'But I failed. I failed... failed...'

The Scotsman looked vulnerable; the chutzpah was gone, the persistent smile, the chattering self confidence. His face was twitching, close to tears.

'I was trying to think of a better way out! I really was. I was. And I did. The euphorbia. But it was too late.' The Scotsman knelt and picked up a beautiful seash.e.l.l, a whorl of creamy porcelain veined with pink and yellow, and a thread of tenderest red. Tender and vulnerable.

The seash.e.l.l lay nestled in his palm. Angus gazed down; he was choked, almost sobbing.

'This is why I believe in G.o.d, David. I mean. Look at this sh.e.l.l. Look at this sh.e.l.l. Why is it so beautiful? Why? It's pointlessly beautiful, isn't it? Purposelessly beautiful, why make a seash.e.l.l so beautiful? Who does that benefit? What's the point? It's excessive. Evolution is itself Why is it so beautiful? Why? It's pointlessly beautiful, isn't it? Purposelessly beautiful, why make a seash.e.l.l so beautiful? Who does that benefit? What's the point? It's excessive. Evolution is itself excessive excessive. This is where creationists have it wrong wrong, the universe isn't designed it is inspired. inspired.'

He dropped the sh.e.l.l. He kicked it away. Again David didn't know what to say.

Angus was still talking.

'I lied back then, David.'

'What do you mean?'

'At breakfast, I lied.'

'How?'

'I'm not sure they will be stalled by the guards. The Society. Not for long.'

'So...' David felt the horror of the inevitable thought: Miguel still out there, coming for them. 'What do we do?'

'Nathan is too arrogant to listen. I tried to tell him earlier but he wouldn't listen. He thinks he is impregnable here, the Forbidden Zone. Safe in his dynastic fortress. The great Kellermans of the Sperrgebiet. But he isn't isn't safe. Kellerman Namcorp is powerful, but not safe. Kellerman Namcorp is powerful, but not that that f.u.c.king powerful. The whole church? If they want to get at us they will find a way.' The sunlight made Angus's red hair almost coppery. 'We need a plan. Because they will come. Tomorrow, a few days, next week. They are coming for us as we speak.' f.u.c.king powerful. The whole church? If they want to get at us they will find a way.' The sunlight made Angus's red hair almost coppery. 'We need a plan. Because they will come. Tomorrow, a few days, next week. They are coming for us as we speak.'

David stared across the tarnished silver of the sea. The Scotsman was surely right: they needed a means of escape.

The barks of the seals on the island were carried by the hot and savoury breeze. Penguins were chittering in their colonies on the smaller islands. It was, David realized, a world of unwitnessed beauty, the beauty of nothingness, no one ever saw this: the dead quartz and glittering ashes, the agates and buried sandroses: a wasteland of loveliness.

Out there on the blue severe waves, someone was observing. David looked, hard. It was a man, standing on the deck of the skiff. A man with a pair of binoculars, or something. The man was standing and gazing through the binoculars at the buildings on the sh.o.r.e.

This man was staring straight at them. And there was a man next to him, pointing. But the man wasn't pointing.

David felt the uncomfortable p.r.i.c.kle of anxiety.

Now he realized: the man had some kind of...device. A long black shape. Directed their way.

Angus was heading for the sheltering rocks. 'Run! David!

Run!'

But David stood on the beach, gaping with the horror.

The first missile streaked eagerly through the clear blue sky.

42.

The fireb.a.l.l.s were huge and billowing: monstrous black clouds tinged with Satanic tangerine. Towers of pungent smoke filled the sky.

'Amy! Amy!'

David edged up over the parapet of sand: the complex of buildings was gone. gone. Replaced by a hideous wall of flame and devastation; the air was shuddering with the heat of the blaze; secondary explosions added to the surging noise. Replaced by a hideous wall of flame and devastation; the air was shuddering with the heat of the blaze; secondary explosions added to the surging noise.

Angus was p.r.o.ne beside him. Lying on the sand. He put a hand on David's shoulder.

'It's the oil generator the fuel's gone up.' The Scotsman turned on his back, and looked towards the sea. 'The boat...The b.a.s.t.a.r.d boat...f.u.c.k '

David was staring in horror at the destruction: anyone in or around the building would have stood no chance. No hope. No chance.

Angus muttered: 'They must have come from Walvis Bay? Maybe Oranjemund...'

'David?'

A softer voice. David swivelled.

