Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [75]
"Perhaps--perhaps not."
He turned and looked up at the ceiling of the cabin. "And Dimitri continues to live." He laughed harshly, choking a little. "Now I don't really see how I can allow that to happen, do you?"
But I hadn't the strength to answer, for suddenly darkness swept over me like the seventh wave and I slept.
14
Face to Face
It was shortly after noon when I awakened and only then because my leg started to hurt as the effect of the morphine started to wear off. I sat up and found Wyatt's head turned toward me, eyes open. His forehead was pale, almost translucent and damp with sweat.
I said, "Can't you sleep?"
"Rather a waste of time under the circumstances, wouldn't you say?" He smiled faintly. "Do you have any idea what you're going to do yet?"
"Not really."
"Let me know when you do. I'll be happy to go along with anything you decide." He smiled again. "If I'm around long enough, that is."
It was an uncomfortable thought and I got to my feet, opened the door and went into the saloon. There didn't seem to be anybody about, but the medicine chest was on the table. I rummaged about inside until I found the box of morphine ampoules and at that moment Simone came down the companionway.
She was wearing a yellow sou'wester oilskin coat and there was rain on her face which I now saw was quite badly bruised on the right cheek where Langley's elbow had connected.
"So you're up?" she said and then saw the box of ampoules in my hand. "Here, let me do that. How is it?"
"Not so good." I sat down and propped my leg on the table so that she could give me the injection. "What's it like up top?"
"Plenty of rain, winds three to four. Clearing toward evening. I just checked on the radio for Aldo."
"I'll see for myself, I think."
I got to my feet and she protested at once. "You should be taking it easy."
"Some sea air will do me good. I need to clear my head--to think. You have a word with Wyatt. There may be something he needs."
The morphine worked quickly and the pain in the leg was already dying away as I went up the companionway and the rain, stinging my face like lead pellets when I went out on deck, was cold and fresh and made me feel alive again.
Palmyra rolled her slim length into the wind, plunging over a wave as water broke across her prow, racing the weather. On the port side, briefly on the horizon, I seemed to see land, but could not be sure.
In the wheelhouse Barzini leaned over the chart table. Behind him the wheel clicked to one side eerily to compensate as the Palmyra veered to starboard, the automatic pilot in control.
"How are you?" he said.
"Fine--crippled, but fine. Where's Nino?"
"Pumping some fuel in the engine room. He'll be along."
I pointed to the horizon. "Did I see land out there?"
"Malta." He tapped the chart. "We should make Capo Passero by early evening if we can maintain speed and the weather doesn't get any worse. I've been pushing her as hard as she'll go."
He took a flask of brandy from the chart table drawer and passed it to me. I took a long swallow and it seemed to explode somewhere deep inside. Probably didn't mix too well with morphine.
I said, "I think we should have a talk, all of us together, to decide what happens at Capo Passero."
"Okay," he said. "She should be all right on automatic pilot for a while. Let's go."
As we went out on deck Nino climbed up from the engine room and Barzini called him to join us as we went below. We sat round the table and Simone brought fresh coffee from the galley.
I said, "All right, Aldo, so we get to Capo Passero. What happens then? You tell me."
"You want your sister. Stavrou wants his stepson. We make a deal."
"But it isn't that simple," I said. "Not anymore. We know now that Stavrou needs his stepson dead. It means a fortune to him. It also means he doesn't want inconvenient witnesses around. Langley was supposed to see to that for him, only he slipped up."
"But Stavrou doesn't know that," Simone put in. "Let's say he comes on the radio like he said he would the moment we're sighted.