Unless he’s waiting for reinforcements from below… Fuck, fuck, fuck! Satan can’t wait here forever! Time is either running out or standing still – he can’t be sure, because the fucking bells are driving him mad.
‘Come on out, fucker!’ screams Satan up to the bridge while directing his eyes and the barrel of his gun down to E-deck. ‘COME OUT IF YOU DARE!’
No answer, no attack – nothing but the endless pealing of the bells.
DRRRHHHRrr…DRRRHHHRrr…DRHHRHHHRRRrrr…
He’s not waiting any longer. He can’t wait any longer. He’ll lose his mind if he…
‘Who’s there?’ someone shouts suddenly. Whoever’s calling is yelling with all his might, but it’s barely loud enough for the words to carry down to Satan.
Who’s that? Someone on the bridge? The captain himself?
‘Can you shut off the bells?’ Satan calls up through the stairwell.
No answer.
Sweat runs down Satan’s forehead and he blinks his eyes and aims the gun up and then down. His back and shoulders ache; he can’t stand there much longer.
‘CAN YOU HEAR ME?’ he shouts so loudly it stings his throat. ‘LET ME KNOW IF YOU—’
He stops shouting when the bells fall silent, all of them at once.
00:06:11
Guðmundur Berndsen is standing inside the bridge wing on the starboard side, hiding behind a tall cupboard and aiming his shotgun across the table in the chart room at the door leading to the corridor.
When one of the pirates had grabbed the doorknob and opened the door into the bridge, Guðmundur shot at the door and blew it in two lengthwise. Out in the corridor there are at least two pirates, waiting for the captain to give up or run out of ammunition.
He’s not about to give up, but his supply of shells is certainly dwindling. The pirates are shooting their machine guns through the door at regular intervals and then Guðmundur responds with a shot or two.
Dear Christ! How long can he hold out in this hell? Ten more minutes? Five? One? To make matters worse the ship’s dog is whining under the table in the chart room like an hysterical woman.
Where is the rest of the crew? Dead? Hiding? In the boat and…
The captain’s thoughts are interrupted by a volley of shots in the corridor.
Who is shooting?
He pricks up his ears but hears nothing except the ringing of the bells. If only he could…
‘Come on out, fucker!’ screams someone in the distance. ‘COME OUT IF YOU DARE!’
Who is shouting? Who is…
‘Who’s there?’ the captain shouts in the direction of the doorless doorway that opens onto the corridor.
‘Can you shut off the bells?’ someone shouts back.
Shut off the bells? Of course! He can shut off the bells.
Hunched over, the captain creeps further into the bridge. He aims his shotgun at the open door and walks sideways across to the middle of the bridge, where the red fire-alarm box is.
On the floor between the chart room and the door lie the bodies of Methúsalem and his killer, the former in a black pool of blood with a gaping neck wound, the latter with no face and his brain spread on the outside of his shattered skull.
The air smells of blood, gunpowder and insanity, and the silent presence of the bodies of the men cries out for attention, but the captain doesn’t let his gaze drop – he mustn’t let his gaze drop – he has to watch the door, he mustn’t look at the dead bodies, don’t look at the dead bodies…
‘Christ, have mercy on us,’ mutters the captain and mentally crosses himself.
He hopes that the pirates are not watching him, because the minute he steps to the middle of the bridge he’ll lose sight of the door, and if they see that he’s out of sight they’ll realise they can get to the bridge without his seeing them and then…
To hell with it! It’s no good thinking like that!
Guðmundur takes three steps to the side; the door disappears from sight, he is facing a grey wall and the red box is right in front of him.
Just press the switch…
‘CAN YOU HEAR ME?’ cries someone from below. ‘LET ME KNOW IF YOU—’
The captain presses the switch and releases it; there’s a click and the bells stop ringing.
‘Who’s down there?’ calls the captain and takes three steps to the left. He can see the door to the corridor, but he is utterly exposed if any enemy should come in. He has to get back under cover before someone shoots into the bridge.
‘How many black coats up there?’ comes the shouted response.
‘Two, I think!’ the captain calls back. Step by step he creeps back to the cupboard beside the door that leads out to the bridge wing. Two more steps, one, and he’s covered again.
‘I got one just now!’ A shout from below.
‘Then there’s just one more out here! If there are any at all. Is that Rúnar who’s – ’
The captain jumps and stops talking when a black-clad man shoots past the doorway and opens the door to the landing back of the wheelhouse.
Is that…? Was he…?
Guðmundur Berndsen squeezes the trigger of the shotgun but hears only a click. The gun is empty and anyway, he was far too late pulling the trigger.
‘He got out! He ran out! He’s gone!’ calls the captain, straightening up.
Someone is vaulting up the stairs to the bridge deck, and before Guðmundur can blink Satan appears in the doorway to the bridge, dressed in black like a pirate, a mad gleam in his eyes, beads of sweat on his forehead and a smoking revolver in his right hand.
Satan glances briefly and expressionlessly at the bodies on the floor, then looks up and spies the captain, who is still half behind the cupboard.
‘You’ve done bloody well!’ says Satan, nodding to the captain. ‘I’m going to chase the one you missed and put a bullet in his neck, but you stay up here and guard the bridge.’
‘You’re the guy who was shut in the forecastle,’ says Guðmundur as he steps out of his hiding place, but Satan doesn’t hear a word he says. He’s gone from the doorway, has kicked open the door to the platform aft of the wheelhouse and is leaping down the steep iron stairs with Skuggi at his heels.
00:07:06
Stoker paces round and round on the metal floor at the back of the engine room, thinking about the chief engineer lying dead on the floor up on A-deck.
Poor Johnny…
The clatter of the generator manages to drown out the sound of the bells and that’s good, because the hum of the generator is a normal part of the engineers’ work environment, while the ringing of the bells is a noisy disturbance, a mechanical insanity, an ongoing warning, a herald of danger…
Stoker stops walking when he is notices a movement up on the narrow platform at the front of the engine room. He sees the shadow of a man go out the front of the control room and over to the port side towards the machine shop.
Who’s that?
‘JOHNNY?’ Stoker shouts and blinks his eyes, but when he sees that the shadow has both hands on a machine gun that’s hanging from a shoulder strap, he shuts his mouth and backs, barefoot, over to the darkness at the back of the engine room, where containers and cleaning fluid are kept under a dirty sink.