‘You’re not truly at fault,’ she said. ‘You weren’t a part of what was going on. But it hurt and I hated you for a long time. Seeing you again brings back a great deal of anger and heart-sickness, but I suppose it’s just residual emotion.’
‘Yara, listen. I . . .’
‘Don’t bother. It’s all in the past.’
‘Maybe for you. It’s been my present for the last thirteen years.’
She laughed humorlessly. ‘Don’t tell me you’re a romantic at heart!’
‘Listen to me for a minute, okay?’
‘If you’ve come here thinking you can rekindle our affair, forget it. That part of my life is over.’
‘How can that be?’ he asked. ‘You’re still young, you’re a beautiful woman.’
She liked hearing that, he could tell, yet tried to hide the fact, thinning her lips in disapproval.
‘I didn’t come here for any reason I can name,’ he said. ‘I assumed you were dead. I may have hoped to see you again, but the hope wasn’t real. It was . . .’
‘Stop it!’
She slapped the table and, as if cued by that percussive sound, a mechanical grinding issued from the stairwell, growing louder with each passing second, impeding their conversation.
‘What the hell’s that?’ Snow asked.
‘He’s flying. Shut the door.’
Snow did as instructed, reducing the noise by half, and returned to the table.
‘Did you notice there aren’t any men in the village?’ Yara asked, cutting off his unspoken question. ‘Within a month after we came to Tres Santos, Jefe had killed them all. Some tried to run, he seemed to know when they ran, and where, and he hunted them down. He kills every man who comes here except for the PVO guys, and he’ll kill them once they’ve outlived their usefulness. I actually believe he gets along with men better than he does with women, but it’s like he’s obeying some beastly imperative, wiping out the competition.’ She paused. ‘He’s probably going to kill you.’
Snow wanted to make light of what she had told him, but could not.
‘Don’t look so shocked,’ Yara said. ‘I don’t know how you found this place, but you knew about the PVO, didn’t you? You must have realized you were taking a risk by coming here.’
‘There must be some way of dealing with him. What should I do?’
Yara’s face, which had softened a little, walled over again. ‘I can’t help you.’
Snow was hard put to think of anything to say.
‘Do you want me to explain?’ Yara asked. ‘Can you listen without interrupting, without telling me I’m being ridiculous? I don’t have the patience for that anymore. There’s a lot I don’t understand, but what I know, I know.’
‘How long have I got?’
‘Chances are you’re safe for today.’ She brushed strands of hair from her eyes and, with no small degree of malice, said, ‘Even if I’m wrong, we have time. He’ll be flying for hours.’
‘As you recall,’ Yara began, ‘when we were together I used to go into the city to meet with various men, passing along Griaule’s instructions and delivering the money I’d collected from Club Sexy and other sources. I recalled little of those meetings, because I was under his thrall. But soon I realized the money was being used to establish the PVO, to fund their arms purchases and recruitment campaigns . . . even the construction of this complex. It was completed years before Jefe and I took up residence, and built according to a design I imparted to the architect. Of course I have no recollection of this, but I’ve been assured that was the case.
‘As the party grew in strength and numbers, the job of fund-raising was taken over by men who could operate with more efficiency than I, but I continued to serve as a conduit between the dragon and the party. It might seem odd that a woman could function as the putative leader of a male-dominated organization, especially once the party was on a solid footing. At any rate, it seemed odd to me. Yet I came to understand that extremist groups depend on a mystical element, an occult component, to lend gravitas to their actions. I was for the PVO that mystical element, the Virgin Mary who in effect gave birth to their messiah, so I was granted immunity from their prejudices, protected from their violence. Whenever a man crossed the line with me, as happened more than once, the party dealt with him mercilessly.
