‘Can’t Captain Calque and his people protect me?’
‘He is no longer a policeman. He retired, Yola. A little while after you met him. He is helping Sabir now. But on a strictly private level. They are both working together on this. We travelled in a group through Mexico. Captain Calque is a good man.’
Yola nodded. ‘Yes. He is. For a payo he is a good man. He let me collect my brother’s hair from the morgue so we could bury him within the allotted time.’
‘Yes. He told me that.’
Yola straightened up. Early comers to the bakery were already eyeing both women with suspicion. One was a Gypsy, and one was freak. Yola felt an unexpected degree of kinship with Lamia. She understood only too well from her own experience why the other woman might not want to remain in the full public gaze. ‘Okay. I go with you. If Damo says I should trust you, I will trust you. He would never do anything against my interests. But first we go to my caravan. We collect Alexi. He goes with us.’
‘Of course.’
Yola hitched her shoulders. ‘Maybe I should call this number anyway?’
‘There’s no one there. I promise. You can call it if you want to.’
‘And Damo? Does he not have a phone he carries?’
‘It was stolen. Along with his passport, his money, and his credit cards. And Calque never uses a cell phone anyway. He’s a technophobe.’
‘A what?’
‘He hates modern technology. He works entirely from his mind.’
‘Yes. Yes he does. That is what Damo told me. That is what I have seen for myself. Come. Let us go to your car. I don’t need to call the number.’
The two women headed for Lamia’s Peugeot. On a whim, Lamia darted into the bakery and bought a large bag of croissants and three baguettes. She was counting on them to provide her with a further level of camouflage. How could anyone think that a young woman loaded down with bread and croissants could possibly be a threat?
It was this five-minute delay, however, that dictated the way future events would pan out. For Athame, catching the fragrance of freshly baked bread wafting towards her from the bakery, blithely stuck her head above the door frame of the car she and Aldinach were sleeping in, and wound down her window.
7
The clutch on Sabir and Calque’s hire car burnt out just north of Melun.
‘I don’t believe it. I don’t fucking believe it.’ Sabir hammered on the steering wheel. ‘Fucking rentals. Fucking assholes. Why don’t they fucking service their fucking cars?’
Calque stared at him. ‘Have you finished, Sabir? There is nobody here but me to hear you. And I’m all for swearing alongside the next man, but at 2.30 in the morning, it can be a little hard on the nerves. And you’ve been riding this car like it’s a Formula 1 Ferrari. Not an imported hatchback that has been used by a hundred people already. And all of them with markedly different gear-changing techniques.’
Sabir collapsed back into his seat. ‘What do we do now?’
Calque pondered for a moment or two. ‘We find a telephone. We phone the rental company. They send a trailer out here with a new car on it. They winch the old car up on the trailer. Then we continue on our way.’
‘But what about Lamia? And the other two maniacs?’
‘We can do nothing about that, Sabir. Yola has no phone. It is in the lap of the gods.’
‘Did we pass an emergency telephone recently?’
‘No.’
‘So what do we do? Flag down a passing car?’
‘No one will stop for us at this time in the morning. We are on the outskirts of Paris, surrounded by bidonvilles. Are you crazy, man?’
‘All right. You stay in the car in case the police want to know what we are doing parked here. I will go walkabout.’
‘Okay.’
Sabir got out of the car. He started up the hard shoulder.
‘Sabir?’
‘What now?’
‘You’d better take the number of the rental agency with you.’
8
It took Sabir thirty-five minutes to find a telephone, and it took the rental agency a further two and a half hours to respond to their call and send out a fresh car. In the interim, both men stretched themselves out on their seats and snatched forty winks. For once in his life, Calque didn’t snore.
The trailer was with them at a little after six o’clock in the morning. The actual process of changing cars was a simple one, achieved in a little under ten minutes. Sabir reined himself in with the driver of the tow truck. Calque had warned him that the man was not personally responsible for their plight, nor for the rental company’s understandable slowness in responding to an early morning call.
Sabir stood by the tow truck, kicking at the tyres. He was cold. He had on only a thin jacket from Mexico, and it wasn’t suitable for an early November morning in northern France. Calque looked cold too. Sabir thought about offering him his jacket, and then rejected the idea. He knew what Calque’s response would be.
They were on the road again by 6.30. Both men could feel the events of the past few days beginning to tell on them. There was silence in the car until they reached the outskirts of Samois.
‘Let’s hope we’re still in time.’
‘We’ll be in time, Sabir.’
‘I’m glad you’re such an optimist.’
Sabir drove straight for the Gypsy encampment. He missed the turning first time around and had to backtrack a little. But he made it on the second pass, and bumped the car up the rutted track, trying to avoid the worst of the potholes and the puddles. He didn’t want to have call the rental agency out a second time.
People were already moving in the camp. Breakfast was being prepared. Sabir had a sudden flash back to the previous May, when he had made a similar journey, at a similar time, although on foot.
The children were the first to notice Sabir’s car nosing its way up the track. They came running towards it, suspicion on their faces. When they recognized Sabir’s face through the windscreen, they burst into smiles. ‘Damo! Damo!’
Sabir pulled the car up onto the verge of the track and got out. Some of the older men were approaching now, with the women holding back a little, to see what was occurring. Radu, Alexi’s cousin, whom Sabir had seen married in Gourdon, was the first to reach him.
‘Damo. Damo. It is good to see you. Yola will be overjoyed.’
‘Radu. Listen to me. We’re in a hurry. This is an emergency. You remember the people who killed Babel? Back in May, in Paris? They are after Yola now. We need to warn her and Alexi. We need to get them away from here as quickly as possible.’
Radu didn’t waste any time in questions. He took Sabir’s arm and led him and Calque towards Alexi’s caravan. Alexi was just stepping out of the door.
‘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, Ca
lque 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 Koine found fresh tracks leading towards the village. They are fresh from today.’
‘I remember Bera and Koine. 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 have 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.’
The Mayan Codex as-2 Page 44
