“And at least ten thousand times that number are buried under the fields.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Shoot it down? What would Saint Francis recommend?”
The nun was unmoved by Matt’s sarcasm. “He’d tell you to get off your butt and do the job God has given you.”
The boy had no answer for this. He was bone tired. He wanted to hand the problem to someone else. He wanted to move into the biosphere and herd frogs for the rest of his life. But that wasn’t allowed. He took María’s hand and felt its warmth. “I’ll return when I can,” he said.
“I can help you,” she said. “I don’t want to be left behind. I didn’t risk death to be tossed aside like a kitten that’s only good for chasing feathers.”
Sor Artemesia laughed. It was the first wholehearted laugh Matt had heard from her in days. “I remember the arguments we used to have at school when she wanted to care for lepers. ‘We’ll have to import them,’ I told her. ‘Leprosy has been extinct for fifty years.’ I remember her turtles with cracked shells, the birds with broken wings, and the three-legged cats. You have a drive to do good, María, but you’d slow Matt down in your present condition.”
“No te preocupas, mi vida. Don’t worry. Your turn will come when I’ve sorted out the Scorpion Star,” said Matt, holding her hands and gazing into her eyes. “There will be thousands of people who will need your help.”
“Well, then,” she said, gazing back. He kissed her and left before she could think of an objection.
“Don’t forget Listen,” called Fidelito as Matt left the clearing where the chapel of Jesús Malverde stood.
44
EL BICHO
Matt moved stealthily through the gardens surrounding El Patrón’s mansion. Peacocks fluttered and cried as he passed. Giant carp stuck their noses out of ponds. The old man had imported them from Japan, and they were so tame people could feed them rice balls. They were more than two hundred years old. Animals, both wild and tame, inhabited the gardens, as well as eejits toiling in their drab uniforms and floppy hats.
Matt tiptoed over the tile floors of the main house and came at last to the room he was seeking. The holoport was swirling with icons, and he intended to call Esperanza. He wanted to tell her about her daughter and also ask whether she knew a way to jam the signal, if signal there was, from the Scorpion Star.
On the floor, in front of the screen, was the Bug.
“What are you doing here?” cried Matt. He knelt by the child and felt his head. A ripple of energy like a low electric current ran through him.
The Bug moved feebly and held up his right hand. Matt saw to his horror that it had melted. All that was left was a sticky-looking knob of flesh. “He wouldn’t take me,” whimpered the little boy.
“You put your hand on the screen, didn’t you,” said Matt.
“Dr. Rivas told me to open it. And I did—I did—” El Bicho’s voice trailed off.
“Does it hurt?” Matt didn’t know what he would do if the boy said yes.
“It feels—funny. Like ants crawling. Will it grow back?”
No, thought Matt. Not unless you really are a bug. “I’ll ask the doctors.”
“He wouldn’t take me,” said the Bug.
“Take you where?” Matt said, although he knew.
“To the Scorpion Star.”
And that was how Dr. Rivas had tricked the boy. He knew how much El Bicho longed to be in that ideal world. But the boy’s hand was too small for the scanner to recognize. It must have partially accepted him, or else he’d be a puddle on the floor.
The Bug touched Matt’s face with the knob. It was an instinctive gesture, a child reaching out for comfort, but Matt jerked away. It was disgusting, the feel of that boneless mass of flesh. He felt bile come into his mouth.
“Are you strong enough to walk?”
“I tried. I can’t stand up.”
Matt was confounded. He didn’t have time to carry the boy to Malverde’s chapel. He had to locate Cienfuegos and find out what those large hovercrafts were doing and why someone was firing machine guns. And then he noticed that the portal had changed. The edge of the screen was supposed to be red. Part of it turned green when Matt opened a section of the border to allow the passage of supplies, but now it was all green.
That was what the doctor had been up to. That was why he’d sacrificed the child. He’d ended the lockdown and left Opium defenseless.
Matt restored the lockdown at once. “How long has this been open?” he demanded.
“Don’t be angry,” wailed the Bug.