It was Amy. She was unharmed. Standing in the sand. Trembling.

And behind her was Nathan Kellerman, bleeding profusely, and staggering.

Amy sank into David's embrace.

'I was coming down to see you...then I got knocked over...'

He hugged her close. Angus asked Nathan: 'Eloise?'

Kellerman's voice was slow, and wearied: 'She was engulfed.'

His suit was smeared with a tar-like substance; David realized it was blood. blood. Kellerman was bleeding from a chest wound. Kellerman was bleeding from a chest wound.

And now a new noise joined the tumult, cars were screaming to the sh.o.r.eline, and men in blue overalls and desert boots were jumping out. David recognized Solomon and Tilac, the Kellerman Namcorp guards. Nathan lifted an arm: 'Shoot.'

The men obeyed: they unhoisted rifles and knelt in the sand, and took aim. The boat was already departing, churning south job done. But the Namcorp men fired anyway, and the echoes of the crackling rifle fire joined the roar of the burning fuel dumps, and the soft explosion of buildings crumpling in the flames. The smell of burning petrol was vicious, greasy black smoke was fogging the oceanic sky. Amy was shivering now. Angus was remonstrating with Nathan.

David could barely hear their conversation. He caught the odd word: Amsterdam, helicopter, dinghy Amsterdam, helicopter, dinghy. He looked between the two of them. Nathan was handing something to Angus. It looked like a gun, a pistol and something else: a small black velvet pouch. Despite his deep tan, Nathan Kellerman had a notably white pallor; and the blood was still oozing from some hideous wound, staining his soft linen jacket a blatant burgundy. Angus, by contrast, seemed energized; he turned to David and Amy.

'Nathan wants us to use the company boat, down there.' He pointed. 'He's right. We actually have a chance let's take it.'

'What?'

Angus gestured at the wide black cloud now drifting down the beach. 'They'll have zero visibility for an hour or two. The guards can hold them off with gunfire.'

David protested: 'Eloise...'

'She is dead, David. Nathan wouldn't lie. Come on. Come on. They'll be watching the roads out of the Forbidden Zone, but if we take the boat to Luderitz They'll be watching the roads out of the Forbidden Zone, but if we take the boat to Luderitz '

Amy said, very softly: 'I think he's right.'

Angus was already hoisting Nathan's sagging arm over his shoulder, a.s.sisting him down the beach. David and Amy swapped glances, then followed, stunned and frightened. A few more rifle shots smacked the hot air behind them.

Behind the next cove was a small pier, and a tethered rubber speedboat with a powerful looking engine.

Angus got in, and a.s.sisted his benefactor into the boat. But his boss's head was lolling, unsteady on its axis. Amy climbed in alongside; David swiftly followed. The oily smoke from the explosions blotted out the sun, turning the desert day into twilight. The Scotsman ripped the cord, the motor growled, and moments later they were speeding along the coast.

Flames and burning buildings receded behind. For a while they were silent, watching the dismal spectacle slowly dwindling, the dinghy buffeted through the blue choppy waves. They pa.s.sed a disused diamond mine: a skeleton of eroding steel looming above the cliffs.

Nathan was almost whispering, as he lay back on the black rubber of the boat. His face wet with sweat, a Navajo smear of red blood across his cheek.

'So Eloise is dead. The last Cagot...'

'Yes.' Angus wore a regretful smile. 'They won, Nathan. Miguel is no d.a.m.n use.'

An anxious pause. Nathan Kellerman reached out a hand, and touched Angus's wrist. The gesture was delicate, gracious, refined.

'Angus. There is one more way.'

'What?'

'Find the Fischer results.'

'What?'

The glittering green eyes of the Scottish scientist were fixed on the pained and twitching face of his boss, Nathan Kellerman. David leaned close to try and overhear this pained and fraught conversation. Angus asked Kellerman, 'You know where they are?'

'No. But...Dresler maybe. Maybe he does. He was the last option. If we failed at Tamara that was my very last option I think he knows where they kept the data but he will it will be difficult to get it out of him.' Kellerman coughed, into his own hand. He looked down at his palm, now cupping his own blood. The Jewish dynast fell back, and gazed at the sky, a kind of wild acceptance in his eyes. Accepting the sky and the sea. Then his barely focussed eyes turned to Angus, once more.

