Page 46 of The Lost Guardian

Ali shook her head. “Left it in the rental car.”

“You what?”

“Shh!” They both ducked lower. “Relax, Rios, I didn’t book it under my name.”

“That’s not what I was worried about,” Santiago whispered. “You left a loaded gun in a civilian vehicle?”

“Of course not!” she defended herself. “I took the bullets out.”

He didn’t even know what to say to that.

Staying low, she peeked around the van. “Quickly but quietly,” she whispered to him, inching forward toward the next row of cars.

“Don’t move!” Mario yelled in their direction.

Santiago’s pulse beat violently in his throat, and he worked to keep his breaths quiet. They were completely exposed out there. If they were caught, there was no convenient smoke bomb or aerosol vents to obscure their assailants’ views.

They would die.

“There,” Ali said with satisfaction, leading him forward. Quick as lightning, they crossed the gap from behind the van to a large black truck.

“I said don’t fucking move!” Mario screamed, voice raw with fury.

Santiago expected Ali to guide them to a modern but modest car. If he had time to fantasize about it, he would have pictured some sort of modified Jeep, trunk full of archaeological equipment and an interior littered with research papers, maps, and dig notes.

What Ali pointed to instead was a sleek and shiny black motorcycle. “When I say go, you run as fast as you ever have, Santiago.”

“A motorcycle?” His voice sounded more like the squeak of a cartoon mouse than that of an adult man. “Do you have any idea how dangerous—”

His protests were cut short by the sound of bullets ripping through the air. Their thunder was enough to evaporate any other arguments Santiago might have had. He nodded. They sprinted.

“Behind me!” Ali said, tossing him the lone motorcycle helmet that hung off the handlebars. He jammed it onto his head, swinging his leg over the bike behind Ali. The roar of the motorcycle’s engine drowned out the chaos all around them, muffling the ocean-like roar of blood in his ears.

Ali’s grip tightened on the throttle, and they jerked forward, Santiago whipping backward and then colliding against Ali’s back, his arms encircling her waist in a viselike grip. His lower body trembled as the motorcycle’s vibrations seemed to shake the very ground beneath its tires.

A string of gunshots rang out, and Santiago thanked the sun god that Mario was a hail-of-bullets kind of guy. He suspected Leo would have aimed a clean shot as they mounted the bike, ending Santi right then and there.

The visor of his helmet was flipped up, so that the wind assailed his eyes like a dagger cloud. The world seemed to expand and contract as Ali maneuvered through traffic, already-speeding vehicles passing a mere hairbreadth from his knees. Horns honked and obscenities were thrown at them as they made their way through the metal maze.

A flash of something in the rearview caught Santiago’s eye, and he felt Ali stiffen against him.

“We’ve got company!” she yelled, pitching her voice high against the wind. Santiago spun his head around just in time to see two new motorcycles tearing their way through the traffic toward them.

Damn it, he thought. Of course they have bikes.

Anyone who knew Lima knew the traffic was nightmarishly bad—the only way to get anywhere quickly was on two wheels.

“Hold on,” Ali yelled as she banked hard to the right, barreling into a congested intersection. Santiago swallowed a scream as his body pitched sideways, the gravelly street approaching his face like a death threat. They snapped back to center, quick as a yo-yo.

Santiago watched as Ali’s knuckles whitened around the handlebars. A T-shaped intersection flew toward them, and Santiago guessed that their next turn would be even more aggressive than the last. Ali led them through the tightest of gaps between cars, not sacrificing an iota of speed for their safety. A more daring driver in a beat-up lime-green Nissan swerved, taking advantage of a slower car in an attempt to merge lanes.

“Ali!” Santiago screamed, wanting to warn her but not finding the words.

“I see it!” was all she called back, jerking them away from an imminent crash. The right handlebar nicked the car’s left rearview mirror, sending it flying into the air. Ali’s entire body strained with effort as she fought to keep the handlebars from jerking at the contact.

They weren’t out of danger yet. Her quick maneuver sent them bumping over the street’s meridian and into the path of oncoming traffic.

Santiago wanted to squeeze his eyes shut, to bury his face against Ali’s back, and hide from their inevitable doom, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. All he could do was stare in wide-eyed horror at the blurs of color and speed that would be their end.