Ren groaned as Tan lifted the bulldozer blade and actually engaged the gears, driving the huge vehicle a few feet before climbing down with a satisfied smile. He approached the Public Security guard and spoke with the man then tossed his cigarette aside and extended his hand. The guard hesitantly unslung his gun and handed it to him. Tan examined the weapon as if on a troop inspection, then abruptly shouldered it, aimed at an empty truck, and fired. The truck’s windshield exploded into shards of glass. The workers laughed, the soldier saluted, and the director looked as if he was going to be sick.

“The old fool,” Jiao muttered as he watched Tan. “He’s an embarrassment to his office.”

Tan wagged a finger at Ren as he climbed back in. “The gun was loaded after all,” he chided with an amused grin.

As they drove along the towering V-shaped pass where huge squared pits were being dug for the dam’s foundation, Jiao’s radio crackled and they heard a single word: “Launching.” Ren brightened, then accelerated the truck onto a small flat knoll and motioned them out. “Colonel, you will enjoy this!” he exclaimed.

There was a high-pitched whine and then a large white disc soared overhead. Shan watched with a sinking feeling as he recognized it and exchanged a knowing glance with Tan. The colonel had been furious when Shan had told him that the mysterious package bound for the Five Claws had been an army drone.

Shan scanned the valley floor and spotted a black utility vehicle with a small field table set up beside it. A knob sat at the table, leaning over a laptop computer while Lieutenant Huan stood at his shoulder, watching the screen. The drone was being calibrated, he realized as it flew in circles then made several short dives. Soon it began ascending toward the slopes below the high pass, then hovered over the mouth of the imploded cavern halfway up the slope.

“The maiden flight,” Shan suggested, wondering if the Tibetans above had understood the risk he had tried to describe to them. Their campsite and any yak train leaving it would be instantly spotted if the drone ventured above the field of outcroppings.

“The first operational flight,” Jiao confirmed. “We have been testing, learning it is best to fly in midafternoon. Too many shadows in the morning.” It meant, Shan hoped, that not only would the risk have become obvious to those above, but that the drone flights were predictable.

“Today the real work begins,” the deputy director boasted. “The agitators are no match for our twenty-first-century technology.”