After trekking together for half of the night and seeing no one on the road, Akiko and Andalas reached the end of the Chomolhari trail. From there, in about another 10 km, they would arrive at the ground zero of the hunt. If they continued this journey, they would arrive at the ground zero before the morning broke. And that was good. They would still be in the darkness when they had to look for the hunting gear that Huang Ma's helicopter had dropped yesterday afternoon.
"From here, the distance is not too far, but the path will be much tougher, Akiko. Shall we stop and wait till morning to continue?" Andalas's voice sounded pitiful.
Akiko gripped Andalas's hand tightly. Her eyes looked at Andalas's eyes, which seemed to be being filled with stars from above the Chomolhari sky.
"Do I look like a noble's daughter worthy of your pity, O murderer? As long as you stay by my side, I will carry on."
Andalas looked down and kissed the tough woman's forehead. He decided to continue the journey to go through bumpy glaciers, sometimes rocky and pointy, and often slippery surface of ice.
For the rest of the journey, there wasn't the slightest bit of conversation. The news from The Kitchen made them wonder in their mind. Has the Chairman realized and found out that the MS-BA-30 team was still alive? Was he informed that the SABATROP Serum was starting to be produced even though Cecilia and young Huang had agreed that the production of SABATROP would be kept confidential until at least something was ready for distribution? Or was there a new development from the Organization and they were consolidating an attack? But what did they attack? KL facilities?
The questions that popped up in their minds drained their energy. Slightly longer than predicted, they reached the ground zero of the hunt after the dawn broke. A place at the base of a high mountain, not as tall as Gangkhar Puensum whose silhouette began to appear majestically ahead, but enough to block the view of the people of Gangkhar Puensum if one of them happened to look this way.
Akiko saw it first. A large iron box laid not far from where they were standing. The box was locked. Andalas reached for the key tucked away in his bag. The last key from Doctor Aslan in Geneva. Luigi asked him to use it.
They opened the iron box. Two unassembled Sako TRG 42. Two AK 47s with several magazines. Two thunder 50 BMG pistols. Some RDX. Some smoke grenades. Two high-resolution binoculars. One small Hydrogen bomb.
"What's this?" Akiko held up a very small box which was the last item in the chest.
Andalas shrugged. He didn't ask for the little box. Maybe it was accidentally put there when Luigi and Darko were packing. As Andalas didn't care, Akiko didn't open the box and put it in the pocket of her thick jacket.
The day was starting to light up. The Sako TRG 42 was assembled quickly. The mailbox-sized hydrogen bomb was in the Andalas bag. The grenades were split in Akiko's and Andalas' bags. One AK 47 was held by each. Each also tucked Thunder 50 BMG on their waist. The hunt was about to begin!
Unlike usual, Andalas took the initiative to hug Akiko first. He kissed her forehead, both cheeks, and the lips of the woman he loved. It was only a fleeting glance, but the effect on Akiko was powerful. She seemed to get recharged.
They walked toward the frozen glacier, heading to a small hill or ice fall that resembled a giant mound. From there, they would face the Gangkhar Puensum who now looked more beautiful, majestic, and mysterious.
While chewing brown sugar which Andalas carried everywhere, the two of them crouched behind the ice fall. Gangkhar Puensum looked peaceful. There was no activity there. Andalas grabbed the binoculars. Blank. The foot of the mountain showed no sign of a door. Everything was rock or ice. Was The Kitchen wrong? Could the door be on the North side, not on the South side? Akiko nudged his shoulder. Pointing with her eyes to a direction.
A giant granite boulder stood tall and strong there. Andalas was frowned upon, asking Akiko through his eyes.
"Stupid! There is never a granite rock on an iceberg! It's only in the mountains in the tropical climate with no snow."
Andalas nodded in understanding. He directed the binoculars at the giant granite boulder. The size of the stone made no sense. It was also smooth and not broken or lumpy. Some parts were indeed covered with snow, but the giant rock was smooth and flat slab.
A vibration in Akiko's jacket pocket. From The Kitchen. They both read it.
