‘Hmm. See these front legs? They’re called prehensors. They’re used to inject venom into their victims. Let’s see if our little friend here can persuade our brave American soldier to tell us what we want to know.’

Elias holds the wiggling centipede in front of Luke Magierski’s face. ‘This afternoon at the marketplace, you were acting on someone’s orders. Whose?’

The soldier looks away.

Two of the elders hold Magierski’s face steady while Elias positions the centipede’s yellow head in the soldier’s open mouth.

Magierski thrashes in his bonds, moaning and hissing and gagging as the repulsive creature wiggles its way into his mouth, blocking his airway as it moves down his esophagus.

Dominique turns away in disgust.

Elias leans in closer. ‘Six more inches and its tail disappears. When that happens, I can’t save you. It will crawl into your small intestines and lay its eggs. Three more inches … two more. If you have anything to say, say it now.’

Magierski nods vigorously, his eyes as wide as saucers, his face turning purple.

Elias carefully extracts the centipede, then removes the chunk of bamboo.

Magierski leans over and pukes.

‘Give us a name, or it goes back in, and this time, we’ll let it keep going until it crawls out your ass.’

‘Mabus. Peter Mabus. He placed a 2-million-dollar bounty on the girl’s head.’

Dominique turns to face him. ‘Why? What does that screwball want with me?’

‘I don’t know. He … he blames a lot of the doomsday stuff on Gabriel; guess you’re sort of lumped into his political campaign. He’s sending one of his men down from the States to collect you.’

‘More likely to kill you,’ Elias states. ‘Where were you and this man supposed to meet?’

‘I don’t know.’

Elias nods to the Mayan elders, who grab Magierski’s head.

‘No … wait, he’s meeting me tomorrow morning, at the commuter airport outside of Pisté.’

A Mayan elder returns the centipede to its wooden container. Elias shoves the gags back inside Magierski’s mouth as Ocela leads Dominique back to the campfire.

She watches as the elder carrying the wooden container skewers the centipede with a pointed stick, then roasts it over the open fire.

Elias winks at her. ‘Old Mayan delicacy. I prefer mine with butter.’

Dominique feels queasy.

‘Grandfather’s right. Enemies are everywhere.’

‘Maybe I should just stay here?’

‘Unfortunately, it’s not safe here either. Among the Mayans are cult members of Tezcatilpoca, practitioners of the Dark Way. It was Tezcatilpoca who vanquished our great teacher, Kukulcán, more than a thousand years ago. Once these followers learn you are here, they won’t stop until they kill you and sacrifice you … in that order.’

‘Fine. I’ll return to the States tomorrow, but there’s one more thing I need to know before I leave. What is the Abomination?’

Elias struggles to translate.