'So I did die after all?' Lee thought, thrilled to see the smiling face.
"What are you gawking at?!" Lisa pretended to be angry and punched his shoulder, "Did you find out anything? Quickly! Tell me!"
'What the f …' Lee was confused.
Usually when he died, he got to see her only for a brief moment, but she didn't say anything nor could he touch her. In fact, the moment he tried, she always vanished and he found himself being just born, midwife smacking his butt.
"Cooome ooon!" Lisa grinned and pushed him, and Lee felt tripping, and falling on the bed on his back. She immediately got on top of him and put her hands on his neck as if strangling, "I know you have news! I can smell it!"
Then she leaned forward, lying down on his chest, and instead of sniffing, planted a deep, long kiss on his lips. Lee's mind spun in ecstasy, but he knew it was only a dream. One that closely resembled past events.
They currently were in their deluxe suite in Furama hotel. Lisa loved its rotating restaurant, and always made them stay there when they came to Hong Kong. Lee wasn't against it, but much more preferred the two bedroom house on top of a hill they bought in Santa Teresa. While Costa Rica wasn't his favorite country in the world, they decided to settle down there one day, and buying a small house was the first step.
But them being in Hong Kong meant they were going to work. At least that's how Lisa called it. A harmless scam could be named that way if one did it professionally, right? And they were professionals.
"Fine!" Lee felt himself saying, and she immediately let him go. The sensation of being part of events and a spectator at the same time was confusing, but he continued to play the role he had played once before, "The fat guy actually managed to do it."
"What? He went to the gym for the first time in his life?" Lisa snickered.
"He got Jin Fu to cooperate with some guy from the States." Lee ignored the sarcasm, and said, "Together they translated few of the scrolls from the library."
"From the Library Cave?" Lisa immediately guessed, "But those are just ancient Buddhist texts. Religious writings and stuff. Mogao caves have been thoroughly excavated a long time ago, and there's nothing new to be found."
"I also thought so." Lee agreed, "But from what I understand, Smirnoff's great-grandfather was one of the Russians who vandalized the place seventy years ago. And back then he and his buddies escaped with a bunch of manuscripts which the fat guy has been trying to decipher for the last decade."
"And?" Lisa asked, slightly despaired for Lee not getting to the point straight away.
"And they found something." Lee smiled and pinched her nose, "My guess is that it's another temple like the one in Dunhuang."
"Damn you!" Lisa smacked his chest and jumped off the bed, "I'll never forgive you if we're late!"
Lee knew she never got angry, but her pouting expression was rather sexy. Unfortunately he knew that in four hours they would already be on a plane, flying across China, to Dunhuang to be exact. He knew what was about to happen in this dream, but watched his own memories run by like one enjoys a good movie they had seen before. The illusion made him nostalgic, but holding Lisa's hand for the duration of the whole flight was worth all the riches of the world. It was a good thing she was terrified of flying. Although it was her only flaw.
Before boarding, Lisa contacted one of her informants in Beijing and he called his guy, named Chen, in Dunhuang. It took about half an hour for Chen to find out that Smirnoff's men were in the city, stacking up on supplies and preparing for something big.
Afraid of being late and missing the discovery, Lisa pulled Lee through the airport, disregarding the people they bumped into, or the luggage they knocked over. Lee's argument of them not knowing the destination didn't work and she was already calculating what kind of transportation and how much fuel they needed.
"Lisa! Slow down!" Lee helplessly said, "If there really is another ancient temple hidden in the mountains, most likely it only contains more murals. To find something similar to the library cave is extremely unlikely."
"I don't care about the scriptures!" She said, increasing the pace, but then abruptly stopped, took Lee's face in her palms, and said with the most serious expression she could muster, "Brandon Lee! I. Want. My. Artifacts!"
Out of all people she was the only one allowed to call him by name, but for some reason she never called him simply Brandon. She used his full name if she was really serious about something, just like now.
They stood right at the airport entrance, obstructing people going in and out, but Lee didn't care. Her face was only an inch from his and he felt his mind spinning after inhaling her sweet fragrance. But that was him dreaming and observing the memories now. Back then he playfully slapped her firm butt, and said, "Behave!"
Then he laughed and kissed her, and for a moment she kissed back, but then bit his lip, and pulled him away again, "Let's go! There's our car! Hey there, Chen!"
People rarely allowed themselves to openly express their affection in the rural China, but neither Lee nor Lisa cared. Dunhuang in nineties was still rather conservative and the couple's indecent behavior in the tiny airport was condemned by many onlookers.
Only when they settled in the small apartment on Yangguan Middle road, Lisa's demeanor transformed. And so did Lee's. Suddenly they both were working.
Last year they almost got caught while making out in Israel Museum. Lee had to work his ass off to create a passable forgery just because they failed to steal one of the real Dead Sea Scrolls. But from then on the unspoken rule became to never fool around while on the job.
Lisa's contact, Chen, didn't choose the apartment on accident. Smirnoff's men had a couple of adjacent rooms in the hotel across the street. Currently there was only one guy inside, standing at the table and inspecting large sheets of paper that he occasionally wrote on, oblivious there were two people attentively observing him from afar.
"He has to leave at some point …" Lisa pondered out loud, poking the window in annoyance.
"Not necessarily." Lee said, already knowing what they were about to do. Actually this part did kind of turned out to be entertaining.
"Room service?" Lisa asked, "He could get tired and fall asleep with a bit of help, right?"
"Too risky. The hotel is too small, and there are too many variables." Lee shook his head, "But I doubt they'll depart today, and surely will go out for a drink later. We'll have a few hours at least."
Almost as if intentionally making the break-in easier, Smirnoff's group had occupied the rooms on the top floor. And before the sun set, the two were already sliding down from the rooftop on the balcony. Few moments later Lee was inspecting drawings that covered most of the table, but Lisa went through the notes and maps.
"It's strange …" She said, "The coordinates are at most thirty minutes away …"
"It was to be expected." Lee absentmindedly said, "Mogao caves are less than ten miles from here. And the original scrolls were supposed to come from the Library Cave ..."
"Why the hell then they need this amount of supplies?" Lisa asked, but then noticed what Lee was doing and said, "Now you're just showing off! I have a camera right here, you know?!"
"We won't have the time to develop pictures." He said, and continued to copy the strange drawing consisting of hundreds rune-like symbols he had never seen before.
They were set in a strange, round pattern, but Lee couldn't figure out what it reminded him of. But it was then. Now, of course, watching his memories from long ago, he knew. He also knew Lisa was about to realize the meaning first.
She observed Lee copy the symbols at lightning speed as if he was a living Xerox machine, but after few moments grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper, and said, "Here, let me help you!"
Then she drew a circle and with a curved line split it in two, creating something like two adjacent droplets. Afterwards she put two large dots in each of them, and victoriously said, "There!"