All I could think of was Tex’s voice saying, “We have to protect the maps at all costs.”
I tried to escape.
Turning away from Zander and the others, I darted away from the agent who was guarding me, trying to run around the other agents and head higher up the path. I had the idea that I might be able to climb up the rocks, find a route up there to another one of the caves where I could destroy the maps, to keep them from ever being found. They would catch me eventually. I knew that. But maybe I could stop them from getting the maps.
It wasn’t a bad plan. I made it about two hundred yards up the wall of the canyon by sheer will, scrambling and looking for footholds and handholds while they shouted at me from below. I could see a small cave up ahead and I thought I could make it, but then my foot slipped on the rock and I went down hard, rolling twenty feet on hard ground.
Everything spun for a moment. My head throbbed.
I heard Sukey call my name and then I looked up and saw the agents rushing toward me. Drops of sweat stung my eyes. My glasses had fallen off and everything was a little blurry, but I could see Francis Foley’s sharp, predatory eyes. He was angry now. I could see it. It transformed his face, made it duller and more dangerous, the face of someone who would do anything to get what he wanted.
“Don’t bother trying to get away,” he said in a low voice. “We will always catch you.”
Behind him, Mr. Mountmorris was a green blur.
I scrambled in the dirt for my glasses. I put them on and, in a panicked, heart-thumping moment, saw the end of the pistol that Foley was pointing at me. And then I heard the sharp crack that echoed off the walls of the canyon.
I was sure that I’d been shot. I even closed my eyes, but then I looked up to see Tex standing there, pointing his own pistol up into the air.
“What’s going on here?” he asked.
Francis Foley kept his weapon out in front of him. “Mr. Tex,” he said in a low, even voice, “we’re doing just fine, but thank you for your concern. These children have been trespassing on an archaeological site now controlled by BNDL. We’re detaining them until we can place them in responsible care. But thank you for checking.”
Tex was still holding his pistol and when I looked up at Francis Foley, he seemed wary of the grizzled cowboy.
I met Tex’s eyes and he gave a tiny nod, as if to say, “It’ll be okay.” I don’t know if Foley saw it or not, but he kept his own weapon up and he said, “Please wait down below, Mr. Tex. This is none of your business.”
Tex stepped forward and pointed his pistol at Foley.
“Leave them alone, Foley,” Tex said in a low voice. “You don’t need them. You found the gold. Besides, you said yourself there was nothing on the map. Let them go and we won’t tell anyone that the Nackleys didn’t find it themselves.”
“I don’t know why you care, Mr. Tex,” Foley said. “But I suggest you do as I say.” Foley barked at the agent who was holding me. “The map! Find it now!”
“No,” Tex said.
To this day, I’m still not entirely sure what happened next, whether Tex moved first or Foley did. I heard a shot and then another, and then, as we watched in horror, Tex’s arms windmilled as though he was trying to get his balance, and his pistol fell to the ground. He was standing at the very edge of the path and he stumbled once, then twice, struggling to keep his footing. Far below him was the floor of the canyon, jagged rocks lining the bottom of the wall.
“Good god, Francis!” Mr. Mountmorris said.
“He tried to shoot me,” Foley yelled down to the group below. “He wanted the gold for himself!”
“That’s not—” Sukey started to call out, but the agents jumped on her, covering her mouth, and we all watched as Tex, a red stain spreading across the front of his shirt, lost his balance and fell over the edge of the path, landing on the ground below us. I think I must have closed my eyes as he fell, because the next thing I remember is looking down to see him lying there, a dark spot against the pale ground.
He wasn’t moving at all. His eyes were blank, staring up at the sky, at the bright sun and the clouds drifting toward the east, toward Ha’aftep Canyon and the people there who didn’t know their protector was gone.