The Chinese soldier had unexpectedly lifted the spirits of the camp, and as the stars rose, they shared stories of adventures in the mountains. When Zhu began speaking of serving in the Himalayas, Shan feared his tale would relate to intercepting refugees leaving from Tibet, but instead he spoke of encountering a snow leopard with two cubs, which deeply impressed the Tibetans, who considered such encounters good luck. Yankay then offered his own story from his boyhood about an old man who could change shape into a snow leopard. Jaya countered with a tale of a woman who could turn into a mouse, and the Tibetans began a bemused dialogue about the advantages of mousehood versus leopardhood. As Zhu good-naturedly defended the leopard—not because of its claws, but because of its grace and stealth in movement—Shan slipped down the path that led through the labyrinth of the rock outcroppings. He emerged onto a ledge and sat, looking down on the moonlit Valley of the Gods.

Rows of lights marked the workers compound. Here and there twin shafts of light indicated the trucks that worked around the clock. At the far end, a silvery column shimmered where the moonlight touched the tall waterfall. The blanket of night brought a deceiving peacefulness to the valley. How could it be possible that such a placid place, where simple people had touched their gods for centuries, could have attracted so much greed, so many lies, and so many murders? He tried to push the crimes out of his mind and imagine how it had once been. Bold but devout tribesmen had come before history, to erect rows of standing stones. Bonpo pilgrims had arrived in later centuries, to pray and paint the faces of their gods on the walls of the cave. Later Buddhists had come with their own gods, not to attack the older deities, but to find ways to harmonize them, for the sake of the Tibetan soul.

He patted his pockets, looking for incense, then recalled he had given his last piece to Zhu. Instead, he steepled his fingers in a mudra, the Diamond of the Mind sign, and stared at the glistening waterfall in the distance as he tried to fit together the ever-shifting pieces of his puzzle. Despite all he had learned, he could not find the lever, the handle he needed to get inside the conspiracy so he could break it apart. It was as if there were a shadow in its center he could not penetrate. The valley may be a vortex that was causing lives to violently collide, but something else had started events in motion.