35

By the time you extricate yourself from the tent, the confrontation is already in full flow. Zhu and Sangpo are standing there, screaming at each other in Cantonese while the other three Tibetan guides look on, dumbstruck. The fury and the wildness have returned to Zhu's eyes; he's losing control again. But Sangpo, too, is animated—furious, gesticulating wildly and yelling his defiance at Zhu.

And then Zhu draws his pistol and—before anybody can do anything—stops Sangpo's gesticulations forever.

Your chief guide falls lifeless to the ground. The three surviving guides stare at each other in terror as Zhu turns on them.

"Zhu, you murderous bastard, you're out of control!"

Zhu wheels around to face you, the anger undimmed on his face. "Do not judge me, Dr. Spillane. He gave you the poisoned gruel, too. He had no quarrel with you, but your life meant nothing to him, as long as he got to me."

Sighing, Zhu tries to get control of himself. "Listen, the problem is clear. They're Tibetan nationalists. They support the so-called resistance. They hate me, as an agent of the Chinese state. They were probably planning to poison me all along, once we were out in the mountains and nobody would know what they had done. But they won't try anything now. I just showed them the consequences of betrayal."

He holsters his pistol, pins the guides with one final, menacing glare, and trudges back to the tent. Stepping over Sangpo's lifeless corpse, he disappears inside.

You head back in after him, stunned by what you just witnessed. Zhu is one cold-hearted, remorseless bastard, that's for sure.