The Vulcan Disaster

“Oh” Leon said. “The... mutilation of the victims? A biblical thing, Nick. The ancient Israelites, in the period of the Books of Kings, were a very warlike people. King Saul was a mighty warrior. Kind David was even mightier. And those were not wars fought with tournament rules. Following a Jewish victory the conquerors would circumcise their fallen foes. The soldiers collected foreskins the way the American Indian often collected scalps. These Sons of David leave their own stamp of victory and I’m sure the location of the cuts is no coincidence. Someone knows some history. I make no apologies for a barbaric time.”

“They killed a good friend of mine. I got one of them. I want the other.”

“You shall have him. If I have to kill him for you.”

“You do and I’ll wait until that leg’s cured and I’ll break the other one for you. I want him myself.”

“He’d do it too, Leon,” Sonia said, smiling. “Harry — I mean Nick — is very tough.”

“I know,” Leon said. “All right. But now what are we going to do? We’ve got to make plans, and amended ones at that. This leg... well, the original idea was to get me aboard as part of the galley help. I was a sous-chef in a three-star restaurant once; Sonia was to create an opening there, as she created others in the past. Not yours: that young man simply couldn’t take any more of Mlle. Komarova.” He turned to her and took her hand. “Sonia? Do you still want out? Because...”

“No, no,” she said. “Not now that I know who is going to be working with me on the boat.” Her eyes went to me once; her face flushed.

“You’re sure? Because a greater burden will be upon you now...”

“No, no.” She reached over and took my glass; her fingers touched mine as she got up and went to the sideboard. The house was small, isolated, lived-in. It was high above the bay and, I figured, there ought to be some kind of view of the Mediterranean by dawn.

“Okay,” I said. “But what did the Sons of David want the shipment for? To arm their group and start a war?”

“Yes, and, being the fanatics they are, when their plans were foiled they murdered everyone who, in their opinion, had double-crossed them. This of course meant Meyer, for one, and of course you did the job for them on the Vietnamese gentleman who started the whole thing, and who was the real double-crosser.”

“The General?”

“Yes. And then, as your Mr. Hawk suggested, the whole thing passed into the hands of a third group.”

“Who? Komaroff?”

“That’s what we’re not sure. But, as Hawk says, Komaroff’s activities have undergone certain changes of late. Where once he sold arms to both sides, to anyone, now he is getting choosy; and in the present case he is choosing the side of the various terrorist groups on the Palestine Liberation Organisation list. He has been selling them every surplus arm he could get his hands on. And on credit, which was not his practice before. He has definitely taken sides.”

“What do you think caused the change?”

“We’re not sure. But, as Sonia said, the Sons of David are like the pilot fish that follow a shark. The trouble with the Nazi mentality they exemplify is that it tends to seek out kindred minds, regardless of left or right. Fanatics of the left are more like fanatics of the right than either is like anyone else. And they understand one another. They are like different drawers in the same desk.”

“So?”

“Sonia has not been to sea with Mlle. Komarova for some months now. The great lady” — his tone was sarcastic — “has disappeared from view. Perhaps with some lover so disreputable she dare not show him to the world, perhaps to some dope den. In the meantime, all this has been happening. We suspect Komaroff has found new friends, and that they accompany him as advisers.” His brows rose in perplexity. “Or as captors?” He shrugged. “Something decidedly odd is happening. And it is your job, and ours, to find out what it is.”

I looked outside. There was a pink tinge in the dark sky. It’d be dawn in moments. My God, where had the time gone to? “Meanwhile,” I said, “what are your boys up to?”

“Among other things, we’ll be staying in contact. The Sons of David being here... your friends Shimon and Zvy, incidentally, are — or were? — among the top ‘hit men,’ I think you call them, in their organization. Anyway, their being here means that we are very likely right, all of us: the trouble is aboard the Vulcan. All three of us — you, I, the Sons of David — have independently come to that conclusion. Thanks to various sources, we have at least a vague idea as to the itinerary of the Vulcan in the next few weeks. We will contact one or the other of you from time to time. In the meantime we are keeping an eye out for the missing ship.”

“You mean it’s still out there? Hasn’t been unloaded yet?”

“Yes, or so we think anyway. Under what name, what flag... who knows? But we’ll know before long, we think. And Nick: the people aboard the Vulcan, the dangerous ones, the ones who are influencing Komaroff...”