The Mayan Codex

45

Abi left it until well after Veracruz to put his plan into action. The trio were approaching Lake Catemaco on the coast road when he told Dakini to dish the baseball cap and sunglasses, and make her presence felt. Athame, Nawal, and Aldinach – who had chosen to join the other de Bale women as a female for the duration – were hunched down out of sight in the well of the people carrier.

Lamia was driving the Cherokee, with Sabir asleep on the back seat. Calque was reading a book.

Lamia lurched upright. Then she poked Calque in the ribs with her elbow. ‘I knew it. It was Dakini I saw back in Houston. I’ve just seen her again. With a different car this time.’

Calque threw the book aside. ‘Where?’

‘She was pulled over in the Pemex station getting fuel. That one. Back there.’

‘Was she alone?’

‘Looked like it. But it was a very big car for just one person.’

‘Are you sure it was her?’

‘Don’t you think I know my own sister?’

‘Step on the gas then. We’ve still got a chance of losing her. She can’t leave without paying and giving the guy his tip.’

Lamia threw the Cherokee into the first serious curve she’d encountered since the service station. ‘I knew we should have taken the cuota road out of Veracruz. There’s only one way out of here. They’ll simply be waiting for us at the junction at Acayucan.’

‘Give me the map.’

‘Sabir’s got it.’

Calque stretched over to the rear seat and prodded Sabir’s leg.

Sabir cracked open an eye. ‘What is it? Why are you waking me up? And why is Lamia driving like a maniac?’

‘We have company.’

Sabir jack-knifed into a sitting position. ‘Where?’

‘Back at the Pemex station. They were still tanking up. With a bit of luck, we’ll have a couple of kilometres head start on them.’

‘Forget it. They’ll simply wait for us at Acayucan.’

‘That’s just what Lamia said. But I remember a smaller road on the map. A dirt road that runs through the mountains towards Jaltipan. If we get to the turn-off before they see us, we’ll have a fair chance of giving them the slip. They’ll never expect us to do such a stupid thing as that.’

‘Stupid. Yes. You said it, Calque, not me.’ Sabir blitzed a look at the map and then passed it across the seats. ‘You’re right about the dirt road, though. But I don’t like it. It’s no more than a farm track, really – they even show it as a fractured orange line on the map, and that’s never a good thing.’ He glanced at the empty road behind them. ‘If the Corpus see us taking it, man, we’ll be sitting ducks.’

‘So what’s the difference? We’re sitting ducks already.’