“Bit casual, and I would’ve told him to surrender straight off, but not bad. You’re getting the hang of this whole being-threatening lark.”
“Everyone at the IHA thinks I’ve already got it.” Eddie moved back to cover the hatch as Nina waited for a reply. The seconds ticked by. “Is he going to answer?”
Eddie grinned crookedly. “Maybe we caught him while he was taking a dump. Even billionaires have to crap.”
“There’s a delightful thought,” she said with a disgusted sigh.
Still nothing but silence from the intercom. Eddie eyed the remaining oxygen generator. Now that the threat had been made, they might have to go through with it …
A click from the handset. “Dr. Wilde. This is Harald Glas.”
Nina switched the intercom to speaker mode so Eddie could hear. “First things first. If you try to break in here, we’ll destroy the other oxygen generator, and the engines and batteries too. You’ll be trapped down here. You got that?”
“I hear you.” The Dane’s voice was sonorous, measured, calm even under threat. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to stop trying to kill my wife, for starters,” said Eddie. “Then if we’re still making deals, maybe also an Aston Martin. And a pony.”
“You’re as irreverent as I’ve heard, Mr. Chase.”
“You seem very well informed about us,” Nina said.
Glas didn’t offer a response to that, instead saying, “I assume you wish to see me in person.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Eddie replied. “You get your arse down here—alone.”
A brief hesitation. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. But … I will send a representative to bring you to me. A hostage, if you prefer.” The background hiss from the speaker briefly cut out as Glas closed the mike; Nina guessed that the newly appointed “hostage” was unhappy about the arrangement. “They will be with you shortly. Alone, as you wished.”
“And unarmed,” said Nina.
Another muted pause. “Agreed.”
“If we see anyone else on the way to you, I’ll shoot your friend and blow up the engines,” Eddie told him. “So get everyone to lock themselves in the galley or wherever.”
“It will be done,” said Glas. The intercom fell silent.
“You trust him?” Nina asked Eddie before answering her own question. “Of course not.”
“Go upstairs and wait in the air lock. If anything happens, get back into the sub and take off.”
“I don’t know how to drive the thing,” she told him as she ascended. “I don’t even know how to detach it from this sub.”
“Bash every button until something happens, that’s my usual trick.”
“Yeah, that’s why I don’t let you use my laptop.” She pushed the hatch until it was slightly ajar and she could see out through the narrow gap.
Before long, someone knocked on the door. Eddie looked up at Nina. “Well, here we go,” he said, freeing the crowbar from the handle before returning to cover. “Okay, open it. Slowly!”
He held his finger tightly on the trigger as the door eased open; if he saw a weapon, he was ready to fire instantly. But instead a pair of slender black-gloved hands came into view, fingers spread wide to show they were not carrying anything. “Well?” said a familiar aristocratic voice, filled with irritation. “May I come in?”
Eddie could hardly believe it. “Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“Charming as ever, Eddie.” Sophia Blackwood leaned through the opening, taking in the rifle pointed at her. “You can put that down; I’m not armed.”
“I’ll check that for myself. Shut the door, then put your hands against it.”
Sophia impatiently complied. Eddie pushed the ASMDT’s muzzle against her back and performed a one-handed pat-down. He knew his ex-wife well enough to be unsurprised to find she had lied. “Not armed, eh?” he said as he pulled a compact Glock 36 pistol from the waistband of her black leather trousers beneath her blouse. “I should just shoot you on fucking principle. Glas thought he could use you to kill us, did he?”
“Actually, Harald doesn’t even know I have that gun,” she said as he finished his search. She looked up at Nina, who had cautiously emerged from the docking chamber. “It’s got quite an interesting story, actually.”
“Really,” said Eddie, not caring. “You should send it to a publisher—maybe it’ll outsell Dan Brown.”
“I’m sure Nina will want to hear it. Part of it takes place in Rome.”
Eddie stepped back, keeping the rifle fixed on Sophia. “Nina, take this,” he said, holding out the Glock.
His wife quickly descended the stairs. “What about Rome?” she demanded. “What the hell was going on there? Your buddy killed Agnelli, and