Part 20 (1/2)

'Twin diesel motors; a top speed of thirty knots; she'll do the job.' Trajan rubbed his strained elbows. 'Ever sailed a motor yacht like this before?

'I've rowed a dinghy on a park lake, that's all.'

'You're going to learn fast. I need you to man the pilothouse and steer the boat as I cast off the lines.'

'You trust me enough not to wreck it?'

'I trust you with my life, Ben. Come on, once we have April and Mr Kigoma on board we need to move fast.'

But even as they headed out on to the deck Elmo Kigoma leapt on board, with April over his shoulder.

'Elmo, we can give you aa'

'Move!' Elmo shouted. 'They're here!'

Ben looked at the deserted street.

'No, not on sh.o.r.e,' Elmo called out. 'In the water! Trajan, you must get the boat moving or they'll swarm all over us.'

Ben tried to help the man carry the unconscious woman.

'No! I can manage. You help Trajan.'

Trajan raced to the pilothouse at rear of the boat. 'Ben, follow me. I'll start the motors and put her into forward at slow speed, then I'll untie the lines. As soon as she starts to move head to the centre of the river and keep the nose pointing downstream.'

'Trajan. This thing's a h.e.l.l of a size. I don't know if I can-'

'You'll be fine. It's like steering a car. Just don't touch the throttle controls. As soon as we're free of the mooring I'll take over. Okay?'

In near darkness they ran to the stern deck where the pilothouse was located. By now the lights in the high-rise buildings should be blazing but they were in darkness. Was this Edshu's doing? Had the trickster G.o.d from Elmo's homeland killed the electricity supply? From across the water it seemed as if a hundred different sirens wailed as ambulances and police cars raced to a mult.i.tude of emergencies that the power failure had caused. Before entering the pilothouse Ben glanced over the railing into the river. The moment he did so the surface exploded into gouts of spray as shapes broke the surface. In that swirl of movement and water he saw thres.h.i.+ng limbs. Faces broke the surface; they possessed blazing eyes that stared at him with a ravenous intensity.

Trajan had seen, too. 'Mr Kigoma was right. If we don't get away in the next twenty seconds they'll be on board!'

He rushed into the pilothouse. Meanwhile, Ben stood there, transfixed by that vortex created by the vampires as they writhed in the water. They appeared to be in a state that combined ecstasy and agony. He sensed their hunger. And he knew why they fixed him with their searing eyes.

'Ben! I need you now. Take the wheel!'

Ben snapped out of it. Engines hummed as the propellers chopped at the water. Although they'd be going nowhere until Trajan untied the mooring lines. Ben ran into the wheelhouse to be confronted with banks of monitors and electronic equipment.

'Ben, when she starts to move steer away from the bank. Keep midstream. I'll be right back.' The engines' purr sent vibrations through the boat's wheel. He felt the vessel tug at the lines as if it craved its release from dry land. Through the windows he could see Trajan in the gloom. The blond head bobbed as he ran to the prow to untie the lines there; seconds later he was back amids.h.i.+ps to release a line. One remained at the stern.

Then they climbed the steps that ran up the harbour wall. Ben watched as a dozen men and women moved like panthers. Water dripped from their matted hair; their soaked clothes were torn; some only had a few strands of material hanging from their grey bodies. Again, he sensed that vampiric hunger. It drove them at ferocious speeds. And at that moment Ben had no doubt at all the creatures knew that two of their own kind were on board. Elmo Kigoma had warned Ben and Trajan that they would be the focus of the trickster G.o.d's attention now. From whatever lair these creatures spent the daylight hours they would be converging on the boat. Above the hum of motors he heard the thump of fists striking the hull. Meanwhile, the vampires that had scaled the steps began to lope toward the boat.

'Trajan!' Ben yelled. 'We've got company!' He glanced round the pilothouse for a weapon of some sort, but even the furniture was bolted to the floor. 'Hurry up!'

The grey forms flitted along the harbour pathway towards the boat. Five more seconds. Then they'd simply leap on board. And still Trajan worked at the loop of orange rope around the mooring point on deck. The prow of the boat began to move away from the harbour wall; only the motion was so slow it was agonizing to watch.

Ben shouted, 'Hurry!' At that point it could have been aimed at Trajan or the boat - or both.

A second later Trajan moved along the deck carrying the unhitched rope. Instead of hanging slack it was taut. Ben realized that one of the vampires in the water had been able to reach up and grip it. Now it wouldn't let go. On the harbour wall the creatures were only a dozen paces from leaping on to the deck. A glance at those powerful arms told Ben that he wouldn't be able to manhandle them over the side. Trajan still appeared to be having trouble with the rope as he struggled to tug it free from the hands of the monster in the water. The boat continued its unhurried departure from the harbour.

Ben called to Trajan. 'Have you untied it?'

'Yes, but-'

The affirmative was all he wanted to hear. Ben gripped the helm wheel in one hand, while he gripped a large chrome lever that extended from the controls with the other. Although he'd only seen this done on TV he knew that this must be the throttle lever. He rammed it forward as far as it would go. The power units down in the engine room were no weaklings. The bellow of the motor battered his skull. For a moment the boat appeared to stand on its tail as it surged away from the dock. At the same moment the vampires leapt from dry land to the deck.

