Page 45 of The Lost Guardian

Fire suppression system, Santiago had a moment to think, before there was an angry cry and a wild shot. He ducked instinctively. Santiago couldn’t tell where the bullet landed. All he could see was a blurry white haze, obscuring everything beyond an arm’s length.

Vents hissed from the ceiling above, expelling more of the gas around them. A loud, blaring siren screamed, and so did someone else. Mario? Santiago couldn’t be sure. Suddenly, he felt himself grabbed and shoved forward. It was a somewhat familiar feeling by now. Almost…comforting?

“This way, hurry!” José yelled. Santiago huffed as his pack was slammed into his stomach, but he managed to grab it before Ali shuffled him along into the second room of the professor’s office. He crammed his notebook into the front pocket as they ran.

“We’ll be trapped!” Santiago coughed, but as more gunfire blasted from the other room, he pressed on.

“The map!” Ali yelled suddenly, turning sharply to rush back. “They’ll have the map!”

With a strength Santiago didn’t know he possessed, he grabbed her, forcing her to continue moving with the rest of the group.

“Leave it, Ali!” he yelled, hearing the faltering steps of the two men approaching them.

The professor led them to a bookshelf at the end of his office, twisting a mounted sconce with one hand and pulling on the top of an ancient-looking tome with the other. The entire bookcase swung open, leading to a recessed corner of the main hallway.

“Who are you?” Santiago asked incredulously, gasping for breath as they stumbled out.

If he expected an answer, it never came. In an instant, their group collided with a throng of people frantically heading toward the exits. The sirens were accompanied by flashing red lights, swinging in swooping arcs above their heads. The air of panic and fear skyrocketed when a gunshot rang out above them.

The students abandoned their controlled shuffle, screaming and shoving and substituting decorum for speed. Santiago couldn’t blame them.

“Quickly, this way!” José called out, leading them against the surging crowd.

Like salmon swimming upstream, they shouldered their way through. People trampled Santiago’s feet. Elbows and shoulders slammed into him, hard enough to knock him off-balance. He pushed on, José in his sights as Ali kept him in hers.

The three of them turned a corner, and the mass of people gave way to an abandoned corridor. With room to run, they dashed toward a split in the hallway that would force them left or right. Just before they reached it, an angry voice roared behind them, and the sound of gunfire cut through the wailing alarm.

A gust of sharp wind passed Santiago by; with a splintering crack, a bullet carved through the wall ahead of them. Ali pushed him to the left, just as he saw José throw his body to the right.

“Professor!” Santiago called out, turning to cross the hallway to him. He was stopped by another volley of bullets. Ali yanked him back into the corridor.

“Go!” José shouted at them, tossing a pair of keys across the divide. Ali caught them one-handed, and Santi thought it was a very inopportune time to be impressed. “Go right and then through the exit on the left!” he called. “I will meet you in Cajamarca!”

“Come on, Rios, you heard him!” Ali yelled over the noise, pulling at him. Santiago resisted.

“Wait!” he yelled, straining. How is she so strong? “We can’t just leave him!”

“Oh yes we can!” Ali said, dragging him from the fray.

Every cell in Santiago’s body ached at the thought of abandoning the man. José was in danger because of him, his family legacy. But their assailants’ footsteps grew louder by the second, enough to be heard over the wail of alarms.

With a final, desperate look, he allowed Ali to pull him away.

14

Santiago and Ali exploded through the doors into a wide employee parking lot. Still gripping his arm, Ali fished out the keys José had thrown her, dragging him forward.

“I can’t believe we just left him.” Santiago gasped, taking deep breaths to clear his lungs of the gas from José’s office.

“He’ll be fine,” Ali answered distractedly, scanning the vehicles. “I think it’s clear José is more than just a university professor.”

The loud clang of a metal door echoed through the lot, interrupting his quiet regret. The soles of heavy boots slapped against concrete.

“I have them—meet me in the back west parking lot!” he heard Mario call out, presumably on his phone.

“Shit,” Ali said, pulling Santiago down to duck behind a gray minivan. “I should have known they’d have backup. They probably have men spread out all around the university.”

“Do you have your gun?” Santiago asked.