by J
“Quite right, too,” said Ted Murphy, coming into the hallway. “You’re big news! Well done, both of you. I’m so proud. The whole of Boston is proud of you!”
“So where is the interview?” asked Max’s mother. “Shall I drive you?”
“No need, Mom. They’re sending a car.”
“You’re getting the star treatment, bambino! Well, come and say hello to everyone, you two, before you go.”
“Everyone” was people who’d come for the game and needed somewhere to stay. The house was full of guests, mostly Maya. They all clapped and cheered when Max and Lola walked in the room.
Lady Coco bounded over. She was wearing a fresh flowery apron. As ever, the head of her beloved Dawg Doll peeped out from the pocket. “This is so exciting!”
“Where’s Lord 6-Dog?” asked Lola.
“Who knows? He’s like a bear with a sore head today. I just hope he’s on his best behavior for the TV cameras. I’ll go and look for him.”
“No need, I am here,” said Lord 6-Dog, coming in with Zia. They both looked somber.
“The omens for this day could not be worse,” he announced. “Calamity and tribulation await us.”
“Let me guess,” said Lola. “You two have been reading the days with Mom’s crystals.”
Zia smiled at her. “I know you don’t believe in these things, but they kept me sane in that waiting room.”
“Waiting room?”
“Where the Death Lords kept us when they grabbed us from the kitchen that day. I lost all track of time. And then, suddenly, we were at Fenway. It still feels like a dream.”
Lola hugged her mother. “It was real, all right.”
“Please be careful out there,” Zia said to her. “I never want to lose you again.”
“Those tribulations you saw in the crystals,” said Max’s mother, “I think I know what they are. Frank and I are still up to our necks in red tape in San Xavier. I’m hoping that if this interview goes well, Dr. Delgado may be able to smooth things over for us. Please do your best to impress her, bambino.”
“I will, Mom.” Max looked around the room. “Where’s Och?”
“Lucky Jim and Hermanjilio took him to the Science Museum. You’ll see him later. Call me after your interview and we’ll all go out to dinner.”
“Your chariot awaits!” called Max’s father. He opened the front door. A black stretch limo was parked at the gate.
It was huge inside. Black leather seats as long as sofas, a pullout table, and a little fridge filled with sodas. There was even a basket of snacks with plenty of nuts for the monkeys. They could see the silhouette of the driver in his peaked cap through the dark window that separated him from the passengers, but even without the window, he was too far away for conversation. So Max, Lola, and the monkeys relaxed in the back as their limo glided through the streets of Boston.
“I could get used to this,” said Max, opening a packet of gourmet potato chips. “You know, I’ve heard that film sets have really good food—huge buffets set out all day long and you can eat as much as you want. Do you think it’s the same for TV?”
“Really, Hoop?” said Lola. “You’re a world-famous celebrity about to star in his own television special, and all you can think about is food?”
“It’s a survival mechanism. I like to know where my next meal is coming from.”
Lola threw him a bag of dry roasted peanuts. “Here, put this in your pocket.”
He did. Then he stuffed his pockets with candy bars and gum.
“What I want to know,” said Lady Coco, “is whether 6-Dog and I should talk or not?”
“You’ll be a sensation if you do!” said Lola.
“In that case,” said Lord 6-Dog, “let us keep our silence. I have no desire to be a circus act.”
“I suppose you’re right,” said Lady Coco, a little regretfully. “I expect I’d get tired of the fuss. My own cooking show would have been fun, though.”
As they fantasized about how fame might change their lives for better or for worse, they forgot to wonder about where they might be going or who might be waiting for them at the end of this journey.
And that was a big mistake. Because if Max had kept his wits about him, he might have recognized that peaked-cap driver from a rainy summer night in Spain. And he might have remembered another limo ride that began at Landa’s palace and ended at his own funeral.
But, so excited were they at the prospect of appearing on TV, not one of them suspected a thing.
The car came to a halt outside a small domed building on Massachusetts Avenue.
“What is this place?” asked Lola as they walked across to the massive portico.
