Reynolds and crew made one more newsworthy intercontinental flight, an expedition to the Amne Machin mountain range in Tibet and K2, the second highest mountain in the world, between China and Pakistan. He renamed his retrofitted bomber the China Explorer. He believed (wrongly) that K2 was taller than Mount Everest in the Himalayas and hoped to leverage the publicity he'd get from establishing that fact. Among many challenges, the expedition was beset by obstacles imposed by the communist Chinese government, which detained the flight near Nanking and then sent fighter planes to escort it across the Sea of Japan. In the intervening period, Reynolds and the China Explorer had diverted their guards, taken off from Lunghwa Field, and completed a quick flyover of K2. Reynolds family lore has it that Milton had made a secret deal from the outset with the US government to look for evidence of Chinese nuclear tests. If this were indeed his secret mission, it would certainly explain the resistance he encountered. No one involved with the expedition admitted knowledge of such a plan. For many years thereafter, the clandestine payments passed through the Reynolds Construction Company by US intelligence were part of an operation code-named KK Mountain.