Kun Lun's facilities are in ruins! The organization arrived with a monstrous Jet-Chopper that released four UICBM missiles in succession. The KL facility was completely buried in rock and earth ruins. Luckily the last people were evacuated after we caught the movement in Gangkhar Puensum this morning. But there were casualties. Several people who were packing the last important things didn't have time to escape and save themselves. You have to be extra careful! The Jet-Chopper is super-fast and super dangerous!
Andalas was thinking fast. That meant the Jet-Chopper was on its way here. He had some time. Andalas put the Sako TRG 42, binoculars and AK 47 off his shoulder. Then quickly took the Hydrogen Bomb in his bag. Akiko just looked at him with astonished eyes because she had absolutely no idea what Andalas was planning.
Andalas kissed Akiko's cheek while whispered, protect me. After that, he ran fast through the scattered stone fields in front of the giant granite rock. The distance between the ice fall to the granite was quite far. About 200 meters. But Andalas ran fast. Akiko who was taken aback by Andalas' crazy actions could only sigh while watching through the scope of her sniper rifle. She saw Andalas planted the hydrogen bomb under a granite rock and covered it with snow. Turning on the detonator without a timer and then running fast like being chased by the devil back to ice fall.
Akiko breathed a sigh of relief. No signs that Andalas' recklessness were seen by anyone. They took their positions again. Akiko looked up at the mountain behind them. There was a soft rumble there. Andalas also heard it, but didn't have time to pay attention because a strange hum not too loud came from the direction of 2 o'clock.
Andalas and Akiko both held their breath. The Jet-Chopper appeared at the speed of a fighter plane from a distance. Then quietly was hoovering in front of the giant granite boulder. As Akiko expected, the granite rock was wide open, showing a giant tunnel as the entrance to the belly of the mountain.
Andalas was about to shoot the helicopter pilot when a loud noise was heard from a distance. Two-armed Apache helicopters were seen approaching and standing by behind the Jet-Chopper which hadn't moved in. Two Apaches appeared to be the Jet-Chopper's guards.
Instead of entering, the Jet-Chopper turned his nose to face the ice fall. Andalas and Akiko realized that they were already spotted. Seemed that the surveillance camera caught Andalas when he planted the hydrogen bombs earlier.
Two thunderous explosions shattered the surface of the glacier in front of the ice fall. The two Apache helicopters fired rockets at them. Missed shots. However, flakes of ice and snow couldn't help but scatter toward Akiko's and Andalas's hiding spot. The two of them pressed their bodies into the ice fall. They were stuck!
As the two Apache helicopters were about to fire another rocket, one of the helicopters jolted sideways with the propeller shattered after being hit by a rocket from the helicopter that was now hoovering behind Andalas and Akiko. Akiko widened her eyes when she saw Lian Xi in the pilot's seat with a silhouette of the person next to her. Lian Xi waved and then moved the helicopter's steering lever to the right. Fishing for the remaining Apache helicopter to chase after her.
There was an exciting chase through the high mountains of the Himalayan Massif. Lian Xi was carrying a small Russian-made Black Shark helicopter. Of course, the Apache lost agility when it came to maneuvering a chase in mountainous areas like this. The two helicopter gunships that were hunting each other had briefly disappeared from sight.
Meanwhile, the Jet-Chopper, whose shape was frightening and sturdy, was like a Vulture, approaching Andalas's and Akiko's hiding spot. The Chairman had run out of the AGSGM missiles he royally squandered on destroying the Kun Lun Facility, but the Jet-Chopper he dubbed the Gyps Fulvus or Vulture Grifon still had a 70mm Canon gun and a 50mm caliber machine gun.
Again a series of shots hit the ice fall. When the wall finally collapsed, Andalas and Akiko fled by running backwards to the open area under the 6500-meter-high mountain.
The Chairman saw a man and woman holding sniper guns standing in the open area. The leader of the Organization didn't want to just settle things by firing Canons or Machine Guns. He was curious about the people who had so boldly visited his headquarters. Through the Gyps Fulvus, the Chairman noticed the two faces.
He already had a database of Adli Aslan's people, so he knew who was standing boldly in that open area. Akiko, the Japanese doctor who was the daughter of Hitoshi Nakamura, and Andalas, the adopted son of Adli Aslan, The Killer Hunter!
The Chairman said to the Stepmother who was sitting beside him tensely.
