CHAPTER 73
Somewhere near Isla de Alborán
Mediterranean Sea
Kate went to the sink and washed her face, as if doing so could clear away the cobwebs in her mind and help her remember. She felt like the answers, the whole truth—all of it—was there in the recesses of her mind, just out of reach.
When she returned, David was waiting for her in the stateroom, his body armor on, that “ready for war” expression on his face that she knew by instinct now.
“How do you know there are two Atlantean factions?”
“I just know it. And the ships. Martin had it right. They’re from two different groups.”
“There are miles of tubes in Antarctica. What do they hold? More scientists? Soldiers? An army?”
Kate closed her eyes and rubbed her eyelids. It was all a jumble, yet the answers were there. “I… can’t remember. I don’t think they’re explorers.”
“Soldiers, then.”
“No. Maybe. Just give me some time. It’s like my whole brain is burning.”
David sat on the bed and put his arm around her. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally he said, “We’ll make landfall in less than an hour. We have to make a guess about the killer.”
Kate nodded.
“My suspects are Shaw and Chang, in that order,” he said.
“Let’s work backwards here,” Kate said. “Let’s start with motive. Who would want to kill Martin—why would any of them want to kill him?”
“Martin was close to a cure—we know that from his notes.”
“So anyone who wanted to prevent him from finding a cure—they should be our chief suspect,” Kate said. “It’s clear to me that Chang and Janus want to find a cure. That rules them out for me. We know preventing a cure is priority number one for the Immari. There’s only one person on this boat who was a loyal Immari soldier when this all began. Kamau.”
“It’s not him,” David shot back.
“How can you be so sure?”
“He saved my life in Ceuta.”
“That may have been his mission—to save you and follow you to me.”
David exhaled. “Let’s move on. Chang was also an Immari loyalist when this began.” Kate could see that he was angry now. “Hell, he’s the biggest mass murderer on this boat. How many did he kill in China? Hundreds, thousands?”
“I don’t think he could have broken Martin’s neck,” Kate said.
“Maybe not while he was alive, but what… what if Chang had already killed Martin? You said he gave him a therapy on the plague barge. What if that therapy killed him, and Chang broke his neck after the fact to hide it?”
“We can’t test that theory. There’s no way to do an autopsy here. Kamau is a better suspect. He’s a trained killer.”
“So am I. So is Shaw.”
“You haven’t mentioned Janus.”
“I just… don’t think it’s him. I don’t know why.”
“Shaw saved my life in Marbella,” Kate said.
“That could have been his mission—”
“That is his mission—”
“His Immari mission,” David said. “There’s another motive. Forget the cure. What if Martin knew who the SAS operatives were—and he knew that Shaw wasn’t one of them?”
David’s words silenced Kate.
“You said Shaw sure knew his way around that Immari camp.”
“From the sounds of it, you got up to speed pretty quickly too.”
David shook his head. “Touché.”
There was something Kate wanted to say, before the discussion, or argument, or whatever it had become went any further. “Look, I don’t know who killed Martin or what we should do. But I know this: whatever you decide, I will go along with it.”
David kissed her burning forehead. “That’s all I need.”
Everyone was assembled on the yacht’s upper deck: Kamau, Shaw, Chang and Janus. David handed Kamau an automatic rifle and a sidearm. A matching automatic rifle hung from David’s shoulder.
Shaw looked from David to Kamau. “You’re not arming me—”
“Shut up,” David said. “We’ll arrive at Isla de Alborán in twenty-five minutes. This is what we’re going to do.”
When David had finished relating his plan, Shaw shook his head. “You’ll get us all killed. Kate—”
“This is what we’re doing,” she said flatly.
In the ship’s cockpit, David nodded to Kamau.
The tall African activated the radio. “To the outpost at Isla de Alborán, we are Immari officers, survivors from the battle of Ceuta. We request permission to dock.”
The outpost responded, asking for Kamau’s rank and Immari officer code. The African called it out quickly and calmly, his back to David.
“They’ve cleared us to dock,” Kamau said.
“Good. Let’s proceed.”