Mario Reading - The Mayan Codex

‘Not so far as I can see.’

‘I thought so. They have other things on their mind, no doubt.’

‘What do you mean “no doubt”?’

‘I think you hit their Big Boss.’

‘What are you talking about, Calque? What Big Boss? And why haven’t you mentioned this before?’

‘I had more important things on my mind.’

‘I didn’t hit anybody.’

‘Yes you did. When you nearly rammed the Toyota. Back there at the warehouse. Didn’t you feel a crunch?’

‘I missed the Toyota by a mile, Calque. I’m not that bad a driver.’

‘Yes. But you hit a very large Mexican holding a walkie-talkie. He had a shiny suit on. The sort of suit only drug lords dare to wear – and believe me, Sabir, I know what I’m talking about. You smashed this man’s foot. Surely you saw him?’

‘I was too busy trying to get us out of there in one piece. And anyway, this thing has a snout the size of a condor’s. Of course I didn’t see him.’

‘Well I think that’s why we’re not being followed. I think you inadvertently took out the enemy’s commander-in-chief. I was going to tell you at the time, but then I got caught up in Akbal Coatl’s book.’ Calque steadied his left arm as they went over a speed bump. ‘It might afford us just enough of an edge to stay in the clear.’

‘I destroyed this man’s foot, you say?’

Calque nodded, still grimacing from the pain in his arm. ‘I love people like you, Sabir. You plough through life leaving a trail of wrecked bodies behind you. Only you never notice them. It must be a sublime knack to have. I only wish I could emulate it.’

‘What about your associate, Macron? Have you forgotten about him so quickly? And who brought me back into this? It was you. And who brought Lamia into this? You again. Calque, sometimes when I listen to you bullshitting away at me, I get this curious image coming into my brain.’

‘Oh? And what image is that?’

‘Of the pot calling the kettle black.’

The intravenous morphine was beginning to work. Emiliano Graciano Mateos-Corrientes lay across the rear seat of the Toyota Roraima, and watched as his personal physician bandaged his foot.

‘You’ve got a compound fracture. Every hour you don’t get to hospital makes you that much more likely to lose your foot. If you’re lucky, only septicaemia will set in. If you’re unlucky, gangrene will follow. There’s filth in there. And bits of sock. And dust you picked up from the track. And polluted bone fragments.’

‘Hand me that pistol.’

One of his lieutenants handed his pistol over to Emiliano.

Emiliano pointed it at the doctor. ‘If I lose my foot, you lose your life. Do you get me? I have business here first. Before the hospital. You will accompany me.’

‘But the police. They will see the smoke of the fire and they will come.’

‘The police will not come. It has been explained to them and to the fire brigade that we are simply burning scrubland.’

‘But it’s the wrong time of year for the milpa slash and burn.’

‘It’s never the wrong time of year for the milpa slash and burn. Do you understand me, doctor?’ ‘I understand you.’ ‘Now get into the car. We are going to a baptism.’

‘What did Madame, our mother, say?’

Abi shook his head.

‘What is it, Abi?’

Abi sat up on his haunches and stared at his feet.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘What’s wrong? We’ve been played for suckers, that’s what’s wrong.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She used us. That saint, our mother, used us as expendable camouflage.’

There was a shocked silence. Then Nawal shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you.’

Abi eased himself onto his side. He crawled closer to Rudra, Nawal and Dakini. ‘Listen to me. First off, Lamia – our so-called “wayward sister”. Well it turns out she wasn’t so wayward after all. She was on the same side as us right from the start.’

‘No.’ Nawal shook her head. ‘That’s just not possible. I know Lamia. She might have passed back information to our mother, but she wouldn’t have given herself to that man Sabir on anyone’s say-so but her own. She was far too pudique. Far too conscious of her face.’ She avoided meeting Dakini’s tortured gaze – both she and Dakini had a great deal to cope with in that department themselves. ‘And anyway, she would have confided in Athame. Those two were like this.’ Nawal made a knot out of her hands.

‘It’s true, nonetheless. I’ve just had it from the horse’s mouth. Madame, my ever loyal mother, thought that by coming clean she might provide me with a titbit of comfort at my moment of death.’

‘You’re not going to die, Abi. None of us is going to die.’

Abi laughed. ‘The whole thing was an elaborate honey-trap to sucker Sabir into giving out the names she wanted. The Countess set it up so that Calque and Sabir would reckon they’d saved Lamia from a fate worse than death. It’s a trick as old as the hills. They fell for it. And I fell for it, too. Hook, line, and sinker.’

‘It can’t be true. Our mother would have told us.’

‘And give the game away? No. She wanted us outraged, angry, and alert. And she got what she wanted, as she always does. Lamia is heading back to France to kill the pregnant Gypsy. And we’re the sacrificial lambs that helped get her there.’

‘You must tell Aldinach and Athame immediately.’

‘No I mustn’t. After Madame made us destroy all our personal cell phones and replace them with pay-as-you-go, I made damned sure that I never gave out Aldinach and Athame’s numbers to anyone. Just like I didn’t give out yours. I didn’t want people calling up at potentially sensitive times for a cosy fireside chat. So if those two don’t decide to call our mother – and I somehow suspect they won’t – that’s it. She’ll have no way of warning them off from killing Lamia. And they’re just about to board a charter flight to London. So they’ll have their cell phones switched off anyway while they’re in the air.’

‘To London?’

‘First flight they could get. Lamia got out on a marginally earlier fight via Madrid. They found out that much, at least. So the three of them should all arrive in Paris at just about the same time. There are only so many connecting flights available. All Aldinach and Athame have to do is wait. They’ll probably catch Lamia straight out of Arrivals. They might even kill her right there in the concourse. Aldinach can sting like a bee with that scalpel of his. He’s twenty metres gone before the person even knows they’ve been stabbed.’

The others shook their heads uncertainly.

Abi grinned. ‘Look around you. We’re probably surrounded by fifty invisible men, intent upon our deaths. And whose fault is that? Lamia’s, Sabir’s, and our mother’s. In the absence of a deus ex machina reaching down and plucking us up into the sky, we’re doomed.’ Abi gave a resigned shrug. ‘We can’t touch our mother, but we can touch Lamia. And through her, Sabir. What have we got to lose?’

‘There’s my Cherokee.’

‘I figured as much.’ Calque glanced around the roof lot of Cancun International Airport’s long-term parking. ‘We’re going to have to break into it, you realize that? And they’ve probably got banks of CCTV cameras here.’

‘No we aren’t.’ Sabir felt in his pocket. ‘I have the spare keys. I remembered them back at Ek Balam after we handed back the skull and the codex. While Ixtab was busy strapping up your arm and measuring you for a new shirt. They were in my overnight bag.’ He dangled the keys in front of Calque’s face as if they were cherries.