Agent 21: Reloaded: Book 2 (16 page)

‘It’s not mine,’ Zak improvised.

Acosta gave him a look of mock surprise. ‘Really?’ He turned to Karlovic. ‘He says it’s not his.’ His voice was sarcastic and Karlovic’s sneer became more pronounced.

Acosta’s second swipe was less of a surprise than the first. But it was no less painful. Zak felt blood drip down his face from this second cut. His skin stung.

‘Some people,’ Acosta said, ‘do not like the sight of their own blood. Or indeed of
anybody
’s blood. I am not so squeamish.’

He examined the P11 again and located the safety catch, which he switched off. There was a glint in his eyes now. A sort of fervour. He almost looked like he was enjoying himself. He stretched out his arm and aimed the gun directly at Zak’s head.

Nobody spoke. Zak barely dared breathe. Being
threatened by Ntole was one thing; but Ntole’s weapon had been empty. The P11 definitely wasn’t.

Acosta’s movement was sudden. Keeping his arm straight, he swung it round thirty degrees so the weapon was pointing at Barker, who was only standing three metres away.

Then he fired.

The dart from the P11 left the barrel in a perfectly straight line. When it entered Barker’s forehead, it made a cracking sound. The sound of a skull splintering. Barker’s eyes widened. There was very little blood. A second later, he collapsed. The tip of the dart had clearly pierced his skull and made contact with his brain because his limbs continued to twitch violently, even though he was quite obviously dead.

The other men in the room – Karlovic, Barker’s mate and the guy in the bandanna – froze. Acosta looked at each of them in turn.

‘
Capitán
…’ Karlovic breathed.

‘If he saw footprints, he should have told me. Do you have a problem with that?’

‘No,
Capitán
.’

‘Good.’ He directed the P11 at Zak. ‘What were you doing down there?’

He won’t kill me
, Zak told himself.
Not so long as he doesn’t know why I’m here
…

‘Nothing. Honestly. The footprints can’t have been
mine. I only just came aboard.’ He couldn’t help staring into the barrel of the gun.

Acosta smiled. ‘You’re a brave kid. That’s not always a good thing.’ He turned his attention to Bea. She was still on her knees. Her body was trembling and Zak could see tears of terror welling up in her eyes. The man with the bandanna still had his rifle against her head, but he moved aside when Acosta nodded at him. The skipper aimed his P11 directly at Bea.

‘Oh God …’ she whimpered. Her eyes darted towards Barker’s dead body, then up to Acosta and finally at Zak. ‘Please … tell him what he—’

‘You have five seconds,’ Acosta interrupted her. ‘Five seconds to tell me what you are doing on board my ship. Otherwise I’ll be throwing this stupid girl’s body out to sea along with Barker’s. One.’

Bea collapsed. She held her head in her hands and started sobbing uncontrollably.

‘Two.’

Zak looked around the bridge, trying to find something that could act as a weapon. Nothing.

‘Three.’

‘Four.’

‘Wait,’ Zak said.

Acosta inclined his head.

‘Let her go and I’ll tell you.’

Bea looked up. Her face was tear-streaked, her eyes bloodshot.

‘I don’t negotiate with children,’ Acosta said. ‘You tell me now or I kill her.’

A moment of silence. Zak knew the game was up. Acosta
would
kill Bea and he wasn’t going to let that happen. He had no choice.

‘There’s an explosive device,’ he said. ‘It’s in the engine room. I planted it there.’

Very slowly, Acosta aimed the gun towards Zak.

‘Karlovic, move the ship out of harbour.’ The skipper turned to the bearded man with the bandanna. ‘Eduardo, take this idiot to the engine room and bring back the device. If he causes you any trouble, just kill him.’

‘Yes,
Capitán
,’ Eduardo replied. He walked up to Zak – which made the stink of body odour even worse – and prodded him with his rifle. ‘Go,’ he said.

