Path of the Tiger, стр. 18
Pedro gasped and writhed, but a look of desperate, wrathful defiance entered his eyes.
‘Fuck you and all of your Rebels!’ Pedro snarled. ‘I fought with Hernán Cortés, I conquered the New World, destroyed an entire nation of mortals, and brought an empire to its knees! I carved out my own empire and became wealthy beyond any man’s wildest dreams! I’ve been alive for five hundredyears, you piece of shit! Killing me will not erase my glory, nor will it change the present or the future, you fool! You’ve lost already, all of you Rebels have lost, and you have no idea of the pain that awaits you. You want to find the Ice Bear? He’s closing his claws around you as we speak, asshole! He will find you … and he will crush you, and the last few of you idiots that remain loyal to your cause, and he will end this war in a way that neither you nor the Huntsmen could have foreseen.’ Pedro paused here, his breathing becoming increasingly ragged and shallow, but his eyes still glowing with feverish keenness. ‘An ancient power, asleep for centuries, is rising again in the Dark Land. The lost Mothers have been found, and we will unleash their fury on the earth. And what’s more, we have awakened another power, a power that I first caught wind of in the dying days of the Aztec empire. And his coming, his return, I should say, will usher in what could only be described as … Armageddon itself. The world of mortals will be finished, hombre, finished! The Huntsmen will be overthrown, your Rebel forces will be crushed, and you will die screaming with all the rest of them. So fuck you, Gisborne. Fuck you and damn you to hell!’
In the face of these prophecies of doom and destruction, William simply smiled. His expression was an eerie travesty of a grin, though, and it sent a dark chill racing down Pedro’s spine.
‘I don’t fear your friends, and nor do I fear the Huntsmen, Hernández,’ he said calmly. ‘I’ve survived this far, and I’ll keep outwitting all of them at every turn. Despite what you think, there are some of us left who are loyal to the old ways, who still believe in what was, and what still could be. And your claims about finding the lost Mothers? Bollocks. We’d know if anyone had found them, so nice try with that bullshit bluff, but I’ve called it, and you know it. And as for the Ice Bear, I will have my vengeance, one way or another. I don’t fear him, and I certainly won’t pay any heed to whatever fairy tales he’s been feeding you about some mythical power rising up from the ashes of the past, whether in the “Dark Land” you speak of, or some dead relic from the ghosts of the Aztecs. Alas for you though, my old foe; your days of plunder and pillaging have finally come to an end.’
William pulled the knife from Pedro’s ribs and watched as blood from the unplugged wound washed in an obscene torrent down the man’s ribs. Hernández, however, managed to force a smile through his grimace of agony.
‘You’re a shitty liar, Gisborne,’ he gasped. ‘I can see the fear in your eyes. You know it’s over. You know the end is nigh. Your world is dead, and nothing can change this. It’s too late for you … and too late for almost eight billion mortals. We’ve won, you son of a bitch. We’ve … won.’
‘One last chance, old boy.’
‘Te veré en el infierno, hijo de perra.’
‘Oh, you’ll sleep in hell tonight Hernández, but you won’t see me there. Adios, amigo.’
William cocked his right arm, with the knife gripped tightly in his hand, but at the very instant that he was about to unleash the blade in a death-thrust, Pedro grabbed William’s wrist, the dying man’s hand quaking violently as he expended his final reserve of strength. William saw in his enemy’s eyes a new and raw terror; this being, alive for over five hundred years, now sensed the finality of death settling about his shoulders, draped with the crushing weight of a cloak that would shut out all light and sensation forever. Already its shadowy canvas was clouding over the brightness of his eyes.
‘Wait!’ Hernández panted. ‘Wait! Before the end, tell me, William, tell me … The Tree of Life, the Fountain of Youth … have you really seen them, like they say you have? Do you really know their secrets? Please, tell me this, tell me before the—’
Performing a swift Krav Maga move, William whipped his hand out of Pedro’s grip and slammed the knife into his adversary’s heart, twisting the blade to ensure a killing blow. The ancient being convulsed one final time, and then his every muscle slackened as his soul left his body.
‘What memories from those five hundred years of life flashed before your darkening eyes, my friend?’ William whispered, half to himself, his eyes locked on Pedro’s face as the dying man exhaled his last breath of this corporeal air. ‘What fleeting recollections of twenty mortal lifespans did your dying mind cling to in its final moments?’
After his adversary’s body had twitched out its final deathly rattle William crouched down and began to search the pockets of the torn-up remains of Hernández’s trousers. Aside from a phone, which he took in case it contained any important information, there was nothing that he thought would be of value to him. His body ached from the savagery of the fight and his raw wounds burned, but