THE FIBRE MAT

The saúvas had already reached the back of the yard when Valdo pulled a fibre mat from under the outdoor table and spread it over the earth. The shade fell crooked, narrow, but the workers changed direction within a few minutes. They came from the crack by the door, carrying larvae, damp mud and splinters of Antônio's portion. The pequi seedling remained fenced by the torn screen, with two green stalks leaning towards the side where the sun stayed longest. Nael knelt, but soon put his hands on the ground and got up again. He took a loose panel from the porch roof and leaned it against the base of the adobe wall. He made a passage of shade between the house and the dead bed where Valdo had planted cheiro-verde before selling water along the road. They'll come out this way, said Valdo. Going where. Under the kitchen, if the earth is less hot. Nael looked at the crack. The anthill had not chosen the house for shelter. The buried layer breathed heat through the cables and the old cracks. The datacenter machines drew water from the same basin, gave back steam above the rooftops and left under the yard a temperature that displaced animals, roots and people. An orange strip appeared on Valdo's body panel. He did not raise his arm. The projection came down by itself onto the dust. Biological containment scheduled for after dark. The rental company had used Nael's walking map, the collection lens and the path of the saúvas to feed an artificial intelligence model. The model had drawn three points for applying bait. One of them fell exactly where the crack opened onto the buried layer. If they put that here, said Nael, the queen dies under the house. Valdo kept holding the mat. The cut on his neck pulled when he tilted his head. And the team says the colony came from Antônio's residence. I already said the house wasn't his. You said his name first. The mat creaked between the two men's hands. The saúvas passed underneath, in a tight line, stumbling over the grains of hot sand. One was carrying a leaf that no longer existed on the seedling, torn off days before and kept at the bottom of the nest as if green could survive on loan. Nael moved the roof panel and changed its angle. The shade advanced half a hand's width. The upper curve goes in behind the storehouse, he said. Valdo did not answer. There's a drop after the dry buriti. The machine gets through if it comes empty. With a load, it sinks. You've been keeping that since the stake. I kept it. To make me pay for it later. Nael dragged the sole of his sandal across the earth and wiped out a line of ants that had already broken up. The other man waited. Between them lay the lost portion, the rain bet, the route handed over by half, the house they were both helping to keep invisible and Antônio's name put in the wrong place. You take the team that way, said Nael. Say the trail went out of the yard. They'll look for the queen on the bank. And Antônio. You talk to him first. Valdo let go of the mat for a moment. The fibre fell over part of the trail, and the ants piled up, looking for light at the edges. I'm not going to tell him only that you said his name. You'll tell him everything. Even the buried house. Even the buried house. Nael picked up the panel and wedged it between two stones. The passage of shade became continuous up to the bed. The saúvas began to cross it, first the smallest, then the ones carrying larvae. Valdo took hold of the mat again, now with both hands, and saw the line thicken. If Antônio wants to throw me out of here, he said, I'll go. He'll want to know why you let me into the licensed polygon. Because I needed the route. Because you needed me to go with you. Valdo let the sentence drop into the yard. The earth answered with a low noise, coming from under the house, as if something were scraping the dry layer. Nael went over to the gate. He stopped by the leafless buriti, where the bark had split into hard strips. He pointed north, then at the ground behind the storehouse. The upper curve starts there. You take whoever comes as far as the red clay and stop before the hollow stone. Valdo repeated the way in a low voice, keeping the curves in his body, as Nael did. Then he pulled the mat further out, stretching the shade to the edge of the yard. The saúvas went on beneath it, carrying the queen away from the crack the company would call evidence.