I jumped down to the ground. “So this is where you got to.”
“Rubacava got a little too hot, but I expect you know all about that by know. What about you, bro? What happened after Zapato?”
“Long story,” I answered, “and I need to see Salvador first.”
“No doubt,” Gunnar said. He waved one of his men over. “I’m going to take Calavera back to base,” he told him. “You cats carry on.” The man nodded and he led the others away.
“OK,” he said, “we’re going to have to go into the sewers. There’s a main line that opens up not far from here. We can take the Bone Wagon in most of the way, but then we continue on foot.”
Gunnar explained to Glottis in detail where to go and then he joined me in the main seat. Glottis cautiously drove off in the direction Gunnar had indicated. Meche looked anxious and Olivia seemed amused. We came to a broad, shallow gully leading up into a large concrete tunnel emerging from the side of a hill. Glottis followed Gunnar’s directions until, about half an hour later, we entered a large chamber with several smaller tunnels branching off. Glottis stopped the car and Gunnar jumped down to meet the two souls approaching us. After speaking to them, one ran off down a tunnel while the other moved to a position in the tunnel behind the Bone Wagon.
“It’s only a short way now,” Gunnar said, “but Glottis will have to stay here—the passages get too small for him past this point.”
The Lost Soul’s Alliance
As Gunnar led us to LSA headquarters, Meche said anxiously, “I hope they won’t hurt Glottis.”
“Ha!” Olivia scoffed. “Shows what you know about this group. Their leader is a great man who—”
We came then into another chamber, full of tables, electronic gear, and a pigeon coop. Standing around the large table in the middle of the room were several LSA agents, including the soul who had run on ahead of us, and also Eva and Salvador.
“Manuel Calavera,” Salvador said in greeting, walking toward me with hand outstretched. I clasped it and he said, “I see you have found what you were looking for. How fortunate for you to arrive now just as we, too, are about to achieve success. Our army has grown, and right now our top agents are in Hector’s weapons lab, about to close in on the enemy in his own den. I couldn’t have done it without you, my friend.” The handshake apparently inadequate, Salvador’s reserve melted and he pulled me into a back-thumping embrace.
Before anything more could be said, a ragged voice from behind us shouted, “Trap!!” We all spun around toward the entrance to see an agent lurching through, tendrils of glistening green pushing through his pants’ legs, spreading upwards. “It was a trap!” he repeated, collapsing on the floor.
“Stand back!” Salvador commanded, snatching a fire ax from its place on the wall. “There’s only one thing to do!”
He swung the ax down on the fallen agent. Meche gasped and turned away. The blade splintered the soul’s spine and ribcage, separating the left-hand side from the rest of him. Salvador seemed pleased. Meche looked sick. Olivia, curious. The separated, still-unsprouted part of the soul pushed itself up by his left arm—the only remaining limb—and said, sounding perfectly normal, “Thank you, sir!”
“What did you say about a trap?” Salvador demanded.
“Hector uncovered our agent in his weapons lab,” the soul answered.
“No!” Salvador exclaimed, dropping the ax. He rushed over to a bank of electronic equipment along one wall and turned on a monitor.
It flickered to life, the grainy image showing a dingy little room where a small man dressed like a hippie gardener cowered before an enormously fat man wearing a fez.
“—iot, Bowlsley!” the fat man was saying. “Your new lab assistant is a spy!” He thrust an accusing finger toward the camera. “Haven’t you ever heard of a background check?” he asked, sounding incredulous. Then he pulled out a gun and fired toward the camera. It rocked and fell down sideways. Leaves and stems quickly grew to partly obscure the image as the fat man walked off screen.
“What!?” I exclaimed.
“No time to explain,” Salvador said grimly. “Now I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.” He turned away from the monitor and found himself toe-to-toe with Olivia.
“Take me with you,” she purred throatily. “I’ve longed to be of service to your cause for years.”
“Can you vouch for this woman, Manuel?” Salvador asked, staring down at the small package in black standing in front of him.
I considered my answer carefully. “Well, I’ve known her a while. Not very well, I’ll admit, but I used her club as the contact point for my cell. I think she knew about it all along.” Olivia nodded slightly. “I always thought she had potential, but there was her connection with Maximino…” I trailed off with a shrug.
“Who is a known associate of Hector LeMans,” Salvador finished coldly. He started to move away from Olivia, who grabbed his uniform lapels with both her elfin fists. Sal could have pulled away easily, but didn’t.
“I gave Max the fuller when I found that out,” Olivia said earnestly. “I could’ve betrayed Manny at any time, but I didn’t.”
Salvador looked down at her intently for a long moment, and then nodded, appearing satisfied. “We have lost many agents recently. Any help will be appreciated. Very well.” He took Olivia’s hands and gently disengaged them from his jacket. He began walking swiftly toward the door. To Eva he said, “I must try to salvage this operation. Contact what agents you can and have them rendezvous in gallery four. The rest of you will follow me.” He left, Olivia and the other agents following, including the one nearly sprouted who hopped out on his remaining limb. Eva, Meche, and I stayed behind.
“So,” I said to Eva when they all had gone, “any messages for me?”
“No,” she answered, “calls stopped coming for you the day you left.” She cast a sideways glance at Meche. “They’re still sending you that lingerie catalog, though.”
I shook my head and Meche laughed.
“So how’re you doing, honey?” Eva asked her.
Meche shrugged slightly. “I’m OK, I guess. A little overwhelmed. What is this ‘operation’ Salvador was talking about?”
“Sorry, sweetie,” Eva said, “but I can’t talk about that. It’s not that we don’t trust you, but you’re someone Hector would just love to get his hands on. The less you know, the better for all of us. Same goes for you, Cal.”
I nodded, understanding. “I wish Salvador hadn’t run off so fast,” I said, changing the subject. “I’ve got some information that I haven’t been able to pass on to you guys before now.”
“Oh, don’t worry… we’ll debrief you guys plenty later on! I hope you’re both wearing clean underwear.” Eva considered a moment, then said, “I suppose one thing I can tell you is that we’ve given up on trying to bring Hector to justice. He’s grown far too powerful. We heard how you freed all the souls he cheated, so we only need to eliminate him.”
“It’s not that simple,” I said.
“We’ve still got to help all the people from the island,” Meche added.
“What?” Eva asked, surprised. “What do you mean?” She looked back and forth between Meche and me.
“We got them all to the end of the line, no problem,” I explained, “but the Gatekeeper won’t let them cross over, not without their tickets.”