At the Los Angeles International Airport, Grant waited patiently with the rest of his team as Makenna checked in her luggage. There was a lot of it.

"Did you plan on assembling a helicopter over there?" Grant asked as she approached, rolling her small carry on suitcase.

"You said you might need a month," said Makenna. "Don't these kind of expeditions take you into jungles, deserts, and abandoned mines? One must be prepared."

Grant looked her up and down. She was wearing a burgundy t shirt, tied off at the bottom to expose her midriff, with khaki short shorts. "What are you wearing?"

"These are my safari shorts," said Makenna, giving him a quizzical look. "Don't those zoo people and wildlife experts always wear khaki pants or shorts?"

"Yeah but we aren't airdropping into a jungle. It's going to be cold on the plane I suggest you wrap yourself up tight with a blanket. I'm not taking you to a doctor if you catch a cold."

"I'm not made of glass," said Makenna, glaring daggers at Grant. "I happen to be quite tolerant of the cold. Never been to China before but I don't imagine it will take long to get used to the climate."

"Who is this?" said Monty, tapping Grant on the shoulder.

Grant turned and nearly jumped back in fright. A young man slightly taller than him was standing real close to his right side. He had broad shoulders and a lean but fit build. He had stiff and short light brown hair. His most striking feature though was his eyes. One look was all Grant needed to know he was dealing with a hard man.

"You must be Rourke," said Grant, shaking his hand. "Tim tells me your really capable."

"I am," said Rourke flatly.

"Did you check in?"

Rourke nodded. He raised his dirty duffel bag, a gesture that Grant assumed was to indicate that he was ready to go.

"Monty and Frankie you guys good?"

"Yep," said Monty, adjusting his backpack.

Frankie shot Grant a thumbs up.

"Ok let's go eat then," said Grant.

The team found themselves at a Carl's Jr after checking through security. Grant ordered Double Western Bacon Cheeseburgers for everyone.

"I hope your not on a diet cause I just got the most filling looking thing on the menu," said grant, handing out the cheeseburgers.

"I like something greasy every once in a while," said Makenna, tying back her butterscotch blonde hair back. "Could use a Pepsi to counter the oils though."

"We might as well plan a little while we eat," said Monty. "By the way good choice Grant. Being Korean means we only east Asian food at home. Cafeteria burgers don't even come close to this too."

"Ok we know the Taiping Rebels moved the treasury out of Nanjing so we know not to search near there," said Frankie, reaching out with a skinny arm to dip his fries in ketchup.

"There might be a few museums we can check up on for clues," said Grant. "Museums that have artifacts or experts on China during the 1800s could help."

"I think it would help to go to Nanjing, actually." said Monty. "If it was the capitol there might be museums or exhibits on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Maybe even some remains of the kingdom left behind."

"Ok right good point," said Grant. "So we head to Nanjing then and get a hotel there. We will have to share rooms to save money."

Makenna sighed. "You know if you can afford all of this why don't you just pay me right now?"

"A man's pride is on the line," said Rourke, in such a serious tone that grant raised an eyebrow at him. "You wouldn't understand."

"I am surrounded by knuckleheads," said Makenna. "Do you boys have any clue at all where the it might be?"

Makenna disengaged herself from the conversation when she was met with blank faces.

An hour after the team had finished their lunch, they were buckled in for the long flight to China. They would be landing at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai.

Monty. Rourke, and Frankie all sat in the middle row to the left of Grant who sat next to Makenna. He surrendered the window seat to her.

"Do you fly often?" Grant asked.

"I've been to Canada and France only," said Makenna. "I wish I could travel more with my family but my mom hates flying. "What about you?"

"I've been to a few places," said Grant. "My maternal grandfather was an ace pilot during the second world war. He loved to arrange travel plans for us. I've been to South America, couple places in Europes, and Australia. Never Asia though. I think after the Korean War he had his fill."

"Sounds like he's your hero," said Makenna, checking to see what magazines were in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of her.

"He was," said Grant. "His passing was hard on the family but we were happy that he had lived his life to the fullest."

Grant pulled out his wallet and showed her a copy of a black and white picture, featuring his grandfather standing next to a Avenger torpedo bomber.

"He was pretty handsome,"said Makenna, getting a close look at the photo. "You look like him."

"So your saying I'm handsome then?"

Makenna quickly handed back the photograph. "Actually now that I think about it you don't really look alike. It was just a trick of the light."

The plane's captain made the usually safety and greeting announcements and alerted everyone that the flight would take more than fifteen hours. A breakfast, lunch, and dinner would be served.

"I always hated airline food," said Makenna. "I'm just going to try and sleep through all of it. Maybe eat a little dinner."

A few hours into the flight, Grant had not slept a wink. He always found the noisy droning of the plane's engines and the uncomfortably tight spaces of the economy class seating, working together to create an unsuitable sleeping environment for him. Air travel always made him feel uneasy, the thought of being thousands of feet in the air. A lone plane in the vast and unpredictable skies. At least when the ship went down he could still swim. Looking for this right he could see that the other three were sleeping just fine.

Grant decided to preoccupy himself with a movie. He watched a decent Chinese action film with English subtitles. When the film was over he became aware of a soreness and weight on his left shoulder. Looking down he saw that Makenna had fallen asleep on him.

"Great," Grant muttered. He didn't want to push her aside in case he woke her and thus suffered her wrath as a result. However he dreaded the thought that she might drool or breathe pungent fumes into his face. The fact that her cleavage was looking up at him made him that much more uncomfortable. Fortunately her breasts were not very large so he wasn't that drawn into looking down her shirt by some glaringly obvious sight.

A flight attendant stopped next to him with a food cart. "Pork with rice or soy sauce chicken leg?" she asked.

"Hey its dinner," said Grant, shaking Makenna. "You wanna eat something?"

As Makenna rubbed open her eyes Grant asked for the pork rice.

"I'll have the same," said Makenna. "Could I get a sprite too?"

Once the cart rolled past them Makenna turned to Grant who was peeling the foil off his pork rice.

"How long was I asleep like that?" she demanded.

"I don't know I was watching an excellent Chinese movie," said Grant, digging into his meal.

"You better not have done that on purpose," said Makenna, removing her foil as well.

"Hey I’m not that desperate for some shoulder action," said Grant.

"I bet you peeked down my shirt."

"I noticed that I could but I didn't because I have respect."

"I bet you’re just so glad that I'm here so you can goggle at me."

Grant rolled his eyes. "Right now I'm trying to goggle at this pork rice. Succulent, tender, and juicy. Besides, I have a lot on the line. I don't have time to mess with you."

"You seem pretty confident that this treasure exists."

"It does," said Grant firmly. "At least I hope it does."

Makenna looked out the window at the night sky. "I'll admit you have my curiosity. As insane as the premise of this trip is I am partly hoping that you'll find it. The riches of a fallen kingdom are far more interesting to a history major like me than some guy's car."

Grant checked the digital map of the plane's journey on the touch screen in front of him. They were a little more than half way to Shanghai.