Zak was halfway down the stairs to the laundry room – not somewhere, he reckoned, that Eduardo spent a whole load of time – when he felt the
Mercantile
shudder into motion. He tried to put a lid on his panic. The further the ship slipped from shore, the more desperate his situation. He needed to keep a clear head. To think his way through this. He needed an explanation for why he’d planted the device – one that didn’t reveal his true purpose …

The engine room was even noisier than before now that the ship was moving. There was no point pretending the device wasn’t there. Under the watchful eye of Eduardo, he removed it from its hiding place under the large metal cylinder. The bearded man kept his distance. As they walked back up to the bridge, Zak noticed that he remained a few metres further behind Zak than he had on the way down. It crossed his mind that he might use Eduardo’s fear of the bomb to his advantage. But trying to escape right now wasn’t on the agenda. Not with Bea still at Acosta’s mercy up on the bridge.

Nothing had changed when they rejoined the others. Bea was still on her knees, sobbing, the blinking of her eyes looking like a nervous tic. Acosta still brandished the P11. Barker’s body was motionless on the floor and his mate’s eyes were a bit wild. Karlovic still sneered. As Zak walked in, they all stared mutely at the device in his hands.

‘Put it on the ground,’ Acosta instructed.

Zak did as he was told, then stepped back a couple of paces. The skipper walked towards it and crouched down to examine the device. He stared at it for a full thirty seconds before reaching out his free hand and removing the batteries from their housing.

‘Throw it over the side,’ he told Eduardo.

‘Is it safe,
Capitán
?’

‘Throw it over the side, unless you want to take a much-needed bath when I do the same to you.’

Eduardo swallowed hard. He picked up the device – which Zak knew was now completely harmless, even if Eduardo didn’t – and left the bridge, holding it at arm’s length.

‘Who are you working for?’ Acosta said.

‘Nobody …’

‘Please,’ Bea whispered. ‘Please let me go back to shore. This is nothing to do with me.’

‘Shut up, girl!’ Acosta snapped. ‘Who are you working for?’

Zak bit on his lip. ‘Don’t make me tell you. Please.’

Acosta sighed with impatience. He pointed the P11 at Bea again.

‘
Wait!
’

‘I’m tired of waiting.’

‘There was a man in Lobambo.’

He had Acosta’s attention. ‘What man?’

‘He offered me money to put the device on board. Five thousand pounds. He said it was something to do with diamonds …’ The best lies, Zak knew, always had a bit of truth in them.

Acosta stared at him. He was obviously trying to decide if Zak was telling the truth.

‘Where’s the money?’

‘Back at camp. Only half of it. He said he’d give me the rest when I did the job.’

‘What was this man’s name?’

Zak looked down, as if he didn’t want to say.

‘Kill the girl,’ Acosta instructed.

‘
Ntole
,’ Zak said quickly. ‘His name was Ntole. I … I know where he lives. If you turn back I can take you to him … But you have to let us go then … Or at least, let
her
go …’

‘Quiet! Nobody is leaving this ship.’ He walked up to Zak. Just half a metre away. ‘Ntole, you say?’

Zak nodded.

A pause. Acosta stared at him, his head at a slight angle. Zak kept perfectly still. He didn’t want any hint of deception to show on his face.

‘You’re lying.’

Bea sobbed again.

‘I’m not …’ said Zak. ‘I swear it, I’m not …’

‘Search him!’

Suddenly Karlovic had grabbed him and was patting him down. It didn’t take more than ten seconds to find the only item Zak had on him: his iPhone. Karlovic handed it over to the skipper. Acosta examined it with suspicion on his face. ‘I don’t trust toys like this,’ he said. ‘They are too easy to trace. And nobody will be tracing you, my young friend. I can assure you of that.’ With a sneer, he dropped the
phone to the floor and stamped on it with the heel of his foot. The glass face splintered and cracked. When Acosta stamped on it a second time, the innards of the phone spilled out. It was clearly useless now.

The skipper looked back at Zak, then turned to his men. ‘Get me a camera,’ he breathed. He didn’t have to wait long. Karlovic took his own mobile from his pocket and handed it to Acosta. The skipper prodded the keypad in a rather clumsy way, as if he wasn’t used to such toys, as he called them. He knew enough, though, to raise the phone towards Zak and take his photograph. Zak didn’t try to stop him. He knew they’d record his image sooner or later, if they wanted to.

