“I’m sorry,” he said, taking her by the hand and heading off at a trot down the path. “I’m worried about both of you. Now, let’s go find somebody for me to take out my anger on.”
“You really think this is going to work?” Saul whispered. They had dived into a nearby kiva and were now squirming their way through the passage that connected it to another kiva on the far side of the ruin- closer to their car, and hopefully behind the guys with guns, whoever they were.
“It might if you’ll shut up,” Bones muttered. It galled him to possibly be leaving the artifact behind, but he felt that he had little choice. He might have done something bolder had Maddock been with him, but all he had was Saul, and the research assistant didn’t seem like someone to be counted on in a throw-down. Besides, this was the second narrow tunnel he’d had to squeeze himself through in the past week, and it was getting on his nerves.
His shoulders pressed against the edges. Bones was much too big for Anasazi architecture. Saul was a good-sized fellow in his own right, though his bulk was spread around a little more evenly.
“Maybe they’re more concerned about the artifact, and won’t notice us leave,” Saul whispered.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Bones whispered, though he doubted the men would give up so easily. “Either way, I told you to shut up.”
Saul lapsed into sullen silence, broken only by the occasional grunt as he squeezed through a particularly narrow section of tunnel. They finally reached the end of the tunnel. Bones hoped Saul had enough sense to remain quiet while he checked things out. He peered out into the kiva, and along the rim as far as he could see. No one was there. He closed his eyes and let his ears take precedence as his grandfather had taught him when he was a boy. He heard a whisper of dry wind through stunted trees, but nothing else. This sparse southwestern wilderness was so different from the forests of North Carolina where he was raised. He heard no birds singing, no scrabbling of squirrels in the trees. No gentle rustle of a nearby stream. But most important, no voices or footfalls. Of course, they could be waiting out of sight for him to appear. He drew his Glock and sighed. He would have to take his chances.
“I hate these roads,” Dane muttered as he whipped around another tight curve. There was no direct path to anywhere in Mesa Verde. All the roads twisted, turned, rose, and fell along with the land. And there were just enough tourists to make things maddeningly slow. He whipped around an RV and stepped on it, barely making it around before a mini-van, horn blaring, appeared from around the curve ahead of them.
“Maddock,” Jade groaned. “If you’re going to drive like this, I probably should have just let those guys kill me. Traffic accidents are so… messy.”
“Tell me about it once Bones is okay,” he said. He fished into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He flipped it open and glanced to see if he had a signal. He did!
“Maddock!” Jade shouted and grabbed at the wheel. “Keep your eyes on the road!” He had let the car veer precariously close to the edge of a steep-walled canyon.
“Sorry,” he said, this time keeping his vision focused in front of him as he punched up Bones’ number on speed dial.
Bones peered over the edge of the kiva. As he had hoped, the two men had made their way to the far side of the ruin, and now seemed more interested in the sun marker than they were in finding Bones and Saul. The gray-haired man knelt in front of the stone, while the redhead stood with his back to them, looking out across the canyon as if he believed his quarry had gone over the edge.
Bones leaned close to Saul, who had exited the tunnel and was hunched down beside him.
“They’re not looking,” Bones whispered. “We’ll crawl over to the other side of the kiva, and I’ll check again. If they still aren’t looking, we’ll slip over the wall and back to the cars as quickly as we can without making any sound. Got it?
Saul nodded, and together they crawled across the floor of the ancient kiva. When they reached the other side, Bones dared another look, and was relieved to see that neither of the men was looking their way. He nodded to Saul, who quietly climbed out of the kiva and began crawling toward their car. Breathing a sigh of relief, Bones hoisted himself up over the ledge.
Just as his cell phone rang.
He cursed under his breath and took off, bending at the waist to present a smaller target. Saul followed behind, moving faster than Bones would have believed him able.
Something buzzed past his cheek and smacked into a nearby stone, spraying his leg with shards of rock as the sound of a gunshot reached him. He zigzagged, then hurtled the wall that surrounded the site. Bullets continued to fly as they dashed through the stand of trees and burst into the small parking lot. Saul rushed up to their rented Aztek, but he had not seen what Bones had seen.
“Keep going! They’ve flattened our tires!” He drew his Glock and fired off two rounds in the general direction of their pursuers.
Rather than following the road, where their pursuers could easily overtake them in their own car, Bones cut through the forested area of pine and blue spruce that separated the circular parking area of Sun Temple from the Mesa Top Loop Road. There was no way that on foot they could beat these guys to Square Tower House and meet up with Maddock and Jade, but maybe he could raise them on the phone and meet them halfway, or at least get some much needed backup. His phone rang again, and he saw that it was Dane on the other line.
“Maddock! Where are you?”
“Headed up the drive to Sun Temple. Are you all right? I tried to call you just a minute ago…”
“Yeah, and you almost got me killed. Thanks for that!” Maddock started to reply but Bones cut him off. “Listen to me. The bad guys are at the Sun Temple. They’re either in their car coming your way, or they’ll be chasing us through the woods on your right as you come to the loop.” A bullet trimmed a branch from a nearby tree. “Okay. That would be the latter.”
“Can you outrun these guys for a little longer? I’ll turn around and meet you on the loop road.”
“Can do,” Bones huffed. “I don’t know if Saul is going to make it, though. Gotta’ do what we gotta' do. See you there. And don’t call me back.” He snapped the phone closed, pocketed it, and grabbed Saul by the arm to encourage him along.
“Saul, I need you to keep running pretty much straight ahead as fast as you can. Can you do that?” He kept talking as Saul nodded. “Weave around trees when you can, but don’t deviate too far from the direction we’re going. Dane and Jade are going to meet us. I’ll catch up with you.”
The news that help was on the way seemed to give Saul renewed energy. He took off at a faster clip. Bones ducked behind the first thick tree he could find, dropped to the ground, and waited.
The guys were making no effort to be quiet. Their footfalls pounded on the hard, dry earth, and soon they came into sight. He waited for them to sprint past before coming out from behind the tree. Two of them, one of me. Gotta' make it count.
He took careful aim and fired.
The redhead went down, clutching at his hip. He wasn’t nearly dead, but he was out of the running, as it were. Bones immediately snapped off two more shots at the second guy, but the fellow was quick. At the sound of the first shot, he had veered to the left and dove behind a tree. Bones quickly ducked out of sight before the man could return fire.
Bullets struck the ground where Bones had just been standing. He fired a few rounds at the tree where the guy had ducked, and caught a glimpse of him scrambling away. He fired another shot and the man took off running in the opposite direction. Mission accomplished. Now for the next part of the plan.