‘Except one,’ said El Huracán.
‘Except one,’ said James. ‘Who knows, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get away like your father, but this place will cease to exist.’
El Huracán was silent for a while. He took his cigar from his mouth and blew on the glowing tip, thinking. Finally he looked up at James and grinned.
‘You have read my thoughts,’ he said, and clicked his fingers. One of his guards stepped forward and reached for something in a canvas shoulder bag.
James tensed. Was El Huracán going to kill him, after all?
Held in the man’s hand, however, was not a gun, but the leather pouch.
El Huracán tapped his brown fingers on the familiar US Navy insignia.
‘The Mayans used to talk of a cursed treasure called hurricane gold,’ he said. ‘They believed that if you held on to hurricane gold it would, sooner or later, bring your house down around your ears and bring ruin to you and your family.’ He passed the pouch to James. ‘This is hurricane gold,’ he said. ‘It has caused nothing but death and destruction and misery wherever it has gone. I am rich enough. I am giving it back. This is yours, James. See that it is returned to its rightful owners.’
James took the documents and shook the old man’s hand.
‘You’ve got a deal,’ he said.
‘Do you hear that?’ said El Huracán, nodding to a musician with a smile. ‘Do you know this song?’
‘No,’ said James.
‘It is very fitting. It is an old Cuban song called ‘Lagrimas Negras’, ‘Black Tears’, the same as my island. It is a song sung by a lover who has been abandoned. But after all that he has been through he still loves the one who has done him wrong. I will always remember you, James. Perhaps you will always remember my island, and me. The one you left behind.’
‘It would be hard to forget you,’ said James.
El Huracán walked him up the gangboard towards where Precious was waiting at the ship’s rail. ‘Do you know how I bet on you?’ he said.
‘In your rat run?’ said James, and shook his head.
‘I bet on you to go all the way,’ said El Huracán. ‘To get to the last trial. To reach Xibalba, but I never expected you to get out alive. I said once that I would tell you the story of the Hero Twins. They were two boys who went down into the underworld to avenge the death of their father who had been killed by the lords of Xibalba. They passed many tests on the way, and when they got there they had to survive several terrible ordeals before defeating One Death and Seven Death, the two most powerful of the rulers of the underworld. I shall always think of you and Precious as the reincarnation of the Hero Twins.’
He clasped James by the shoulders.
‘I will ask you one last time,’ he said. ‘All of this could be yours. You could be a king here.’
‘I don’t want to be a king,’ said James. ‘I’m just a boy.’
‘Adios, then,’ said El Huracán with a wink, and he clattered back down he gangboard.
Presently the steam turbines fired up and as the ropes were cast off El Huracán called up to Precious from the quay, ‘I almost forgot to tell you, Precious,’ he shouted, waving his hand, ‘there is a surprise waiting for you on board. Adios! It has been interesting knowing you!’
They waved back at El Huracán as the ship steamed gently out of the harbour.
‘A surprise?’ said Precious. ‘Do you suppose it’s a nasty one?’
‘No. All debts are paid,’ said James, and he handed the leather pouch to Precious. For a moment she stared at it, not quite believing it was real. Then she burst into tears and threw her arms around James.
‘Oh, James,’ she sobbed, but was too emotional to say anything more.
When she had calmed down, the two of them stood there in silence, watching the harbour grow smaller. At the last moment, just before they passed a rocky headland, they thought they saw the figure of a woman, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, watching them from the lookout tower near the harbour wall.
‘Precious.’
The two of them turned at the sound of a familiar voice, and there stood Jack Stone, looking older and somehow smaller than he had when James last saw him.
‘Daddy?’
‘Sweetheart…’
Precious ran to him, leaving James alone at the rail.
Precious and her father were sitting on a bunk in a small cabin below deck. They had both been crying. The leather pouch sat on the blanket between them.
‘And JJ?’ said Precious. ‘Is he all right? Did they save his leg?’
‘They did,’ said Jack Stone. ‘He’s fine. A little weak, but he’s walking around, and talking. Boy, that kid sure can talk. All day long. And all he ever talks about is his big sister and that boy, James Bond.’
‘What happened to Sakata?’
‘He took JJ to the hospital and disappeared before anyone could ask him any questions. JJ owes him his life.’ Stone hugged Precious. ‘We’ll be together again, sugar, the three of us. I’m gonna change, just you see…’
Precious glanced down at the pouch.
‘First, you have to give this back,’ she said.
