There was a commotion and horns behind me as the gate guards got closer. Some of the crowd near me turned and saw:
The Woodpecker God of Took’s people astride a huge dog on the road at the edge of their plaza.
I pulled the carbine from its boot and opened the action a little to break the partial vacuum and let river water trickle out of the barrel. The crowd near me drew back, confused, yelling.
The running feet behind me got closer.
The next victim had reached the top of the pyramid. Eager hands reached for him.
The head priest lifted his knife as the moundbuilder went across the slab.
I blew the top of the priest’s head off. I saw the other priests’ reactions just as the sound reached them. Why is our boss exploding his head and flying into the temple wall?
He slid down the alabaster wall, hair sticking to its surface.
The other priests turned toward the gunshot. I shot away the two holding the left arm and right leg. The other two let go.
There was pandemonium. The whole crowd in the plaza came to its feet. Took’s people turned and saw me, then pointed and yelled.
I kicked the horse and headed for the pyramid. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, a moving wall of mouths, eyes, screams to either side.
I fired into them a few times for effect, then started on the guards on the pyramid steps.
Took’s people were the first to come loose from the crowd. Something snapped in them; they turned and jumped everybody near them who had a weapon.
The intended victims all up and down the pyramid squatted while I shot into the guards around them.
Then I was at the bottom of the steps and rode up them.
Guards leaned around from the other sides of the pyramid, threw spears or shot arrows, then ran.
Took’s people surged around me as I rode upwards. Moe came bouncing down from farther up. He picked up a spear and turned to watch the plaza.
Took yelled from the mob below. I turned the horse sideways, saw him, and waved. The city was a swirling, kicking mass. Too many warriors were standing still at the back center of the plaza around a white-poled sunscreen.
That must be where they keep their kahuna.
I fired into it.
For a few seconds the guards stood grim-faced while I shot them, then they broke to right and left, leaving richly dressed guys crawling over dead bodies for cover. I shot into the most swazee-looking bunch.
Two or three guards jumped in front of one of them. I shot them, but the magazine ran dry before I got a clear shot at the guy in the middle.
I slammed another magazine in, switched to automatic, and sprayed the emptying plaza.
We were on the pyramid, and they were behind all the buildings. The roof of the one across the way, the tallest, was covered with archers.
‘How do we get out of here?’ I asked.
‘How about the way you came in?’ asked Moe.
I looked that way. It was full of the shadows of spears and shields.
‘Pretty grim,’ I said. ‘What about over there?’
There were screams below as arrows came in. Every minute we stayed up here, someone was going to be killed.
I was still on the horse, which barely had room to stand. The men and women near the bottom were pressing up against us, trying to get away from the plaza. I didn’t blame them.
I felt a dull thud and an arrow vibrated from the Woodpecker God’s bill. I broke part of it off.
‘It all looks bad,’ said Took-His-Time, just below me. Another flock of arrows sailed in, causing a rush as everyone tried to get behind the few shields we had. Most of the people on the pyramid had only spears, clubs, or knives.
I meant to ask Took sometime what it was that had turned his people from a line of docile sacrifices into fighters who had killed a few dozen of their captors and taken their weapons.
It was getting hot on the pyramid. I was sure the Huastecas were planning to send us a cool rain of arrows.
‘Choose some goddam way!’ I said to Moe.
‘The way you came,’ he said. ‘Once we get to the gate, every man for himself!’ They passed the word around the steps.
‘Follow me, then,’ I said. I turned the horse to start down the teocalli. I fired toward the street we headed for. The sides of a building exploded in rock dust. A Huasteca screamed, a sound I was beginning to like.
The first moundbuilders came off the pyramid. The Huastecas ran out from all the other buildings in a rush, throwing spears, clubs, and axes. They stopped, and the archers on the buildings sent another flight of arrows into us. A lot of us went down, some screaming, some not.
Then the Huastecas renewed their charge.
Still on the steps, I swung in the saddle and blasted left and right.
The moundbuilders and Huastecas collided. The Huastecas who’d been waiting in the gate street came running out into the open. I fired into them. They stopped, jumped around, ran away.
‘Go! Go! Go! I yelled down to our people in the plaza.
They ran toward the street, scared, fighting, yelling, screaming.
More Huastecas came from everywhere.
The horse hit the plaza running.
Three arrows grew out of its neck. It collapsed. I rolled to my feet, still shooting.
THE BOX XIV
Smith’s Diary
Colonel Spaulding duffed out during the night.
Nobody saw him leave. There were no shots fired during the night and no commotion from the Indians like they always make when they capture one of us.
Major Putnam is in command. He’s demoralized by Spaulding’s desertion, more than by anything else that’s happened to us so far.
Spaulding had been keeping in his bunker. I saw him once yesterday afternoon. He had his Book of Mormon opened before him. I noticed the pages were more tattered every time I’d seen it, which was a lot. Spaulding seemed weighed down with worry. We’d lost more than half the group since the flu went through the Indians and started the siege.
I’d come to report that Sergeant Croft caught an arrow in the foot a few minutes before. He had leaned out to refill a sandbag. The arrow had come from the woods and into his boot. We didn’t bother to return fire.
We knew they had at least eleven of our weapons. They had used them only a few times. One of the CIA men thought it was because they couldn’t. Three of our people were dead from bullet wounds, and several of the horses had been wounded before we got enough bunkers built to hold them. The Indians were saving the carbines for something big. Besides, the arrows worked just as well in this short-range siege.
‘How is Croft?’ asked Spaulding.
‘He’s all right, but it’ll be weeks before he’s ready for duty.’
‘Weeks!’ said Spaulding. ‘Soon you and I’ll be the only ones left on duty.’ He stared down at his book.
‘Some of the men want to clear the woods back another fifty meters to each side.’
‘What are the chances of doing that without taking three or four more casualties?’
‘Not very good. They’re everywhere, more of them all the time.’
‘Lamanites,’ said Spaulding.
‘Beg pardon?’
He pointed down to the book.
‘Oh,’ I said.
‘They’ll all be here soon. All the nations. We’ll have to kill them all. It’s so stupid.’