His words were cut off abruptly by a loud retort, and he stared down at his own chest in disbelief. Max was lying prone, arms outstretched in front of him, Ben’s gun in both his hands, and he had his eyes closed and was shaking. In the shock of Austin’s death, no one had noticed him edging closer to the weapon.
Bailey’s knees buckled and he dropped heavily onto them. He was dying, and he clearly knew it. He was staring at Max, his hands holding his pistol over the wound, which was spurting blood, coating the dull metal. He seemed to be trying to speak, but death took him before he could manage breath. His head sunk onto his chest, and then he just toppled forwards, the gun trapped beneath his body.
Max was moaning. He curled up into a ball. Kneeling by his side, Rachel enfolded his head in her arms, rocking him.
Aleksey toed the dead men, just checking.
It was over.
Two more down and none to go. It didn’t seem possible.
Ben was still clearly in pain and probably feeling extremely nauseous. Aleksey went over to him and put an arm over his back as he stood with his hands on his knees. ‘Okay?’
Ben muttered, ‘I’ll live.’ The colour was beginning to return to his face, so Aleksey left him and went over to the crying man. ‘Get up.’
Max sniffed and struggled to his feet. Rachel patted his arm, but backed off a little, possibly at the expression on Aleksey’s face. ‘This is over now, yes?’
Max didn’t seem able to control his shaking. He nodded and closed his eyes again.
‘It needs to be destroyed.’
Once again the shivering man nodded. Then he opened his eyes wide. ‘I don’t want it! Don’t give it to me! I—I can’t believe…’ He just stared down at his ex-business partner and friend.
Aleksey blew out his cheeks and glanced at Rachel. She nodded. ‘We’ll take it back to the lab, and it will be destroyed safely. I’m so sorry. About everything.’
He looked at Ben. Ben clenched his jaw, turned his face towards Guillemot, and then began to walk off through the trees.
Aleksey felt a sense of calm descend. He suddenly heard birdsong, loud and clamorous, and tipped his head up to the sky. Dawn had arrived. The vast expanse to the east was streaked with salmon-pink and crimson. He turned back to the couple who were now standing, talking quietly, heads bowed. Rachel moved away when she sensed his observation, but Max came forwards. He wasn’t looking good, but Aleksey suspected he was worse, so really couldn’t summon sympathy for the busted nose or other cuts and bruises.
‘I truly am sorry for all this. At least no one got hurt—well, only them. Is Maddy…?’
Aleksey nodded.
‘Oh, well, that’s all of them then.’
Aleksey didn’t respond to the man’s desire to chat. He was puzzling things over, thinking about random snippets said by other men. He toed Bailey’s body once more, something about the scene slipping away from him on fatigue and pain.
‘Oh. My. God. Look! Max, look!’
They both jerked their heads up sharply towards the woman who was standing by the medieval stone arch which Aleksey had discovered on their last visit to the island. She was fingering the little carving over the lintel. Max walked towards her. ‘What?’
She ignored him, but beckoned Aleksey over. ‘Look!’ Her face was almost glowing. He glanced once more at the dead soldier and went closer.
She ran a fingertip over the long robes of the central carved figure, touched the tiny representation of a sailboat behind it. ‘It’sSt Nicholas.’ She welled up, her eyes becoming watery, but her smile utterly beatific. ‘He’s the patron saint of sailors, so he’s always represented with a boat.’ Once more she turned to Aleksey. She almost took his hand. ‘You bought this island from someone in the Royal Family, didn’t you? I heard…someone told me, but with all this awful business, I’ve not been able to…but I’ve found it…I’ve found my Holy Grail.’ She turned suddenly and walked past the ruined walls. ‘They’re buried here. They’re underneath me.’ She turned and regarded the pond. It was swollen from the rain and small trickles from the banks beneath the old walls were seeping towards it. ‘They buried them right by the pond! I wonder if the runoff has somehow…?’ She wandered off deeper into the woods, talking to herself, toeing the ground as if she would find her mythical men robed in white manifesting beneath her.
They heard movement from the woods in the other direction, and Aleksey looked over to see Ben returning. He was walking strongly now and his colour was good.
He had the tiny blue canister in his hand.
Aleksey’s predatory senses were dulled with exhaustion, but he wanted to tell Ben to run and keep running. It seemed very wrong to just hand this thing over now.
When Max swallowed deeply and held up his hands, claiming, ‘I don’t want it. Please,’ Aleksey felt a slither of his anxiety subside. But Ben clearly didn’t want to hold it either, and as Rachel was busy with her angels, he just passed the cylinder to the reluctant man.
Max turned it around, studying it, checking the seal.
Aleksey felt Ben come to stand at his side beside the dead soldier. He was trying to remember something that was important, but could not. Exhaustion weighed him down and fogged his mind. He just wanted to lie down with Ben and sleep.
Rachel came out of the wooded area she’d been pacing through. She almost seemed to be illuminated like a saint in a medieval painting, but Aleksey allowed that the rising sun was just reflecting off her pale skin. ‘This is the place. I’ve found the priory of St Nicholas. This is where they must have come when they left Avignon.’ She clasped her hands together and raised her eyes. ‘I can make this right. I can make all things right.’
