Dennis Wheatley - Unholy Crusade

`No, but bullets do,' Adam rapped back. `And fire power will prove the decisive factor in this Civil War you mean to start. Your untrained, ill armed mobs won't stand an earthly chance against the government forces. With tanks, artillery, strafing aircraft, flame throwers and nerve gas, they'll break up your formations no time. Those wretched Indians you are misleading will disperse like mist before the sun and make off for their homes with their tails between their legs.'

`You underestimate our Indians, Senor Gordon. There are no more courageous people in the world. During the past hundred and fifty years they have proved it a score of times. When they believe in a cause they become fanatics and prefer death to surrender. Led by Morelos, Santa Anna, Benito Juarez, Pancho Villa, Zapata and in the Cristero rebellion, they died fighting for their beliefs by the tens of thousands.'

`Then this time it will be by the hundred thousand.'

`Even such losses are relatively unimportant. In the French revolution a million people died and France then had a population of only twenty million. In Mexico today the population is early double that. Besides, our plans are well laid: the Militia will fight on our side and a great part of the Army will come over to us. At Uxmal, during the ceremony of “Recognition”, I showed you to our leaders from all over Mexico. Tonight, at the ceremony of “Elevation”, only those from Mexico City Federal District will be present. At the conclusion of the ceremony they will return to their posts. Then by radio and telephone the codeword will be sent out to all the others who now wait impatiently for it. With simultaneous risings in every city, town and village in the country, the government cannot possibly hope to hold more than a score or so of places where there are large garrisons. Isolated, and with their supplies cut off, they will be compelled to surrender. It will all be over within three weeks.'

The confidence and resolution that Alberuque displayed convinced Adam that the movement was far more formidable than he had previously supposed. But he had one last shot in his locker, and used it.

`All right then. Let's say you do get control of the country. According to your programme, it is to be Mexico for the Mexicans, with all foreigners thrown out. Do you realise what a “foreigner” is in a coloured man's country? He is any white man. And you are white. Before you are a year older, the odds are they'll run a coup d'etat of their own and hang you from a lamp post.'

For a second, Alberuque's eyes dropped. Holding out the sheet of paper, he snapped, `We waste time. Come now, learn your brief speech so that you may make it with clarity and dignity.'

`What if I refuse? You can't make me.'

`In that you are mistaken. You will do as you are told or live to rue the consequences.'

`Then I will wait until you tell me what those consequences will be,' retorted Adam stubbornly.

Alberuque shrugged and put the paper in his pocket, `As you will. We shall have ample time for you to learn it at the place to which we are going. And now I have a pleasant surprise for you. By tradition only males are allowed to be present at our great ceremonies, but tonight I am making one exception. The Senorita Chela has rendered such outstanding services to our cause that I am rewarding her by taking her with us.'

As he spoke, he pressed a bell on his desk. A minute later Chela entered the room.

Had Adam passed her in the street he would not have known her. Her own hair was concealed under a beret and from its rim there hung a fringe of greasy, brown, false hair, quite short across her forehead, about four inches long behind and with two matted tufts of about the same length at the sides, which hid her pretty

. She had on dark glasses and was wearing a rubber raincoat without a belt, so her figure was also hidden. The costume was completed by a pair of scruffy old calf high boots and she had smeared her lips with something that gave them a faintly purplish. As she was tall for a woman, even without her high heels, was well up to the average height of a native; so, with her bronzed complexion and the false brown hair, she would have been taken anywhere for a Mestizo youth.

Adam gave her a withering look and said, `I hear you are being paid off with a ticket for the party instead of thirty pieces of silver.' 'Her pale mouth twitched as though he had slapped her. In a voice she replied, `I'm sorry. But… but I did it for your own:. Knowing you had that gun I couldn't possibly risk your using it.'

,Thanks for your concern for my immortal soul, but I'm quite able of taking care of it myself.' His glance swept her from head toe. `Congratulations on the outfit. The Educational Committee you attended this afternoon evidently takes a special interest in amateur theatricals.'

Don't be so bitter, Adam,' she said sharply. `How could I tell that I meant to spend the afternoon perfecting my disguise without giving it away that the ceremony was to be tonight? You have only yourself to blame for being so suspicious and antagonistic towards Monsignor Alberuque.'

So you thought I might do a bolt, and risk being caught by police, although that would have meant a life sentence. You can be so stubborn at times, I thought it possible.' And that we could not possibly afford to risk,' Alberuque put in. My threats, of course, were only a bluff to keep you here. If had taken to your heels it would have done us no good to laid an information about you. But we should have temporarily lost you; and, my dear Gordon, you are irreplaceable. No else could take the role of Quetzalcoatl convincingly.' Yes, I see that now,' Adam muttered angrily. `But even with any false evidence from your people about the murder of the warder, the police would have believed that I connived in the prison break and put me inside for a good long stretch. Exactly.' Chela took him up quickly. `And everything else apart, I just couldn't let you risk that. Please believe me, Adam, I simply acted in what I believed to be your own best interests. I swear I did.'

angry as he was at having been tricked and deprived of his pistol, Adam was fair minded enough to appreciate her point of view. Admittedly she had saved Alberuque, but in the present

case that did not conflict with the anxiety she must have felt that he should neither commit the sacrilege of shooting the to her sacred priest, nor take the bit between his teeth and land himself

with a long prison sentence. A little grudgingly he said

`Oh well, it's evident that you think I should be grateful to you for saving me from myself. Perhaps I should be. Anyhow, what's done is done, and we'll get nowhere by arguing further about it.'

`That's better,' Alberuque purred, `much better. Between young people who love one another there always occurs misunderstandings. But they should not be allowed to fester.' Standing up, he picked up his pistol and added, 'Come! We still have many preparations to make; so we should be on our way.'

As he spoke, he stepped past the others to open the door. For a second it crossed Adam's mind to seize him while his back was turned and get his pistol from him. Next moment it was too late. Although unconscious of Adam's intention, Chela had stepped between them. Out in the hall the two hoodlums were still on guard. With Alberuque leading and the hoodlums bringing up the rear, they left the house.

The helicopter had been brought out of the hangar and now stood on the rough grass of the open space in the middle of the garden. It was a four seater. The pilot was already at the controls and, as Adam was told to get into the seat next to him, he noticed that he was not one of the mechanics he had seen in the barn, but a lean man with a scarred face. The two mechanics were only standing by in case they were needed. Chela sat immediately behind Adam and Alberuque behind the pilot. The engine was started up, there came a whirr of blades and, gently, the machine rose from the ground.