At the report of the gun, Zimmermann came tearing around the corner. Esterhazy shot him between the eyes.

“Schultz!” he cried out. “Help us!”

A moment later Schultz appeared, gun in hand, and Esterhazy shot him as well.

Then Esterhazy backed away, sputtering and spitting, wiping his face clean with a handkerchief and returning to the small group, pistol drawn. Gerta stood there, staring at him, paralyzed.

“Walk over here,” he told her. “Slow and easy. Or you’re dead, too.”

She obeyed. As she reached the edge of the cabin he grabbed her and, with the same tape used to tie Pendergast, bound her ankles, wrists, and mouth. He left her on the walkway where she wasn’t visible from the bridge, then strode back to the aft deck, where Hammar was slowly regaining consciousness, groaning and muttering. Esterhazy bound him securely. He made a quick tour of the upper decks, found the wounded Eberstark, and bound him as well. Then he walked forward again to where Pendergast and Constance were restrained.

He looked at the pair. Both had witnessed what he’d done. Constance was silent, but he could see blood dripping from her injured finger. He knelt, examined it. The second, deeper cut went to the bone but not through it. He fumbled in his pocket, brought out a clean handkerchief, and bound the finger. Then he stood up and faced Pendergast. The silvery eyes glittered back. Esterhazy thought he could detect — barely — lingering surprise.

“You once asked me how I could kill my own sister,” Esterhazy said. “I told you the truth then. And I’ll tell you the truth again now. I didn’t kill her. Helen’s alive.”

CHAPTER 77

ESTERHAZY PAUSED. A NEW LOOK HAD COME into Pendergast’s eyes; a look he didn’t fully understand. And yet the man said nothing.

“You think your fight’s just with me,” Esterhazy went on rapidly. “But you’re wrong. It’s not just me. It’s not just this boat and this crew. The fact is you have no idea, no idea, of what you’re dealing with.”

No response from Pendergast.

“Listen. Falkoner was going to kill me, too. As soon as you were dead, he was going to do the same to me. I realized that just tonight, on this boat.”

“So you killed him to save yourself,” Constance said. “Is that supposed to solicit our trust?”

Esterhazy did his best to ignore this. “Damn it, Aloysius, listen to me: Helen is alive, and you need me to bring her to you. We don’t have the time to stand around talking about it now. Later, I’ll explain everything to you — not now. Are you going to cooperate with me or not?”

Constance laughed mirthlessly.

Esterhazy stared into Pendergast’s frozen, unreadable eyes for what seemed a very long time. Then he took a deep breath. “I’m going to take a chance,” he said. “A chance that somewhere in that strange head of yours, you might just believe me — about this, if nothing else.” Taking out a knife, he leaned over to cut Pendergast free, then hesitated.

“You know, Aloysius,” he said quietly, “what I’ve become was what I was born to be. It’s what I was born into—and it’s something beyond my control. If you only knew the horror that Helen and I have been subjected to, you’d understand.”

He sliced through the lines holding Pendergast to the stanchion, cut through the tape, and freed him.

Pendergast slowly stood up, massaging his arms, face still unreadable. Esterhazy hesitated a moment. Then he slipped Pendergast’s.45 from his own waistband and handed it to the FBI agent, butt first. Pendergast took it, tucked it away, and without a word went over to Constance and cut her free.

“Let’s go,” said Esterhazy.

For a moment, nobody moved.

“Constance,” said Pendergast, “wait for us at the tender in the stern.”

“Just a minute,” Constance said. “Surely you aren’t going to believe—”

“Please go to the tender. We’ll join you in a moment.”

With a single, lingering stare at Esterhazy, she turned and walked aft, disappearing into the dark.

“There are two men on the bridge,” Esterhazy said to Pendergast. “We have to neutralize them and get off this boat.”

When Pendergast did not reply, Esterhazy took the lead, pushing open a cabin door and stepping over a motionless body. They passed through the main saloon and then ascended a stairway. Arriving at the sky deck, he opened the sliding glass doors and crossed the sky lounge. Pendergast took up a position next to the bridge door, drawing his weapon. Esterhazy knocked.

A moment later the captain’s voice came over the intercom. “Who is it? What’s happening? What was that shooting?”

Esterhazy put on his calmest voice. “It’s Judson. It’s all over. Falkoner and I have got them immobilized in the saloon.”

“The rest of the crew?”

“Gone. Most of them killed or incapacitated — or overboard. But everything’s under control now.”

“Jesus!”

“Falkoner wants Gruber below for a few minutes.”

“We’ve been trying to raise Falkoner on the radio.”

“He ditched his radio. That man Pendergast got his hands on a headset and was listening in on our chatter. Look, we don’t have a lot of time, Captain, Falkoner wants the mate below. Now.”

“How long? I need him on the bridge.”

“Five minutes, tops.”

He heard the bridge door being unbolted, then unlocked. It opened. Immediately, Pendergast kicked it back, knocking the mate senseless with the butt of his handgun while Esterhazy rushed the captain, jamming his weapon into his ear. “Down!” he shouted. “On the floor!”

“What the—?”

Esterhazy fired the pistol to one side, then put the muzzle back against his head. “You heard me! Face down, arms spread!”

The captain dropped down to his knees, then lay prone, stretching out his arms. Esterhazy turned in time to see Pendergast tying up the mate.

He walked over to the helm, keeping his pistol trained on the captain, and throttled the twin diesels back into neutral. The boat slowed on its way to coming to rest in the water.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the captain cried. “Where’s Falkoner?”

“Tie this one up, too,” Esterhazy said.

Pendergast stepped over and immobilized the captain.

“You’re a dead man,” the captain told Esterhazy. “They’ll kill you for sure — you of all people should know that.”

Esterhazy watched as Pendergast went to the helm, scanned it, lifted a cage enclosing a red lever, and pulled the lever. An alarm began to sound. “What’s that?” he asked, alarmed.

“I’ve activated the EPIRB, the emergency position-indicating radio beacon,” Pendergast replied. “I want you to go below, launch the tender, and wait for me.”

“Why?” Esterhazy was disconcerted at how suddenly Pendergast had taken control.

“We’re abandoning ship. Do as I say.”

The flat, cold tone of his voice unnerved Esterhazy. The agent disappeared off the bridge, heading to the lower decks. Esterhazy went down the stairs to the main saloon and to the stern. He found Constance there, waiting.

“We’re abandoning ship,” said Esterhazy. He pulled the canvas from the second tender. It was a 5.2-meter Valiant with a seventy-five-horsepower Honda four-stroke outboard. He opened the stern transom and threw the windlass into gear. The boat slid off its cradle into the water. He cleated it at the stern, climbed inside, started the engine.

“Get in,” he said.

“Not until Aloysius returns,” Constance replied.

Her violet eyes remained gazing at him, and after a moment she spoke again in that curious, archaic way. “You will recall, Dr. Esterhazy, what I told you earlier? Let me reiterate: at some point in the future, in the fullness of time, I will kill you.”

Esterhazy snorted in derision. “Don’t waste your breath on empty threats.”

“Empty?” She smiled pleasantly. “It is a fact of nature as ineluctable as the very turning of the earth.”