Acosta handed the phone back to Karlovic. ‘Lock them up,’ he said. ‘Separate cabins.’

‘Please …’ Bea repeated. ‘
Please
…’ Her voice was filled with desperate horror. It did no good. Karlovic grabbed her roughly by her left arm, pulled her to her feet and thrust her in the direction of the door. She stumbled towards it and tripped, falling to the ground again. Zak went to help her up, but she recoiled from him. ‘Get away from me …
Get away from me
…’ She scrambled up to her feet and shot him a look of total hatred.

‘Move,’ Karlovic barked. ‘Both of you.
Now!
’

Karlovic had unclipped his MP5 from the sling
round his front. He had it pointed at Zak and Bea as they stumbled in silence out of the bridge and along the corridor. For the third time in the last half-hour, Zak passed through the laundry and along the corridor that led to the engine room.

‘Stop,’ Karlovic told them. He opened one of the cabin doors. ‘You,’ he said to Bea, ‘in there.’

Bea looked at Zak. ‘I hope you’re pleased with yourself,’ she hissed at him. ‘We’ll probably die on this ship, you know. I don’t understand why you can’t just keep your nose out of things that don’t concern—’

She was cut off by Karlovic pulling the door shut. Zak casually examined the lock. Yale-type. No need to lock it because it clearly couldn’t be opened from inside. If Zak could get the right tools together, it would be straightforward to pick …

‘You want my advice?’ Karlovic said. Zak could see little flecks of pus around the piercings on his eyebrow. ‘Tell
el capitán
everything he wants to know. I mean it.
Everything
.’

‘There’s nothing more to know.’

‘Look, you stupid kid. Maybe you don’t know who you’re dealing with. We’re not idiots. You think we haven’t dealt with worse pests than you? He’ll get the truth out of you somehow. He’ll probably kill you in the end, but trust me – push him too far and you’ll be begging for death anyway.’ He opened the door
adjoining Bea’s cabin. ‘Get in there,’ he said, nudging Zak with the MP5. Zak stepped into the dark cabin. The door closed behind him and he heard the sound of a key in the lock.

It was pitch black in here. He stood for a minute, waiting for his eyes to get used to the dark. But there was no light at all – he couldn’t see a thing. The floor was vibrating with the movement of the ship as he rotated ninety degrees and stretched out his arms, feeling for the wall. There had to be a light in here somewhere. He just needed to find the switch. Then he could see what was in this cabin. See what he could use to get him and Bea out of here …

His fingertips brushed against the wall. At the same time, he heard a knocking sound. Just one of the many noises of a ship at sea, he told himself as he carried on looking for the light. But ten seconds later he stopped.

The knocking sound was still going. It was a repeated pattern and it was coming from the wall adjoining Bea’s cabin. Or should he think of it as Bea’s cell? He listened carefully. It was a sequence of short and long knocks.

Morse code
.

Zak shook his head. It made no sense. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew
where
he was. So
why was the girl in the next cabin – the girl who had got him into this mess in the first place – tapping a message to him.

And why did the message read:
Do not escape. Repeat, do not escape
…

14

IN THE DARK

Friday, 00.00 hrs West Africa time

THE KNOCKING STOPPED.

Zak didn’t move. He was totally confused.
What was going on
?

Was it a trap? Was Bea – or someone else – trying to trick him into admitting his true identity?
That’s the thing about terrorists
, Michael had said.
The good ones, at least. They’re very clever. Which means we have to be a little bit cleverer
…

Could Bea be one of Black Wolf’s agents? Zak didn’t think so. Acosta had been prepared to kill her – he had seen that in his eyes. But then, he had also been prepared to kill Barker. Whatever the truth, there was no way Zak was going to return that message. If this was entrapment, displaying his facility at Morse code was a sure-fire way to make everybody even more suspicious of him. He needed to stick to his story
about Ntole. If he could plant enough doubt in Acosta’s mind, maybe they stood a chance …