“Not this time. Thank Mary Power.” He turned to Keogh. “Here we go, Martin, moment of truth.”

TULLY WATCHED THEM coming, Ryan in the lead, and debated for a wild moment trying to shoot him as he mounted the steel ladder to the bridge, but hastily abandoned the idea as Keogh stood back, AK raised to cover Ryan. Ryan reached the bridge safely and stood outside the open door covering Tully, Muller at the wheel, and Dolan.

“Top of the morning,” Ryan said and raised his voice. “Come away up, Martin.”

Keogh joined him a moment later. “There you are, Tully, how’s the ear?”

Tully glowered at him. “It’s been better.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Search them,” Ryan told him.

Keogh quickly ran a hand over Muller, then Dolan. He found the Smith amp; Wesson revolver Tully had in his pocket.

“Very naughty,” Ryan said. “I’m surprised at you.”

“I’m the captain,” Tully protested. “What do you expect?”

“Oh, almost anything from you. Where are the other two?”

“Grant and Fox are in the engine room.”

“We’ll pay them a visit and take another look at this pig boat on the way.”

“As you like.” Tully shrugged and went to the voice pipe and whistled. Fox replied and Tully said, “Mr. Ryan wants a look at the engine room. We’re on our way down.”

“Good,” Ryan said. “Let’s get moving.” He nodded to Dolan. “You too.”

FROM THE DECK below the wheelhouse a companionway led to a narrow passage, door on either side. One of the doors had Toilet painted on it. Keogh opened it and found a stall lavatory, a wash basin, and a shower.

“Is this for the whole boat?”

“No, I have a separate one,” Tully said. “It goes with my cabin. That’s under the wheelhouse.”

“And these other doors?”

“Crew quarters.”

Keogh opened the doors and had a glimpse of untidy bunks and general disorder. “What a stink. Doesn’t anybody wash on this boat?”

Tully was enraged but kept his mouth shut. Ryan said, “So where’s the engine room?”

“End of the passage.”

“Right, lead the way the both of you.”

Tully opened a door at the end and the throbbing of the engines became very pronounced. They went down a companionway and found themselves in the engine room itself, Grant and Fox oiling the pistons and other moving parts.

They paused in their work and Tully said, “Is everything okay?”

“As much as it ever will be with this old bag of bones,” Grant told him.

Keogh said, “Hands high, boys.”

Ryan raised his rifle and, sullenly, they did as they were told. Keogh retired, satisfied. “Clean as a whistle.”

“Fine,” Ryan said. “We’ll go back, then.”

SIX

THE SEA WAS building up as they went out on deck, and the Irish Rose was already beginning to roll from side to side. Rain swept in clearing the mist a little. They went back up to the wheelhouse climbing the ladder one by one.

Tully sat down at the chart table. “So what now?”

“I’ve done a boat crossing from the Lake District coast to Ulster twice over the years,” Ryan told him.

“Is that a fact?”

“Yes, so I know where the Isle of Man is – halfway between the two and we pass south, skirting what they call the Calf of Man?”

“If you say so.”

“Oh, but I do, and there it is on your top chart. I’d say we should be seeing the lighthouse there at midnight.”

“So what?”

“That should give us a landfall at Kilalla around three.”

“It depends on the weather.”

“And so it does, but keep on course. I have a marine compass in any case, and I’d be very hurt if I discovered we weren’t proceeding in a westerly direction.”

“All right,” Tully said sullenly. “Now what happens?”

“Well, as there is nowhere else I’d particularly like to spend the night on this disgusting pig boat, we’ll use the cab of the truck. It even has a bunk behind the driver’s seat.” He turned to Keogh. “Give him your radio, Martin.”

Keogh took it from his pocket and put it on the chart table. “There you go.”

“What’s this?” Tully demanded.

“Two-way radio. I have one, too, so we can keep in touch, us down there and you up here. Another thing. You have one of your men standing on the deck down there where I can shoot him if anything untoward happens.”

“You bastard.”

“I always was, but I keep my word, and I’m going to give you a chance to be sensible.” He took an envelope from his pocket and threw it down. “That’s the fifty thousand pounds Mr. Keogh took from you.”

Tully was truly shocked. “My God!”

“Count it when we’re gone. It’s all there.” Ryan smiled looking like the Devil himself. “No bloodshed, no aggravation, and you get another fifty thousand at Kilalla in a few hours. Think about it.” He nodded to Keogh. “Let’s go. You first, Martin. I’ll mind your back and you cover me.”

They went down the ladder one after the other, and Tully opened the envelope and examined the money. “Damn him!” he said.

“What’s he playing at?” Dolan asked.

“He’s giving me a way out, isn’t he? Play the game and settle for a hundred thousand.”

“And will you?”

“There’s fifty million pounds in gold sitting out there, Dolan, fifty million.”

“All right,” Dolan said, “but these are hard bastards.”

“Well so am I.”

Tully sat there frowning and examining the chart. Dolan said, “Have you any ideas?”

“Not at the moment. If we don’t pass the Calf of Man he’d know it. On top of that he’s got a marine compass.” He shook his head. “No, we’ll have to stay on course and wait for our chance. There’s bound to be one. Maybe in the early hours of the morning when we’re closer to Ireland.”

Dolan nodded. “They’ll be tired then.”

“And seasick with any luck. I didn’t tell the bastard, but I checked the weather forecast and it’s deteriorating. Winds gusting to seven around midnight, and you know what this old tub is like in rough weather.”

“The original beast.”

The radio crackled and Keogh’s voice sounded. “As the song says, is that the captain of the ship?”

Tully pressed the answer button. “What do you want?”

“A man on deck.”

“All right.” Tully turned to Dolan. “Down you go, Mick. Two hours, then I’ll have Muller relieve you, and you’d better take an oilskin. You’ll need it.” He smiled savagely. “See, it’s started to rain again.”

DOLAN’S SHIFT BEING over, it was Muller who stood by the ladder, clearly visible in the sickly yellow glow of the deck lights, a miserable-looking figure as he tried to shelter from the rain under the lower canopy of the wheelhouse.

“Now isn’t that the great sight!” Keogh demanded as he devoured one of Mary Power’s ham sandwiches.

Kathleen laughed as she passed him a cup of tea. “You’re a terrible man, Martin.”

Ryan said, “His bad luck he’s on the wrong side. Here, I’ll put the heater on for a while.”

A warm glow spread throughout the cabin within seconds. “God, but that’s nice,” Kathleen said.

Ryan took another sandwich. “You’ll be fine back there in the cabin. Nice and cosy on that bunk bed. You get your head down and get some sleep.”

“What about you and Martin?”

“Oh, we can snatch an hour or two just sitting here. We’ll take it in turns.”

They finished eating and she put the rest of the sandwiches and the Thermos away and looked out into the darkness where the sea was angry, whitecaps driving in, rolling the Irish Rose from one side to the other.

Kathleen clutched at Keogh’s arm. “Exciting, isn’t it?” he said sardonically.

“Damn you, Martin, I’m bloody terrified and you know it.”

“It always gets worse before it gets better, that’s the way of it,” he teased her.

She punched him in the shoulder. “You can stop that.”