Page 81 of The Gods of Chaos and Chance

Two men in coveralls were fuelling the little two-seater helicopter from a large aviation fuel tank set into the stern.

Wulf came back over to Aleksey and Ben, but not so close that he was in any danger. He lifted his voice to carry over the sound of the wind and sloshing waves. ‘I did not really think you would give me what I want. But I would have liked to have seen them. I am going to take a little trip to La Luz now and try to find them myself. You had them in St Mary’s. I do not think you would carry them with you when you go sailing for the day, ergo, they are still there. If the prince had tried a bit harder to find them for me, none of this would have been necessary.’

‘What is your hold over him?’

Schulz shrugged. ‘I have an island, too, Nikolas, and he likes to visit it.’

‘Ours deaths will achieve nothing. Other people will find them one day.’

Wulf then smiled widely and spread his arms to encompass the deck around the fuelling station and landing pad. ‘I do not think so.’

For the first time, Aleksey noticed the cans of diesel fuel stacked in crates fastened to a deck above. ‘Whether I find them or not, I am going to burn it all down. I should not have to do this. It wasagreed!’ He recovered and continued, ‘I did not foresee the prince having to sell one day. If I had, I would have acted sooner. So, now I strike. I am poised on the brink of the apocalypse, Nikolas. I am my father’s son, and I will be elevated to my rightful place. I will not lose all this for a minor inconvenience: you.’ The deck swayed, and he braced his legs wide for balance. ‘From one end of the island to the other I will destroy. I will stand on Appaloosa, this symbol of thenewworld order, and I will watch theoldone burn—the house, the trees, the very soil itself and all it represents. I will scorch La Luz. I will douse thelight. But you and your friend will escape this fate. You were the tragic victims of an accident at sea—well, not yet, obviously. Spindrift has already been taken care of, and you two will soon follow. It’s why I insisted: no violence. It had to be a credible drowning. Mr Rider’s head wound is fortunately entirely understandable. Boom? That’s what I believe you call it? Mind you, this far out, I doubt either of your bodies will ever be found. But as a great man once told us: “If men wish to live, then they are forced to kill others.”’

The pilot had started the engine. The rotors began to spin.

Wulf turned his back on them and started to walk towards the helicopter.

‘Those were your father’s words.’

Wulf glanced back over his shoulder, clearly surprised but pleased. ‘Yes, as I said. A great man.’

Aleksey folded his arms and studied the deck. ‘There must be another way we can do this.’ He squinted up and, limping badly, struggled a little closer, his palms held open to calm the men with guns. ‘Did you know, Herr Schulz, my grandfather knew your father?’

‘Yes, I did know that. My father often spoke of those times.’

‘Then you know of my…resources. My…affiliations, perhaps?’

‘My father lost because he was betrayed by those around him. They were weak. Even thewhore, Braun, at the end, she would not go with him, even though they hadmarried. In the bunker. She betrayed him, too. So, I do not believe in followers. All men are weak.’

Aleksey came closer, and then, in great pain, he lowered himself to one knee, hissing with the effort, his palms placed in supplication upon the deck. He looked up pleadingly to the older man.

Wulf hesitated. He turned around fully. He frowned, but then, almost without his own volition it seemed, reached out his hand as if to bestow benediction upon Aleksey’s blond hair.

But Aleksey gave his instead—to the gods of chaos and chance.

In reach now, he grabbed Wulf around the shins and exploded upwards, launching him high.

The result was more spectacular than even he could have imagined.

* * *

Chapter Forty-Nine

Ben could not believe what he witnessed.

Nikolas knelt.

The German stepped forwards.

And then there was a vast detonation of power and strength as Nikolas exploded upwards gripping the man’s legs and everything just went red. A blade hit the German’s head, sliced it like a teaspoon cracked against an egg, and pieces of skull and brain and jetting gouts of blood sprayed and misted the air, splattering the deck, coating Nikolas. And then the pilot, seeing this, apparently jerked with shock; the helicopter…staggered…like a child’s failing cartwheel, a drunken man wheeling, arms akimbo, and then all Ben knew was something that felt like a battering ram hitting him, and he thought it was a rotor blade and that he too would be misted, but it was a body as strong as the deck itself, and Nikolas took him over and out and down and into the water, and then all was dark and swimming and the shock of the cold, and still Nikolas was dragging him further, and down, until Ben felt the entire ocean around them contract with a water-muffled boom so loud even beneath the waves his eardrums thrummed with it, and he expelled air, drowning, but was thumped in the water as if by a huge imploding shockwave, and then there was nothing but a desperate desire for air, and he surfaced to a world on fire around him, burning with a sickening smell of aviation fuel and diesel and flesh, and thesoundof burning too—crackling, screaming.

An oil slick of shiny fuel was fiery on the viscous swells, rippling out towards him, blue, ethereal. He saw blond hair, grabbed an arm, and dived under again, pulling Nikolas with him, and they swam together until forced once more to surface. The super yacht was a barely identifiable hulk now, just a broken mass of burning remains. All the screaming had stopped.

Finally, Appaloosa slipped almost gracefully beneath the water.

Other than the sound of the flames, and their desperate panting for air, it was eerily quiet.

Until Ben heard the sound of thwarted fury.

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