The Mayan Codex

by Mario Reading

  ‘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 Koiné found fresh tracks leading towards the village. They are fresh from today.’

  ‘I remember Bera and Koiné. 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.’

  9

  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.’

  ‘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 ha
ve 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.

  10

  ‘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.’

  11

  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.

  ‘Come on, Calque. Help me. Someone is trying to get out. Radu. You go and grab Alexi’s legs. I can smell petrol. We’ve got to get both women out of this car before it goes up.’

  A hand emerged from the sunshine roof. Sabir manoeuvred his own hand inside and began to turn the handle. Soon, Lamia’s bloodied face emerged from the gap. ‘Okay. Hold on. I think we can get you through.’

  Calque took one of her arms and Sabir the other. Together they manhandled her slender frame through the half-opened sunshine roof.

  ‘All right. We’ve got you. Alexi? How are you and Radu doing with Yola?’

  ‘She’s fine. She’s fine. She’s talking to me. We get her out in a minute.’

  Lamia got shakily to her feet. She was leaning against Sabir. There was blood all the way down the front of her dress from a gash in her skull. But when Sabir looked closely at it, he saw that, although bleeding copiously, it was only surface deep.

  ‘You were saving her, weren’t you? I knew you wouldn’t harm her. It would have been impossible. Not after what we said to each other.’

  Lamia looked up at him. Then her expression changed. Sabir twisted in the direction of her gaze.

  Aldinach was running towards them. His hair was flowing free. He looked like a Mohican brave from one of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. A scalpel flashed in his hand. Sabir turned to face him. Both Alexi and Radu were still busy inside the car with Yola. Sabir reached down and picked up the sapling branch he had used to break through the Peugeot’s back window and brought it to bear.

  Aldinach was heading straight for him. He skipped over the mud and the scattered objects between them like a dancer.

  A figure ran past Sabir’s left shoulder. It was Lamia. She headed straight for Aldinach, her arms held wide.

  Aldinach scarcely hesitated. One hand flashed out and the scalpel entered and exited Lamia’s breast like a rapier. She did not even fall, but stood there, her arms cradling her chest, while Aldinach continued on towards Sabir.

  A violent rage overcame Sabir – a rage unlike any he had ever known in his life. He, too, ran at Aldinach, so that the two men were sprinting towards each other like rival stags. At the very last moment Sabir raised the sapling branch and sliced it in arc ahead of him. The head of the sapling took Aldinach on the side of the neck, just as he was launching himself, scalpel to the fore, at Sabir. He stumbled and fell to one knee, the scalpel tinging off a rock. He made a lunge for the knife, but Sabir caught him a second blow on the side of the head.

  Then Sabir lost all reason. He beat Aldinach again and again with the branch, cursing at him all the while. When he was done, he threw the branch to one side and stumbled over to where Lamia was standing. As he approached she drifted slowly to her knees. It was an elegant movement, almost as if she were curtseying, and only at the very last moment had she decided to kneel.

  Her head hung forwards. It nodded once or twice, and then, just as Sabir reached her, she pitched forwards onto her face.

  He knelt beside her and swept her up into his arms. She was still alive, but her eyelids were already fluttering.

  ‘I love you. I love you.’ Sabir was weeping. His face was grimed with mud and with the blood from the cut in Lamia’s scalp.

  Her lips moved once but no word came out of them. Then she died. Sabir could feel the life leaving her body like the final fluttering of a curtain in the wind before it once again falls still.

  He looke
d up. Athame was standing a few feet away from him. She was looking at Lamia. Her face seemed sad. She held no weapon.

  She took a step towards Sabir and held out one hand.

  Something flashed past Sabir’s head. He turned quickly to one side to see what it was, but he was far too slow. When he turned back, Athame was clutching at the haft of Alexi’s throwing knife, which was protruding from her neck. As he watched, blood gushed out either side of the blade and over Athame’s hands. She was so small that she didn’t have far to fall.

  Sabir looked down at Lamia’s face. It was partially turned away from him, so that the damaged side was hidden. He bent down and kissed her mouth, and then the skin around her eyes. Then he lay down beside her and drew her to him, just as he had done in the motel at Ticul.

  The two of them lay there, in the clearing, one dead, the other oblivious.

  A little later, when Calque attempted, with the greatest gentleness, to prise them both apart, he found it impossible.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  The Mayan Codex

  Copyright

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  EPIGRAPH

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22