pushed the muzzle against Rafferty’s teeth.

‘All right, you son of a bitch! What’d you give her, and how much?’

‘Up yours,’ Rafferty said, and then wished he hadn’t. Goddard grinned, and he’d never seen a face like that before. Goddard flicked on the safety, caught him by the shirt collar, leaned in on him, hard, and slashed his head again with the gun barrel.

‘You want to wear your scalp around your neck like a lei, go ahead,’ he said, fighting for breath. Somebody was hammering on the door. He raised the gun again.

‘Two tablets,’ Rafferty said.

‘Of what?’

‘I don’t know. He just give ‘em to me. He didn’t say what they was.’

Probably codeine, Goddard thought. But whatever it was, two couldn’t be any more than double a prescription dose and unlikely to be fatal.

‘Where’s Mayr?’ he asked.

‘Mayr? He’s dead and buried, you jerk.’ He looked at Goddard’s face, and at the gun, rising again. ‘All right, he’s down below somewhere. I don’t know where.’

‘How’s he supposed to get off the ship? And where?’

‘A boat, somewhere ahead of us.’

‘How far?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘How many are there besides Lind?’ ‘Otto, Sparks, Karl, Mueller—’ ‘Who’s Mueller?’

‘The bos’n.’

There were more people in the passageway now. Somebody was battering on the door with what sounded like a sledge. ‘And who else?’ Goddard asked.

‘One of the black gang, but I don’t know which one.’

‘Any more?’

'I don’t know. You think he tells me anything?’

‘You’re in it for the money, is that it?’

‘Partly.’

The bolt was beginning to tear out of the door. Rafferty looked at it. Help was coming. ‘What else?’ Goddard asked.

Rafferty spat in his face. ‘What do you think, Jew boy?’

'I see,’ Goddard said. ‘You’re dedicated.’ He wiped the spittle from his face. Without looking around, he spoke to Karen Brooke between crashes on the door. ‘Karen, see if you can find that cartridge; we’ve only got one clip. Stay close to me, and don’t let anybody get behind you.’

He stood up and gestured to Rafferty with the gun. ‘All right, save the hammering out there,’ he called through the door. ‘We’re coming out.’ He worked the bolt back and pulled the door open. The screen door had been torn from its hinges and was lying on deck. Otto was standing in front of it with the nozzle of a fire hose, Lind was beside him, and Karl was coming up the passageway behind them with a fire ax. Otto started to raise the nozzle until he saw the 0.45 dangling in Goddard’s hand.

Goddard shoved Rafferty out. ‘Here’s your boy,’ he said to Lind.

Lind nodded, but said nothing.

Goddard jerked his head at Otto. ‘Throw that thing forward, and go aft. You too, Karl.’

The nozzle and fire ax clanged on the deck. Goddard looked out and checked to his right. There was nobody in the passageway forward. He gestured for Lind and the other three to go on aft and out on deck, and followed close behind them with Karen on his heels. Barset was in the thwartships passageway near the entrance to the dining room, looking frightened.

‘Don’t get behind me,’ Goddard said. Barset turned and went the other way.

The four men went out on deck. Goddard checked to be sure they were all in view before he stepped out himself, followed by Karen. He moved to the right to get out from in front of the passageway. There was no breeze at all now and the sea was like polished metal. Just ahead and to starboard the sky was a poisonous mass of cloud veined with the nervous play of lightning. Thunder growled on the horizon, and the acrid odor of burning cotton stung his throat. Mueller, the bos’n, was running up the ladder from the deck below. Goddard gestured for him to stand clear, near the others, and spoke to Lind.

‘Where Mayr is, or what you’re going to do with him, I couldn’t care less. But I’m going to move Mrs. Lennox into my cabin, and Karen and I are going to be there with her from now on. I don’t know how many of your crew are in this, but I’ve got a blanket policy that covers it; anybody who tries to get in will be shot. We may not make it to Manila, but some of you won’t either.’

There were no threats, no bluster. Lind merely listened, and waited for him to finish. He turned to Rafferty then, and said quietly, 'I thought I told you not to carry that gun.’

Rafferty’s eyes were crawling with fear,