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“Yeah,” Clete said.
“That means we got no chance, huh?” Carroll said.
“No one is putting the glide on you, LeBlanc,” Clete said. “Now shut up.”
“I don’t want to go out like this,” Carroll said. “With you guys hating me. My daughter never had a mother. I tried my best. I didn’t think all this would happen.”
“I’m going to come over there and kick the shit out of you,” Clete said.
“Listen to me, Carroll,” I said. “You owned up. You’re genuinely sorry. We accept that. Now we’re going to do everything we can to get out of here. Shondell has a weakness.”
“What?” Carroll said.
“He’s vain and afraid,” Clete said. “He knows what’s waiting for him down the track.”
“What’s waiting for him?” Carroll said.
“Probably everything he’s done to other people,” Clete said.
“Yeah?” Carroll said. “What good does that do us?”
Clete struggled to his feet. “There is no us. There is me and there is Dave. Then there is you. There is no us. Do you have that straight, you pinhead?”
It would have been funny in any other circumstances. But we were inside a nightmare, perhaps an atavistic memory of real events passed down through the eons, like dreams of falling or burning or being buried alive. We had no place to hide, no mother to wake us, no descent from the heavens by a winged spirit with a shining broadsword.
Then we got a visitor I didn’t expect.
* * *
ADONIS STEPPED INTO the compartment and shut the hatch behind him. He wore floppy white slacks and a purple corduroy shirt with a chain and cross around his neck, as though affecting a man of leisure who was at peace with both heaven and earth. His hair was freshly barbered, lightly oiled and combed back on the sides. If a mirror had been available, I’m sure he would have been looking at his reflection.
He carried a small tin box in his palms as though it were a sacred object. It was painted with purple roses and green vines. “Hello, fellows,” he said.
“Lose the guise, Adonis,” Clete said. “You’re working with that perv.”
“I’m the only person on this yacht who will tell you the truth about your situation. I’m also the only one who might help you.”
“Help yourself by dropping the dime on the perv while you have time,” Clete said.
Adonis turned toward me. Considering the circumstances, his lidless eyes and swarthy good looks and calm demeanor were impressive and not to be taken lightly. However, if I hadn’t known better, I would have believed that Shakespeare had Adonis in mind when he said the prince of darkness was always a gentleman.
“You realize you will not leave this place?” he said.
“So?” I said.
“I can make your ordeal easier, or I can end it now.”
He opened the tin box. It contained a syringe and two glass ampoules of liquid.
“I think I’ll pass,” I said.
He ticked one fingernail on the box. “This is as good as it’s going to get.”
“You’re offering us a hotshot?” Clete said.
“Morphine,” Adonis said.
“What are you giving up in exchange for Isolde?” I said.
