Even in the dream, watching his own memories, Lee felt like slapping himself. How stupid was he to not recognize the classic yin-yang symbol? So what if it was formed by a multitude of other smaller signs? It was the prime example of not seeing forest for the trees.
Nevertheless, he quickly finished the copy. Then he copied a couple of pages with rows of more unique symbols, and they both departed. Smirnoff let very few people see his great-grandfather's documents and this was an opportunity Lee wasn't ready to let slip by. Meanwhile, Lisa had figured out their destination and it was pivotal to get there tonight.
The couple departed the moment Lee was done.
It was around midnight when Chen dropped them off in the mountains, less than five kilometers east of the Mogao caves. According to the notes they found on the table in the hotel, Smirnoff's men managed to discover another temple, and the entrance was hidden in one of the rocky ravines.
Contrary to Mogao caves which had the temple system with over seven hundred caves, filled with ancient Buddhist heritage from over one and a half thousand years ago, the new-found place supposedly had only one entrance. It was odd, but that potentially indicated it was built during a different time period, and no matter if it was older or not, if it hid unique artifacts, they were surely priceless.
Neither Lee nor Lisa cared about the archaeological value of old crap or old, pretty artworks. It was only the price of those things that mattered. There were many rich snobs around the world who would love to pay enormous amounts of money to lay their fingers on unique findings, and the couple was happy to provide them with such.
The starry night was cold and the waxing moon barely threw enough light for them to not stumble on every other step. The rocky mountainous terrain was hardly suited for strolls at night, but they had no choice. It was clear that in the morning Smirnoff's group was about to explore the place, and at that time they had to be out of there, hopefully with a few new items in their backpacks.
To find a hidden cave was not an easy job even if one had the coordinates, but at night it was basically impossible. Luckily there were always kind people who were magnanimous enough to lend a hand.
"Smoking kills!" Lisa snickered, noticing a tiny spark lighting up in the distance.
They had climbed one of the mountains in hopes to find a clue and were rewarded by a bored guard lighting up a cigarette.
"Let's hope he's stationed there alone." Lee said, "We'll have to sneak by somehow."
"Sigh … it would be much easier if we were shooting people …" Lisa said, but he knew she was joking. Killing one of Smirnoff's man was highly likely lethal endeavor for yourself. In addition, she probably was more worried about them being discovered and get shot at.
Now, in his dream watching past memories, Lee wasn't worried. He clearly remembered there were only two guys dozing off below a narrow opening in the nearby cliff. They sat besides their dirt bikes and chain-smoked, probably trying to keep themselves awake.
It was impossible to get past the guards unnoticed. Surely in the dark one of them would step on a loose rock or stumble, and in the still night the noise couldn't go unnoticed. There was only one option to go with. They got down the mountain a bit further away, and then sneaked up to the two guards along the narrow trail at the bottom of the ravine.
It was a long and exhausting quarter mile of crawling and squatting. The bonus of getting few nails broken was rather unpleasant and unnecessary, but when the guards were spasming on the ground as the result of two buzzing tasers, the chosen tactics proved to be the most effective.
When the guards were unconscious and neatly tied up, Lisa and Lee turned on the flashlights and climbed up to the opening between the rocks. The cave hall wasn't much bigger than half a volleyball field with the ceiling so low Lee barely could straighten up inside. But the walls were painted in old murals, clearly damaged by the flow of time.
"Damn it!" Lisa cursed after inspecting the corners under the beam of her flashlight. By her standards the hall was completely empty.
"What dynasty do you think these belong to?" Lee asked. Out of two of them she was the expert on the subject, but the expert was currently pissed they arrived too late.
"What's the difference ..." She said, kicking a pebble away, "All the excitement for naught."
"Hmm … I wonder … why Smirnoff's men were acquiring supplies if all they found was this one room?" Lee pretended to ponder out loud, only to receive a kick on his butt.
"Brandon Lee!" Lisa's serious tone echoed in the cave hall, "I'm not in the mood!"
"Fine, fine!" He said, and pointed the flashlight at the floor, "Some of the Mogao caves had hidden chambers. But we don't need to figure out anything. Our best bet would be to look for traces near walls … I'm certain they had found something big."
"Here!" Lisa immediately found the spot, but besides distinct marks on the floor nothing else indicated there was a door, "Obviously there has to be a switch, but how is it possible that any mechanism from so long ago can actually function?"
"We'll worry about that in the morning." Lee said, "What are we looking for?"
"No idea … the yin-yang symbol?" She guessed, but murals on the walls didn't have anything like the drawing Lee copied earlier that evening.
"Headlights!" Lee said, and took one from his backpack. Lisa followed the suit, and with their hands free they began to randomly tap, press and push walls, looking for a switch.
Surprisingly Lisa's guess turned out to be correct. They had to turn four round switches, a couple of inches in diameter, resembling the yin-yang symbol. Afterwards, a five feet tall and a half foot thick part of the wall became loose and they could pull it open as if it was a stone door.
The passage behind it was at most ten yards long and, as expected, it led to another artificial cave hall, except this one was at least four times larger. Similar to the previous one, it had murals painted on the walls, but there was one thing that immediately caught Lisa's and Lee's attention. In the middle of the hall was a neat pile of boxes, bags and various modern equipment.
"Ok." Lisa said, and walked over, "Now I'm really curious what they need all this stuff for!"
"And what the hell were they stacking up with in Dunhuang?" Lee said, and followed, "Let's see what they have there!"
"Ayaa!!!" He heard Lisa's loud yelp, but already expected it and knew she was fine. Back then he was scared shitless, though.
In the middle of this hall Smirnoff's men have managed to make a hole – the actual entrance to the cave system below. Only later Lee found out that the first hall was discovered several months before their arrival and the time was spent researching the murals and comparing them with the documents the Russian inherited from his great-grandfather. Then, according to Jin Fu's educated guess, they cut through the thick stone floor, destroying the large yin-yang symbol carved on it, and opened the path Lisa just fell in.
Fortunately she didn't hurt herself and after Lee climbed down, they inspected the surroundings and decided to explore a bit. They still had two, maybe three hours and the amount of equipment Smirnoff's men brought indicated there were surely many things to be found.