Max stared at it. “It looks familiar. I think we came here once on a school trip.”
The door swung open. “Good afternoon,” said the tall, thin woman they’d seen at the museum. “Dolores Delgado. How nice to see you again.” She shook hands with each of them. “You must be Lola? And Max? And, of course, your darling monkeys! What are their names?
“This is Lady Coco …”
“How cute!” simpered Dr. Delgado.
“… and this is Lord 6-Dog.”
“Who’s a handsome boy?” She patted Lord 6-Dog’s head, and Max could see that it took all the king’s self-control not to bite her.
Dr. Delgado pulled a small bottle of sanitizer out of her purse and wiped her hands. “Super!” she said. “And we’ve found such a fun location for your interview. Follow me.”
They followed her through marble halls until they came to some small double doors. Max was looking around for lights, cables, buffet tables, and other showbiz accoutrements. He was disappointed to see nothing at all.
“So,” said Dr. Delgado, pressing a button and opening the doors, “welcome to the world turned inside out.”
They walked through a set of double doors onto a clear glass bridge and suddenly they were inside a glass globe, three stories high, with a world map all around them lit up in brightly colored stained glass.
“I remember this place now,” said Max. “They call it the Mapparium. It has weird acoustics.” Even as he said that, his voice echoed loudly, bouncing off the glass.
“That’s so cool,” said Lola.
“We thought so,” said Dr. Delgado.
“Who’s we?” asked Max. “Where’s your film crew?”
He distinctly heard the doors lock.
“It’s just me tonight,” said Dr. Delgado. “No one has the money for big shoots anymore. But don’t worry, I’m quite a whiz with the old handheld.” She pulled a small camcorder out of her purse.
“Which channel did you say this was for?” asked Max.
“It’s an independent production company,” she replied. “Shall we get started?” For no reason that he could identify, Max was getting a bad feeling. “If you’d like to just stand there, on the bridge, and maybe you could each hold a monkey …”
Lord 6-Dog bared his teeth at Max.
“They don’t like to be held,” he said.
“Never work with children and animals,” muttered Dr. Delgado under her breath. She smiled, but it looked forced. “Okay,” she said brightly, “we’ll get to the monkeys later.” She tapped a switch and a green standby light appeared on the camera. “Are we ready?”
Max and Lola nodded.
The green light changed to red. They were recording.
“So, Max Murphy, can you give me one word to describe what happened yesterday at Fenway Park?”
Max thought quickly. “Awesome.”
He kicked himself. His mother hated that word.
“Lola—one word?”
She jutted out her chin. “Revolutionary.”
“And Lady Coco—one word?”
Lady Coco whimpered.
“She’s a monkey,” Lola pointed out. “She can’t talk.”
“No?” said Dr. Delgado. She turned off the camera. “I have been misinformed. So, the other ape won’t speak to me either?”<
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“He’s a monkey,” said Lola. “Apes don’t have tails.”
“But will he speak?”
“No,” said Lola firmly.
“Even if he knew that I killed his father?”
Max and Lola stared at her in surprise.
Lord 6-Dog lunged at her, snarling savagely.
Dr. Delgado hurled the video camera at the attacking monkey. It hit him hard on his forehead and he fell backward. Blood trickled down his face and matted his hair.
Lady Coco rushed to his aid.
“What’s happening?” cried Lola.
“What kind of interview is this?” asked Max angrily.
“The deadly kind,” said Dr. Delgado in a very strange voice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE FINAL BATTLE
Dr. Delgado stood back, legs apart, hands in the air, and closed her eyes, as if she was concentrating hard.
Max ran back to the door and tried to open it. It was locked, as he knew it would be. He banged on it crazily with his fists, yelling: “Help! Help!”
“No one can help you now,” said Dr. Delgado. Her hair was standing on end and her frumpy suit was blowing as if she was in a wind machine.
Max jabbed at his phone—no service.
Dr. Delgado screamed and, as she did, a figure stepped out of her body. It was a man, Maya by the looks of him, with an enormous nose, straggly black hair, and a receding hairline. He looked angry. Very angry.
