Mario Reading - The Mayan Codex

‘No one will stop for us at this time in the morning. We are on the outskirts of Paris, surrounded by bidonvilles. Are you crazy, man?’

‘All right. You stay in the car in case the police want to know what we are doing parked here. I will go walkabout.’

‘Okay.’

Sabir got out of the car. He started up the hard shoulder.

‘Sabir?’

‘What now?’

‘You’d better take the number of the rental agency with you.’

It took Sabir thirty-five minutes to find a telephone, and it took the rental agency a further two and a half hours to respond to their call and send out a fresh car. In the interim, both men stretched themselves out on their seats and snatched forty winks. For once in his life, Calque didn’t snore.

The trailer was with them at a little after six o’clock in the morning. The actual process of changing cars was a simple one, achieved in a little under ten minutes. Sabir reined himself in with the driver of the tow truck. Calque had warned him that the man was not personally responsible for their plight, nor for the rental company’s understandable slowness in responding to an early morning call.

Sabir stood by the tow truck, kicking at the tyres. He was cold. He had on only a thin jacket from Mexico, and it wasn’t suitable for an early November morning in northern France. Calque looked cold too. Sabir thought about offering him his jacket, and then rejected the idea. He knew what Calque’s response would be.

They were on the road again by 6.30. Both men could feel the events of the past few days beginning to tell on them. There was silence in the car until they reached the outskirts of Samois.

‘Let’s hope we’re still in time.’

‘We’ll be in time, Sabir.’

‘I’m glad you’re such an optimist.’

Sabir drove straight for the Gypsy encampment. He missed the turning first time around and had to backtrack a little. But he made it on the second pass, and bumped the car up the rutted track, trying to avoid the worst of the potholes and the puddles. He didn’t want to have call the rental agency out a second time.

People were already moving in the camp. Breakfast was being prepared. Sabir had a sudden flash back to the previous May, when he had made a similar journey, at a similar time, although on foot.

The children were the first to notice Sabir’s car nosing its way up the track. They came running towards it, suspicion on their faces. When they recognized Sabir’s face through the windscreen, they burst into smiles. ‘Damo! Damo!’

Sabir pulled the car up onto the verge of the track and got out. Some of the older men were approaching now, with the women holding back a little, to see what was occurring. Radu, Alexi’s cousin, whom Sabir had seen married in Gourdon, was the first to reach him.

‘Damo. Damo. It is good to see you. Yola will be overjoyed.’

‘Radu. Listen to me. We’re in a hurry. This is an emergency. You remember the people who killed Babel? Back in May, in Paris? They are after Yola now. We need to warn her and Alexi. We need to get them away from here as quickly as possible.’

Radu didn’t waste any time in questions. He took Sabir’s arm and led him and Calque towards Alexi’s caravan. Alexi was just stepping out of the door.

‘Damo! My brother. You have come to visit us. This is perfect timing, because I was just thinking that I need to ask you for another loan. Just for the short term, you understand. This pregnancy is stretching my resources. Not to mention Yola’s stomach. Heh. Heh. Heh.’ He leapt down from the caravan and threw his arms around Sabir.

‘Alexi. Where is Yola? We have an emergency. The Corpus wants to kill her. It’s my fault. We need to get her out of here.’

Alexi took a step backwards. Half of him was still locked onto the thought of the loan. ‘They want to kill Yola? But why? She has done nothing.’ He shook his head, as if clearing it of sleep. ‘Is this revenge for what she did to the eye-man?’

‘I’ll tell you later. Where is she?’

Alexi shrugged. ‘Around the camp, maybe. I don’t know where she goes in the morning. She is probably roasting coffee beans. Or making my breakfast. She could be anywhere.’

‘Radu, can you get all the kids to go look for her?’

Radu nodded. ‘I do that.’ He hurried off.

Alexi was frowning at Calque. ‘You’re the policeman. I remember you. Are your people coming to protect her? Or do we have to do it by ourselves again?’

‘Alexi, Calque is no longer a policeman. He is helping me. He is a good friend. I am asking you, please, to trust him.’

‘He is a friend of yours?’

‘A very good friend.’

‘As good a friend as I am?’

‘You are my brother, Alexi. He is a friend.’

Alexi nodded. ‘That’s a good answer, Damo. I will trust him.’

‘When did you last see Yola?’

Alexi had to think. ‘She woke up. With a migraine. It’s been bothering her for days. Something to do with her pregnancy, I think. Before that she was sick.’

‘What time did she wake up?’

Alexi shrugged. ‘This I do not know. Three. Four. Maybe five. It could even have been six.’

‘Alexi. For Christ’s sake.’

‘Six. I think it was six. The light was starting to come in through the windows. I saw her clearly. She was rummaging around in the caravan.’

‘Rummaging? What was she rummaging for?’

Both men were already heading up the steps into the caravan.

‘This I do not know. But she found whatever she was looking for in that drawer.’

‘What do you usually keep in there?’ Sabir already had the drawer open, and was rifling through its contents.

‘I don’t know. Yola does all that sort of thing.’

‘Come on Alexi. Try harder.’

‘Well. We keep the Bulibasha’s telephone number in there. And some other things.’

‘The Bulibasha’s number is still there. What else would she be looking for?’

‘Well, your number maybe. That would be in there too. At least I think so. I can’t read, Damo. You remember that, don’t you?’

‘My number?’ Sabir skimmed through the drawers contents. ‘It’s not here.’

‘Then she must have taken it with her.’

‘Where’s the nearest phone?’

‘Well, one or two of us have cell phones.’

‘At six in the morning?’

‘Okay, maybe not. Maybe she wouldn’t have woken people up. Maybe she would have walked to the village. People do that a lot when they want to phone. It’s cheaper than using a cell. There’s a communal card we all use. All the heads of family contribute to it according to how much they use it. We’ve got one for abroad and one for France. Yola keeps them in that drawer too.’

Radu came hurrying back inside the caravan. ‘She is nowhere. The children made a large circle around the camp. But Bera and Koine found fresh tracks leading towards the village. They are fresh from today.’

‘I remember Bera and Koine. They are the ones who found Achor Bale’s hiding place under the bush, aren’t they?’

‘Yes. They are your cousins. They are very observant. If they say this, it is true.’

‘Let’s go to the village, Alexi. She might still be there. Have you got any weapons here?’

‘Only my throwing knives. The ones I use in the fairgrounds. When I am giving demonstrations for the payos.’

‘Are they sharp?’

‘Very sharp.’

‘Then bring them.’

Lamia picked up on the fact that she and Yola were being followed when they were barely half a kilometre out of the village.

‘Yola. Look behind you.’

Yola swivelled in her seat.

‘It’s the Corpus. I know it. I recognize the driver. He was the one who overheard Sabir in the hut.’