He stopped abruptly. Anna had begun to ease herself up to a sitting position. MacSwain stood up and in two steps he was above her. His fist slammed hard into her temple and the pain in her head exploded. The world darkened a little for Anna, but she didn’t pass out. She lay back down on her side and looked across to MacSwain, who continued talking as if he had simply taken time out to swat a fly.

‘Colonel Vitrenko showed me how there are those to whom we are linked. Like the Colonel and me. He said our kinship is in our eyes, that we must have had the same Viking father somewhere back in time. And me and Hauptkommissar Fabel. Colonel Vitrenko showed me that Herr Fabel and I share the same mix of blood. That we are both half German, half Scottish. That we have both chosen our place. That is why Herr Fabel has been chosen for me as an opponent.’

Anna felt some of the strength come back to her. Her thoughts swam more freely and quickly through the thinning sludge in her head. She eyed MacSwain. He was big and powerfully built, but, although his punch hurt, it lacked power. There were no sounds from the boat other than the lapping of water. Anna guessed that MacSwain had switched the engine off and had come down to have his little heart-to-heart with her. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was her where and when. But she wasn’t as drugged as he thought she was. She would fight. She would fight and fight until the last. He was not going to take her life easily.

‘But we’re not just connected to those who share our time.’ MacSwain continued his monologue. ‘There are those who have come before and those who will come after. And we are the history of those who will come after. And they will make legends of us. I shall become a legend. Colonel Vitrenko shall become a legend. And then, in time, we will take our places next to Odin.’ MacSwain’s eyes suddenly filled with a glacial malice. He stood up and made his way across to Anna. ‘But first sacrifices have to be made.’ He bent over her.

Anna’s first kick caught him on the side of the head, but her awkward position and the enervating effects of the drugs sapped the power from the blow. MacSwain staggered back, more shocked than injured. It bought Anna the time to swing her legs off the bed and stand up. But as soon as she straightened up, her head swirled. She was aware of MacSwain pulling himself upright. The cabin was small and narrow and more of a handicap to the tall MacSwain than to Anna. He rushed her and she brought her foot up hard and fast into his chest, her heel slamming into his sternum. MacSwain’s lungs emptied and he sank to his knees, sucking at the air in the cabin as if trapped in a vacuum.