Necahual | Page 6

talking about the lady in the aquarium. She's been in the bar for weeks, he tells me, as he helps me back across the lawn. Ever since The League began its bombardment and invasion. Acolmiztli took her here with him, and he won't let her go.
Jami can't free her. His people are helping the Azteca change themselves, but if he were to set the modified woman free, Acolmiztli would blame him. But a rogue League solider with a soft heart, a human heart, could do it.
The Nanagadan's are setting the Azteca against The League. But some Azteca are actually Tolteca, good reformed Azteca. And they are here, but not too reformed. And Jami needs me for a sort of cultural remix experiment, and all I can think of are those almond eyes that plead with me, and the fluttering hands.
"Oh shit," I say, looking up at the sky. The lady in the tank is using sign language. Her hands had moved like Smith's.
And Smith is gone.
I at least want to talk to her.
"Just give me the antidote, please," I tell Jami.
#
Acolmiztli regards me with suspicion.
"He is back?"
"He a smart man," Jami says, his voice soft and guarded. "He know if a battle turn."
The Azteca laughs, then folds his arms and glares at the men around him.
"Then soon I'll be going home."
"Lucky us."
"The antidote?" I ask Jami. "Where is it?" I'm scared of another attack, of puking something really important out.
"The antidote," Acolmiztli says. "Come on Jami. Can't you give this poor man the antidote? Doesn't he know the antidote is?" Acolmiztli laughs at me and the sound makes me clench my hands. "All those nasty little metal bits inside that talk to each other and to your ships, all those little ghosts running around inside your heads, those intelligent machines, they're all dead. But you'll live. Oh yes, you're just fine. Just like Jami here."
I'll live. Here. But despite Acolmiztli's light tone I know what the result in space will be. All those battle formations, swarming back through the wormhole in retreat, their bows milliseconds away from each other.
Collided and destroyed.
Mass confusions. Systems failures. Those people up there were sitting ducks. No doubt the Azteca's own ships would savage them.
"There is a story I tell, that my father told, and his father before him," Acolmiztli says. Reflections from the wall of water behind me dapple the wall in front of me. "Horse and Stag came into quarreling once, long ago, and Horse went to a Hunter for help in taking his revenge against Stag. Hunter said, yes, but only if you let me put this piece of iron in your mouth that I may guide you with these pieces of rope. And only if you let me put this saddle on your back that I may sit on you while I help you hunt Stag. The horse agreed and together they hunted down the Stag. After this, the horse thanked the Hunter, and asked him to remove those things from him. But Hunter laughed and tied him to a tree, then sat down and had himself a very good meal of Stag. You see what I am saying?" Acolmiztli looks at me.
"No, what are saying?"
The half grin on his lips flitters away.
"Who's riding whom here?"
Jami has sat near me, but at an angle so he can look at both of us.
"You drunk," Jami says.
"Do either of you realize how many people are going to die today?" I yell. I'm shaking angry with everyone. Convinced I was here to land and perform a duty under the Tai's direction, stripped of that leadership, then told I was infected. I had thought I would die, but now I'm alive. I'm a mess.
"Yes," Acolmiztli says. "Can I go watch?" He stands up and totters out of the room.
Jami leans forward and grabs my forearm.
"Please," he hisses.
I turn and look at the lady in the tank, who is staring back at me.
Jami is a man who stared at us when we dropped from space and aimed weapons at him. He slid the machete under my armor and moved quicker than my own machine-aided senses could adjust for. Why was he not doing this?
"Who is Acolmiztli really?" I ask.
"The Emperor of the Azteca brother," Jami says. "Here in case the Emperor get attack by you League. Now that the League falling, I imagine he go leave soon."
I swallow.
"Okay."
#
I know no sign language. I stand in front of the tank and wonder what will happen when I try to take her out.
"And," I whisper to myself, "how do I make you understand that I'm going to help you out. Set you free." There is an ocean nearby, and a small beach that Jami tells me is easy to get to. There is a dirt road that leads