'So Dresler knows, I think. And I always felt I could force it out of him, if I was truly desperate, but you'd have to take him...very close to the edge. I never wanted to risk it before, he was too useful.' Another anguished cough. Then he continued, grimacing. 'But now? What does it matter? Try it. Nothing to lose.' Kellerman was sweating in the sun. 'And this is my stop, Angus. Here's where I get off.'

Angus grabbed at Kellerman. 'C'mon, Nathan.'

'I am f.u.c.ked, Angus. Look.' Nathan opened the jacket, like a prost.i.tute letting fall her nightgown; a huge glistening oval of blood, like a red scarlet sea nettle, pulsed in his chest. Amy and David stared at each other. Angus had turned, he was trying to slow the boat; but even as the motor puttered out, Nathan Kellerman lifted himself to the side of the boat.

David shouted, reflexively: 'No!'

It was too late. Kellerman was over the side and slipping into the water, into the cold Namibian waters. David stared, aghast. Kellerman's white face was a sad oval in the blueness; Angus was steering the boat to a halt.

But Nathan was already half under, slipping deeper into the waves. His chest smoking blood.

And now the sharks were on him. The water was crazy with dorsal fins, evil and swooping. David glimpsed a vicious serration of teeth, already stained red. The devouring fish were tearing in a frenzy at the bleeding and flailing body, pulling it under. David couldn't help watching: the sight was transfixing. The sharks were ripping at the arms and the legs, like a kind of obscene children's game. Tagging and taunting the scapegoat. And then moving in for the kill.

Nathan Kellerman didn't scream. He seemed to accept his hideous death as he was torn apart, and pulled under the waves for the final time. David stared down into the sapphire fathoms; the sharks were pirouetting around the dim black corpse. A belch of blood and gas burst to the surface, foaming the waters red.

And then silence.

Angus said nothing. He started the boat, once again, and they cruised through the anxious waves, under the dignified sun.

They motored past the desolate coves. Sea birds wheeled, their cries like dying falls. David stared at the black rocks and yellow sands.

He thought of the blood in the water; a man being eaten alive.

Then the Scotsman spoke.

'All the data and the bloods were in that building. And Eloise. Everything's gone. And he thought we'd be safe...' Angus was shaking his head. 'Kellerman was so stupidly stupidly wrong. Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d.' The Scotsman adjusted the rudder, to steer them closer to the sh.o.r.e. 'We'll be in Luderitz soon.'

David voiced the obvious question: 'And then?'

'We've got a few hours' grace. But the Namibian authorities will have to intervene. So it will become common knowledge that we got out.'

Amy said, 'And we'll be stuck in Luderitz. What good is that?'

'There is a means of escape.'

'How?'

Angus explained, quite calmly.

'The diamond shipment. Nathan reminded me. Every other day, Kellerman Namcorp transports rough diamonds to Amsterdam. Just like De Beers, flying gems into London.' Another tilt on the rudder. 'The shipments go via Windhoek.'

David protested: 'But '

'I can get you on. They know me. And pa.s.sport control is essentially run by the company itself. You'll be landed at Kellerman HQ in Amsterdam. Back in Europe. Home safe and sound.'

'And you?'

'Dunno. Might take brunch...Whatever.'

'You're just gonna give up?'

The red-haired scientist gazed down the sunlit coast. The smoke storms were a long way away now.

'What do you expect me to do? Go back and start over? I'm done. I'm finished. It was my stupid ego that got me this steeped in blood. I thought I could repeat Fischer, get his data, then get the n.o.bel, G.o.d knows. With Nathan's help. But were they ever really gonna give me prizes for revealing something so apocalyptic? For guaranteeing war? I was an idiot. Race is the curse, the curse of G.o.d on man. And Kellerman had his own motives. Leviticus 25. I was so b.l.o.o.d.y stupid. stupid.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Work it out. My ego got Alphonse killed, Eloise killed. Nathan is dead. You guys nearly killed. Fazackerly is dead. It's so f.u.c.king over. I'm moving on. Turning a new leaf. Drawing a line. Might take up golf.'

'But I'm not done.' It was Amy talking. The two men looked at her; blonde hair floating on the hot salty breeze.

'Remember what Jose said?' She looked first at Angus, then at David. 'When he said I know what happened to the Jews that's the whole key to this isn't it, Angus? Whatever this...secret is...that you were working towards. It explains why the Jews died in the Holocaust, doesn't it? Eloise told us that. You told her something.'

Angus piloted the boat without a word.