‘Sure,’ said Stone. ‘I was gonna, all along.’
Precious shook her head and turned away from him. ‘No more lies, Daddy. Not to me.’
Stone hung his head, rubbed his face and sighed.
‘I’ve been a fool,’ he said.
‘You will need to tell one last story, though,’ said Precious. ‘You’re good at that. You should find it easy. You’re going to take those papers to the government, or the navy, or whoever they belong to, and you’re going to tell them how an American woman called Mrs Theda Glass came to you and asked you to fly her to Argentina. They’ll know all about her. They’ll believe anything you tell them.’
‘Sure, honey,’ said Stone.
‘You never made it to Argentina, though, because you found out that she was a gangster and a spy and that she had some stolen documents she’d taken from an American naval officer. You landed in the jungle, there was a fight, you won. And then you set off back to the States to return the stolen plans. You’ll be a hero all over again. We’ll start a new life, just like you said.’
‘You sure have grown-up quick, princess. I’m proud of you.’
‘I used to be proud of you, Daddy.’
‘I was only trying to make a good life for you and JJ.’
‘But don’t you see, Daddy? If you do bad things, even for a good reason, in the end they will always catch up with you.’
James was still at the rail. He could just see the dark top of the island. He was thinking about Precious and her father. He would never have a father to go home to after an adventure like this, or a mother. He wondered if he would spend his life travelling, seeking out one new experience after another, knowing that there would be nothing and nobody for him at home.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Precious. She had an expression on her face that he couldn’t read. There was the hint of a smile on her lips, but a deep sadness in her eyes. ‘Your Aunt Charmian is waiting for you in Vera Cruz,’ she said. ‘She stayed to look after JJ.’
‘He’s all right?’
‘Yes. Thanks to you.’
‘In the end,’ said James, ‘it was a team effort.’
‘In the end,’ said Precious.
‘I wonder how different things would have been if I’d never turned up at your house that night in the storm,’ said James.
‘I think I’d probably be lying dead in a swamp somewhere,’ said Precious. ‘I’ll always love you for what you’ve done for me.’
‘And here I was thinking you hated me,’ said James.
‘I never hated you.’
‘You certainly acted like you did.’
‘Oh, boys can be so stupid sometimes,’ said Precious. ‘I think I’ve loved you ever since I first set eyes on you.’
‘What?’ said James. ‘You’re joking.’
‘I wouldn
’t show it, of course,’ said Precious.
‘Girls can be pretty stupid sometimes too,’ said James.
‘The thing is, James.’ Precious was staring out to sea. ‘I’ve learnt not to give in to love. I’ve learnt to keep my distance from something I really wanted with all my heart, because, as far as I can see, everything you love gets taken away from you.’
‘I know how that feels,’ said James.
‘I’ll lose you as well,’ said Precious quietly. ‘Once we get back to Mexico, who knows what lies ahead? I don’t know how things will be with my father. But it will be different, I’m sure of that. And you? You’ll go back to England, and maybe you’ll write for a while, but you’ll soon forget me.’
‘I’ll never forget you,’ said James.
‘Maybe not soon,’ said Precious. ‘There’s one thing I’ve found out lately: you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.’
‘Don’t worry about tomorrow,’ said James, and he gave a little laugh. ‘Tomorrow can take care of itself.’
He put his arm around her and together they watched the island as it slowly disappeared over the horizon.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Acknowledgements
Part One: EL HURACÁN
1
House Rules
2
The Avenue of Death
3
Angel Corona
4
A Broken Doll
5
Four Men With Guns
6
In the Belly of the Storm
7
You Have to Laugh
8
‘It’s a Doozy’
9
The Return of Angel Corona
Part Two: ONE OF THE GANG
10
The Whipping Post
11
An Ancient Japanese Art
12
Fanfare of Death
13
The Devil’s Sweat
14
A Hope in Hell
15
The Samaritan
16
Now or Never
17
Manny the Girl
18
Change of Plan
19
Palenque
20
Death in the Jungle
21
The Chicleros
22
‘You Know the Type of Place You’re Going to?’
Part Three: LAGRIMAS NEGRAS
23
Into His Mother’s Arms
24
Pinaud Elixir
25
A Civilised Dinner
26
A Willing Sacrifice?
27
Mexican Hat Dance
28
Run, Rat, Run
29
Sweet Terror
30
One Death
31
The Figure in the Tower
Charlie Higson, Hurricane Gold
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