Alex makes the call without consulting anyone, which Mira will later describe as 'uncharacteristically decisive and immediately regrettable.' He veers left toward the mountain gate at a full sprint, arms pumping, guidebook-free and dangerously unresearched. The plan — such as it is — relies on the moped kid choosing the loop back to town, leaving Alex blocking the only other exit. It is, briefly, genius. The Moped Kid watches Alex run, tilts his helmet, and turns directly toward the mountain gate. 'He's following you!' Mira shouts from behind. Alex does not slow down, partly out of commitment, partly because the ramparts here are narrower and turning feels medically inadvisable. He rounds a crumbling parapet and nearly collides with a folding table where a very calm man in a sun-hat is selling postcards. Of the lizard. The same lizard. Alex skids to a stop. The moped purrs closer.