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A black Ford Escalade, one of a fleet of vehicles, the monks kept secured in a warehouse in the town of Tangkouzhen, right at the southern base of the mountain cruised past her. So, Tung knew she was off the grounds. She waited for the vehicle to put some distance between them before she moved. She stared at the road for a second, and when she turned her head to move out from the bamboo grass, less than six inches from her face was a lush bamboo green pit viper, its vivid yellow eyes staring her in the face with its tongue flicking in and out of its mouth. Her stomach nosedived. Usually, a nocturnal hunter, she must have disturbed its sleep when she plunged into the thick of the bamboo. Okay, you don’t bite me and I won’t kill you. Deal? …show more content…

After several tries to close the door, she was ready to kick it off its decrepit hinges. “You damage, you buy,” the old man said. She turned her head slowly in his direction. “You would have to pay me to take this wreck off your hands, con-artist.” “You want to wait for something better, girlie? No skin off my nose.” She blew out a breath and figured a serial killer would have a better chance of getting a lift than her. He was the first and she had no doubt the last person who’d chance stopping for her. “Thank you for stopping. Where are you headed?” He pointed toward Huangshan. “I ask nothing of you and you do the same.” Happy to oblige, she watched the countryside slide by, the walls of several tunnels glide by slow enough she could count the cracks in the concrete in silence as they traveled along the G3 highway headed to Huangshan. The journey of silence ended outside the museum and despite his protests; Kalyssa paid him for his kindness. Left alone, Kalyssa stepped to the side of the foot traffic on the street, keeping the solid wall of a building at her back while she took a moment to survey the street. Deciding to keep her ten o’clock meeting with Phenix, and although she didn’t wear a watch, the amount of foot traffic around said she was cutting it fine; she made her way to the teahouse. Alert for signs of her associates, she almost stepped into the path of a moped. Dammit, she had no intention of letting Tung haul her ass back to the

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