“Does the Chilean government supply you with the necessary explosives for seismic tests?” I asked.
I had hoped the mention of explosives might unsettle von Rellsteb, but he seemed entirely unfazed by my suspicions. “The Ministry of Mines issues us with the necessary operating permits, of course, but, in fact, we fetch our dynamite from commercial suppliers in Valparaíso.” He looked at his watch again. “I’m enjoying talking to you, but if I’m to fetch Nicole I really should leave.”
“Radio the settlement,” I said. I was staring at him through the open ring battle sight of the rifle.
“Alas”—he smiled—“I came here in a sea kayak and didn’t think to bring a radio.”
“I’ve got one,” I said.
“Splendid! But I fear it won’t transmit from this rock pit!” Von Rellsteb gestured about the high walls of the machine hall which would, indeed, block any transmission. “But if you want to climb the outside stairs to the roof you can talk to the settlement. They monitor channel 16. The reception is sometimes a bit erratic, but if you persevere you should succeed. Please.” He took a pace backward and courteously invited me to walk to the staircase. I did not move. Von Rellsteb smiled and still held his hand toward the stairs. “Nicole might very well answer herself”—he enticed me—“she often takes a radio watch about this time of day.”
I still did not move, nor did I lower the rifle, though in all honesty von Rellsteb had completely unsettled me. He had thrown all my accusations and suspicions out of gear. Had Berenice fed David and me with fantasy? It seemed impossible that von Rellsteb meant me harm, for he was facing me unarmed and he seemed utterly unworried by the threat of my gun. And still he smiled at me, so that I was beginning to feel mesmerized by the piercing blue eyes in his kindly face. Everything he said was so plausible, and I felt my defenses against him weakening.
“Please?” he said again, and gestured to the staircase, then, as though an idea had suddenly struck him, he tapped his hands lightly together. “But this is ridiculous! Your boat must be moored nearby, so why don’t you just sail to the settlement! It’s ten miles up the straits, that’s all. This old mine is such a very uncomfortable place for a family reunion.”
“My boat isn’t in the straits,” I said. My left forearm, bracing the barrel of the Lee-Enfield, was beginning to ache.
Von Rellsteb stared at me with a disbelief that slowly turned into genuine admiration. “Are you moored in the Almagro Channel?” He waited a second, and, when I gave no answer, he shook his head. “No! You can’t be! It’s never been done!”
I still said nothing. My lips felt dry despite the rain which whirled about the great rusting machines under the broken roof.
Von Rellsteb shook his head in astonishment. “Did you sail up the fjord? Is that what you did? I don’t believe it can be done!” He gave me a very suspicious look. “You can’t have dared the fjord! I’ve never risked it, nor has Nicole for that matter, and there isn’t much she won’t dare in a boat! There can’t be more than five feet of water in the entrance to the Almagro Channel!”
“There’s over fifty feet!” I said scornfully, and thus I betrayed Stormchild’s whereabouts to my enemy.
“Thank you, Mr. Blackburn.” Von Rellsteb smiled, then abruptly stepped into the shelter of the closest crushing machine as he shouted to his hidden troops. “He’s in the Almagro Channel! Johnny? Come with me. Lisl? He’s got a rifle, so be careful!” Von Rellsteb was still shouting instructions as he ran away, but he switched into German and it took me a few seconds to make the linguistic transition. I thought he told Lisl to finish me off, then to meet him at the farmhouse.
I had pursued von Rellsteb to the corner of the rock-crushing machine, intending to cut him down, but suddenly the whole high shed echoed with the terrifying sound of automatic gunfire and I saw flecks of brilliant metal appear on the rusting flank of the machine beside my head. It took me a full astonished second to realize that the bright flecks were the strikes of bullets and that the stinging on my cheek was caused by flakes of rusting metal struck off the machine, then I desperately threw myself sideways onto the wet floor, scrabbling in panic for the shelter of the neighboring engine, while all around me the air rang with the ricochet of bullets, the stuttering crash of the gun, and the shout of laughter from the stairway above me. I had a glimpse of a gunman firing at me, the muzzle flames making a pale, bright aureole around the gun’s muzzle, then I saw it was not a gunman at all, but a red-haired girl with a long, fierce face. She had to be Lisl, who, I remembered, Berenice had said was Caspar’s lover. I tried to bring my rifle to bear on her, but she saw the movement and whipped her fire toward me.
I wriggled desperately into cover. A second gunman opened fire from my right, but his bullets went high and he stopped firing almost immediately. The clangor of the bullets striking the old machinery was much louder than the firing of the guns. I heard people shouting. I thought I identified three voices, one belonged to Lisl, while the other two were mens’ voices. Somewhere in the huge machine hall a door slammed hollowly, then I heard the scrape of a huge bolt. From what von Rellsteb had shouted I gathered he must be going to the fjord, where, with one of his gunmen, he would lead the attack on Stormchild.
I had to get out, which meant that I had to know where my enemies were so I could get past them. I knew Lisl was above me on the rickety staircase. She had stopped firing, presumably to reload. At least one of the other gunmen was to my right, and the third voice had also seemed to come from that direction. So I should go left toward the landward end of the crushing shed, where the raw limestone had been fed into the huge hoppers. Except my small glimpse of the great machinery room had suggested that the only escape route from the crushing shed was at its eastern end, where the huge ramp angled down toward the sea. So I had to go to my right. I knew I could not stay where I was because my enemies knew where I was hiding, and it could only be moments before they surrounded me.
So run! Yet somehow my tired legs would not move. I was terrified and angry at myself for being gulled by von Rellsteb. The bastard had lied so smoothly, and I had not been able to resist his flattery. Boasting of my achievement I had betrayed Stormchild’s whereabouts.
So, to save David, I should run. I knew I had to run. I heard a footfall way off to my right, then, outside the shed, the sudden roar of motorbike engines. I had forgotten about the scrambling bikes, and I cursed myself for thus forgetting because until now I had stood a chance, admittedly very remote, of escaping this place and reaching Stormchild before my enemies. But that chance had evaporated with the sound of the bikes as they roared off.
I had to forget Stormchild for the moment. My task was to escape this trap, and of all the trap’s components I most feared Lisl in her aerie, because to her I was like a mouse under the eye of a hovering falcon. I peered up through a spoke of the nearest machine’s huge driving wheel and saw her as a bright-haired shadow in the upper doorway. I raised my rifle, but she saw the movement and opened fire. I flung myself to the left, astonished that there was any strength remaining in my legs, then cannoned off the machine to go in the opposite direction. I ran across the open passage. Lisl was following my abrupt motions with her gun’s barrel, hosing bullets across the vast room, but she was too slow and I was safe under cover again.