918. Chapter 918

After What Lies Beneath

Episode 8.04

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Nope, none of this season belongs to me. Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's note: This is a sequel to chapters 623, 632, 702,752, 776,793, 848 and 847 about the adventures of Kate "Idaho" Beckett, an archeologist and her husband, Rick Castle, a writer and amateur archeologist in the early 1930s.

"Tibet?" Rick said, grimacing.

"What's wrong with Tibet?" His wife asked.

"What's right with Tibet? It's cold and it's uncivilized. There is not a single five star hotel in the entire place and there isn't one restaurant with even one Michelin star. How do you expect me to survive in a place like that?"

Kate shook her head." Do you remember where we met? We were in the middle of nowhere in Sinkiang. You didn't seem to have too much trouble then."

Rick smiled at her. "But that was when I was but a ruggedly handsome, happy go lucky playboy, relying on my wits to get by. Now, as a best selling author and a family man, I have to look out for my dear wife."

"Best selling author?" Kate teased. Rick had been writing adventure stories for pulp magazines for a penny a word when they met. "You mean those awful books about a scantily dressed female archeologist? And where did you ever come up with the nickname "Indiana" for her. That's absurd."

"The books do pay the bills."

"Fine, so I suggest that you start paying the bills to get us to Tibet. The New York Archeological Society as offered a prize of ten thousand US dollars to the first person who finds the legendary lost monastery of Shangri-La."

Rick laughed. "The lost monastery of Shangri-La? No one, not even the most gullible school boy ever, believes in that. It was nothing but the ravings of a sick and dying man."

Some fifty years earlier, an Englishman, Harry Clive, had been carried down from the Himalayas to British India, burning with fever and speaking of a monastery in a small valley. He described the valley as a paradise on Earth, without strife or greed or any other human failings. He eventually slipped into a coma and died. The authorities questioned the men who had brought Clive down from the Himalayas, but they insisted they had been hired in Lhasa to take Clive back and knew nothing of where he had been before. The Government of India had sent a small expedition to investigate, but they found nothing.

But rumors and stories had continued ever since.

"Perhaps, but I'm going to Tibet. Coming, Castle?"

He sighed. "Of course. Might I suggest we fly the Chunking and outfit the expedition there? It's going to be a lot cheaper than moving everything from here in Hong Kong."

"Of course, Rick. Whatever you want." She said with a wink.

They flew to Chunking, in Szechwan Province, and things went from bad to worse there. First they discovered that their White Russian friend, Countess Alexandra Oblonsky had been betrayed by her friend, Professor Royce. Royce had been Kate's mentor in college, but a love of alcohol had turned him into a crook who had betrayed Kate. He had gotten on the wagon recently, but apparently fell off. Unwilling to let the teenaged countess stay alone in Hong Kong, they had invited her along.

Landing in Chunking, they found the city in an uproar. They managed to find the American Consulate where they hoped to find out what was wrong.

"The city is in a panic, I'm afraid, Mr. Castle." He said. "General Ma, the local commander, stole the soldiers pay and fled to French Indo China. The army has been rioting and robbing anyone who has money. Worse, another General Ma, no relation, is headed here with his army. He's nothing but a jumped up bandit chief and will loot the place until the Nationalist government can send troops to restore order. However, I can get you out of here. There are still three seats available on a privately owned Boeing 247. The Maharaja of Peshapore sent it to retrieve his son. I can have a car to take you to the airport in five minutes."

The three quickly agreed and were on their way. The streets were full of armed men and frightened civilians. They saw looted buildings, dead bodies and injured people everywhere, but luckily the airport was near. The Maharaja's son had returned to India from university in England where he had apparently studied hell raising. He was quite drunk when they got there. Exactly how and why he had ended up in China, no one knew.

Of the ten passengers, only one, an American reporter named O'Neill, spoke any English. The Maharaja's son may have spoken English, but he was drunkenly singing an obscene song in Hindi. Rick recognized three of the verses as ones he'd thought up one night in Calcutta, long ago.

"You're the Castles, aint you?" O'Neill asked brashly. "Who's the cute redhead?" He said, leering at Countess Oblonsky.

Both Rick and Kate pulled back their jackets to show matching Colt .45s. Countess Oblonsky also pulled back her jacket to show a 9mm Browning Hi Power pistol.

"Enough said?" Rick said, smiling coldly.

The plane flew for hours until they found themselves over the Himalayas. Then they heard one of the two engines sputter and stop. Kate went to the cockpit where the pilot told them they could fly on with just one engine. Kate's smiled and headed back to Rick and Alexandra.

"The pilot said that…." Just then, the other engine sputtered and died.

"Oh, shit." Rick and Kate said together.

Kate raced back to the cockpit and saw that the pilot was aiming for a small, green valley just ahead of them. "Can we make it?"

The pilot shrugged. ""I'll be the first to know if we don't."

Kate rushed back and helped everyone get strapped in, then sat with her arms around Rick.

"See?" He whispered. "I told you we should go to someplace with a five star hotel."

"Next place we go, babe. The very next place."

The landing, in a rice paddy was rough, but everyone survived. As they quickly exited the plane, curious villagers converged on the plane. As they seemed to have no common language between them, the villagers pointed to a monastery at the end of the valley. They even rounded up a yak to carry the still drunk Maharaja's son.

The villagers left them at the gates of the monastery and two saffron robed monks came out to give them very sweet tea and some sort of noodles. Soon a dozen of more monks arrived and gathered around them. They seemed especially fascinated with Alexandra's red hair, that being quite rare in Asia. However, the monks also spoke no language the passengers spoke.

"Rick? Kate? Alexandra? Is that you?"

They turned around to see a familiar and unexpected face.

"Professor Royce?" They said in unison.

"In the flesh." He said with a smile.

"Odd place for you to be hiding out in." Kate said angrily. "You abandoned Alexandra in Hong Kong and stole money from her. You're incorrigible."

He shook his head. "No, I'm a changed man. This is Shangri-La. The legendary Shangri-La, and it's exactly as old Harry Clive described it. It's a paradise on Earth. There's no violence, no greed, no envy, no lust, no pride. Why I haven't had a drink since I got here and it doesn't bother me a bit. I'm never leaving."

"We are." Said Countess Oblonsky. "I have to get back to Hong Kong and look after all of the Russian refugees there and get them to safety to America."

Rick and Kate nodded. "We have lives to get back to, Royce. I don't know about the others, but Rick and I will leave with Alexandra"

"Of course." Royce said. "Even paradise isn't for everyone. The winter snows are melting, so it'll soon be clear to travel. Perhaps a week, or a bit more. There's a Champa village not too far from here. I can have the locals take you there and they'll take you to Lhasa and then on to British India."

It took two weeks for the snow to melt, and oddly enough the pilot, O'Neill and the Maharaja's son all wanted to stay. Rick and Kate and six other passengers left. After a long trek, they made it to British India and then back to Hong Kong.

Rick and Kate were sprawled on their bed in the hotel. "We're the only two English speakers that left, so we're the only ones who know we were in Shangri-La. And from what we saw in two weeks, the place is a paradise."

Kate nodded. "Peaceful and serene. Absolutely."

"So do you want to go back and win ten thousand dollars for discovering it?"

She shook her head. "That would probably ruin it. We'll leave it as it is. At least until they get a five star hotel and a good restaurant."

"I'm with you."

However, that was not the last time they saw Professor Royce. But, that is another story.