Stackpole, Michael A - Dark Conspiracy 02 by Evil Ascending Read Free Book Online Page B

synonymous. “Yes, traveling with you would be fine with me.” Rajani reached out and gave Dorothy a big hug. Clearly, the world has changed during the time I spent in stasis. I went in hoping I could come out to help save the world from Fiddleback but, ifithas changed so radically that fathers canselltheir children, perhaps it is too late.
    Looking at the ancient and beautiful monastery clinging to the mountainside, Coyote felt as if he had traveled a thousand years back through time on his journey to Tibet. Adjusting his Serengeti Vermillion sunglasses, he glanced over at Crowley. He wanted to see if the sight awed his companion, but instead caught the dark-haired occultist studying him for his reaction to it. They both laughed, then urged their little ponies onward along the narrow, winding trail.
    From Phoenix they had flown to LA and caught a flight direct to Tokyo. From there they transferred to a flight to New Delhi. That led to another flight to Guwahati, then to Paro, Bhutan and finally into Gonggar, Tibet. Each leg had been completed in smaller and smaller planes, including the last in which they flew in an old People’s Liberation Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Army plane that had been repainted after Tibet reasserted its independence in 1999.
    At Gonggar they took a bus on the 60-mile trip into Lhasa. Crowley had commented that the capital looked a lot more festive than the last time he had been there. “In 1985, when the Chinese hosted a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Tibet’s autonomy, you couldn’t see any signs that weren’t written in Chinese. Now look at it; everything is Tibetan.”
    Coyote had probed a bit more aboutCrowley’spres-ence in Tibet at that time, but his companion seemed reluctant to expand upon his comments. Coyote knew there had been riots in the late 1980s to protest the Chinese domination of the region. Restrictions on foreign travel through the area had been fierce, and had remained so until 1997 when the Second Cultural Revolution had created so many problems for Beijing that they relaxed their grip on the outlying regions. Nei Mongol, Manchuria and Tibet revolted, kicking out the Han settlers through which the central government had tried to colonize their nations. After two years of bloody fighting in Tibet, the 14thDalai Lama returned on June 6, his birthday, and proclaimed Tibet free again.
    Throughout the journey from Lhasa to Shigaste and up to Namling, Coyote had seen plenty of evidence of the Tibetan war for independence. Maoist statues had been toppled, then left to be weathered by the sandblasting winds of Tibet. As Crowley explained when driving through Shigaste, “The people have left the Chinese monuments and buildings in the same state of repair that the First Cultural Revolution left Tibetan temples. They have devoted themselves to restoring their history and have left the Chinese things to rot.”
    They abandoned their rented Range Rover in Namling and were met by a yellow-hatted monk with six horses.
    Crowley introduced the man as Getsul Khedrup, explaining that he was not yet a full monk, but well on his way to his final ordination. Following Khedrup, they rode their shaggy ponies up and out of the fertile central Yarlung Valley. For the next two days they continued up and away from civilization, seeing only nomads tending large herds of yaks as they went.
    The weather cooled as they climbed in altitude, but Coyote remained surprised at how seasonable the cli-mate was. He had expected to need cold weather gear, but Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    they were not assaulting Mount Everest. The thick yak-hair blankets their guide had brought with them were more than enough to ward off the chilly night air. During the day, a thin shirt or jacket proved more than sufficient, especially since the desert plateau on which they traveled got so little rain.
    Coyote turned