45.
We stand at the edge of the pit.
“You two go first,” I say, pulling
my weapon, firing three rounds up into the ramp tunnel. “I’ll hold them back.”
Andre is holding the box tightly in
his arms as if it’s a live child and not the bones of a man dead two-thousand
years. A most important man. The most important man to have ever lived.
Shots are fired from the tunnel,
the rounds ricocheting and sparking off the stone wall opposite us. More
screaming. More stomping of footsteps. I return the fire.
“We have to do this, Professor. Do
it now. Or we’re dead anyway!”
While keeping my gun poised on the
bandits, I glance over my shoulder to see Andre set the box onto the stone
floor.
“You take the box, Chase,” he says.
“I’ll take my wife.”
Despite this rapidly closing door,
I can’
