Chapter 3: Flight and Oath

Outside the Monastery walls, the hoofbeats stopped. Torchlight squeezed through the crack in the door, stretching Carmen's shadow long across the floor. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Fuentes's men have the whole alley locked down."

Diego didn't answer. He guided Rosario to the base of the wall, stripped off his coat and wedged it behind the old man's back, then made his way to the window. At least twenty men out there. Hunting rifles and iron picks in hand. At the head of the group, still in the saddle, was Raphael Fuentes, the mine's superintendent, casually lighting a cigar. No order to break the door. Just his men holding both exits — front and back — and waiting. That patience was scarier than rage. It meant he was certain Diego had nowhere left to run.

Diego went back to Rosario. The old man coughed, fished something from his coat, and pressed it into Diego's hands — an oilcloth-wrapped bundle. "This is the real casualty ledger from the mine. Fuentes said he burned it. He didn't. What he burned was the copy. This one's still here. I've been hiding it for thirty-eight years."

Diego held the bundle. The oilcloth was brittle, crumbling to powder at the edges. "Why give it to me?"

"Because you're the only one who doesn't want the silver and isn't afraid of him." Rosario said. "You spend your days bandaging miners and your nights writing down the names of the dead. What you do is what I used to do. Only you haven't learned to be afraid yet."

A dull thud from outside — an iron pick striking the doorbar. Carmen came running back from the courtyard, a key ring clutched in her fist. "The cellar connects to the drain. The outlet's on the north side of the city. You can get out. But the opening is too narrow — one person at a time."

Diego shoved the oilcloth bundle inside his shirt. He'd made up his mind. "We go through the cellar. Get Rosario and his wife out first. I'll hold them off."

Carmen looked up. "Alone? There's more than twenty of them."

"They're after the ledger, not me." Diego said. "Once it's out of the city, chasing me won't matter."

He moved to the door and peered through the crack. Fuentes was putting out his cigar, muttering a few words to a man beside him. The man nodded and turned, sprinting toward the alley's mouth. Diego knew that direction. It led to the telegraph office. Fuentes was sending word to the next city before they even made a move.

Diego turned back and leaned close to Rosario's ear. "They're going to wire a message. You've got half an hour."

The old man nodded, struggled to his feet. His wife was waiting in the corner, clutching a bundle to her chest. Carmen had already pried open the iron hatch in the cellar floor. The black mouth of the passage gaped in the stone floor like a wound.

Diego stepped to the door, drew a breath, and pulled back the heavy bolt. The wooden door creaked open, splitting in both directions. Torchlight flooded in, blinding. Fuentes didn't get off his horse. He just tilted his head and looked down at him. "Mr. Diego. I understand something came into your possession that belongs to the mine. Hand it over, and tonight never happened."

Diego stood in the doorway, his body blocking the courtyard behind him. "What thing? I was at the mine all day. All I took was a few copper coins to buy medicine for a miner with a broken leg."

Fuentes smiled. No warmth in it. "Cut the act. Rosario came to you this afternoon with a ledger. That book has the real death and injury numbers from the mine. If it gets out, the mine's name is finished. You're a nurse, not a lawyer. This isn't your business."

Diego didn't flinch. "I've seen three times more dead and wounded at the mine than your books report. The ledger says thirteen died in the sealed shaft. I know at least three were carried out alive. You want the book? Fine. First tell me where those three were taken."

Something twitched at the corner of Fuentes's mouth, then his face went smooth. "That's an internal matter of the mine. None of your concern."

Diego stepped forward. "They're people. Even if they died in the mine, they deserve a name. A truth. You scrubbed the names off, buried the bodies in the abandoned north tunnels, and thought nobody would know. But I do. Because one of them was the son of a miner I delivered three years ago."

The silence hit hard. Fuentes's face flickered in the firelight. He swung down from his horse slowly and walked until he was three paces away, dropping his voice. "I'm only being civil out of respect for the Monastery. If you insist on meddling, before the sun comes up tomorrow, I'll make sure you don't make it past the gates of Guanajuato."

Diego didn't answer. Behind him, faint as a whisper, the iron hatch clicked shut. He knew Carmen had taken Rosario and his wife down. He needed to buy one more fifteen minutes.

He turned, walked slowly back toward the door, and talked as he went. "You're afraid of that ledger because it lists the rations and wages you've been collecting on dead men. Thirty-eight years