“You’re right, Manny,” she said, nodding. “There has to be something more to it than what Domino’s been saying.”
“And maybe more than he knows. When Don Copal brought him into our division, Domino was bright green. He wouldn’t know a genuine Double-N ticket from a three-dollar bill.”
“Any more than most people in the Land of the Dead would,” Meche added. “So is Domino being duped, too?”
“I don’t think so. At least, not in the way you mean,” I answered. “I think he’s getting what he wants out of all this. But Hector… Hector must have an angle that doesn’t include Domino or anybody else.”
“Then he must be hoarding the genuine tickets,” Meche said, “but why?”
“I don’t know, angel, but it’s something big, so big he needs help. And he must be buying that help with the counterfeiting scam.”
“You’re probably right,” Meche said, “but that doesn’t help us get out of this vault.”
“I know it,” I groused. “There’s a ship waiting for us except no one knows where we are.” I looked around. “There’s gotta be—hey, what’s that up there?”
Meche looked where I was pointing. “What? The vent?”
“Looks pretty wide,” I said, “but high up. I don’t think I could reach it even if I stood on your shoulders.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to stand on your shoulders, anyway?”
“Are you kidding? Look at your heels!”
She kicked off her shoes and planted her hands on her hips.
“Oh, all right,” I said with a laugh. “Let’s get these cases under the vent.”
We moved the stack and I climbed on top. “OK,” I said, “try not to tip us over, yeah? This pile isn’t very steady.”
“Right,” she said, getting onto the cases with me.
I helped her climb onto my shoulders. The cases wobbled.
“Can you reach the vent?” I asked.
“Just,” she answered. “There are screws. Got a Swiss Army knife or something on you?”
“Yeah,” I said and handed it up.
The screws were pretty tight, but Meche eventually got them off. She removed the grill from the vent and lowered it to me, almost whacking me in the head again in the process.
“Do you think you can get in?” I asked after I took the grill and dropped it onto the floor.
“If you give me a boost,” she said.
I pushed and she scrambled into the vent. Meche went to find her way to the outside of the vault to let me out, but half an hour later she poked her head back through the vent. “The key’s gone!” she announced.
“Great,” I said. “I guess Domino wanted me in here after all.”
“Or maybe he just forgot about it and only came back to collect it.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Question is, can I fit through that?”
“It’s pretty roomy for me,” she answered, “and you’re not that big.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Well, it’s true. Here.” She leaned out of the vent as far as she could and reached out her hand. I stood on the cases and reached up, but missed by a few inches.
“Hang on,” I said, unbuckling my belt, “we can use my pants like a rope.”
“Manny…” she began.
“I don’t have any bones you don’t have.”
“Well… OK.”
I got my pants off and tossed the waist end up to her. She scooted back into the vent and helped me climb up.
“Gaah!” I exclaimed when my bare legs touched metal, involuntarily jerking upwards and banging my head.
“Cold?” Meche asked, a sly grin in her voice.
“Meche!” I said through gritted teeth.
“That’ll teach you to jump to conclusions,” she said merrily. “Maybe I am a saint, but that doesn’t mean I’m an innocent.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” I said.
She laughed and started creeping backwards.
Demon of Le Mancha
Meche led me, backwards all the way, to where she had dropped out before. When we got out of the ducts we made our careful way to Meche’s office. Her idea. Domino’s office was dark and there was no sign of him. Meche collected a few children’s books and put them into a bag. Then we went to my office to get the angelitos. They were asleep. We gently woke them and told them to be absolutely quiet. They looked a little scared as we opened the cage and lifted them out. I grabbed some coral to light our way. Meche carried Bibi and I had Pugsy.
We left the factory. It felt truly deserted now. I led Meche through the quarry and down to the beach. The ship was still in it’s dry dock, but there was now a large crowd around it. They all kept well back, nervous but quiet, watching Glottis and his crew work.
I went up to the ship and called out, “Hey! Mano!”
Glottis looked down from on deck, a small black shadow against the stars. “Oh, there you are!” he hollered back. “What kept you guys?”
“Got locked in a sa—” I glanced over toward Meche, “vault. How’re we doing?”
“Well, we’re all fueled up and we’re getting ready to launch.”
“Everybody here?”
“Should be.”
“Any idea how long it’ll be?”
Glottis seemed to shrug. Hard to tell in the darkness and given the distance between us. “An hour or so, maybe. We want to be sure we do this right. There won’t be a second chance.”
“Take all the time you need… but no more than you need.”
“Check,” he said at the top of his lungs and disappeared.
I walked back to Meche. She was sitting in the coarse, faintly glowing coral sand. Bibi was curled up on her lap. I sat down next to her and Pugsy slipped out of my arms and sprawled between me and Meche.
“It’s cold,” Meche said.
“Yeah,” I said, “but not as cold as where we’re going.”
“So where are we going, Manny?”
“End of the line,” I answered. “Once we get to Puerto Zapato, we go overland across an arctic wilderness and then up a mountain. According to the brochures, anyway.”
“Lovely,” she said in a small voice.
“The final challenges,” I said. “Of course, you were all supposed to go right by them. I’m afraid we’ll have to go through, instead.”
“It’ll be hard on the children,” Meche said.
“Well, we’ll get ’em through. Everyone is gonna make it. I promise.”
“OK, Manny.”
I just wished I was as sure as I sounded.
It was about two hours before Glottis was satisfied the ship was ready to launch. Glottis climbed down from the deck of the ship, walked over to me and said, “OK, Manny, we want everyone further back just in case it all goes horribly wrong.”
“It won’t,” I said. “You’ve got the magic touch.”
“Right now, I don’t believe in magic. So, back all you guys go.”
There were enough people carrying coral around us that I got my first really good look at Glottis in several days. He looked terrible. His skin was tilting more toward yellow, and there were deep red circles under his eyes. Maybe it was a trick of the dim coral light, but maybe not. “Are you OK, carnal?” I asked, concerned.
“Sure,” he said. “I just haven’t had a lot of sleep lately.”
“Once we’re away, you are taking some time off.”
“No kiddin’,” he grumbled mostly to himself as he turned back toward the ship.
“By the way,” I said, and Glottis turned back to me, “do we know what this ship’s called?”