The New World

The Blue Flute

The three men froze, shielding their eyes from the blinding beams with raised hands.

Next to Masaw's car was parked a vehicle with a powerful light bar on its roof, illuminating the entire scree field and cutting out three silhouettes against the light.

Two silhouettes stood out and came towards them at gunpoint. They were the armed priests, seen earlier at the great Kiva.

"Chief Màsaw, hand over your weapon", demanded one of the priests.

Màsaw complied. Then, while one of the priests held them up at gunpoint, the other approached and shone a detector on them. As he passed over Mens' briefcase, the detector sounded.

"Put the case on the ground and open it", intimated the amplified voice coming from the vehicle.

Mens complied. The detector rang over the bag containing the Spirit pearl. The priest grabbed it with a chuckle and stepped back.

"The excavations you have carried out are illegal. You'll have to answer to the law", said the voice. "Off we go!"

At gunpoint, Mens and his friends shuffled towards the illuminated vehicle. Once close to the third person, they realized it was Reverend Angles, also armed. When they were a few meters from the van, a door slid open. Angles barked "Get in!" into the loudspeaker.

At the same moment, two whistles split the air. The two armed priests collapsed like rags. Angles fired a short burst and hit Màsaw. She quickly crouched down to pick up the bag that the downed priest had dropped, then leapt into her vehicle. The door closed.

Màsaw knelt down and held his side. The twins emerged like cats from the shadows. Each held a slingshot. They jumped on the downed priests, grabbing their weapons.

The vehicle sped off.

"It's nothing", stammered Màsaw, struggling to his feet.

He staggered towards his car, supported by John, who was followed by Mens and one of the twins, while the other kept an eye on the priests.

They quickly settled into the vehicle. Màsaw passed the keys to John and gave a few instructions to the young Hopi, who remained outside.

"Let's go", he said to John. "We've got to catch her or she'll alert the army."

They set off down the trail. A few minutes later, they could see the lights of the Angles van a few hundred yards ahead.

They began the descent. John sped around the bends and they caught up with Angles, whose vehicle was less suited to this winding, stony track than a ranger 4 wheel drive.

Finally, Màsaw's car collided with the Reverend's rear bumper. The Reverend zigzagged ahead of them. At a bend in the road, she flung out her arm and machine-gunned them. A projectile hit the windshield, which shattered. With a sweeping gesture, John blew out what was left of the window.

Màsaw, who was bent double, nevertheless pulled a gun from one of the compartments and passed it to Mens. "Go ahead", he said, "we must recover the Spirit Pearl of Cha'tima; my tribe was responsible for passing it on to you."

But John, in a rage, accelerated and crashed into Angles' van. A sharp turn came up and the Reverend lost control of her vehicle. She ran off the road and disappeared from the sight of her pursuers.

John stopped and ran off with Mens. From the edge of the precipice they saw Angles' van, immobilized and lying on its side, a hundred meters below, its ramp of lights illuminating the ravine.

"Let's go", said John, jumping into their car. He skilfully manoeuvred the vehicle down to the bottom of the ravine to get closer to Angle's vehicle.

He stopped about twenty yards away. "Hurry up, it's going to catch fire", he shouted. Angles' van was ablaze with flames and emitting puffs of smoke.