An urn commissioned in a Cambodian monastery by the Chinese emperor for the remains of Confucius is about to be destroyed by systematic bombing of a whole province - so DeViega, Sidneys mentor's Gural Nataz murderer, tricks and kidnaps her and Nigel (and their secretary on the home front, as additional blackmail leverage) to get to it trough a heavy mined area and decipher the I-ching on the way in before bombs hit it.