“You must believe me,” Papagos pleaded. He came forward a step and McGarvey raised his pistol.
“Put your gun down.”
“Kill me and you’ll never see your wife and daughter again. He’s crazy. He’ll kill them first, and then he’ll kill you. He means to do it. He’s got the power, even more than Constantine does. But I can help you. I know what he’s up to.”
Something bumped against the hull on the portside of the ship. The Dhodhoni, or a distraction? McGarvey, still holding his gun on the Greek, stepped farther back into the darkness.
“What are you doing?” Papagos whispered urgently.
“Put your gun down, and you might come out of this alive,” McGarvey whispered back.
If it was Spranger’s people out there coming back to the ship for some reason, Papagos would provide a brief delay. Possibly long enough for McGarvey to gain the advantage.
It would also mean that this ship wasn’t set to blow after all.
“Fuck you,” Papagos snarled, and he spun on his heel, darting for the open hatch as a black-suited figure appeared on deck.
The Greek cried out and got off one shot that staggered the man in the hatchway, but did not knock him down. McGarvey figured he was wearing a bulletproof vest. Then three silenced shots were fired down the length of the thwartships corridor from the starboard side, slamming into Papagos’ back and head. He fell forward on his face, dead.
A second later another black-suited figure rushed down the corridor and as he passed, McGarvey reached out and yanked the man back into the shadows, putting the muzzle of his Walther to the man’s temple.
“Tell your people to back off,” McGarvey said in German. “Or I will kill you now.
Do it!”
The man McGarvey was holding didn’t move a muscle. He was obviously a well-disciplined professional.
“Mr. McGarvey,” someone called in English from the darkness above on the stairs.
“I am pointing my pistol at your head. I want you to release Frank, and step away from him.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Ed Lipton. I’m a U.S. Navy lieutenant. We’re SEALS here to rescue your wife and daughter.”
Spranger? the thought immediately occurred. McGarvey wouldn’t put this past the man.
“How did you find me?” he called.
“The walkie-talkie you were given in Paris was modified to include an EPIRB. Do you know what this device is?”
“Yes,” McGarvey said. “Who gave it to me?”
“Mr. Littel on Mr. Lynch’s instructions,” Lipton answered.
“What else have you been told about me?”
“That you’re one tenacious son of a bitch,” the man McGarvey was holding said. “My name is Tyrell, and if you don’t mind I’d like to be set free. My back is killing me.”
McGarvey moved the gun away from Tyrell’s head, released his grip around the man’s neck and stepped out into the middle of the corridor. He was covered from the hatches at both ends of the corridor, as well as from Lipton on the stairs.
“Any sign of your wife and daughter,” Tyrell asked.
“No, but I didn’t have the chance to look,” McGarvey said. “I think this ship is about to blow.”
“Then we’d better hurry,” Lipton said, coming down the stairs. “Frank, take Bryan, Tony and Bob, and start with the bilges and engine room. Jules and McGarvey will come with me on this deck and above.”
“Everything is set here,” Diirenmatt said, laying the remote control detonator on the table.
Spranger had been looking out to sea in the direction he knew the Thaxos was lying, although in the darkness he could not actually see the ship. He turned.
“Very well. Who is watching the landing area?”
“Bruno.”
“Take Walther and Otto with you and join him. Once the ship blows we’ll watch with the starlight scopes.”
“How long do you want to wait before we get out of here?” Durenmatt asked. He was a very large bear of a man. His specialty with the STASI had been killing men with his bare hands, slowly and with great relish.
“However long it takes for Mr. McGarvey to come to us,” Spranger said turning back to the open window.
“He’s probably dead out there, or else he will be soon.”
“I don’t think so, Peter. No, I think Mr. McGarvey is more resourceful than that.”
“We can stand off, and when he comes up here … if he comes up here… we can blow this place.”
“No,” Spranger said with finality. “I want to see his face when he knows he’s lost.”
“Insanity,” Durenmatt said, half under his breath.
Spranger looked at the man, his left eyebrow slightly arched, his lips pursed. “Peter,”
he said softly. “If you ever talk to me like that again, I shall have you nailed to a post and skinned alive. Is that clear?”
“Jawohl, Herr General,” Durenmatt said, chastised. Even he realized that he had gone too far. “I am sorry.”
“See to your duties, then.”
“Yes, sir,” the bigger man said. He clicked his heels and left.
Liese came in from the adjacent room that had once been a small chapel. She had overheard everything, and she was smiling.
“What if he doesn’t lose, Ernst?” she asked. “Perhaps he’s coming here not only to free his women, but also to see the look on your face when you know that you’ve lost.”
Spranger didn’t bother rising to her bait.
After a moment or two she chuckled, the sound low and soft. “How long before the ship explodes?”
“Less than three minutes,” Spranger said, and he glanced back at Liese headed for the door. “Where are you going?”
“I want to see the look on Elizabeth’s face. She’s more interesting to me.”
“Stay away from them.”
“No,” Liese said flatly. “We’re going to kill them in any event. Perhaps I’ll do the mother now. I’d like to see the little girl’s reaction.”
A slight flush had come to Liese’s cheeks.
“You’re disgusting.”
She laughed out loud. “Yes, I am, aren’t I?”
Chapter 51
“I count six dead so far,” Lipton said coming out of the crew’s dining area. “Every one of them has been shot in the back of the head at close range. This STASI outfit are a bunch of bastards.”
McGarvey was at the end of the corridor at the stairwell which led to the lower decks and engine room. “There’s at least one more on the bridge. I think you’d better get your people off this ship before it’s too late.”
“They know what they’re doing,” Lipton said crossing the corridor and poking his head into the galley.
“So does Spranger.”
Chief Petty Officer Jules Joslow came around the corner. “All clear in the crews’
quarters,” he reported.
“Any sign of the hostages?” Lipton asked.
“Negative. If they were ever aboard they left no traces that I could see.”
“They’re on the island,” McGarvey said, one ear cocked at the stairway.
“You get that from the one we neutralized?”
“He said they’d been taken to the monastery where Spranger’s waiting for me to show up. I think he was telling the truth.”
“Spranger has got to know that you came out here…
Lipton said, but then he realized that he and his men had probably walked into the middle of a trap that had been set for McGarvey. A trap that McGarvey was expected to escape from. And for the first time Lipton began to get the feeling that he and his people might be out of their league here.
“Lieutenant,” McGarvey prompted.
“Right,” Lipton said. “I think it’s time we get the hell out of here. There’s no one left alive.” He turned to Joslow. “Get our raft away from this ship. I’ll pull Frank and the others out.”