Cold Vengeance (34 page)

C
HAPTER 77

E
STERHAZY 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.”

C
HAPTER 78

E
STERHAZY TURNED HIS THOUGHTS TO
P
ENDERGAST
and what he was up to. He had his answer when he heard a muffled explosion below. A moment later Pendergast appeared. He helped Constance into the tender, then leapt in himself as another explosion shook the yacht. A smell of smoke suddenly filled the air.

“What did you do?” Esterhazy asked.

“Engine fire,” said Pendergast. “The EPIRB will give those still alive on board a sporting chance. Take the helm and get us out of here.”

Esterhazy backed the boat away from the yacht. A third explosion erupted, sending a ball of fire into the sky, streamers and burning bits of wood and fiberglass raining down around them. Esterhazy turned the boat and throttled up as much as he dared in the ocean swell. The boat pitched and yawed, the engine rumbling.

“Head northwest,” said Pendergast.

“Where are we going?” Esterhazy said, still nonplussed at Pendergast’s tone of command.

“The southern tip of Fire Island. It will be deserted this time of year—the ideal place to land unnoticed.”

“And then?”

The boat ploughed through the medium sea, up and down, riding the swells. Pendergast didn’t say anything, did not answer the question. The yacht disappeared in the darkness behind them, even the flame and black smoke that poured from it growing indistinct. It was dark all around, the faint lights of New York City a distant glow as a low-lying mist covered the waters.

“Throttle down to neutral,” Pendergast said.

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Esterhazy did as ordered. And then, suddenly, just when a swell swayed him off balance, Pendergast seized him, slammed him to the floor of the tender, and pinned him. Esterhazy had a moment of déjà vu, when the agent had done the same to him at the Scottish churchyard. He felt a gun barrel press against his temple.

“What are you doing?” he cried. “I just saved your life!”

“Alas, I am not a sentimental man,” said Pendergast, his voice low and menacing. “I need answers, and I need them now. First question: why did you do it? Why did you sacrifice her?”

“But I
didn’t
sacrifice Helen! She’s alive. I could never kill her—I love her!”

“I’m not talking about Helen. I’m talking about her twin. The one you called Emma Grolier.”

Esterhazy felt sudden, massive surprise temporarily overpower his fear. “How… how did you know?”

“The logic is inescapable. I began to suspect it as soon as I learned the woman in the Bay Manor Nursing Home was young rather than old. It was the only explanation. Identical twins share identical DNA—that’s how you managed a deception that could persist even past death. Helen had beautiful teeth, and her twin obviously did as well. Giving her twin the one filling—matching it to Helen’s—what a work of dental art.”

“Yes,” said Esterhazy after a moment. “It was.”

“How could you do it?”

“It was either her or Helen. Emma was… very damaged, profoundly retarded. Death was almost a release. Aloysius, please believe me when I tell you I’m not the evil man you think I am. For God’s sake, if you knew what Helen and I survived, you would see all this in a completely different light.”

The gun pressed harder. “And what is it that you survived?
Why
did you arrange this mad deception?”

“Somebody had to die—don’t you see? The Covenant wanted Helen dead. They thought I killed her in that lion attack. Now they know differently. And Helen is in extreme danger as a result. We’ve
got
to go to ground—all of us.”

“What is the Covenant?”

Esterhazy felt his heart pounding. “How can I make you understand? Longitude Pharmaceuticals? Charlie Slade? That’s just the beginning. What you saw at Spanish Island was a mere sideshow, a footnote.”

Pendergast remained silent.

“The Covenant’s rolling up their New York operation, erasing their U.S. footprint. The big boys are coming into town to supervise. They may be here already.”

Still Pendergast did not reply.

“For the love of God, we have to get moving! It’s the only way Helen will survive. Everything I’ve done has been to keep Helen alive, because she…” He paused. “I even sacrificed my other sister, damaged as she was. You have to understand. This is not just about you, or about Helen, anymore. It’s bigger than that. I’ll explain all, but right now we need to save Helen.” His voice broke into a sob, quickly suppressed. He seized Pendergast’s jacket. “
Can’t you see this is the only way?
”

Pendergast rose, put the gun away.

But Constance, who had been silent, now spoke. “Aloysius, don’t trust this man.”

“The emotion is genuine. He’s not lying.” Pendergast took the wheel, throttled up, and directed the boat northeastward, toward Fire Island. He glanced toward Esterhazy. “When we land, you will take me directly to Helen.”

Esterhazy hesitated. “It can’t work like that.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve taught her over the years to—take extreme precautions. The same precautions that saved her life in Africa. A phone call won’t do, and surprising her with you would be too dangerous. I have to go to her myself—and
bring
her to you.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Not yet. We must find a way to expose and destroy the Covenant. It’s either them or us. Helen and I know a great deal about them, and you’re a master at strategy. Together we can do this.”

Pendergast paused. “How long do you need to get her?”

“Sixteen, maybe eighteen hours. We should meet in a public place where the Covenant won’t dare act, and from there go directly underground.”

Another low murmur from Constance. “He’s lying, Aloysius. Lying to save his own beggarly self.”

Pendergast laid a hand on hers. “While you are right that his instincts for self-preservation are excessive, I believe he is telling the truth.”

She fell silent. Pendergast went on, “My apartments at the Dakota contain a secure area, with a secret back door to get out when necessary. Across Central Park from the Dakota is a public area called Conservatory Water. It’s a small pond where they sail model boats. Are you familiar with it?”

Esterhazy nodded.

“It isn’t that far from the zoo,” Constance observed acidly.

“I’ll be waiting in front of the Kerbs Boathouse,” Pendergast said, “at six o’clock tomorrow evening. Can you get Helen there by then?”

Esterhazy glanced at his watch: just past eleven. “Yes.”

“The transfer to me will take five minutes. The Dakota is just across the park.”

Ahead, Esterhazy could see the faint blinking of the Moriches Inlet light and the line of the Cupsogue Dunes, white as snow under a brilliant moon. Pendergast turned the tender toward it.

“Judson?” Pendergast said quietly.

Esterhazy turned to him. “Yes?”

“I believe you’re telling the truth. But because the matter is so close to me, I might have misjudged you. Constance seems to think I have. You will bring Helen to me as planned—or, to paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, your remaining existence on this planet will prove nasty, brutish, and short.”