Jade Tiger Read Online Free PDF Page B

tonight. As soon as we're done talking."
    "Wait a minute--" Ian tried.
    "Look, you either go on vacation before that goon comes back, or you'll be lucky to live out the week." Shan looked at Buckley. "Do you understand?"
    "It can't be as bad as that," Buckley said.
    "Oh, yes it can," Shan snapped. "That security guard, the one with the billy club he never got to pull out of its holder, was dead in seconds." The security guard's distorted face filled Shan's mind. She thought of Ian's head twisted unnaturally, his neck purple and ugly. No. She couldn't let that happen. Ian had a brain. Ian would understand.
    "I don't understand," Ian said. "It's okay for you to risk your life, but not for me? Or Bucks?" he added.
    "Exactly right," said Shan. She took a quick look around the room, but no one seemed to be paying attention to them. Good. "I have no doubt that you guys mean well, but you're professors. You need to stick to your books and let me handle this."
    Buckley snorted. "It's not like we're historians," he said. "We're archaeologists!"
    Shan raised an eyebrow.
    "Archaeologists are made of sterner stuff," Ian said, his tone and expression deadly serious.
    Shan couldn't help it. She laughed.
    Buckley turned to Ian. "She obviously hasn't seen you in a pit. The man wields a mean trowel."
    "Okay, not even I can keep my dignity with praise like that," Ian said.
    Shan laughed again. Damn. She liked Ian, and now even Buckley was starting to grown on her.
    Which, of course, was all the more reason to send them off someplace far away. Someplace safe.
    "I could try to blackmail you," Ian said. "I've got an almost photographic memory, and there's a dead man back at the university. You didn't do it, but it would take you a long time to untangle yourself from the mess if I gave them a good description of you."
    "You wouldn't--"
    "No, I wouldn't," said Ian. "I'm merely trying to illustrate some of my options."
    "And now that's my option, too," said Buckley.
    Ian frowned at Buckley. "Bucks, the point was that I'm not going to use blackmail. You're undermining my argument."
    "Right. Sorry," said Buckley. "Please continue." He tossed three more pretzels into his mouth and chomped down.
    Shan looked back at Ian, her irritation growing. It was late. Her leg ached from the cut, and every time she moved, the dried blood cracked and reopened the wound. Worse, she was sitting on a vinyl seat in a collegetown bar at almost three o'clock in the morning. She should have just taken the crane and disappeared.
    Ian cleared his throat. "As I was saying, I have no intention of turning you in to the police, or of reporting the crane missing, or anything like that--"
    "What a relief," Shan said wryly.
    "--but I do think we can help each other out." Ian leaned in. Shan and Buckley followed suit. This close, Shan could smell the beer on Buckley's breath and hear the crunching of his jaw as he ate his pretzels.
    "We're in danger," continued Ian. "Bucks and me. Big danger." He spared a glance at Buckley, who simply shrugged his agreement. "And you need the other jade animals," he said to Shan. She hadn't told him about the other animals, but yet he knew. How? She nodded slowly. Ian took a big breath. "And I think I know where the next piece is. The dragon. I know where the dragon is."
    Shan stilled the muscles of her face, forcing herself to remain calm. "Tell me," Shan said, her voice quiet and dark. Then she remembered what Ian had been through this night, and added, "Please."
    Ian opened his mouth to speak, but it was Buckley's voice she heard.
    "Oh, shit."
    Shan turned toward the front door in time to see her one-eyed opponent from the university send three well-toned men and one dangerous-looking woman in their direction.
    "Why do bars always lead to bar fights?" Shan muttered as she squeezed out of the booth.

CHAPTER 3
     
    Shan stood up next to their booth and reached back to grab the crane. Ian snatched the messenger bag just before her fingers got hold