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But then Bailey thought about it from the other man’s perspective. A change of identity would mean relocating. It was an expensive proposition. It would mean a significant sum of money waiting for him in his new destination. Had to. But there was nothing else in the case to say where.
And that led Bailey on a new train of thought. Was this a crazy idea? A reckless bet? No, he decided. It was time to go legit—now—and this could set him on his new path. The man had an ego problem; he would play on that.
This was a calculated risk.
He would have to put the case back the way he found it—passport under the money, gun on top and the map covering the gun. Then return the case to the people-hider with the man and switch the ventilation back on.
Sunrise was breaking over a calm sea when the man emerged from below. The case was in his left hand. The butt of the pistol peeked out from his waistband.
“Good morning,” said Bailey. Cheerful.
“Where the hell are we?”
“Almost home. We made it.” Bailey gestured out the windows, to a speck of land on the horizon.
“That’s Long Island?”
“Yup. I’ll have you back on dry land in half an hour.”
“You got an extra shirt I can have?”
“No problem.” Bailey got a T-shirt from the stateroom in the starboard hull. When he returned, the man was pointing the gun at him. He tried to look surprised. “Take it easy, Diego,” he said. “If you don’t like the shirt, I’ll get you another one.”
“That’s actually very fu
Bailey put his hands up, even though the man hadn’t asked him to do so. He walked out to the aft deck, sat down hard on the portside bench, braced his hands on his knees and shook his head.
“Diego, I delivered my end of the bargain. You don’t have to do this. It’s not the smart play.”
“Actually, it is.” The man kept the pistol aimed at Bailey’s chest.
“I’m an accessory, before and after the fact—you know I won’t talk.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Killing me is only going to raise questions. I turn up dead, it’ll only bring more heat. You’re making a stupid move, here. Really stupid.”
The man smiled. A cruel smile. “But you’re not going to turn up dead. You’re just making a move.”
Bailey shook his head like he didn’t understand, and leaned back with his hands planted on the bench behind him. “I don’t understand. Where am I moving?”
“Grand Cayman. It’s lovely there.”
“They’ve got private banking in Cayman.”
The man’s smile broadened. “I know.”
“Please, you really don’t have to do this.”
“No, I really do have to do this.”
“I’m telling you. Don’t be stupid.”
The man pulled the trigger.
Click.
The man snorted derisively. “Clever,” he said. He dropped the pistol on the deck and reached behind his back and came up with a throwing knife, as Bailey slid his hand under the bench cushion and came up with the preloaded spear gun he’d stashed there a couple hours earlier.
Both men froze.
“Mexican standoff,” said the man who called himself Diego.
“Not really,” said Bailey. “You may be good, but no arm can match the velocity of this thing. You’ll lose.” He locked eyes with the man, but instructed his peripheral vision to watch for any twitch in the man’s knife hand, poised to throw.
“What do you propose?”
“I’ll give you a choice. If you really think you can beat me, fire away. Or, you can take a swim.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ll never make it to shore.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll tread water for a while, then you’ll get tired and drown. You could get lucky, a boat may come along and pick you up. But that’s unlikely. You have a choice to make. Either way, it’s a calculated risk.”
The man thought for a second, nodded to himself.
The knife hand moved forward. Bailey pulled the trigger. The knife clattered to the deck at Bailey’s feet.
The man groped for the metal spear sticking out of his chest. He made a horrible gurgling sound, staggered backward. His arms flailed in the air as he toppled over the gunwale and into the Caribbean Sea.
Bailey crossed over to where the man who called himself Diego had stood, picked up the gun and tossed it overboard. He stuck his hand in his pocket, pulled out the bullets and dropped them into the sea.
Then he went inside and poured himself a long drink of rum.
Cayman. That’s where he’d find the money. It would be waiting for him in a bank account in his own name. He plotted a course for Grand Cayman and sipped his drink.
A calculated risk. And it had paid off.
JAVIER SIERRA
Spanish writer Javier Sierra is known for seamlessly weaving history and science together in stories that not only entertain, but which attempt to solve some of the great mysteries of the past. His meticulous research has taken him across the globe, and his knowledge of faraway places and forgotten cultures is abundantly clear in “The Fifth World.”
When murder and mysticism meet, Tess Mitchell is left with only a yellow butterfly found at the feet of her slain professor. The Mayan Calendar and its prophecies had always seemed academic to the young woman, but in Javier’s chilling and believable style, they come alive in uncertain, frightening new ways.
THE FIFTH WORLD
“You’ve gotten yourself into a quite a mess, young lady.”
Tess Mitchell’s blue eyes flashed at the precinct commander as he entered the interrogation room where she had been placed in isolation. She had seen his face before on the local TV in Tucson.
“My name is Lincoln Lewis and I’m in charge of this precinct,” he said with a sneer. His overall ma
“Of course.”
“For one thing, I need you to tell me what, exactly, you were doing at four o’clock this afternoon in Professor Jack Be
“You mean, when I discovered…the body?”
The policeman nodded. Tess swallowed hard.
“Well, we had been working together on a project co
“I see. And what was it that Professor Be
“Theory of the solar system, sir.”
“Did you have an appointment with him?”
A blush suddenly came over Tess’s cheeks and, unable to conceal it, she cast her eyes downward at the steel-and-wood table.
“To be honest I didn’t need one,” she explained. “He let me come and see him whenever I had to, and since I knew that he had office hours for his students around then, I just decided to go by. That’s all.”
“And what did you find when you got there, Miss Mitchell?”
“I already told your colleagues—the first thing I noticed was how silent it was in Building B. Jack always spoke in such a loud voice. Whenever he yelled—which was often—you could practically hear him at the other end of campus. He was a very intense kind of person, you know? But I noticed something else, too—there was a very odd smell in the waiting room. It even drifted out into part of the hallway, a very strong, acidic odor, really awful.” Tess made a face at the thought of it before continuing. “So I went in without knocking.”
“And what did you find?”
Tess Mitchell closed her eyes, trying to conjure up the scene in her head. The image of her friend Jack Be