‘There’s a vehicle up ahead.’ Anders shifted the spotlight on his side and pinpointed a pickup truck parked in the shadows of a ridge.
‘Good eyes.’ Lourds was impressed. He hadn’t seen it, all of his attention focused on tracking the men.
‘Have to have them in this business.’ Anders glanced around. ‘I’d’ve thought someone woulda noticed us by now, but I don’t see anyone saddling up to come out this way.’
‘We can’t let them get to the truck. Whatever they have might be lost forever.’
‘Okay, hang on.’ Anders increased the throttle speed and leaned the helicopter forward.
‘Can you put me on the ground?’
‘You want to go down there after them?’
‘Might give us a better chance. If you can put me down near the vehicle, I might be able to disable it before they make their escape.’
‘They’re not going to just sit back and watch, you know.’
Lourds nodded and felt slightly sick to his stomach. He wasn’t an action hero — he preferred to read about those kinds of people. And he was perfectly content to see any physical confrontation in his imagination as he turned the pages of a book. But he couldn’t just sit by and watch as perhaps priceless artifacts disappeared before the world got a chance to see them.
Adroitly, Anders maneuvered the helicopter straight for the waiting pickup. ‘I’m going to stay with the bird. For when you need to beat a hasty retreat.’
‘All right.’ Lourds took a couple of quick breaths to settle his nerves. It didn’t work too well but helped clear his head a bit.
‘I’m gonna drop you on a touch-and-go, mate — the moment I stop moving, you start. When you get out, keep your head low till I take off again. I don’t want to decapitate you by accident.’
‘No, we definitely do not want that.’ Lourds unbuckled his seat belt and opened the helicopter’s side door. He watched the pickup grow steadily closer.
‘Don’t forget they have guns.’
Lourds glanced at the starred imperfection on the cockpit nose. ‘Trust me, there’s no chance of me forgetting that.’
Slowing his forward momentum, Anders dropped the helicopter to a point a little more than three feet above the ground. He slapped Lourds on the shoulder. ‘Go! But if you need me, run north. Put as much difference between them dingoes and yourself as you can.’
‘Right.’ Lourds clapped a hand on his Australian Outback hat and narrowed his eyes against the violent stir of dust kicked up by the spinning rotors.
‘When you need help, I’ll be there in a jiff.’
Lourds nodded, then hopped out of the rocking helicopter. He landed on both booted feet, gave thanks that neither of them twisted on the uneven ground, and got his bearings. The battered pickup sat about twenty yards away.
As soon as Lourds started for the vehicle, Anders throttled up, and the helicopter lifted into the air. The dust cloud stirred by the rotorwash grew huge, obscuring his vision and whipping into his face. Pulling his shirt over his nose and mouth to keep the dirt out, he ran for the pickup.
When he reached the vehicle, Lourds pulled a mini-Maglite from his pocket, switched it on, and peered inside. The flashlight was a primary tool for him to have out in the field, but he’d let the batteries go nearly dead. Only a weak light was emitted, but it was enough for him to see the that keys hadn’t been left in the ignition.
Cursing the luck, Lourds turned to find where the tomb robbers were. Noting their arrival in just a few seconds, he reached inside the cab, popped the hood release, and ran around to the front of the vehicle, drawing his pocket tool as he shoved the hood up.
Lourds didn’t know much about vehicles, but he knew enough to sabotage the pickup. He shined the Maglite over the engine and spotted the sparkplug wires immediately.
The men approaching the truck screamed curses at him. One of them fired, the bullet pinging off the truck’s hood and sending a vibration stinging through Lourds’s hand and arm.
Holding the Maglite in his teeth, he flipped out the tool’s blade, grabbed a plug wire in one hand, and sawed at it, cutting through the plastic and wire.
Another bullet smashed into the engine and created a torrent of sparks. The pickup must have been leaking fuel through the carburetor because the exposed fuel immediately caught fire. The grave robbers yelled even more curses at Lourds.
Lourds dropped the severed wire and ran north, his long hours spent playing soccer paying off hugely. He streaked across the uneven terrain toward Anders and the helicopter, about a hundred yards away. The robbers were closing the gap and were about thirty yards behind him.
One of the men took a shot at Lourds as he ran. The bullet dug up a furrow in the ground right next to him, making Lourds put more effort into his stride.
Anders had put the helicopter down with the pilot side facing the three angry grave robbers. Shots slowly cracked, letting Lourds know that the men carried single-action rifles.
Running around the side of the helicopter, Lourds grabbed the door and pulled it open. As soon as he had one foot in the helicopter, Anders nudged the craft into the air.
Just as he was about to haul himself inside, Lourds’s foot slipped on the landing gear. He fell and flailed for purchase. ‘Help!’
Surprised, Anders threw out an arm, grabbed Lourds’s chambray work shirt, and hauled him inside the cockpit. ‘C’mon, Professor. I don’t want you to fall and end up in a million little pieces.’
‘Me neither.’ Lourds clambered into the copilot’s seat and buckled in.
The shots came again, another weak fusillade around the helicopter. This time, however, several jeeps topped the ridge, with armed men riding shotgun. Handheld spotlights caught the surprised thieves in their bright glare.
‘Well, that’s obviously not going to end well for them.’ Lourds smiled, pretending that he did this kind of thing every day and that his heart wasn’t jackhammering in his chest.
‘You did good, Professor.’ Anders smiled. ‘You run a lot faster than I thought a professor could.’
‘Thanks.’ Lourds decided not to mention that the bullets fired at him had been one hell of a motivator.
Below, the three grave robbers scattered in different directions, but it did them no good. Lourds watched the confrontations play out. The jeeps split up, each one pursuing a fleeing criminal. The thieves all gave up after a short run and planted their faces in the ground until the dig’s security people arrested them.
Lourds happily clapped Anders on the back. ‘Well, my friend, we’re going to be heroes in the morning. After saving whatever it is we saved down there, I think people should at least buy us breakfast.’
At that point, Professor Gao woke up with a bleat. He’d slept throughout the encounter, but the intense jockeying of the helicopter hadn’t agreed with his stomach.
‘Grab him, mate!’ Anders frantically dove toward the ground again, which only made matters worse. Gao bent forward, his face a sickly shade of green. Lourds unfastened his seat belt, then the one restraining Gao, holding the small man steady.
‘Don’t let him throw up in here!’ Anders reached for his door with one hand. ‘I don’t need the stink for the next week.’
‘Short of ramming a towel down his throat, I don’t see how that’s possible for much longer.’
‘When I get us down, you get him out of here pronto.’
Setting the helicopter down on the makeshift landing pad, Anders reached across the passenger seat and shoved the door open. ‘Get him out of here, now! No one throws up in my bloody heli!’
Grabbing Gao by one arm and his belt, Lourds hurled the sick man toward the door. Gao went out unceremoniously, looking like a stilt-legged stork. He plopped onto the ground hard enough to make Lourds wince in sympathy.