Blackstone - The Temple of Trials

Mission to the Mountains

The KunlunMountains of West Central China are beautiful and awesome. They look like they stretch to the very roof of the sky. David, Thomas, and I came out of the Jump Door within sight of the peak of Amne Machin. The wind blew sharp across the plain and it was cold. I could feel our Ranger jumpsuits compensating for the drop in temperature.

"I hate the cold," Thomas grumbled.

"Wait until we get a mission that takes us to Antarctica. You don't know cold until you've been at the South Pole," David said and took out his Razor Phone and started scanning.

I looked at the far away peak. It must have been at least twenty miles to the base of the mountain.

David finished his scan and holstered his razor phone. "The Triad's compound where Yin Li is being held is halfway up that mountain. Adebayo, do you have the position of that sewage tunnel."

"Right here, Sir," Thomas said.

Thomas took out his razor phone and consulted it. He pressed a button on his phone and a hologram of the sewer appeared. It looked like it winded for miles through the mountain. I could only imagine what kind of creatures dwelt in that horrible place.

"Looks like fun," I said.

"Hey, this should be easy. After what we went through in the Temple of Trials," David said.

"Don't remind me. I just hope this Yin Li is worth it," I said.

"All right, the sun will be going down soon. It's going to get even colder. We'd better get moving. Can you two keep up with me?" David said.

"The question is can you keep up with us, old man?" I quipped.

David smiled and set off at a brisk jog. Thomas and I ran after him. We ran for hours at a fast pace. We were trained as Rangers to run long distances without stopping. I remembered training at the Forge when we were forced to run multiple marathons in the same day.

David set a brisk pace. I looked back at Thomas to see if he was keeping up. Thomas was thin but he was tough. He kept up with David and me. I was proud of him. There was a reason that Colonel Nash plucked him from the League of Hackers to be in the Rangers.

Finally just as the sun was setting, we reached the base of the mountain. So far we hadn't been detected. David stopped running and looked at Thomas and me.

"Not bad, guys. We just might make Agents out of you, yet," David said.

"Just let us know when the real challenges begin," I said.

Thomas grinned, "If all this mission calls for is running then I'm fine with it."

"I wish it was that simple. Let's find this sewer tunnel and get on with it," David said.

"It should be about one thousand feet up the mountain," Thomas said.

We set out to climb the mountain. It was hard going. We scrambled over rocks and huge boulders sometimes blocked our path, but eventually we made it. In front of us lay the opening to the sewer tunnel. It had large metal bars that closed it off.

David took out his razor phone and activated a cutting laser that sliced through the metal bars so we could squeeze into the tunnel.

"All right, Silence from here on out," David said.

We crawled through the tunnel for what felt like hours. Slime and muck was everywhere and the stench was horrible, but we kept going. Finally David signaled for us to stop. He pointed above us and took out his razor phone. He activated the cutting laser and sliced through the tunnel until a small hole was created. David signaled for us to follow him and we all squeezed through the small opening.