The Devil's Assassin (11 page)

Suddenly the dog
is on to something and he starts running, dragging his handler behind as fast
as the man can run. Finally, thinks Arroyos. He looks back and sees June and
Linus and waves at them with his gun to hurry and
takes
off after the dog himself.

“Maybe this is
it,” says Linus, not too loudly.

“Let’s go find
out,” says June. “I want a chance to tranquilize it before he kills it.”

June runs faster
than Linus toward Arroyos’ receding form. The hound is moving pretty well for
having a human strapped behind it. The dog and the handler take a few sharp
turns. Then for a while they are running straight and just past a small tree
the dog turns hard around.

Arroyos sees
the
dog turn first and then sees the rabbit run by him going the other way. He
stops, winded and disgusted. He yells at the officer with the leash, who
apparently hasn’t seen the rabbit yet.

“Stop.
Hold the
dog. It’s a rabbit! He’s chasing a rabbit.”

Linus and June
arrive as the detective is shouting. “Whew, that was some good exercise!” June
says out of breath.

“Looks like
someone forgot to tell the dog what we were looking for,” says Linus.

Arroyos is
stone-faced. “Shoot that dog!” he says in apparent seriousness.

“Detective!”
shouts June.

The dog’s handler
makes no move to shoot the animal nor do any of the other thirteen policemen or
gauchos who are arriving on the scene.

Even though his
death sentence was not carried out, Arroyos didn’t seem to want to push the
issue. “It’s time to go back.” He checks his compass and then indicates the
direction they need to go, leading the way back to the barn. “Remain
vigilant
!”
He shouts back at the group.

›

One of the
hunters, a gaucho named Juan Santangelo, has fallen some distance behind
Arroyos’ group. He is alone but used to being on the plains by
himself
, so he is unworried. His rifle is out before him and
he is moving slowly and alertly through the grass. Suddenly the man stops, not
sure if he heard a noise or not. He shrugs after hearing nothing further and
begins moving again toward the group, which is out of sight now. After a few
more steps he stops again, and again he is not sure if he has actually heard
something besides his own footfalls. He looks around worriedly, as if there is
a ghost near him that he can’t see.

“Let me see you,
Diablo.”

Now he hears a
noise clearly, a fast movement in the grass. He turns in the direction of the
sound and as he does so the creature jumps out of the grass in a blur and
drives his lance into the man’s chest. Before he can think, much less fire his
gun, the man crumbles to the ground in a heap.

Santangelo’s face
doesn’t show pain, but the fear he felt at the moment of the attack remains
painted on his face.

The creature,
known as El Poco Diablo to these men, cleans his lance in the usual way and
disappears into the grass.

›

Linus and June
are just behind Arroyos who are just behind the policeman with the dog.
Arroyos looks
impatient. “Maybe this dog’s nose only knows
rabbit!”

The dog’s handler
apologizes but Linus addresses the comment as well. “We’re hunting an animal
whose entire existence revolves around remaining unseen. I’m not surprised the
dog can’t pick up a scent.”

“All animals have
a scent, Señor.”

Linus shrugs.
“Maybe he smells like Pampas grass. There’d be a good evolutionary trick.”

“It’d be a first,
too!” replies June.

“The animal
kingdom is full of firsts,” says Linus to June.
“As you know,
of course.”

“I’ll check in
with Pablo’s group,” says the detective as he unhooks the radio from his belt.
“See if he’s turned around yet. I can let him know about your theory while I’m
at it.”

›

The creature is
running and stops. His breathing is heavier than usual. He’s been running hard
because of the pressure of all these men with guns and dogs around him. Now
he’s run into the back of the second group of hunters.

These men are
mostly concerned with what is in front of them and to their sides, hardly
looking behind themselves at all. This pleases the creature, though even if
they did look behind they still wouldn’t see him.

One of the men
speaks to another who nods and then the man breaks off to the right of the main
group, still moving cautiously. This is the kind of opportunity that the
creature likes and he moves closer to the man who has now stopped and is
obviously getting ready to relieve himself. When he sees this, the creature
moves fast, intent on getting there while the man’s pants are undone. The grass
is a blur on either side of the creature as he sprints toward his victim. In no
time he is upon his prey and drives his lance into his helpless victim’s lung.
The man doesn’t even have the time to look up.

Though he dies as
quickly as any of the creature’s victims, the man’s finger happens to be on the
trigger of his pistol. As a result, the gun fires and the loud report is enough
to scare the creature, who forgets the ritual tasting of his enemy’s blood and
flees. Unaccustomed fear has him crashing recklessly through the grass to get
away.

›

Pablo has his
radio up to his mouth and he is talking to it when the shot sounds. Detective
Arroyos hears the shot over the keyed radio.

“What was that?”
he says.

“It sounded like
a shot from the rear of the group,” says Pablo. “Let me find out what it is and
I’ll get right back to you.”

Pablo hitches his
radio back to his belt. Everyone in the scattered group is looking back to see
who fired at what. Pablo runs toward the rear of the group and the
others
who’d been waiting for some indication, follow him.

He sees one of
the men ahead of him running off to the left, in the direction the shot came
from. He heads that way, losing sight of the man in the tall grass. Pablo then
nearly runs the man over. He is standing there looking at the man who is lying
on the ground. He is sprawled on his back, his eyes open, and fear plainly
written on his face. His zipper is open and his right arm is across his
chest, that
arm being the one that accepted the recoil from
the gun when it fired. Since his arm had no strength to hold the gun as it
fired, the gun landed a little distance from the man’s body. The policeman
bends down to check the pulse on the dead man. As he expected there is no
heartbeat. He faces Pablo and shakes his head.

