Mario Reading - The Mayan Codex

‘But he looks like a woman.’

‘That’s what he is. Half man, half woman.’

Yola crossed herself. ‘And who is that beside him? She is tiny. Like a child.’

‘She is not a child. They are both murderers. They will kill us if they catch us.’ Lamia pressed her foot down on the accelerator. The car behind followed suit.

‘They are speeding up.’

‘We can’t risk going to the camp now. We are going to have to make a run for it.’

Yola was still staring uncertainly at the car behind. ‘Are you sure of this?’

‘Are they still following us?’

‘Most definitely.’

‘Do they look like police, Yola?’

‘No. The police don’t use Diables. They don’t use snails.’

‘ Diables? Snails? What are you talking about?’

‘The Diable is the hermaphrodite card in the Tarot pack – it corresponds to gold, and so to the union of opposites. All Gypsies know this. The snail, too, is neither one thing nor the other.’

Lamia flashed a look at Yola. ‘Adam said you had an exceptional mind. I see what he means.’

Yola shook her head. ‘I am full of superstition. My mind is nothing.’

‘I don’t think so, somehow.’ Lamia glanced up at the mirror. ‘Is there anywhere we can turn off this road? They have a faster car than us. We are going to have to outwit them, because we can’t possibly outrace them.’

‘You mean go through the forest?’

‘Do you know all the forest tracks?’

‘Yes. I have lived here all my life. But you are in danger of bogging down if you use them. There are sudden areas that turn into mud. There has been rain. This car is not designed for that.’

‘We’ll have to risk it. They’ll catch us in no time on the main roads.’

‘Then turn here.’

Lamia slewed the Peugeot off the main road. Immediately, she could feel the texture beneath the vehicle change and become more treacherous. When she reached the first corner the car broke away from beneath her and threatened to slide into the ditch. She had to manhandle the steering wheel to regain traction.

‘Oh God. They will catch us.’

Yola had twisted around in her seat. ‘No. They are having the same problems as we do.’

‘Where shall I go now?’

Yola’s face seemed to close down on itself. Her eyes turned dead. One hand instinctively strayed to her stomach. ‘There is an open mine-shaft. About two kilometres from here. Samois was a mining and quarrying town in the nineteenth century. If you let them get very close, you could lead them to the shaft. Then turn at the last moment, when they still can’t see it. They will fall down with their car. It is maybe a hundred metres deep. As children, we thought that O Beng – the Devil – lived down there.’

‘But that would kill them.’

‘They want to kill us.’

Lamia glanced at Yola. There was a curious expression on her face. ‘Yes. You are right. I am not used to this.’

‘Take the next turning on your left. Then slow a little and let them begin to catch up. Make it so that they are sitting directly on your tail. They will not be able to overtake. The track is narrow. You will be quite safe until it opens out either side of the mine shaft. But you will only have one chance. If you don’t turn in time we will be dead also. Can you do this?’

Lamia shook her head in wonder. ‘Adam said you were a cool customer. Now I believe him.’

‘I will not lie down for the lion. That much is true. It happened to me once. With the brother of those people back in the car. Never again.’

Lamia threw the Peugeot into a sharp left turn. Aldinach followed her, six seconds behind. Once on the straight, Aldinach was able to pick up speed, and within twenty seconds he was hard on Lamia’s tail.

‘What the hell was that about?’

Sabir was driving the rental car, with Alexi on the seat beside him. Calque and Radu were hunched forward in the back. Sabir had just seen two cars veer off the main road from Samois village onto a forest track fifty metres ahead of them. For one heart-stopping moment, the three cars had seemed to be heading straight for one another.

‘It’s them. I recognized Lamia’s face. She had someone in the car with her.’

‘Are you sure?’

Calque slapped Sabir on the shoulder. ‘Of course I’m sure. Lamia’s face is unmistakeable, man. I’m not blind.’

‘Did you see who was following her?’

‘No I didn’t. But I’ll give you three guesses who it was.’

Sabir floored the gas pedal, then threw the rental into a tight left-hand turn.

‘What do you think has happened? Why are Aldinach and Athame chasing Lamia? I thought they were on the same fucking side?’

Alexi turned to Sabir. ‘That was Yola inside the first car. I know it. I saw her face in profile. If they hurt her I will kill them all. I will make them eat their own entrails. I will…’

‘Okay, Alexi. Calm down. We’ll catch them.’ Sabir was having difficulty keeping the car within the confines of the track. There had been a considerable amount of rain two days before, and the thin November sun had not yet succeeded in drying it off. The top of the dirt track was like a skating rink, therefore, with the very worst potholes reserved for the corners.

‘Do you think they’ve seen us?’

‘If they haven’t yet, they will soon.’

‘You don’t think Lamia is trying to protect Yola, do you? That we’ve got it all wrong? Why would they be chasing her otherwise?’

‘Why indeed?’ Sabir swung the vehicle through a wide arc, mud and gravel spraying out beside him. ‘Where does this go to, Alexi?’

‘If you keep straight on, it goes back to the main Fontainebleau road. If you take a left turn about five hundred metres in front of you, it goes towards the old mines.’

‘The old mines?’

‘This was a quarry area a long time ago.’

As if on cue, both the cars Sabir was following curled left, down the old mine road.

‘Tell me about these mines, Alexi.’

‘They are very deep. Very dangerous.’

‘And Yola knows about them?’

‘Of course. O Beng lives down there – all Gypsies know that. We are taught it as children, to keep us away from the shafts.’

‘ O Beng?’ Calque was leaning forwards in his seat.

‘The Devil, Calque. They are going to see the Devil.’

Lamia threw the wheel over at the last possible moment before striking the fragile fence surrounding the open mine-shaft. The Peugeot almost coped with the unexpected centrifugal strain, but then it struck a hidden rock with one of its back wheels and flipped over onto its side. It continued on, ploughing through some seedlings, and ended up canted against a fir tree at the edge of the surrounding forest.

Aldinach saw the mine shaft at the last possible moment and attempted a handbrake turn. The rental Ford spun around twice, smashed through the wood palings, and came to rest with its tail partially down the mine shaft, and with its two front wheels caught up in the barbed wire that had interleaved the fence stakes.

Sabir was two hundred metres behind the other cars at this stage, and he had ample time to measure his braking. He pulled up beside Lamia’s Peugeot while the car was still settling.

He ran towards Lamia’s car, followed closely by the others. Grabbing what remained of one of the seedlings, he began smashing in the Peugeot’s back window. Alexi wrapped his jacket around both his hands and pulled the glass bodily out of its frame. Then he ducked in through the smashed window and began wriggling across the seats towards Yola.

Sabir ran around to the front of the car. He could see someone trying to open the sunshine roof from the inside.