"See Stepmother! That was the one who killed my people and yours, The Killer Hunter! Standing there with the Yakuza woman waiting for us to butcher! Ha ha ha ha!" The Chairman prepared to press the trigger of the Canon 70 mm and intended to fire the large caliber bullet until it was finished in the bullet chamber. He desperately wanted those who had disturbed his sleep for months, crushed beyond recognition.
A split second before his finger hit the trigger, a violent explosion was seen at the granite door. Andalas had pressed the trigger of the mini-Hydrogen Bomb which made the waist of the mountain along with the rocks and ice above it collapsed violently, sending the Gyps Fulvus flying into the air and then falling down uncontrollably after being hit by the impact of the vibration from the explosion.
The Chairman tried hard to master the steering of the super-sophisticated helicopter, but he failed. In his desperation, the Chairman shouted while pressing the trigger of the Canon 70mm hard. His eyes, which held intense anger, still briefly met the eyes of Andalas who fell down while pressing the trigger of the Sako TRG 42 and sent a live bullet that pierced his head.
The Gyps Fulvus slammed to the ground not far from where Andalas and Akiko were. They already got up. Jet-Chopper didn't explode. It just laid on its side with the bodies of the Chairman and Stepmother lightly injured but half unconscious.
There was an even louder roar behind Akiko and Andalas from 7 o'clock. It seemed that a giant wave of snow fell at high speed towards the battlefield in the open area of the glacier. The desperate shot by The Chairman in his last moments sparked a gigantic avalanche, straight toward the Gyps Fulvus, Akiko and Andalas. Andalas grabbed Akiko's hand and carried her away quickly.
But a human running power, which was only a maximum of 45 km/hour, couldn't compete with the speed of an avalanche from the top of a mountain with a height of more than 6500 meters and a slope of 60 degrees that pushed the speed up to 180 km/hour.
Andalas saw a large rock with a cavity enough to shelter one person. With the last remaining strength, Andalas pulled Akiko behind a large rock and pushed her body into the rock cavity while using his own body as a barrier to prevent the avalanche from filling the small cavity where Akiko was curled up.
The giant avalanche happened in no more than three minutes, but the results were extraordinary. Almost the entire glacier plain was covered by snow and rocks.
Akiko was still conscious because the small cavity in the boulder still held air and was not covered by snow. Akiko opened her eyes. The snow heap might have a thickness of at least 3 meters. They were completely closed. Andalas's body in front of her was starting to cool down. Akiko was hysterical. She started digging with her hands.
Akiko could still hear the roaring and growling sounds in her ears. She didn't care because her concentration was completely on Andalas. She managed to pull in the tightly buried body of Andalas. They were huddled in the small cavity. But at least Andalas was able to breathe again even though his pulse continued to slow down. Akiko became more hysterical.
She screamed loudly. Hugging Andalas body while blowing his face. Rubbing his hands on Andalas face. Give artificial respiration which was not necessary because Andalas was still breathing.
Akiko remembered Andalas's oath at the foot of the Kun Lun Mountains. Remembering his warm embrace. His kiss was awkward but from the bottom of his heart. His tremendous sacrifice to keep her alive.
"I don't want to live if you die! Live so I can live! You made a silly promise to me once, but now I'm the one making a promise to you. Once I no longer feel your pulse and no longer feel the breath, I'll come with you." Again, Akiko hugged Andalas's body tightly. Her hand reached Kaiken in her front jacket pocket.
Akiko saw a bright sparkling light piercing her eyes. A snake slid toward her. Akiko smiled sadly and got ready to lift the Kaiken. She didn't want to die with Andalas by being bitten by a snake. She wanted to kill the snake and then killed herself. As promised.
Akiko blinked her eyes which were wet with snow and tears. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice.
"Take that rope, Akiko!"
"Hurry up kid! Aren't you cold in there?"
Akiko narrowed her eyes after successfully identifying the voice. Lian Xi!
And the second voice! She could hardly believe her ears. It was her father's voice!
Quickly she put her Kaiken back, Akiko grabbed the rope and wrapped it around Andalas's waist.
"Lian Xi! Dad! Pull up!"
Andalas's body was slowly pulled up. Soon the rope came down again. Akiko tied the rope around her waist. She wanted to hurry upstairs to see how Andalas was. She was very worried. Andalas's body cooled off quickly.
