‘You’re kidding.’
‘Are you beginning to get the picture?’
‘Look, Calque. I know for a fact that Nostradamus was buried in the Franciscan Chapel at Salon. He was tight in with the Franciscans by that time. He would have thought of it as an insurance policy against the Inquisition for his wife and children. That much I remember from the book I wrote. It was only later, during the French Revolution, that they dug him up and re-interred him in the Collegiale St-Laurent.’
‘Well that makes even more sense then, doesn’t it? The two men simply must have met. Nostradamus’s reputation as a prophet was Europe-wide by that time. He was at the very height of his fame. Even the French Royal Family stopped off at Salon to visit him. For all practical purposes he was a member of the Establishment.’
‘So you think they hatched this whole thing up together? A member of the Establishment, deep in with the Franciscans, and a Maya renegade? Sorry to play Devil’s Advocate, Calque, but somebody has to.’
‘I think Akbal Coatl asked Nostradamus for help as one member of an endangered species – the Maya – to another member of an endangered species – the Jews. This would have appealed to Nostradamus, whose sympathies were always with the underdog. I’m guessing that Nostradamus then told Akbal Coatl that he’d just had a vision of another member of an endangered species – the Gypsies – one day becoming the mother of the Second Coming. And, hey presto, the dates he’d been given might very well tie in with the Maya dates surrounding the ending of the Cycle of the Nine Hells.’
‘Go on, Calque. Your capacity for lateral thought is enthralling.’
‘So my guess is that the two of them would have pooled their knowledge. Wouldn’t you? And that after Akbal Coatl left, Nostradamus would have taken the precautions we already know he took in protecting his 58 so-called ‘lost prophecies’. Which weren’t lost at all, needless to say – they were merely very well hidden. Then Akbal Coatl decides to fulfil his part of the bargain by backing the whole thing up in his secret book. Only two hundred years later the War of the Castes comes along, and the book is lost. But both of them – Akbal Coatl and Nostradamus – have factored in a failsafe mechanism.’
‘The eruption of the Pico de orizaba.’
‘And two potential catalysts…’
‘Me and the guardian.’
‘Yes. You – or whoever else lucked onto the prophecies’ trail – and the guardian. It’s incredible, isn’t it? But it makes the most perfect sense. Prophet meets protector of the sacred books. The possibilities are limitless. But, as you say, Sabir, in our present situation they take us nowhere. Talking about possibilities, though, is anyone following us yet?’
‘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.’
108
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.’
109
‘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
