Tom Knox - The Marks of Cain

'So Eloise is dead. The last Cagot…'

'Yes.' Angus wore a regretful smile. 'They won, Nathan. Miguel is no damn use.'

An anxious pause. Nathan Kellerman reached out a hand, and touched Angus's wrist. The gesture was delicate, gracious, refined.

'Angus. There is one more way.'

'What?'

'Find the Fischer results.'

'What?'

The glittering green eyes of the Scottish scientist were fixed on the pained and twitching face of his boss, Nathan Kellerman. David leaned close to try and overhear this pained and fraught conversation. Angus asked Kellerman, 'You know where they are?'

'No. But…Dresler maybe. Maybe he does. He was the last option. If we failed at Tamara that was my very last option — I think he knows where they kept the data — but he will — it will be difficult to get it out of him.' Kellerman coughed, into his own hand. He looked down at his palm, now cupping his own blood. The Jewish dynast fell back, and gazed at the sky, a kind of wild acceptance in his eyes. Accepting the sky and the sea. Then his barely focussed eyes turned to Angus, once more.

'So Dresler knows, I think. And I always felt I could force it out of him, if I was truly desperate, but you'd have to take him…very close to the edge. I never wanted to risk it before, he was too useful.' Another anguished cough. Then he continued, grimacing. 'But now? What does it matter? Try it. Nothing to lose.' Kellerman was sweating in the sun. 'And this is my stop, Angus. Here's where I get off.'

Angus grabbed at Kellerman. 'C'mon, Nathan.'

'I am fucked, Angus. Look.' Nathan opened the jacket, like a prostitute letting fall her nightgown; a huge glistening oval of blood, like a red scarlet sea nettle, pulsed in his chest. Amy and David stared at each other. Angus had turned, he was trying to slow the boat; but even as the motor puttered out, Nathan Kellerman lifted himself to the side of the boat.

David shouted, reflexively:

'No!'

It was too late. Kellerman was over the side and slipping into the water, into the cold Namibian waters. David stared, aghast. Kellerman's white face was a sad oval in the blueness; Angus was steering the boat to a halt.

But Nathan was already half under, slipping deeper into the waves. His chest smoking blood.

And now the sharks were on him. The water was crazy with dorsal fins, evil and swooping. David glimpsed a vicious serration of teeth, already stained red. The devouring fish were tearing in a frenzy at the bleeding and flailing body, pulling it under. David couldn't help watching: the sight was transfixing. The sharks were ripping at the arms and the legs, like a kind of obscene children's game. Tagging and taunting the scapegoat. And then moving in for the kill.

Nathan Kellerman didn't scream. He seemed to accept his hideous death as he was torn apart, and pulled under the waves for the final time. David stared down into the sapphire fathoms; the sharks were pirouetting around the dim black corpse. A belch of blood and gas burst to the surface, foaming the waters red.

And then silence.

Angus said nothing. He started the boat, once again, and they cruised through the anxious waves, under the dignified sun.

They motored past the desolate coves. Sea birds wheeled, their cries like dying falls. David stared at the black rocks and yellow sands.

He thought of the blood in the water; a man being eaten alive.

Then the Scotsman spoke.

'All the data and the bloods were in that building. And Eloise. Everything's gone. And he thought we'd be safe…' Angus was shaking his head. 'Kellerman was so stupidly stupidly wrong. Poor bastard.' The Scotsman adjusted the rudder, to steer them closer to the shore. 'We'll be in Luderitz soon.'

David voiced the obvious question:

'And then?'

'We've got a few hours' grace. But the Namibian authorities will have to intervene. So it will become common knowledge that we got out.'

Amy said, 'And we'll be stuck in Luderitz. What good is that?'

'There is a means of escape.'

'How?'

Angus explained, quite calmly.

'The diamond shipment. Nathan reminded me. Every other day, Kellerman Namcorp transports rough diamonds to Amsterdam. Just like De Beers, flying gems into London.' Another tilt on the rudder. 'The shipments go via Windhoek.'

David protested:

'But — '

'I can get you on. They know me. And passport control is essentially run by the company itself. You'll be landed at Kellerman HQ in Amsterdam. Back in Europe. Home safe and sound.'

'And you?'

'Dunno. Might take brunch…Whatever.'

'You're just gonna give up?'

The red-haired scientist gazed down the sunlit coast. The smoke storms were a long way away now.

'What do you expect me to do? Go back and start over? I'm done. I'm finished. It was my stupid ego that got me this steeped in blood. I thought I could repeat Fischer, get his data, then get the Nobel, God knows. With Nathan's help. But were they ever really gonna give me prizes for revealing something so apocalyptic? For guaranteeing war? I was an idiot. Race is the curse, the curse of God on man. And Kellerman had his own motives. Leviticus 25. I was so bloody stupid.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Work it out. My ego got Alphonse killed, Eloise killed. Nathan is dead. You guys nearly killed. Fazackerly is dead. It's so fucking over. I'm moving on. Turning a new leaf. Drawing a line. Might take up golf.'

'But I'm not done.' It was Amy talking. The two men looked at her; blonde hair floating on the hot salty breeze.

'Remember what Jose said?' She looked first at Angus, then at David. 'When he said I know what happened to the Jews — that's the whole key to this isn't it, Angus? Whatever this…secret is…that you were working towards. It explains why the Jews died in the Holocaust, doesn't it? Eloise told us that. You told her something.'

Angus piloted the boat without a word.

But Amy's face was set in that determined expression. She insisted:

'That's the big mystery, isn't it? Why the Holocaust? That's what this is all headed towards, isn't it?'

Angus was still silent, but Amy was fired up: 'Tell me this is it, Angus. Tell me. Hitler could have used the Jews as slave labour — and he had plans to put them in some homeland, in Russia or Africa, right? But then suddenly he changed his mind.' She gazed at Angus. 'Suddenly he decided he had to kill them. All of them. Even if it crippled — overextended and destroyed — the German war effort. Why did he do that?'

Angus was quiet, then he sighed.

'Yes. Sort of. It does explain the Holocaust. Maybe. Who knows. I only mentioned it to Eloise…' His expression darkened. 'Because I felt sorry for her. The last Cagot in the world. She was in pain. She deserved a little explanation for what was happening.'

'So what is it? What did Fischer find?'

'Can't fucking tell you. Because I have no proof. I never make a statement without proof. I am a scientist.' He gazed their way, angrily. 'Why not cut me some. Eh? My boyfriend is dead and Eloise's blood is also on my damn hands. Enough. Enough.'

'You won't tell us.'

'No. Because I don't know for sure. I never did the fucking Fischer experiments. But…but if Kellerman was right, there is a man who can maybe help. That's what Nathan was saying.'

The switchback moods of the Scotsman were bewildering. He was now staring ahead. David followed his gaze along the austere coast. He could see buildings, the spire of a church, brightly painted houses. Another surreal German town perched on the desert coast, overlooking the brutal sea.

David returned to the conversation.

'What man?'

Angus slowed the boat as they began their approach to the port. And said:

'Nazi. Cancerous old Nazi named Dresler, who worked with Fischer at Gurs. Knew Grandpa Kellerman. And as you heard — just here on the boat — Dresler knows.'