“The proverbial rock and hard place, I'd call it.”
More crunching. The cutout resolved itself into a man, arm extended in my direction. Broad shoulders, thick arms.
It was not Simon Midkiff.
“Who are you?”
“Surely you know that by now.”
I heard the click of a safety uncatching.
“You killed Primrose Hobbs. Why?”
“Because I could.”
“And you plan to kill me.”
“With the greatest of pleasure.”
“Why?”
“Your meddling destroyed a holy thing.”
“Who are you?”
“Kulkulcan.”
Kulkulcan. It was one I knew.
“The Mayan deity.”
“Why settle for a pharaoh or some faggot Greek?”
“Where is the rest of your society of sickos?”
“If it wasn't for that miserable crash you'd never have stumbled onto us. Your busybody intrusiveness uncovered things you had no right to know. It has fallen to Kulkulcan to exact vengeance.”
The melodious voice was now tinged with fury.
“It's over for your Hell Fire Club.”
“It will never be over. Since the dawn of time the mediocre masses have tried to suppress the intellectually superior. It never works. Conditions can make us dormant, but we reemerge when the climate changes.”
To what egomaniacal delusion was I listening?
“It was my time to enter the ranks of the holy,” he continued, oblivious to the fact that I hadn't replied. Or indifferent. “I found my offering. I made my sacrifice. I honored the ritual that you have profaned.”
“Jeremiah Mitchell or George Adair?”
“Irrelevant. Their names don't matter. I was chosen. I was ready. I followed the way.”
Keep him talking, my mind reasoned. Someone knows where you are. Someone is doing something
“Kulkulkan is a creator god. You destroy life.”
“Mortals are transient. Wisdom endures.”
“Whose?”
“The wisdom of the ages, shown to those worthy to receive it.”
“And you ensure its survival through ritual slaughter?”
“The body is a material envelope, of no lasting value. We discard it in the end. But wisdom, strength, the essence of the soul, these are the forces that prevail.”
I let him rant on.
“The brightest of the species must be nurtured. Those passing from this earth must yield their mana to those who remain, add to the strength and wisdom of the chosen.”
“How?”
“Through blood, heart, muscle, and bone.”
Dear God, it was true.
“You think you can increase your IQ by consuming the flesh of others?”
“As flesh wastes away, so does strength. But mind, spirit, intellect, those elements are transferable through the very cells of our bodies.”
I clutched the scalpel so tightly my knuckles ached.
“Herodotus told of the eating of kinsmen among the Issedones of Central Asia, who grew strong and ruled. Strabo found it among the Irish clans. Many conquering peoples gained strength through eating the flesh of their enemies. Eat the weak and grow stronger. It's as old as man himself.”
I thought of the Neanderthal bones, the victims in the kiva near Mesa Verde. The skeletons in my morgue.
“Why the elderly?”
“The aged hold the greatest reservoirs of wisdom.”
