The bare feet were a livid purple and rested flat on the floor, causing the knees to bend. Green pants, black splotches. Green jacket. Nameplate on the breast, insignia on the shoulder. Definitively CBP. Arms out to either side, although they were too long. The dowel had been forced through the jacket over his elbows, leaving his forearms and hands to dangle like his coyote head. The lips of the mask had been peeled back and glued in place to expose the savage teeth.

I ducked back. Deep breath. In through my nose, out through my mouth. Choke back the stomach acids. I rolled around the corner and cleared the passage with my Beretta. Maybe eight feet long. Nearing the end.

I shined my beam into the coyote’s eyes. Blue irises, sclera shot through with blood. Vacant stare.

I ducked under his right arm.

Back against the wall, slide sideways.

Phone. Steeper angle. Reflection?

Another passage. Four feet long. Another right turn. Nothing in between.

I came around high and fast. Darted to the next turn.

Phone. Reflection?

Again, nothing. Another four-foot stretch. Left-hand turn.

Pulse thumping in my ears, shaking my vision.

Breathe. For God’s sake, breathe.

Coyote is the master of deception.

Crouch. Hustle. Back. Wall.

Phone. Reflection?

Six feet. Arched passage. Left turn at the end.

Go, go, go.

Phone. Reflection?

Three feet. Right turn.

The quarters were getting tight. No room to move. To make a mistake.

Duck left. Already there.

The right turn bent back in the opposite direction, one-hundred-eighty degrees.

Phone. Reflection?

Nothing.

Three feet. Right turn.

Phone. Tilt. Reflection?

Ten feet, arched passage.

Clear.

Come around low and slow.

Right turn at the end. Back against the uneven, rounded wall.

Phone. Reflection?

Three feet. Nothing. No one.

Roll and rise. Two strides. The left turn merely rounded the wall to my left.

Phone. Reflection?

Clear.

Coyote is the master of deception.

Swing around. Five feet. Left turn. Back against the wall.

Phone. Reflection?

The curved corridor bent beyond my range of sight.

It was the final long stretch and I knew it.

Round the turn, hard and fast, sweeping the light, finger tight on the trigger, pressing it into the sweet spot.

Footprints?

Still one set, continuing inward. None coming out.

My heart, jackhammering.

Respirations, shallow, jerky.

Mouth dry.

All over soon.

Swallow hard.

Reach the end. Left turn.

Coyote is the master of deception.

Back against the wall, slide down low.

Phone. Tilt upward. Try to keep from shaking. Reflection?

Body. Large.

Arm back.

Steady breathing.

In. Out. In. Out.

Roll around.

Pistol up. Light up.

Black shoes, tan slacks. Universal cop special. Bloodstains. Belly holding shirt open, missing buttons, bloodstained undershirt. Glimmer from a badge on the chest, in the middle of a crimson Rorschach. Arms out. Just tall enough to remain standing roughly flat on the floor, not suspended or leaning. Doubtful dowel would have held otherwise. Antone. Without a doubt. Raise the light to the coyote mask. Jaw molded wide open, as though preparing to snap. Wrinkled skin on snout. Look up higher for the eye—

“Took you long enough to get here.”

The words came from around the corner to my left.

I froze. The voice was hollow, haunting.

It reminded me of my father’s.

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this…brother.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

I swung my light toward the source of the sound and held perfectly still, keeping Antone’s body between me and the bend just past him. A faint red glow, hardly discernible, from around the corner. I waited in vain for Ban to step out of hiding and into range. No sign of movement. I crept to the opposite side of Antone’s body, under his left arm, and peered around his back toward the lone remaining turn.

Only darkness and shadows.

I eased all the way around the chief and approached the bend slowly, silently, placing each foot softly and carefully so as not to make a sound. I opened my mouth to further quiet my breathing, although I was pretty certain I’d ceased breathing altogether. I didn’t so much as blink as I stared straight down my sightline and through the heart of the flashlight beam.

Another step.

Another.

The corridor was only three feet long and terminated in a left-hand turn.

The final turn.

Another step.

“Are you ashamed of your native blood? Is that why you never even bothered to look for your roots? Or were you ashamed of your people, living on this patch of uninhabitable desert and subsisting on the scraps your government cast aside after stealing everything else from us?”

Another step.

I entered the short passage and watched the circle of my beam shrink on the wall as I closed the distance. The light betrayed my location. I paused long enough to untie the charger cord with my left hand and let it fall to the ground. I held the light in my left hand, away from my body, directed as far as I could angle it around the corner. If he had a firearm, he would get my hand, but the shot would pass well in front of my chest.

Coyote is the master of deception.

“It only seems fitting that our fates should be joined here, in this most sacred of places, where our people were first led from the darkness and into the light, where our blood bubbled up from the heart of the land. Here, in the home of our creator. Where your blood can return to that very same heart.”

Another step.

My pulse was a non-stop thunderclap in my ears. I had to concentrate to keep my hands from shaking. Considering the way the light jiggled against the wall, I wasn’t doing an especially impressive job.

“It’s said that the maze is a metaphor for one’s life journey. That we are birthed into hardship and only by navigating the various perils will we reach our ultimate destination. Here, at the center of the maze, where the sun god blesses us and ushers us into the afterlife. This is how things were always supposed to be. We were always meant to take this journey together…brother.”

I held my light sideways and directed to my left, then threw it forward. It landed on the dirt in front of me and shined back into the center of the maze. No shots rang out. I listened for movement, but heard none. I was hoping he would immediately extinguish my light in an effort to seize the advantage, and, by doing so, reveal his exact location. Keeping the light was fine by me, too. I took a double-handed grip on my pistol and inched closer. I figured speed and the element of surprise would afford me one shot, and I needed to make it count. I knew he was back there. He wasn’t making any kind of effort to hide that fact. In his mind, this was our shared destiny.

“There is one incontrovertible truth about journeys. They all must come to an end. Metaphorically and literally. No life journey would be complete otherwise. And you know what that end is, don’t you…brother?”

Coyote is the master of deception.

The muscles in my legs tensed with potential as I lowered myself closer to the ground, into something resembling a compact sprinter’s stance. Hopefully, he hadn’t seen through my ruse and he’d be spotlighted in my beam when I dove around the corner and started firing.

“The legend says there’s only one way to ensure your safe return from the maze. Do you know what that is?”