Certain Dark Things(40)

“You’re a cool kid too. All right?”

He was. Sort of.

Atl grabbed the dog’s leash and stood up just as the subway came to a halt and the doors opened. Domingo followed Atl, stumbling behind her.

*

Elisa Carrera’s building was in a nice spot of town. Not super swanky, but nice enough that they had installed security cameras and there was a guard at the front. Two things Atl didn’t like, but there wasn’t anything that could be done about them.

The woman who opened the door to Elisa Carrera’s office didn’t look very much like the photograph Atl had studied. Her hair had gone gray and there were deep wrinkles under her eyes.

“Yes?” asked the woman, eyeing their dog. “It’s a bit late. I was about to close.”

“It’s an urgent matter. We have a referral,” Atl said.

“Who referred you?”

“Bernardino.”

Elisa’s face changed. It softened, wax drifting close to a flame, before hardening in a few quick seconds. Atl thought she might slam the door in their faces and then Atl would have to pull the stupid thing off its hinges, cause a scene, which she really didn’t want to do.

“We aren’t here to do you harm,” Atl said. “We just want to talk.”

“Who are you?” Elisa asked, her eyes narrowing.

“I’m Atl, Centehua’s daughter,” she said, though the resemblance should have been obvious. She took after her mother.

“If that’s true you’re very far from home.”

“It is true. May we come in?” Atl asked.

“Yes,” Elisa said.

The office was small. Elisa’s desk took up much of the space. It seemed large enough to sit three people, a grand monstrosity of carved wood with a chair to match. There were bland photos of boats and pretty landscapes with the words RELAXATION and MEDITATION printed beneath them. There was also a poster about Jesus and footsteps in the sand, as if banality could be exponentially increased.

Atl and Domingo sat across from Elisa. The dog curled at Atl’s feet and Atl patted its head.

“What do you want?” Elisa asked, and regarded them wearily.

“I need your help,” Atl said. No sense beating around the bush and it wasn’t like she was interested in a long conversation.

“I’m done helping your kind,” Elisa said. Her certainty struck Atl as inappropriate.

“My mother is dead,” she replied.

To Elisa’s credit, the only reaction to that announcement was a slight tremble of her hands.

“I’m very sorry,” Elisa said.

“I’ll be dead too, if you don’t help me. I need to get out of Mexico.”

“I knew your mother. But if she’s gone then she’s gone, and so are my ties to your clan.” Elisa spoke crisply, the tone the one a strict schoolmistress might employ with the children.

“There are people looking for me. They’ll kill me if they find me,” Atl said, spelling it out, because maybe it needed to be spelled in very large, very crimson letters.

“That’s very sad, but there’s nothing I can do.”

Elisa pushed her chair back, as if she were about to rise. Atl spoke quickly, knowing she was losing the woman’s interest.

“You can falsify documents. Passports, ID papers. Stuff that could get me to South America. I have money,” she said, grabbing the envelope she was carrying in her jacket and dumping it on her desk. The woman looked at it as though she’d just skinned a live animal in front of her. Cualli, sensing turmoil, raised his head, alert.

“I haven’t done that in years. I run a clean business now. Clean life.”

“Really,” Atl said flatly.

Atl fixed her eyes on Elisa’s hands. Her nails were painted pink. It wasn’t a cheap manicure, she’d spent money on it. But it was starting to chip away. She saw the tiny spots with missing flecks of paint. One spot, two spots, three. Millimeters.

Atl raised her eyes and stared at Elisa. “I’m running out of time.”

Elisa stood up with her back to them, looking out the window. She wasn’t giving in, not yet, but she was wavering. Atl licked her lips. They felt chapped.

“I can’t stay here much longer. Mexico is too dangerous.”

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Elisa muttered.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I thought you and Bernardino might help me.”

“You have money. You can probably fly abroad.” Elisa made a motion with her right hand, pointing up.

“Yeah, and the airport has too much security and too many scanners. I’d be dead before I get to my seat. It has to be by ground.”

“Then I don’t understand why you simply didn’t try to cross the northern border. It would have been easier to take your chances with the coyotes, no?”

Yeah, like Atl hadn’t thought about that.

“The Necros dominate the North, so that’s a no go. They don’t own Guatemala. Not yet. There will be checkpoints, but with the right papers I can make it down into South America. It’s easier this way.”

“Nothing is easier,” Elisa said. “It’s just another way to get killed.”

“Well, I can’t exactly head back north right now so the only option is south. You used to be a runner for my mother. Surely you can make one more run.”