He pushed the empty shell of Dr. Delgado to one side with his foot.
Lord 6-Dog let out an agonizing moan. “Tzelek!”
“Tzelek?” said Lady Coco.
“How did he get here?” asked Max.
“He’s supposed to be in Xibalba. Lord Kuy sent him back there. We saw it with our own eyes,” said Lola indignantly.
“You know what they say,” said Tzelek. “You can’t keep a good man down.”
“You are not a good man,” said Lady Coco.
Tzelek laughed. “Very true. That made it even easier. As soon as I landed back in Xibalba, I raced over to the portal at the Black Pyramid. There is so much evil in the air—mostly thanks to me and my efforts while I was alive—that the portal is always hazy. At this time of year, it’s positively sheer. With the help of a rogue site worker, I infused myself into a prized pot, jammed on the lid, and had myself shipped to the Peabody Museum. As soon as this Delgado woman opened the pot, I leapt into her brain! And here I am, fighting fit and ready to crush you, Brother. You’re going down.”
“That is against the rules,” complained Lady Coco. “You cannot jump between worlds. You must go back to Xibalba.”
“It is still the Day of the Dead, Mother,” said Tzelek. “And my brother is so dead.”
Lord 6-Dog staggered to his feet and pushed in front of the other three to protect them. “Swear not to harm my companions. This is not their battle.”
“I will do what I like,” said Tzelek.
Lola took a deep breath. “You are beaten already. Ah Pukuh and all your little friends have gone running home with their tails between their legs. Xibalba is finished. No one is interested.”
Tzelek focused on her with blazing eyes. “I don’t care about Ah Pukuh and his Death Lords. I am greater than all of them. Under my leadership, Xibalba could be invincible again. Ask Lord Kuy. He has the wisdom of an owl and the instincts of a vulture. And he has chosen to side with me. But first, I must settle an old score with my brother.”
Lady Coco glanced at Lord 6-Dog. The bleeding seemed to have stopped and he was looking stronger. “Why so much hatred, Tzelek?” she asked, playing for time.
“Why? Because it’s all I’ve got. 6-Dog had the life, the riches, the power that should have been mine. All I have is the hatred. And now I have this moment.” Tzelek looked scornfully at Lord 6-Dog. “Are you ready to die, mommy’s boy?”
Lady Coco put out an arm to stop Lord 6-Dog. “Ignore him, Son. The Day of the Dead will soon be over. He will have to return to Xibalba.”
“Then I must make haste,” said Lord 6-Dog, shaking her off. He assumed a fighting stance. “This battle has been a long time coming.”
“You think I would fight a monkey?” snorted Tzelek. “Reveal your true self, 6-Dog.”
“No!” screeched Lady Coco. “If you leave your host body, you cannot rejoin it.”
“So be it,” said Lord 6-Dog.
He stood as Dr. Delgado had, legs apart, arms raised, eyes closed in concentration. There was a terrible roar, a howler monkey roar, and out stepped Lord 6-Dog, most fierce, most handsome, most mighty king of the ancient Maya. The gash from the video camera still glistened on his forehead.
His howler monkey body slumped to the ground.
As the two (im)mortal enemies faced off on the bridge, Max, Lola, and Lady Coco dragged the lifeless forms of the monkey and the museum director off the walkway and back to the relative safety of the doorway. Then they stood at the end of the bridge to watch and hope.
The battle was on.
Lord 6-Dog flexed his arms like a body builder, reacquainting himself with the muscles and nerves and reflexes of his former self. He pulled an obsidian-bladed battle-ax from his belt and spun it in his hand, weighing the heft and balance.
Tzelek stood watching him, a sneer on his face, one hand behind his back.
“Where is thy weapon?” Lord 6-Dog asked him.
Tzelek produced from behind his back the scepter of the Jaguar Kings.
“Where didst thou get that?”
“It was a gift from my friend Kuy.”
“It belongs to the Jaguar Kings. It is their sacred scepter. Thou knowest thou canst not use it against me.”
“Watch me.”
