The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid Read Online Free PDF

show. Among other things, I wanted to hear her memories of the Olympics— I’d actually been to an Olympics once, but I’d been too busy dodging homicidal Gamsakhurdians to pay much attention to the games.
    We’d barely got into the general wretchedness of the judging at synchronized swimming events when my cell played a bit of Mozart, and I answered to hear the strained tones of the ship’s entertainment director.
    “I thought you should know that there’s a problem,” he said, “a problem with your friend, the one in Emperor Class.”
    “What sort of problem?” I asked as my heart foundered. The tone of his voice was answer enough to my question.
    “I’m afraid he’s been killed.”
    “Where?”
    “In his room.”
    “I’ll meet you there.”
    I told Leila to go to Laszlo’s room, and after she yelped in protest I told her that she had to contact everyone in the troupe and insist that no one was to be alone for the rest of the trip. Apparently my words burned with conviction, because her eyes grew wide and she left the room fast.
    I sprinted to Jesse’s room and called Jorge, who was our forensics guy, and Sancho, who was the strongest, just in case we needed to rearrange something.
    The entertainment director stood in front of Jesse’s door, literally wringing his hands.
    “The cabin steward brought him a bottle of cognac he’d ordered,” he said, “and found him, ah …” His voice trailed away, along with his sanguinary complexion.
    “I’ll have to call the police soon,” he said faintly. “Not to mention the captain. It’s lucky I was on watch, and not someone else.”
    I was so utterly glad that I’d bribed the man. There’s nothing you can trust like corruption and dishonesty, and I made a mental note to slip the entertainment director a few extra hundred at the end of the voyage.
    “Where’s the steward?”
    “I told him to stay in my office.”
    Sancho and Jorge arrived— Jorge with a box of medical gloves that he shared with us— and our confidant opened the cabin door with his passkey.
    “I won’t go in again, if you don’t mind,” he said, swallowing hard, and stepped well away.
    I put on gloves and pushed the door open. We entered and closed the door behind us.
    “Well,” Jorge said, “I can tell you right away that it’s not a subtle Oriental poison.”
    Nor was it. Jesse lay on his back in the center of his suite, his throat laid open, his arms thrown out wide, and an expression of undiluted horror on his face. There was a huge splash of blood on the wall hangings and more under the body.
    “Don’t step in it,” I said.
    Jorge gingerly knelt by the body and examined the wound. “You’re not going to like this,” he said.
    “I already don’t like it,” I said.
    “You’re going to like it less when I tell you that his throat appears to have been torn open by the fangs of an enormous beast.”
    There was a moment of silence.
    “Maybe we should talk to the Hopping Vampires,” Sancho said.
    “Nobody can talk to them,” I said. “They don’t speak anybody’s language.”
    “So they claim,” Sancho said darkly.
    “Never mind that now,” I decided. “Search the room.” I found Jesse’s wallet and card case, from which I learned that his name was actually Jiu Lu, and that he was the head of the microbiology department at Pacific Century Corporation.
    Well. Who knew?
    I also found his cell phone, with all the numbers he’d set on speed dial.
    “Where’s his notebook computer?” I asked.
    We couldn’t find it, or the briefcase he’d carried it in, or any notes that may have been in the briefcase.
    “Let’s hope he kept everything on that machine encrypted,” Jorge said.
    We left the wallet where we found it, but took the cell phone and one of Jesse’s business cards. When we slipped out of the room, the entertainment director almost fainted with relief.
    “Go ahead and call the cops,” I told him.
    “Macanese police.” His eyes were hollow