Arriving at the top, Akiko saw Lian Xi injecting Andalas's arm with two types of injections. Akiko was weak. Her body almost rolled over if Hitoshi Nakamura didn't catch her immediately. Andalas was very pale. Lian Xi gave him an injection so that the fluid that had partially flooded into his lungs could be removed. The second injection was given because his heart had stopped for a moment.
Everyone was waiting. Akiko didn't care that she was sitting on the ruins of snow and rock. She held Andalas's hand and gripped it tightly. It felt like the world around Akiko had stopped spinning. Akiko's left hand felt her jacket pocket. Making sure Kaiken was still there.
Lian Xi saw all this with teary eyes. It was amazing to see Akiko's great love for the man who also fell for her. As a woman, Lian Xi could sense how Akiko was slowly entering a phase of great loss.
After a special meeting with Young Huang in Beijing, Lian Xi, who was very worried about Andalas's situation because hunting for the Chairman in the Himalayas was not a job that could be done alone with Akiko, she took the initiative to ask her superiors at MSS for a special permission. She reported that there was a critical incident on the China-Bhutan border in the Himalayan region that required the handling of an MSS agent, and she needed helicopters to support her operations.
Lian Xi's superior, who had heard the full story from Young Huang about Lian Xi's tenacity against people who continued to want the pandemic to spread, approved Lian Xi's request. He even gave her access to Black Shark, a helicopter gunship.
When she was about to leave, Lian Xi received an email from someone claiming to be Hitoshi Nakamura. A father who was desperate and would do anything to help his daughter. Lian Xi agreed that Hitoshi Nakamura would accompany him to the China-Bhutan border.
Of course Lian Xi also had all the data that Akiko sent to The Kitchen because the data was later shared by The Kitchen with Cecilia, Cathy, and herself. That was why Lian Xi was able to arrive just in time when Andalas and Akiko almost died after being surrounded by three heavy weight helicopter gunships earlier.
After taking down one Apache and then luring the other Apaches after her, Lian Xi did a Dog Fight with the Apache and managed to win it. When she and Hitoshi Nakamura returned to the place where they left Andalas and Akiko, that was when they both witnessed the incident when Andalas detonated the granite boulder that was the entrance to the Organization Facility and managed to bring down the Gyps Fulvus, the super-sophisticated terrifying helicopter. They also witnessed when the avalanche buried the giant Gyps Fulvus, along with the Chairman and Stepmother inside it, and Andalas and Akiko who were seen running towards a large rock.
After that what they saw was a stretch of white color everywhere. Lian Xi still remembered very well the boulder where they were last seen with only a slight tip of it visible. Lian Xi then detonated a hand grenade near the rock to make a quick hole and then continued digging using the shovel in the helicopter with Hitoshi Nakamura.
They managed to find Akiko and it turned out that the first to ride was Andalas, who was dying.
Akiko jumped in surprise. Her hand that gripped Andalas's hand was also tightly gripped. Akiko couldn't take it anymore and sobbed into tears. She didn't care that her father was surprised to see her cry. She didn't care that Lian Xi crouched down next to her and burst into tears. She only cared that Andalas was back!
Akiko turned and looked at Lian Xi with full pleading.
"Please! Please take us to the hospital immediately. I am begging you…."
Lian Xi wiped away the tears in the corners of her eyes then waved at Hitoshi Nakamura to help her carry Andalas to the Black Shark.
On their way to the nearest hospital in the Black Shark with a speed of up to 300 km/hour, Andalas started to regain consciousness. He grabbed Akiko's hand which was holding his body. Then whispered so softly that Akiko had to bring her ear closer.
"Thank you for accompanying me to the end. Will you stay with me for the rest of our life? But you need to know. I don't have a house at all. We'll be homeless together."
Akiko kissed the cold cheek that was starting to warm up and whispered back. Very soft in Andalas ears.
"I want to live and die with you for the rest of our life. And you need to know that you now own a house."
Akiko took a small box in her pocket and waved a piece of paper with the Brussels court logo. Akiko read out the contents of the letter which was only in short sentences.
"When I die, all my possessions and my humanitarian vision and mission will bequeath to my adopted son named Andalas."
THE END