Teotihuacán translated as “the place where man met the gods.” It was a gargantuan archaeological site of Mesoamerican culture, containing the Pyramid of the Sun—the largest such structure in the pre-Columbian Americas—but also enormous residential structures, the wide, central Avenue of the Dead, and the Pyramid of the Moon. The city was established around 100 BCE. Its burgeoning inhabitants continued its expansion through 250 CE until eventually it became, with a population of 125,000, one of the largest cities in the world.
This history was very much in evidence as Bourne and Maricruz went down the Avenue of the Dead toward the massive Pyramid of the Sun. Everything about Teotihuacán was on a mammoth scale, including the residences with apartments built one atop the other to accommodate the swiftly increasing population.
“Do you think he’ll come?” Maricruz said.
“I do.” Bourne was automatically scrutinizing the faces of every tourist and tour leader they passed. The place was packed with groups huddled around their guides or walking in clouds like gnats as they were led from structure to structure. “But he won’t come alone.”
“He can’t afford to let anyone know what he’s doing.”
“He doesn’t have to,” Bourne said. “All he has to do is tell someone he knows where you’ll be.”
Maricruz looked alarmed. “Then why did you tell me to set this up?”
“Matamoros can’t bring his crew here—too many foreign tourists. He can’t afford any undue attention now. No, he won’t send a crew and he won’t come himself. He’ll send someone he trusts, someone in his inner circle.”
“Juan Ruiz,” Maricruz said. “He’s Matamoros’s personal bodyguard.”
“All the better,” Bourne said as they approached the Pyramid of the Sun.
“He’s a huge man.” She described Juan Ruiz in detail. “You won’t be able to miss him.”
Bourne stopped in the middle of a gaggle of tourists, where they could stand and talk in as much protection as Teotihuacán was going to afford them.
“It’s time for you to go on alone,” Bourne said. “You understand how it will work?”
She nodded.
“Okay then.”
He watched her eel her way through the throng and then out onto its periphery where, here and there, people from the group were taking photos. She moved easily; no one could tell what was under her long coat.
He stayed within the heart of the group, which was beginning to move on toward the Pyramid of the Sun. Keeping one eye on Maricruz and the other on the lookout for Juan Ruiz, he went down the Avenue of the Dead.
Ahead of him, Maricruz had stopped at the corner of the stone wall that wrapped around the structure. To her left were the central steps, filled with awestruck people, ascending and descending, that rose up to the pyramid’s peak.
A short time later, a slim, almost effeminate man came up to where Maricruz stood. Diego de la Luna. Maricruz, keeping her hands in the pockets of her coat, turned to him and they began to talk. De la Luna looked extremely nervous. His tongue kept flicking, serpent-like, from between his bloodless lips.
Bourne kept moving, and when he spotted the big man Maricruz had described, he moved out from the shelter of a herd of Italian tourists. He strolled until he was behind Juan Ruiz. The assassin’s presence was proof enough for Bourne that Matamoros had lost faith in Maricruz and what she promised to do for him.
Juan Ruiz might be big, but he stalked Maricruz like a cat. He had small feet, and like a dancer he seemed to glide over the ancient paving stones of the avenue as if he were death itself.
He was very good at his work. Though he had fixed on his prey, he was acutely aware of his surroundings and those people coming within his proximity. Bourne knew he needed to be extremely careful. If Juan Ruiz spotted him too soon, the plan would fail.
He kept circling, keeping himself out of range of the big man’s peripheral vision. Juan Ruiz was very close to de la Luna, who had engaged Maricruz in an argument that, as Bourne had suspected, was designed to keep her fully occupied.
Bourne had to admire Juan Ruiz, even as he was working his way toward Ruiz’s broad back. He was close enough now that Maricruz became aware of him. Her head jerked, as she began to turn, but it was too late. Juan Ruiz already had his gravity knife flicked open.
As Maricruz opened her mouth in surprise, he plunged the blade into the soft spot just beneath her sternum.