“Yeah, but it’s a lot safer that it was six weeks ago. Don’t worry. I can trust Yehuda.”
“You think?” Gunnar asked. “Like you said, he’s Acquisitions… and if there’s anyone in the Land of the Dead more desperate to get out of it than Hector was, it’s gotta be that guy.”
“You’re wrong about that, mano,” I countered. “He’s too beaten down to have any fight left in him. And he wouldn’t sell out. Well, not these days, anyway.” Realizing I was in a hole, I stopped digging and switched tracks. “And besides, what could he possibly get out of taking me down?”
“If you say so, Manny,” Gunnar said. “Just don’t let him kiss you, all right?”
“Geez!” I exclaimed. “Lay off the man, all right?” I walked away to find Eva and let her know where I was going.
That Yehuda wanted to meet me at his home reassured me that everything was on the level. But I walked there only apparently alone, just in case things weren’t. I didn’t see anything on the way that made me worried, though. I knocked when I got to Yehuda’s door. He let me in, seeming pleased to see me in his broken-down, tired way.
He asked me to have a seat and mixed me a drink. “I understand we are all greatly indebted to you, Manuel,” he said as he handed the tumbler of scotch and soda to me and sat down in the ancient easy chair I remembered from the old days.
“In what way?” I asked, not seeing how the company could be in my debt.
“You eliminated Hector LeMans.”
I tensed. “What makes you say that?” It had been the plan that people not get the idea that Hector had been taken down by any specific individual. Eva’s intention being that, if it was thought that Hector had been sprouted maybe by a whole mob of LSA agents, Hector’s outfit wouldn’t know who to whack.
“Come, Manuel,” Yehuda chided wearily. “We both know I speak the truth. You know because you pulled the trigger. As for myself, I was contacted by those higher up who are incapable of being… what’s the word? ‘Snowed’?” I nodded. “They are very pleased with you, in fact. Hector has been a cancer within the DOD for many years, for far longer than you know.”
“Yeah?” I asked harshly. “So why didn’t the company do anything about him?”
Yehuda sighed. “Because, in a sense, the company is not concerned. We humans have the power and the right… or perhaps it’s the curse… to make the world into whatever we collectively want it to be. We can have justice or injustice. It is our choice, and it is a choice they are unwilling make for us.”
“So we had to take care of Hector if anyone was to, right?” I asked. “They… whoever they are… left it to us.”
“Yes,” Yehuda answered. “We could tolerate him, accept him, make him our master, or reject him. However we choose.”
“Harsh, mano.”
“I won’t argue the point, Manuel,” he said with a sad sigh. “We took it upon ourselves, this power to choose, and so we must accept the consequences of that fundamental choice. If a man sticks his hand into the fire, who is to blame for his injury? The man or the fire? We can’t have the choice without having the responsibility, too.”
“Well, I won’t argue about it, either.” The old man had been in the Land of the Dead for far too long. He had an answer to everything, even if it didn’t answer anything at all. “It’s just that all those good people didn’t choose to have Hector steal their tickets.”
“No,” Yehuda said, “not individually. I don’t expect you to understand it fully, Manuel, because I assure you that neither do I. But I’ve been told this will all work out for the best, eventually.” His fingers absently toyed with the tattered red fringe on the left-hand arm of his chair. “For the near future, at least, those inclined to subvert the system will find themselves severely constrained. With Hector and the power he wielded gone, the apparatus of the DOD will restore discipline. As for the Lost Souls’ Alliance, I suspect they will be tolerated for a while longer as they appear to have a worthwhile task to complete, but they will have to disband eventually.”
“I don’t think Salvador ever intended it to be a permanent fixture,” I said, “and Eva doesn’t plan on being in this world forever.”
“Yes, but Eva still has a long struggle ahead of her. Yours, however, is over.” Before I could ask what he meant, he held out his hand. Twitching in his palm was a Double-N ticket. It leapt toward me and I caught it out of the air without thinking.
“You’re kidding me, right?” I exclaimed. Yehuda shook his head. “You mean, Hector—”
“No, Manuel. Hector never interfered with your fate. I’m afraid you deserved to be a reaper. But you have repaid your debt, over and above what you owed. Congratulations.” The bitterness in his voice was practically venomous.
“I don’t get it. I didn’t live my life any better than… than Domino, for instance. But he’s scattered in pieces all over the ocean floor, and you’re now giving me a Double-N ticket. Why is that?”
“Perhaps, Manuel, it is because within you there was a kernel of decency. It took a while to… grow,” I could almost see him edging carefully around the word ‘sprout’, “but in the end it bore fruit. Even hidden qualities shape our destinies. Perhaps you were made a reaper so that yours could show forth. Who can say?”
“Maybe, but what about you, man?”
“Who can say?” he repeated in a hollow voice, no longer able to meet my gaze.
Track Number Nine
When I left Yehuda’s house, an armored LSA car quickly pulled up and I was driven back to headquarters in something of a daze. I thought I had to be dreaming, but the Double-N ticket fluttering inside my breast pocket argued that I wasn’t.
“Well?” Eva demanded when I walked into the room. “What did the miserable traitor want?”
“He wanted to give me this.” I showed her the ticket. “I guess plugging Hector was somebody’s idea of a good deed. He told me my debt’s gone.”
Eva gaped at the ticket. “Cal!” she exclaimed. “That’s… that’s… I don’t know what to say!” So she gave me an enthusiastic hug.
“I never thought I’d be dead long enough to see you speechless,” I said, “but I know how you feel. I’m a little overwhelmed, too.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Hey! Mercedes has to see this!” She ran out of the chamber and came back a few moments later with Meche in tow.
Eva pointed at me and said, “Look who just got himself a Double-N ticket!”
I showed Meche the ticket and she went wild, giving me a hug even more powerful than Eva’s had been. When she let go of me she said, “Now we can take that train ride together!”
“Nothing could be finer, angel,” I said and Meche laughed.
Events moved quickly after that. There was no reason to delay, but precautions needed to be taken. It had taken a still-corrupted DOD apparatus to get my ticket to Yehuda and tell him what it was all about, and the news could have leaked out. On the other hand, that the DOD was able to deliver the ticket at all meant that the situation within the company had improved. But there was no sense in getting careless at this stage, not with the fate of so many others riding on mine. So an escort of LSA agents plus thoroughly-screened cops was carefully arranged. That took time, but when Eva was satisfied that everything was perfect, Meche and I collected the case full of tickets, said goodbye to Gunnar and the rest, and started on our way.