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swallowed, eyes wide. "Do you know which god?" The match went out, leaving
them in the dusky dark of the basement. Cipactli fumbled around to turn on a
weak electric light near the stair door.
"I was afraid to ask." Oaxyctl didn't want to think back about the rainy
forest encounter. Just get it done, he thought. Get it over as soon as
possible, and get out of the city before the invasion. "The invasion is
close?" Oaxyctl tried to figure out how much time he had.
"They are over halfway to the Triangle Tracks," Cipactli said. "There are
delays. The mongoose-men slow them down some. But the gods prevail. Anandale
will fall in a handful of days yet."
"The gods prevail," Oaxyctl echoed. He'd found paper and pen when he'd snuck
in. He handed a list to Cipactli. "I need all these."
"You are honored to be charged by a god." Cipactli held the list up to the
small light and read it. "Who will you be torturing?"
Oaxyctl wondered if he should tell Cipactli it was not an honor. He wasn't
even sure it was safe. The fact that other gods might disagree with his god's
need to get these
"Ma Wi Jung codes" out of John, whatever those were, meant all this might end
with Oaxyctl dead anyway.
He sighed. The gods, an invasion army, and who knew what else were destined to
destroy the
Nanagadan's last enclave within two weeks anyway.
What could he do against that?
Nothing.
The smart man played as best he could. That was all Oaxyctl ever did. Even
though the luck had never come to him, he'd survived longer than anyone had
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thought he would. There was only one way to survive.
Oaxyctl cleared his throat. "Just get these items, please."
"I will. Stay here, and I will return." Cipactli turned off the light and
walked up the stairs, leaving
Oaxyctl to brood in the dark.
Oaxyctl's eyes adjusted to the dark. A small, painted-over window in the far
corner yielded a tiny stream of light. In between small naps Oaxyctl watched
it go from pure white to orange to nonexistent by the
time Cipactli returned and flicked on the electric light.
The canvas bag he carried clinked when he set it on the ground.
"Everything?" Oaxyctl asked.
"Everything."
Oaxyctl smiled. The end was in sight. "I will need help. A few people to
subdue this man and maybe bring him back somewhere like this. I act tonight. I
can't risk any more waits, it is stressful as it is making these sorts of
gambles."
"There is a problem." Cipactli looked far more solemn than he had earlier.
"There is a curfew. It started now, with this sunset."
"Okay. We wait for the sun to rise "
"No one of Azteca origin can be out without an escort. Anytime."
"Then I leave now." Oaxyctl picked up his atlatl and spears and walked forward
to pick up the canvas bag.
"There are other ways to help you, they will just take some time to put in
place."
"No, no waiting," Oaxyctl said. "I leave now."
He brushed past Cipactli and up the stairs. The Capitol City quimichtin
followed him up and let him out a side door.
Oaxyctl did not look back, but melted into the shadows.
It wasn't jungle, but Oaxyctl was still good at keeping out of sight. He only
made a few wrong turns that left him dry-mouthed until he regained his
bearings. He was almost back before someone spotted him.
A mongoose-man yelled at him to stop, and Oaxyctl froze against the wall. He'd
had to get out of the alleys to cross toward a street.
Oaxyctl waited until the mongoose-man was just behind him and pushed his
sleeve up to show the tattoo. It hadn't worked before, but it was still worth
getting the mongoose-man to come within range.
"I am a mongoose-man."
"Right," the man said. "But Tolteca mongoose are in Tolteca-town to help
patrol, which is where you should be." Oaxyctl tensed as the man looked at the
tattoo. "Look good. Not many Tolteca there. I
respect that. Now, if you hold on, me partner pissing just around the corner.
We can escort you back to
Tolteca-town."
"Why don't you just let me continue on my own?" Oaxyctl asked, smiling. He
turned to look the mongoose-man in the eye and faced a young man. He kept his
hip turned, put his left arm into his pocket, and gripped the handle of a
knife.
"I can't do that." The mongoose-man smiled back. "And why you alone? Where is
you partner?"
"Oh." Oaxyctl leaned forward. "He's just " He grabbed the young man by the
shirt, twisted him around, and slit his throat.
The mongoose-man burbled blood and clutched his throat. Oaxyctl guided the
mongoose-man gently to the street, rolling him over onto his back, and looked
into the glazed eyes.
Then he glanced up and down the street, wiped his knife and hands clean on the
mongoose-man's shirt, and ran off before the other mongoose-man could walk
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around the corner.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Capitol City's roots lay deep in the solid rock of Nanagada. Honeycombs of
sewer systems, access tunnels, and large caverns lay beneath the streets.
Pepper had been though them before, though this time they looked more decrepit
and encrusted with age than when the city had first been built.
To get to the sewers Pepper made his way over a few more hundred feet. Then he
could watch the waters stand-ing, instead of hanging like a damn monkey from
the pier cracks. He'd done that for a few hours.
But now he was back up in the pillars still waiting for the Teotl to show
itself.
"Easy, man, watch where you going."
Pepper froze.
Outlets poured wastewater, city water, toilet water, and excess air back out
along the sides of the walls that ran along the ocean. All of this was
designed to continue running without machinery, though the constant sound of
moving and pouring water echoed everywhere. Pepper struggled to locate the
direction of the voice.
Someone swore. The voice echoed.
"Nothing. My net dry."
Pepper moved over to one of the massive pillars, trying to keep even closer to
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