The Mayan Codex

20

‘Whatever’s going down is going down.’ Vau touched Abi on the shoulder.

Abi, as usual, was taking his sleep where he could. Ever since they were children he had mastered the art of dozing off in the most extreme of circumstances. Once, even, he had fallen asleep in the midst of a burglary. It had been a test run, engineered by their mentor, Joly Arthault, at the instigation of Madame, their mother. Vau had looked around for his brother, only to find him curled up on a sofa in the corner of the living room of the house they were robbing. He had protected his brother’s back on that occasion, too, just as he had done on a thousand other occasions during the course of their childhood and early adolescence.

The twins watched Calque get into the Grand Cherokee, adjust his seat, then back out towards them.

‘Look at him, Vau. The bastard’s pretending we don’t even exist. His head’s frozen in place. He didn’t even check if there was any traffic coming. If we didn’t know he was planning something, we’d sure as hell know now. Doesn’t he realize that people who are plotting stuff should behave and act normally? Not like robots. You’d think a policeman would have a little more sense.’

‘What would we have done? If we hadn’t had back-up?’

‘I’d have got out of the car and stayed here, and you’d have followed him.’

Vau nodded. ‘Oh, I see. That way we could keep them all under surveillance.’

‘That’s it. But now we merely stay here and let him think his little plan is working. I’ve just heard from Rudra and Aldinach. So that means we now have five people in place to shepherd them through when they try to make their break for it.’

‘What will they do? Climb out of the window?’

‘Yes. You saw them checking the place out when they first arrived. They were making sure there was a potential rear exit. As we speak, they are probably bundling their belongings out the back, and dodging and ducking their way out of the rear car park. If I had a warped sense of humour, I’d be tempted to take a turn around the periphery of the motel, just out of spite. See two trails snaking out from underneath a car, and you’d know for certain they’d pissed themselves.’