Clare – I had no idea who he would choose for a target – and I heard
the gun fire share) IS crisp against the background bedlam. It was
followed almost instantly by a terrible grinding roar, louder than
anything we had heard before.
We staggered to our feet in time to see Falcon play its most horrible
trick.
It was Geordie, intent on his delicate steering, who first saw the
danger. I don’t know if he’d even been aware of Ramirez.
Esmerelda sheered off violently as he spun the wheel so that we turned
in a half-arc as fast as the one in which the eddy tide had taken us.
Then he pushed the throttle in until the engine was pounding at maximum
speed, to carry us away from the arena.
Behind us I saw Sirena jar to a sudden halt and Ramirez flung across
the deck. The ship rose grotesquely in the air and tipped over on her
side, looking like a small sailing boat stranded by the tide.
But this was no sandbank. It was a bed of writhing red-hot lava. The
sea recoiled from it in a tempest of steam.
In that last fraction of a second Ramirez rolled back down the deck,
his clothes a mass of flame. He was flung straight overboard into the
raging lava bed and vanished instantly.
Sirena went up like a funeral pyre, before banks of smoke and steam
rolled across to blot her out of our sight.
The rain of fire from Falcon continued. In all we were hit by four of
those fiery bombs. An exhausted and shell-shocked crew was kept busy
dousing fires, using the hoses for the biggest, buckets for the rest,
and praying that we would not run out of fuel. The hoses worked only
as long as the engine continued to run. And we knew that there wasn’t
the slightest possibility of rigging sail.
Even with the engine at full speed there were times when Esmerelda
began to drift back towards Falcon, caught in the grip of a cold water
current as it rushed in to replenish the vaporized water. An
occasional eddy swung her round by the bows and Geordie had to take her
out in reverse. It was three hours before we were well clear of
Falcon, a mad jumble of fire, steam, smoke and lava falling mercifully
astern of us. Geordie had been spelled at the wheel by Ian and Taffy;
the rest of us had managed to extinguish the fires, hurl the worst of
the debris overboard, and bring some faint semblance of order to the
ship. We took turns to collapse with exhaustion. Clare worked
steadily taking care of burns and wounds.
Some parts of Esmerelda were in better shape than others.
By a strange miracle the launch still clung to our coat-tails, though
we had no time to stop and haul her up on davits. I found to my great
relief that my notes and the bulk of the tab files were in order,
though most of the apparatus was wrecked. It was better to work on
things like that than to dwell on the last appalling few hours. But
there were a couple of matters that had to be taken care of, that could
not, for all my wishing, be put off much longer.
Mark was still on board and had to be dealt with.
And so was Hadley.
Taffy had started to tell me, just before Falcon blew its top.
Hadley had been one of the two men who had leapt to our deck, and was
being held in the brig with the other men from Sirena. It was
dismaying to know that he was with us, but for me the most serious
problem was Mark.
He and Paula had stayed together in the saloon during the whole of the
encounter with Falcon. Now I had to face him. I pulled myself to my
feet and went wearily below. Paula looked up as I entered and her
face, like everyone else’s, was drawn and shadowed.
“Are we safe yet, Mike,” she asked.
“Pretty well. You should both come up on deck and get some air It’s
remarkably peaceful up there now – Paul you for standing by.” She
smiled a brief acknowledgement and she and b up together. He was very
pale under the heavy bei limped a little, but he seemed fairly
strong.
He I -4 nothing as yet. I led the way on deck and they followed in
silence, numbed by the sight of so much damage. Nobody spoke to Mark,
but more than one of the crew reached to pat Paula’s arm or give her a
quick smile as she went by.
We stopped outside the-deckhouse, a shattered and burntout shell.
They stood together looking astern at the now distant ascending cloud
of smoke.
“I wish I’d seen it,”Mark said. He sounded wistful.
“It was fantastic, but too close for comfort,” I said. “I’m going to
tape my impressions as soon as I can. There’s a lot to be learned from
such close-up observation. Do you know what happened to Sirena?”
“Clare told us,” Paula said, and shuddered. Mark seemed unmoved. He
was not going to be overtaken by conscience as easily as that. I
didn’t mention Hadley or the other prisoners.
“Mark,” I said abruptly, “I have to talk to you.” “I’ll go,” Paula
offered.
Mark took her arm and held it. “Stay with me,” he said. She was the
only one he could be sure was on his side, and he needed a friend at
court. He turned to me and a hint of the old arrogance was back in his
voice. “What’s it going to be? One of your little lectures on
decency?” I felt grim and tired. This wasn’t going to work.
“For God’s sake, Mark, ease off. I’m not going to lecture you it was
always too late to get you to listen to reason. But we have to work
something out before we land, or before someone sights us.” I wanted
above all things to lie down, right there on the deck, and sleep for a
week. I was physically beat up and exhausted, but the onus of Mark was
a heavier burden. I wished I could have had Clare to stand by me, as
he had Paula, but I wasn’t going to bring her into it.
We stared at one another in stalemate.
My jumbled thoughts were interrupted by a bubbling scream. The sound
came from below. Taffy and a couple of the others dived down the
companionway, and Ian came past us at a run. I made a Tove to follow
but then held back, leaving it to the professionals.
I said, “I think it’s one of the Spaniards. He must be hurt, poor
devil.” “What Spaniard?” Mark asked.
For answer there was a crash from below, and Hadley burst into view
through the burnt-out galley and onto the deck where we were
standing.
He had a kitchen knife in his hand. I backed away from his red-rimmed
crazy eyes as he came at me like a bull.
I booted him on the shin but it was like trying to stop a truck.
He leapt on me in a bear hug that jarred excruciatingly on the
knife-graze in my side. His knife hovered near my throat. Desperately
I clawed at his face as we fell. Hadley landed on me with all his
weight but thank God his knife-arm was pinned beneath us. I chopped
viciously at his throat and he choked. His grip loosened. I jerked a
knee up into his crotch and broke free.
But Hadley recovered fast and rolled over onto his feet.
Agile for his bulk he leapt on me as I gasped for air. He pinned my
arms and I felt the breath being squeezed from my lungs and a rib
cracked agonizingly. Blackness surged in front of my eyes.
Suddenly he lost his balance and we both crashed to the deck.
Nick, crawling up from behind, had seized Hadley’s ankle and had yanked
his foot out from under him. I rolled free and Hadley got the full
force of a bullet from Ian’s gun in his belly Astonishingly he regained
his feet and swooped for the knife which lay on the deck. For a
near-fatal instant we all stood paralysed. With an unearthly bubbling
scream of rage and agony he plunged towards Mark and the knife
flashed,” viciously in the sunlight.
Mark flung Paula aside and met the attack full on. The knife sank into
his side and he collapsed without a sound The weapon fell to the
deck.
Hadley took two staggering -M paces backwards, clutching his stomach,
and then in a full back arch he went over the railings into the sea.
Silence hung in the air after his fait.
ribs and breathing in short I stood shakily clutching my painful
gasps.
are an When Campbell went to help Paula, she brushed him aside and ran