‘Jacob?’ A deep wail rises from Mick’s mouth.
Before the twin can react, two of the silicon-skinned warriors step forward. From behind their masks they expel a bloodcurdling bellow.
‘No… no… no…’ Jacob detaches the regulator from his shoulder harness and pops it in his mouth, breathing deeply. Refocus! Remember the story of the Hero Twins. The Death God and his minions will try to fool you. This is not your father, it’s an aberration… a ruse!
Using the top of his boot, Jacob flips the skull-ball several feet off the ground, then steps forward like a soccer goalie and kicks the head as far downfield as he can.
One of the warriors gives chase. Another runs toward the twin and his mother.
Tossing Dominique over his shoulder, Jacob sprints to the far end of the eastern wall and the hidden stairwell he knows will lead him to the leader’s temple. He ascends the narrow steps three at a time, the sword in his right hand.
Waiting for him at the summit is the serpent-masked leader, armed with a spiked ball and chain.
Jacob releases his mother, then bounds up the remaining steps.
The spiked ball hurtles downward.
Jacob avoids the blow, then lashes upward with the sword, severing the transhuman’s arm just below the elbow.
The warrior cries out, staring at his amputated, simmering-hot limb in shock, never seeing the looping shimmer of blade that lops off his head.
Jacob kneels beside his mother. He shakes her awake, then spits out the breather so he can speak. ‘Mother, stay here!’ Grabbing the sword, he bounds back down the narrow stairwell, returning the regulator to his mouth.
Six of the masked goons bull-rush him as he returns to the playing field.
Swinging the sword with both hands, Jacob feints a blow to the nearest man’s head, then drops to one knee and takes a powerful baseball-style swing at an entanglement of gray silicon-covered knees. The razor-sharp edge of steel heats up as it tears through flesh and ligament like a flaming sickle, amputating several men’s legs with the continuous blow.
Screams and gouts of bluish-tinged blood rend the air as warrior after warrior topples to the ground.
A steel ball hurtles toward Jacob’s face. He ducks, allowing the chained object to spike the demonic mask of another warrior, the six-inch spur burying itself in one of the man’s occipital bones.
Jacob spins around and leaps, launching a forward snap kick into the throat of an incoming attacker, barely avoiding the swipe of steel claws lashing through the smoldering, carbondioxide-laden air. He lands, parries a would-be stab in the heart with his sword, then sidethrust kicks the transhuman in his exposed Adam’s apple, crushing the being’s windpipe.
Six down, six to go…
The skull-ball whizzes past his head.
Jacob spins around and launches a backthrust kick, the heel of his boot snapping his approaching enemy’s head backward, dislocating the man’s cervical spine.
The ball… don’t forget the game!
Jacob races after the skull-ball, overtaking two more warriors, who are batting it between them as they dribble it toward the eastern goal.
One of the warriors wheels around to fend off Jacob’s attack as his teammate prepares to shoot.
Jacob leaps, using his momentum to launch a double-snap kick, the toes of his boots striking the startled warrior in the solar plexus. He lands, then glances up in time to see the skull-ball bank off the eastern wall – nearly slipping through the donut-shaped goal.
In one motion, the shooter turns, throwing a needle-sharp dagger at Jacob. The white-haired twin, caught off guard, staggers backward as the poison blade strikes his environmental suit just above the heart.
No blood. You got lucky, the blade didn’t penetrate. Don’t be so careless!
Angry with himself, Jacob yanks out the blade and hurls it at his would-be killer like a fastball. The knife strikes deep, puncturing his enemy’s abdomen clear up to the handle.
The transhuman grunts, then drops to his knees, his stomach drenched in blue blood.
‘Ja-cob!’
Jacob looks up. Fubitch…
Dominique is being forced to retreat over the edge of the eastern wall as the remaining three warriors, now in the temple, stab at her from above with their spears. She lets go, dropping twelve feet before grabbing on to the donut-shaped goal.
Jacob runs to the base of the eastern wall and drops his sword. ‘Mother, jump.’
She looks down and jumps, her son catching her in both arms.
‘You okay?’
She nods, struggling to catch her breath.
Jacob senses the three warriors hurrying down the stairwell. ‘Go get the skull.’
She shakes her head. ‘I can’t.’
‘It’s not Mick’s head, mother. Now get it-quickly.’
She hurries off, ignoring the moans of her son’s dying victims, as she steps over severed body parts.
Jacob turns to face his remaining enemies, finishing them off with a dozen quick slashes of his sizzling sword.
Dominique returns with the skull. It is elongated, the face bruised and bleeding, but it is not Michael Gabriel.
It is the face of a child.
Disgusted, Jacob dropkicks it at the western goal. The skull sails through the vertical hoop, the successful shot triggering a hidden mechanism within the goal.
A wave of nausea returns as the open jowls of the serpent’s second mouth inhales Jacob and his mother into its vortex, transporting them into another realm.
Opening their eyes, they find themselves standing at the base of a narrow chasm, which cuts a winding passage through an imposing jagged mountainside.
Grabbing his mother by her arm, Jacob leads her down the Dark Road to Xibalba.
39
‘Jake, where are we?’
‘The Mayans called this Xibalba Be -the Black Road to the Underworld. I suspect we’re still on Earth, somewhere underground.’
Slipping the blade of his sword between his belt and exoskeleton, he takes Dominique by the hand and leads her into the ravine. The eight-foot-wide passage snakes between the towering vertical cliff walls, the mountain faces so straight and high they nearly obliterate the lavalike scarlet ceiling percolating above their heads.
Whiffs of dense smoke cause the shadows to dance. The gray limestone rock face drips with heavy humidity. The lead-colored soil is as moist as wet sand, causing their feet to sink deeper with each step. A high-pitched wind whistles through the ravine, depositing a fine gray mist on their exposed faces and environmental suits.
Jacob pauses. Looks up.
The sound of fluttering wings echoes through the chasm.
Dominique tightens her grip on his hand. Points ahead.
Seated on the ground, its back against the canyon wall, is a humanoid.
It is a transhuman-a female. Her shaved, elongated skull sports a jaguar-hide tattoo that serves as hair. She is naked, save for a thin, tattered cloth that barely covers her exquisite torso. Her right side, exposed to the wind, is slick with an oily gray residue.
The woman is rocking back and forth, her dark, frightened eyes purplish red from crying.
They approach, Jacob’s hand on the hilt of his sword.
Dominique kneels by the woman, her motherly instincts taking over.
‘Mother, don’t!’ He grabs her arm, dragging her back.
‘Jake, have some compassion. Can’t you see she’s terrified?’
‘We don’t know who she is or what she is.’
The sound of flapping wings grows louder, echoing like old-time machine-gun fire in the narrow ravine.
The female hears it too. Panicking, she jumps to her feet and races through the chasm.
Dominique glances at her son, then chases after the woman.
‘Mother, wait-’
Jacob starts after her, but is forced to stop, unable to run with the bulky sword dangling at his hip. He withdraws it from his belt, then sprints with it through the twisting canyon.