Tzelek raised the scepter over his head, muttering incantations. Energy crackled in the air, gathering and swirling around the end of the leg-bone, meshing like cotton candy into a spinning ball of pure energy. With a flick of his wrist, Tzelek sent the ball hurtling toward Lord 6-Dog. “You have no idea how my powers have grown since last we battled, Brother.”
“And thou hast no idea how much I have learned from Ted Williams.”
Lord 6-Dog planted his legs and swung his battle-ax like a baseball bat. He hit the ball square on and sent it shooting straight back at Tzelek.
Tzelek ducked just in time and the ball went smashing through the wall of the globe with a force that sent shards of glass flying and shook the room so hard, it knocked Max and Lola off their feet.
Tzelek produced from behind his back the scepter of the Jaguar Kings.
Now it was Lord 6-Dog’s turn to sneer. “Surely, thou knowest that I cannot be harmed with the sacred scepter of my ancestors? Unlike thee, I am a Jaguar King. That bone comes from my flesh and blood.” He paused a moment to look Tzelek up and down. “Which is more than can be said of thee, thou cuckoo in my family’s nest.”
“How dare you?” thundered Tzelek. “My mother died on the day I was born. Your parents were the only parents I ever knew.”
“What a pity, then, thou didst repay their kindnesses by murdering my father.”
“I did it because he favored you. He always favored you.”
“Perhaps, because I never tried to murder him.”
“You smug piece of dirt!”
“I speak only the truth. I was the legal heir. The blood of the Jaguar Kings flows through my veins.”
“Why is your blood any better than mine?”
“My father was a king. My mother was a queen.”
“And didn’t you just love to remind me of that every day of our childhood? It was you who turned me to evil, 6-Dog. You and your constant jibes. I took my burning rage and I poured it on your family’s happiness, like a vat of boiling oil. And when I had killed your father, I set out to acquire the power and wealth that had been denied me. I have worked my way through the echelons of evil to become the baddest bad guy standing. There is none more powerful than me. I am the inheritor of the universe. So tremble before me, 6-Dog, f
or today I begin my reign.”
“Thou didst always talk too much. Put down the scepter and I will put down my ax. Let us fight, man to man.” Lord 6-Dog put up his fists.
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Tzelek was shaking with rage. “If I can’t use this butcher’s bone, neither can you.” He grabbed an end of the scepter with each hand and brought it down hard onto his knee to break it in two. But instead of breaking, the leg-bone bounced off his knee and out of his hands, and slid spinning across the glass bridge until it came to a stop at Lord 6-Dog’s feet.
Lord 6-Dog picked it up and, after a moment’s consideration, handed it to his mother. Then he kicked his own ax over the bridge.
“Are you mad?” asked Lady Coco.
“Tzelek is unarmed. There is no victory in winning without honor.”
“You will regret that,” muttered Lady Coco, shaking her head in despair. “You have been battling Tzelek for three bak’tuns, twelve hundred solar years. Have you learned nothing, Son?”
Tzelek listened jealously to this exchange. “You never called me ‘son,’ ” he said in a quiet voice. “I am glad you are here today to see me rip out the heart of your favorite, and eat it for my victory dinner.”
“Enough talk!” complained Lord 6-Dog. “Let us fight!”
“Very good,” agreed Tzelek. “Since you chose the weapons—or the lack of them—I choose the arena.”
“Are we not fighting here?”
“Here? In the confines of a room? This is hardly the site for the battle at the end of the world.”
“I am weary of thy games. Let us fight, man to man, here and now.”
“Look around you,” said Tzelek. “I did not choose this room at random. We are literally in the middle of the world. We are in the middle of Middleworld. And we are outside time and space.” Tzelek closed his eyes and stretched out his arms. Slowly at first, but faster and faster, the globe around them began to spin, and as it spun, it grew bigger and bigger until the walls melted away altogether. Max, Lola, and Lady Coco were still crouched, terrified, at the end of the glass bridge, but the bridge was no longer inside a building in Boston. It was now a raised platform standing on a large scrubby field, between two ancient Maya pyramids.
