” Tenzin clapped her hands. “Let’s go get noodles. Xinjiang noodles are the best.”