The others of the
group are arriving noisily behind Pablo. They see the fallen man and no
explanation seems necessary. Pablo takes his walkie-talkie off of his belt and
speaks into it.

“Detective.”

After a moment, “Yes.”

“One of the men
is dead.
Nothing apparent as the cause.
Apparently he
got a shot off before he died. ”

There is silence
on the radio and then, “Check his chest for the wound we saw on the gaucho a
few days ago.”

Pablo crouches
down to the dead policeman and the other fellow gets out of his way. Pablo
pulls up the man’s shirt and looks on his chest. There he sees a small spot of
blood. “It’s there, sir.”

“Maybe his shot
injured the devil, or killed it. Search the immediate area and make sure to
double up. No one is to be alone. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir!”

“We’ll go back to
get the vehicles and be there in a little while…. Who is the dead man, Pablo?”

Pablo hesitates,
worried about how his boss will respond. “It was Jorge.”

There is no
response.
“Detective?”

“I heard you.
Out.”

Pablo had
expected some expression of deep emotion. But as much as Jorge’s death saddened
him, there was no time to dwell on it. They both had other men to keep alive
while at the same time searching for the beast that did this to Jorge. 
There would be time for sadness later.

“You heard the
man. I want some men out there looking for blood, some sign that the diablo
left for us. Better yet, find the beast himself. And two men groups, no
singles.
Vamanos
.”

›

The men had
bunched around Arroyos while he was on the radio and so knew what was going on.
A stoic looking Arroyos clipped his radio back to his belt. Linus and June were
careful to say nothing at the moment. They weren’t sure of the detective’s
relationship to the dead man other than he was one of his men, but it was
apparent on the faces of others that the man was important to Arroyos. So it
was with great trepidation that another officer approached Arroyos with some
news.

“Detective Arroyos.
I haven’t seen Santangelo in about a half an hour, sir.”

Arroyos is
stunned
out of his stony silence. “What? Where is he? Where did he go?”

“He said he had
to piss,” the man said nervously. “I forgot about him in my concentration on
the hunt.”

Arroyos closes
his
eyes and shakes his head. He then opens his eyes and looks at the man who’d
been talking to him. He hefts his gun into a two-handed position, a move which
seems threatening to everyone, though the gun is not aimed at the man. The man
looks worried that he’ll be killed but Arroyos’ tone when he speaks is
business-like. “Lead the way, officer.”

The man is
relieved and turns around to lead the way back to where they lost sight of
Santangelo. As everyone begins to follow, Linus and June share a relieved
glance.

›

“This is about
where I left him,” says the policeman who’d been leading the group, sweeping
his arm off to the right of where he stood.

Arroyos points to
the same area. “OK. Let’s comb this area. Stay side by side.”

It is just
moments before someone nearly trips over the gaucho’s lifeless body. He is
lying on his back, fear a mask on his face, his black hat on the ground next to
him.

“Jesus
Christas
!” says the man who finds him. A few of the others
cross themselves and look over, and then walk over to see what the man is
looking at.

Linus gazes out
over the grass, stonily.

Arroyos bends
down
and pulls up the man’s shirt. It is something which hardly seems necessary, but
Arroyos wants to be sure. He flings the shirt back down on the dead man.

“He mocks us, the
devil. I shall relish spilling his blood into this very soil.” He stands up.

“I think we
should make sure that everyone stays closer together,” says Linus.

Arroyos laughs
.
“Good suggestion, señor. How about suggesting something I am not thinking.
Surprise me! Why can’t the dogs smell this animal? Why can’t men who are
holding guns, shoot it. Will we all die out here looking for him while he takes
one of us here and one of us there?”

Linus responds
angrily. “Here’s something you may not know, señor. This is a creature with a
head almost as big as yours or mine. I think he is smart enough to realize that
we’re hunting him, and I’d bet anything that he is hunting us now, not mocking
us.
Just hunting.
So as long as we’re out here, yes,
we’re all in danger. And it may not matter how careful we are. But that’s all
we’ve got.”

Arroyos narrows
his eyes at Linus. He did not expect the American to have an answer, and isn’t
used to having people speak without regard for his authority. He bends down to
close Santangelo’s eyes and puts the man’s hat over his face. Then he places
his hand over the man’s heart and takes it away. He looks up to Linus and then
to June from where he is.

“Didn’t you
suggest to me that this animal had killed someone earlier this week? Did you
not also suggest that this animal and his friends have been killing people in
my country for thousands of years? Did he not kill Jorge? Did he not kill
Santangelo? I don’t care about any danger. We will be careful, but this is not
a ghost. He will succumb to us. Let him hunt us. Let him come to us. Then we’ll
know where he is.”

Arroyos’ mood is
lighter. He smiles as he stands. His new resolve has convinced him that he can
catch the creature.

“You see, you are
helpful, señor. And Pablo thought you two would be a couple of soft Norte
Americanos.”

Linus is looking
out at the plains. In his mind he sees the creature in his basement, throwing a
leftover vegetable at him,
then
brandishing his lance.
The situation isn’t hopeless, but it doesn’t seem very hopeful either, here or
anywhere else where the creature and his brethren roam.

›

There is a ring
of guards around the camp, some standing and some sitting. The many tents and
two campfires are inside this ring. It is after midnight and the people who are
not on watch are sleeping in the tents, or at least trying to. The men outside
on guard are occasionally yawning and stretching, but for the most part
everyone is awake and alert, guns at the ready.