Jade Island by Elizabeth Lowell

intensity that had her nails buried in his callused palm. She was tugging and pushing, trying to get past him in the tightly packed crowd of people.
    “Why?” he asked.
    Lianne shook her head and said starkly, “Let me by!”
    “Stay close. I’ll break trail for you.”
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” Farmer said loudly. “Please sit down. The suit will be on display for the opening of my Museum of Asian Jade. It will remain on display thereafter. Everyone who wishes will have ample time to see the burial shroud.”
    Perhaps half the people heading for the stage hesitated.The rest just kept on going. Hard-faced guards wearing tuxedos materialized near Farmer.
    Towing Lianne behind him, Kyle made for the side of the room. He ignored the startled curses and outraged looks from people whose feet happened to be in his way. Then he saw the guards form a ring around Farmer, who was yelling at them to protect the suit, not him. Soon the guards would become a solid barrier across the stage.
    Kyle turned to Lianne. “Faint,” he said quietly.
    “What?”
    “If you want to get close to that burial suit, faint. ”
    Lianne crumpled.
    Kyle grabbed her, lifted her in his arms, and began shoving roughly through the crowd.
    “Get out of my way,” he shouted. “She needs air. Clear a path!”
    Quickly Kyle forced a way up on the stage, which was the only place in the auction room that wasn’t crowded. Several guards started toward him, saw the utterly limp woman in his arms, and turned back to control the people who were still on their feet. The curtain thumped down behind Kyle’s back, tangling the most eager members of the crowd in a combination of soft velvet folds and guards whose hands were a good deal harder.
    “Stay away from the jade,” a guard snarled at Kyle.
    “Screw the jade. She has to have air.”
    Before the guard could decide whether to go after Kyle, one of the mainland China contingent staggered out from under the curtain. While the guard was trying to do a little hands-on, cross-cultural exchange, Kyle slipped around behind the coffin-sized pedestal that supported the jade suit.
    “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” Kyle said in Lianne’s ear. “You’ve got maybe thirty seconds before a guard spots us. Ten seconds after that, we’ll be out on our ear.”
    Lianne didn’t need a second invitation. She twisted in Kyle’s arms until she was facing the shroud.
    It was barely two feet away, illuminated by a spotlight so intense that it seemed like a solid column of white.Gold threads twisted and glittered as though alive, but it was only Lianne who was alive, straining toward the immortal jade with an urgency that made her quiver.
    “Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing!” yelled a guard.
    “Take it easy,” Kyle said. “This is the only decent air in the room.”
    “Take her outside,” the guard said curtly, running across the stage. “Move!”
    “We’re bounced,” Kyle murmured, heading for the exit.
    Lianne didn’t complain. She had seen enough. Too much. Dick Farmer’s beautiful jade prize had once belonged to Wen Zhi Tang.
    The certainty of it stunned her.
    Belatedly she realized that Kyle was still carrying her. “Put me down.”
    “In a minute.”
    “But—where are we going?”
    “Outside.”
    “Why? Is the guard still after us?”
    “No, but I want to see if anyone else is. Got any objections?”
    If Lianne did, she didn’t have time to voice them. Kyle put her down and then hustled her through an outside door so fast her feet barely touched the floor. He kept going until they were beyond the well-lighted building and down a side walkway. Soon they were hidden in the shadows leading to the hotel’s underground garage.
    Kyle stopped and held Lianne motionless against his chest. Over her head he watched the empty walkway they had just hurried down.
    “What are you—” she began.
    “Be still,” he whispered.
    Shivering in the chill, she waited quietly, watching his eyes for