False Horizon Read Online Free

throat. “Are you coming with us or do we have to drag you out of here?”
    Annja eyed him. She could easily draw her sword and cut both men down before they could blink. But she wasn’t sure that unsheathing her blade in a crowded restaurant was the best way of handling this. At least, not in view of everyone else in the joint. Maybe she would try her luck once they got outside and into some narrow alley. She imagined Mr. Tsing would infest some tiny haunt on the back side of Katmandu.
    Mike nodded. “Fine, we’ll go with you to see what Tsing has to say. I like this place too much to cause trouble in here, anyway.”
    “Smart,” the man said. “I’m sure he won’t keep you long. This is more of a social call than a collection call.”
    “What a relief,” Mike said.
    The two men led them out of the Blue Note. Annja looked around but saw little chance for action. Throngs of people swelled around them and the two henchmen bracketed Mike and Annja between them. The tide of the foot traffic carried them along.
    Mike whispered in her ear. “Don’t worry, I can handle Tsing.”
    “Can you?”
    “Sure. He’s a businessman. The last thing he wants is to spill any blood. He’d much rather make money.”
    “And the map?”
    “I believe it shows the true route to finding Shangri-La.”
    “Where’d you get it?”
    “An archivist for James Hilton.”
    Annja glanced at him. “You mean the same James Hilton who wrote Lost Horizon? ”
    “The same.”
    “But most people who read that book believed that Hilton based it on Hunza Valley in Pakistan,” she said.
    Mike nodded. “Yep, and others think it’s actually in the Kunlun mountain range. But neither of those suppositions is correct.”
    “And this map shows the way?”
    “It’s true that Hilton visited Pakistan and particularly the Hunza Valley only a few years before Lost Horizon was published. But as for him basing the book on the area, that’s rubbish. Hilton knew what he’d discovered and didn’t wish for it to be torn apart by the curious.”
    Annja saw the henchmen were steering them down a street with less traffic. They were on the outskirts of Thamel now. Ahead of them, more modern buildings loomed. They passed cell phone shops and nice restaurants.
    “So, Hilton…lied?” she asked.
    “Yes,” Mike said. “Throughout the early twentieth century and into the 1930s, there were many British explorers over in this region. It was a natural place to go to, given the British Empire’s India connection. Hilton and others like him made trips up to this part of the world and were fascinated by what they saw and perceived as both mystical and wondrous places.”
    “So, if neither the Hunza Valley nor the Kunlun Mountains are the location, then where would it be?” Annja asked.
    “That’s what the map will tell us,” Mike said. “But we need to get away from Tsing and his goons if we have any hope of discovering it.”
    “Seems like Tsing is going to have a problem with that.”
    “Who cares?”
    Annja glanced at Mike. “I’m not exactly thrilled at the idea of spending this entire trip being hunted by the likes of these two. And Tsing doesn’t sound like he’s the forgiving type.”
    “He’s not.”
    “So, suppose we see what he has to say before we decide to go about this in a different way?”
    Mike smiled. “But if we decide to go that way?”
    Annja winked. “Then it won’t be a problem.”
    Mike nodded. “Good.”
    The goateed man called a halt to their march. “Hold up here,” he said.
    Annja paused and saw they were in front of a four-star hotel. From the circular roundabout, lush green plants shot skyward in front of the plate-glass windows. In front, several limousines pulled around.
    Annja looked at their escort. “He lives in a hotel?”
    “Top floor’s a penthouse,” the man responded. “But even still, we won’t tolerate any monkeying around here. Mr. Tsing owns the hotel and doesn’t want his guests