Emitting a sound reminiscent of a war cry, Lisa leaped forwards with the screwdriver, as if out of her mind.

And stabbed.

69

‘Please, I beg you. There might still be time.’

Bonhoeffer put his hands together as if Tiago were a god he was beseeching to hear his prayers.

‘If what Lisa wrote is true then the girl is still on the ship. At this very moment she might well be carrying out the last part of her plan.’

Tiago, who hadn’t given in for the past twenty minutes, scratched his thick mop of hair and shook his head in resignation. ‘I’ve almost bought it once. My gut feeling tells me that if I let you go now it’ll definitely be game over.’

In fury the captain slammed his palm on his desk, where he was still being forced to sit. ‘But what the hell do you plan to do with me then? Keep me prisoner here until we arrive in New York?’

‘No.’ Tiago stared at Bonhoeffer as if he’d just had an idea. ‘Call the US coastguard. The border police or the FBI. I don’t care. I want to speak to them and outline my position.’

Bonhoeffer looked at him dumbfounded. ‘That’s your demand? Did you just think of this now?’

Tiago nodded. He looked conscience-stricken. ‘I’m scared. I can’t think straight when I’m scared.’

Bonhoeffer sighed. His mouth was dry. He’d talked so much that he could smell his bad breath. ‘Okay, fine. Here’s the deal, Tiago. You let me make two phone calls. With the first one I’ll stop the ship. With the second I’ll try to get hold of Julia Stiller. As soon as that’s done the two of us will notify the authorities together and then you’ll finally hand over that bloody weapon of yours. How does that sound?’

‘Lousy,’ Tiago said, pointing at Bonhoeffer’s phone. ‘But I hesitated too long once before.’

Bonhoeffer nodded and started dialling.

‘Just pray to God you haven’t done it a second time.’

70

Martin virtually broke through the door. He’d left Elena behind on his dash out of Hell’s Kitchen, and had raced through the staff area and up the six flights of stairs from deck A to the fifth passenger floor of this ocean giant.

He’d barged into women, leaped over children, knocked a tray carrying room service from a waiter’s hand and compelled him to hand over his skeleton key. And still he came too late.

Or that’s what he thought when he saw Lisa lunge with a screwdriver at her mother, who for some reason was naked, or at best very scantily clad. But then Lisa tripped, catching the laces of her combat boots around a leg of the bed. This gave Julia time to retreat to the balcony that her daughter was also steaming towards.