When the ceremony was concluded, all eyes turned to the heavens in anticipation of the returning sun. Instead, there came a distant rumble that was not echoed in the ground at their feet.
Thunder. Not an aftershock. Then it began to rain.
And the hearts of the followers of Coatlicue grew fearful, for the rain pelting from the very black heavens was itself black as the ink of an octopus.
Even Rodrigo Lujan, ruler priest of Oaxaca, felt a distinct chill as he watched the octopus ink rain streak his bare arms, his pristine finery and most terribly, his implacable Mother.
Chapter 45
Chiapas Barracks was deserted when they reached it less than an hour later. They piled out of the rented rust-bucket Impala that had cost Remo his Discover card. Let Smith worry about the bill.
The helicopter was still there. It was a utility chopper, crudely converted into a makeshift gunship by rocket pods and Gatling guns bolted to the body.
The bad news was that it seated two people-three if someone were willing to squeeze into the storage area behind the seats.
That option was rendered moot when the Master of Sinanju took his steamer trunk from Remo and carefully stowed it there.
"In case you haven't noticed, we don't have room for everybody," Winston Smith said, stowing his gear inside.
"The girl will stay behind," Chiun said.
"I'm not leaving Assumpta."
"Then you both may stay behind."
"Then who'll fly the chopper?" Remo and Smith said at the same time.
"I will," said Chiun.
No one thought that was a survivable option, and it showed on their faces.
"Let's see if she flies first," said Winston, climbing into the cockpit. Once seated, he laid his feet on the pedals and took hold of the collective stick. He snapped switches, and the rotor blades whined slowly to a whirling silvery disk. The chopper vibrated like an eager steed.
Winston called out, "Gas gauge says low. We're going to need a full tank and some spare cans."
Remo looked around. There was a Quonset but nearby and it smelled vaguely of gasoline. Handing the Hellfire pistol to Assumpta, he started for it. Remo got halfway there.
Behind him the helicopter reared upward. Remo whirled. Assumpta clung half in and half out of the cockpit. Winston leaned over to haul her in.
Chiun was shrieking over the rotor scream. And winning.
Remo went from zero to sixty from a standing start, but even as he closed with the lifting whirlybird, he knew his chances were slim.
Through the swirling dust and the Plexiglas of the cockpit, Winston Smith's grinning mouth formed a single word.
"Sucker!"
Chapter 46
"What is happening?" asked Coatlicue.
Lujan looked skyward. The skies were still brown, but a darker brown, as if thunderclouds loomed over the haze unseen.
"We have a saying in these times," he said. "Perhaps it is very old. I do not know. It goes, 'Crazy February, crazier March.'"
"Clarify meaning."
"We have our worst weather in the month of February, except for March."
"You have your worst weather in March, then."
"Precisely."
"Then why do you not say March?"
"That would not be very Mexican," laughed High Priest Rodrigo Lujan. "You must know this, Coatlicue. You should know this, for you are more Mexican than any of us."
Coatlicue said nothing to that. Why should she? Lujan had just stated the obvious.
It was raining furiously, a downpour. The Zocalo was drenched. The ground seemed to dance in a million places. It danced like angry obsidian imps, for the splashing rain was very, very black.
The skies opened up in one of the wild elemental electrical storms that are famous from Mexico City to Acapulco. The rain was a wrath from above, presaging the threat of thunderbolts. There came a rumble of ominous thunder. It was quite distant. It might have been an aftershock, but the earth did not jump. Nor was it Mount Popo, which was too far away for his sound to carry.
A second rumble came.
"Hear the drums of our ancestors!" Rodrigo exulted. "They beat in the far distance! See the rain that falls-are they not like cleansing tears? Rejoice in the tears from above! Revel in the cleansing rain of this new age. "
Like a cannonade, a peal of thunder rumbled through the valley to end in a crash of sound like a bowling ball coursing to a nine-pin strike.
The revels ceased. Fear touched every blackstreaked face.
"Come, come! Why do you cower? You are masters of this valley once more. Dance! Sing! Make love in the rain! All is permitted. Your Mother on earth permits you to do as you will."
"There is danger, " Coatlicue said from above.
"What do you say, Mother?"
"Danger approaches."
Another long rumble ended in a crack of violent sound.
To the southwest, where the ancient Zapotec capital of Monte Alban brooded atop a mountain, a jagged line of electrical blue showed in sharp relief against the lowering sky.
The rain was drumming on the Zocalo, drowning the stone fountain's splashing.
"What danger?" Lujan asked his god.
"The electrical storm approaches."
"So? It is but lightning."
"Lightning is dangerous. My systems are not immune to a lightning strike."
"Systems?"
"I am electrical in nature, as are meat machines. If lightning should strike my present form, it could melt my circuits."
"Circuits?"
"I cannot remain here where I am the tallest object for miles around."
"Circuits?" Lujan repeated. "But jou are a god."
"I am a survival android."
"Jou are Coatlicue."
"I am in danger," Coatlicue said as all around them the adherents of High Priest Rodrigo Lujan and his Mother Goddess Coatlicue scattered for cover.
For the thunder was drawing closer, and bolts of lightning lashed the horizon in all directions. It was as if a storm had surrounded Oaxaca and was pressing in for the kill.
And deep in the pit of his stomach, Rodrigo Lujan knew a dim and growing fear.
The rumbles of thunder came more often. As he listened, Lujan noticed the intervals between the peals of thunder and the crash of the striking bolts came closer together. The echoes would no sooner finish bouncing off the mountain than lightning forked and more thunder crashed angrily.
Coatlicue herself gave voice to the fear rising in his mind. "The lightning approaches this place."
"Send it away, Coatlicue."
"I have no such ability."
"But you are a god."
"I am a survival android whose assimilation program is damaged. I cannot assume a more mobile shape. In my attempt to perpetuate my existence, I have taken on a greater and greater mass of surrounding matter, so as to protect my central processor from damage."
"Central processor?" Lujan said dully. The rain sounds filled his ears. Bitter black rain ran down into his eyes, half blinding him. The cloudburst drummed against his skin like cold awakening fingers.
"I am the tallest form for miles around, " Coatlicue was saying. "I will attract the lightning bolts and I am not grounded against lightning. "
"Lightning cannot harm you."
"Lightning is capable of disrupting my damaged circuits. I could be annihilated."
"Annihilated? It is impossible."
"I have never faced this situation before. Instruct me. I must survive."
"Yes, I will instruct you. Let me think. Yes, what has my mother told true? When there is a lightning system, one lies down flat upon the ground."
"I am unable to perform that function. My present form is not equipped with knees or other folding joints. If I become prone, I will be unable to rise again. "
"Then jou must seek cover."