Tobias Buckell - Ragamuffin

Atlahuah looked slightly offended, but obeyed and left with his men for the mansion.

The three of them continued through the high shrubs and walkways until they came to the street, and Xippilli stopped.

Pepper leaned in. “You jumped quickly to becoming the Azteca ruler of the city.”

“Better me than some warrior-priest, Pepper. What else can I do? It is either me or a far worse leader who will spill far more blood.”

“He lying to save he life,” Jerome said. “Kill him and let’s run now.”

Xippilli turned to face them both. “You move to anger too quickly. Both of you. Why was that necessary, why not talk to the gods?”

“You shackle his neck and expect calm?” Pepper said.

“That was Ahexotl’s idea,” Xippilli snapped. “Would you have killed everyone in there over his mistake?”

Pepper nodded. Xippilli fought frustration.

Xippilli looked over at Jerome. “Get to safety, or hiding. I’ll find another ancient. And I’ll bear Ahexotl’s wrath. And I’ll try to manage the city in this new time and save as many lives as I can.”

“Be careful,” Pepper said with a slight smile. “It’s a slippery slope out there to becoming the dictator of the city.”

“And what will you be doing?”

“Research,” Pepper said.

“Research?”

“Yes.” Pepper broke the ring off Jerome’s neck with his bare hands and handed it to Xippilli. “The Teotl want to get through the other wormhole back to the rest of the worlds. But the question is, why?”

“They told you why.”

“That may or may not be true,” Pepper said. “And therefore, I’d like to do some research to figure out if they are telling the truth.”

“How will you do that?” Xippilli asked.

“I’m sure there are Teotl that will be available to answer my questions, eventually,” Pepper said. “For now, we’re going to disappear.”

He started to walk away with Jerome.

“Pepper, what were you going to do if I hadn’t pointed that gun at myself?” Xippilli asked.

“Kill them all,” Pepper said, and turned the corner.

Jerome hurried to keep up with Pepper. Capitol City was not the bustling world he remembered. The city remained clutched in dark, quiet, under some sort of curfew. Jerome thought he saw faces in windows, which retreated quickly into the shadows. Electric lights flickered as the power randomly failed throughout the once brightly lit inner walls of the city.

“You would have killed all those Azteca in there?” Jerome asked Pepper.

“Yes.”

“And Xippilli too?” Jerome could hardly contain his anger just by mentioning the name.

“Maybe.”

“If you didn’t, I would.” Xippilli had just turned him over. All those mongoose-men back in Tenochtitlanome had died because of him. They had died trying to protect Jerome, he wouldn’t forget who had done the right thing anytime soon.

A few Azteca warriors patrolled the intersections, occasionally eyeing them. They challenged Pepper, who walked past them with a dismissive wave of the Jaguar warrior he was dressed up as and a snapped set of orders in Nahautl.

They let them walk on.

Jerome kept quiet until they turned a corner away from the Azteca. “What are we doing?”

He couldn’t see past the mask Pepper wore, the stylized grinning jaguar face. Pepper paused, and Jerome froze. Something rustled, they were being followed.

Pepper reached under the cape he wore.

“Don’t. Fucking. Move.” The command was repeated in Nahautl. Five mongoose-men rounded a corner, rifles aimed at Pepper. “Let the boy go.”

Jerome raised his hands, moving between them and Pepper. “Wait, don’t shoot him, you don’t understand.”

“Get my son away from him now!” a familiar voice snapped. Jerome looked around and saw John push through the mongoose-men.

“Dad!” Relief vibrated through Jerome.

“Come over here, Jerome.” John kept a rifle aimed at Pepper’s head as he waved Jerome over. Jerome didn’t move.

Pepper shook his masked head. “John, don’t point that thing at me.”

Jerome watched his father pause.

“Pepper?” John frowned.

“Who the hell else?” Pepper said, voice unhurried.

Jerome watched his father break into a grin and lower his rifle. John grabbed Pepper’s shoulder. “You’re alive as well!”

Pepper looked down at the arm. John stopped smiling and let go of him.

“Yes,” Pepper said. He removed the Azteca mask and dropped it to the ground. His dreads fell down around his shoulders. “We made it back. I told you I would keep an eye on Jerome. I, for one, am good at promises.”

“Let’s get off the street,” John said. “There’ll be a patrol through soon.”

The mongoose-men lead them down into the sewers. At this level it was stale runoff. Smelly, but nothing too bad. They sludged through the water.

“They’re hunting for any of us who settled the planet, councilmen, me, maybe you,” John said. “They’re offering big rewards and promising no harm. You have any idea what that’s about?”

Jerome and the mongoose-men around him struggled to keep up with Pepper and John. But having both men here made Jerome feel that things were happening.

“They approached me in Tenochtitlanome,” Pepper said. “They seem to think they’re also going to reopen the wormhole back out, and they need human help to deal with humans on the other side.”

“And you said?”

Pepper paused at a junction. A pool of wastewater rimmed by railings. “Said I’d think about it. How’s our starship doing, John?”

“The Ma Wi Jung is not going to fly us out of here.”

Water trickled out of a storm drain. Jerome listened to his dad and Pepper and felt like half a man. Like all the other little people that gathered around those two and looked up. Here were the heroes of the last war with the Azteca.

And he’d been saved by Pepper back then as well.

John hadn’t even looked back at him. Or touched his arm like Pepper’s.

Pepper sniffed. “Here’s the thing. They’re still using the Azteca as pawns.”

“They always have.”

“The Teotl arrive in orbit, with advanced technology and superiority, and they’re using Jaguar warriors with rifles to subdue the city? They’re using a bunch of shuttles to ferry men with rifles around?” Pepper leaned back against the rail.

“They don’t want to get their hands dirty.”

“It’s more than that.” Pepper looked at the mongoose-men. “I think there are only a handful of them in orbit. They might actually be somewhat honest in needing our help.”

“Help?” John looked disgusted.

“They claim they’re refugees.”

“But they’re Teotl ,” Jerome hissed.

Pepper shrugged. “They want our help. I see advantages. I see me getting off this damn planet.”

Damn planet? Jerome looked at Pepper. “So you go get off this ‘damn planet’ by joining them murderers!”

“They say something worse is coming through the wormhole after them.”

“And you believe them?” Jerome replied. “ You believe them?”

Pepper removed something from under the feathered cape. “I stole this from the Teotl that jumped me in the shuttle.” Pepper held a fuzzy-looking, green necklace with a solid-silver section in the middle. In his other hand he held an oval. Jerome reached for it, but John grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t. It’s an aerogel necklace with a nanofilament, it’ll slice your hand off it you tug on it wrong.” John looked at Pepper. “It’s a slave collar. And the oval is to trigger it?”

“Yes. Deceptions behind deceptions.” Pepper gently tossed the necklace to John, who snagged it out of the air with a grunt. “I think they may need us. But they’re not interested in being partners, ultimately. Things might be a little bit more one-sided once they have us where they need us.”