The bushes rustled. Gyel-tsen whirled around, whipping out his KMD pistol as he turned.
There was a heavy footfall behind him.
Gyel-tsen spun around again, feeling slightly foolish. The bushes all around him rustled.
He was facing a Chinese man shorter than him, but not under-average. He was unarmed, or at least appeared to be.
“Who are you?” Gyel-tsen growled lowly, pointing his handgun at the man’s head. “What are you doing here?”
The man stared at Gyel-tsen sideways for what seemed like a long time. He opened is mouth, paused again, then said, “My name is Li Yunshan. And
you are the one who has followed me, lost Gurkha. So if anyone is to ask questions, it will be
me.
Gyel-tsen looked around suspiciously. He was sure there were more people in the bushes, but they were unseen, invisible.
“Your associates are good at making themselves hidden,” the Gurkha said, gesturing to the foliage around them. “I was sure there were several people, but yet you are seemingly alone.”
Li raised both hands in the air, palms up. “I am alone, unarmed, and helpless.”
“So what’s to stop me from killing you now?” Gyel-tsen asked, keeping the KMD pistol steady. “I could be miles away before anyone discovered your body.”
“Oh, you won’t kill me,” Li said with an enigmatic smile.
“And why is that?” Gyel-tsen cocked the pistol, more for effect than anything else. But Li was unfazed.
“You won’t kill me, because I know how to get you back to Nepal.”
“You… you can…” Gyel-tsen was taken aback that was not what he expected to hear.
“Yes. I know how to return you to your home,” Li repeated. “And unless you come with me, there is a possibility that you will never find your way home.”
“I don’t need your help,” Gyel-tsen said. “I know where I am now. I can make my way back to Nepal on my own.”
Li raised an eyebrow. “Can you now? I have seen the Japanese troops marching through here. They are just the first formations. A handful of troops compared to the numbers that are arriving as we speak. Thousands.
Tens of thousands, all marching west and south through China. Xi’an, the city you escaped from, is flying the Sun Disc. Xianyang, the city you were traveling to, is fighting the Japanese armies, but the men there are not skilled at urban warfare. They cannot hold for long.”
“I wasn’t planning on traveling to Xianyang.”
“Then what were you doing on that path? You came from Xi’an, and doubtfully would want to return to Japanese occupation. There is nothing along the road but impassable foliage. And–”
“Wait a minute,” Gyel-tsen cut Li off with a wave of his hand. “You say ‘impassable foliage,’ and yet you have walked through. How else could you have arrived here?”
Li smiled. “I came from Xianyang, of course.”
“Why?”
“You do not need to know that.”
Gyel-tsen smiled. “Of course. But if you
did in fact come from Xianyang, why did the Japanese troops not catch you? Why were there no tracks leading down the road? And
why were there only footprints leading from here to the hill by the road and then back again?”
Li clapped twice. “Very good, Gyel-tsen Lhukpa. You are correct. I did not in fact come from Xianyang. I have only once visited the city in my entire life, when I was young.”
“So where did you come from then?”
“You do not need to know that.”
“But you just said that!” Gyel-tsen said, frustrated. “And then a minute later I figured it out. So can we just cut that part out, and you tell me anyway? Besides, this isn’t the most secure area. There’s a road a couple hundred feet behind us. Japanese troops could find us.”
Li shook his head. “There are no troops on the road. And if there were, none would make it here alive. I have snipers in the trees.”
“Very well. So we are relatively safe here.” Gyel-tsen sat down cross-legged. Li imitated him. “You want me to come with you because you are the only one who can get me back to Nepal.”
“This is true.”
“So what will I have to do to warrant my return to my homeland?”
“Join us.”
“Who is ‘us?’”
“A large group of Chinese men and women, dedicated to fighting against the Japanese by any means possible.”
Gyel-tsen shifted slightly. “Allied with Chiang Kai-Shek?”
“No. This group is beyond the petty warlord-ism that has fractured and weakened China. We are not Nationalist or Maoist. We do not owe any allegiance to Yunnan, Shanxi, the Ma Clique, or the Guangxi Clique.”
“Then who
are you?”
“We are the resistance.”
“Against the Japanese?”
“And the Nepalese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Afghanis of Greater Nepal.”
Gyel-tsen’s jaw slackened. “Nepalese? What for? My kingdom has done nothing to you.”
Li sighed. “Hardly. Nepal has been at war with the warlords of China for over a year and a half.”
Gyel-tsen’s face contorted as he took this information in. But he instantly took control of his facial expressions, suppressing them beneath a façade of calmness. “As you might not have known, for the past year and a half I have been in a
prison, chained to my bed. So forgive me if I do not know current politics. My captors were not big on informing me of such things.”
“I am aware of your captivity,” Li said. “However, based on who your jailers
were, I would assume that they had a very great interest on what was happening in Nepal.”
“If they did, then obviously they did not have a very great interest in telling one of their prisoners about it,” Gyel-tsen said. “I take it I
was the only prisoner there?”
Li nodded. “At the time of your escape, yes. But there have been others. A Nepalese woman, but she was moved months ago. There were some more as well, but we don’t know who they are… were.
“But getting back to business. Do you want to go back to Nepal or not?”
“Of course I do,” Gyel-tsen said, for what felt like the thousandth time. “What do I have to do to get there?”
“Join us. Join the resistance.”
“How will that get any closer to Nepal?”
“We have a shortage of men with your skills. Hunting, tracking, sniping. Mainly stealth and solo operations. So what I ask, is you join us. Once you are sworn in, we will give you your first assignment. Training will be bypassed for time’s sake, and due to the fact that there is nothing new we can teach you.”
“So I run this mission, and you return me home?”
“Not quite. We shall decide on an amount of time or number of
successful missions you will have to complete. Once that quota has been fulfilled, our people will escort you back into Nepal.”
Non-voluntary mercenary work, Gyel-tsen thought to himself.
Fantastic. Out loud he said: “But I can make my way home myself.”
Li smiled. “As you said, the area is crawling with hundreds – and now thousands – of Japanese troops who are ordered to kill you on sight. For that matter, most Chinese troops will kill you on sight too. So how will you make it home when everyone on the way is trying to kill you? Join me, and I guarantee you will make the journey safely.”
“That’s assuming that I survive all of your missions.”
“It’s a risk you will have to be willing to take. So, do you accept or do you decline?”
Gyel-tsen looked at the ground. “Give me a minute to think it over.”
****************************************