A howl of pure joy erupted from Ben's mouth as the boat jetted toward the centre of the river. As the water raced by, waves exploded against the prow to send drops of water fifty feet into the air where they gleamed like diamonds in the moonlight.

'We did it, Trajan!' Ben screamed. 'We b.l.o.o.d.y did it!'

When he glanced round Trajan had vanished. The silver wake formed a s.h.i.+ning trail back across dark waters to the harbour. Worse, when he looked through the windows toward the front of the boat he saw three pairs of arms clinging to the guardrail. Most of the vampires hadn't made the leap aboard, but three of their kind had jumped far enough to catch the rail. Now they hung down the port side. He saw three grey faces appear over the rail. Their eyes, which burnt with an uncanny fire, locked on to him through the window. He recognized the satisfaction in their expression. We've got him, their faces seemed to say. There's nothing he can do to save himself. Ben searched the banks of the river. On Cheyne Walk cars still ran freely. Their headlights illuminated part of the banking there. Then he saw a block of darkness at the edge of the river. With the motors pounding at full revs he steered the boat toward that black oblong on the water. The three vampires that clung to the rail were now hoisting themselves up the side of the boat. In seconds they would climb fully on board.

Ben prayed that he'd mastered the steering enough to get this right. He charged at the block of darkness on the river.

Only at the last moment did the shape resolve itself into the outline of the huge dredger that scooped mud from the Thames. He swung the nose of the craft round, then deliberately raked the port side of his vessel down the ma.s.sive steel flanks of the dredger. Pieces of that beautiful ivory hull were sheered away with a piercing, grinding noise. Electric blue sparks filled the air as the two surfaces chafed against each other as the boat sped alongside. Then the dredger was gone. Along with a streak of ivory paint left by the motor yacht's contact with the dredger was an almighty smear of glistening red. Two of the vampires had vanished. A pair of hands and a head remained at just the other side of the rail, but when Ben leaned forward to take a closer look he saw that the entire body beneath the creatures' armpits had been torn away. For a moment the face of what had once been a man turned toward the pilothouse. With nothing less than hatred the eyes continued to blaze at Ben. Then a wave buffeted the boat. The tremor shook what was left of the creature free; it dropped into the water to be buried by the foaming wake.

As soon as Ben was satisfied nothing remained of the vampires that had clung to the rail he pulled back the throttle lever. The motors dropped from a bellow to a hum. Within moments the boat had slowed until it did little more than drift in the current. To one side the huge Gothic bulk of the Houses of Parliament slipped by.

Ben scrambled out on to the stern deck; now it was so dark he had to rely on lights from cars plying the roads that flanked the river. At that moment he was sick with not only dread at what might turn out to be the loss of Trajan, but a guilty excitement as well. What if Trajan had been dragged overboard by one of those creatures as the man tried to wrest the rope from it? With Trajan gone April would be his responsibility. If he could free her from this vampiric curse then what would stop him from declaring his true feelings to her; that he loved her, and he was prepared to devote his life to her? Trajan's death wasn't his fault. Neither guilt nor blame would attach to him. As he stepped across the smooth surface of the deck a kind of dreaminess stole over him as he pictured himself helping April through her recovery. He'd stroll with her in the park as she convalesced; when she was tired she'd link arms with him. He could almost imagine the light pressure of her arm against his.

'Bena'

He looked down over the rail. Trajan clung to the mooring rope. His face was a mask of exhaustion as he grimly hung on for dear life. Beneath him the black waters became smooth, almost unctuous, as he clung on.

'Ben,' he grunted. 'I didn't expect you to hit the throttle like that.'

Ben continued to stare down. The man's feet were just inches from the water. Just beneath the surface grey faces peered up with wide eyes as their prey dangled.

'I can't hang on much longera if you give me your hand. I should be able toa uha' A hand broke the surface of the river to grip Trajan's ankle.

Ben watched the long fingers that were the colour of raw fish. Each finger terminated in a deathly blue nail.

'Ben!'

Just one tug and Trajan would fall back into the river where dozens of vampires swarmed like predatory sharks. His death would be almost instant. With Trajan's disappearance there would be n.o.body in the way. April would become the love of Ben's life. He pictured the pa.s.sion they'd share. A tingle spread through his veins. He could imagine hugging her as she whispered his name into his ear.

A new image invaded the one of him sliding beneath the bed sheets with a naked April; this one was of Elmo Kigoma intoning, 'Ben, Edshu's greatest pleasure is turning friend against friend.'

'Got you! Kick your legs! Kick it in the face!' Ben sucked the air into his lungs as he dragged Trajan clear of the creature below. The vampire still hung on to Trajan's ankle. Ben's adrenalin-fuelled lift raised not only the human but the monster from the water. He saw the figure of a girl of about twenty. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s gleamed in the moonlight, while her mouth yawned wide in readiness to bite Trajan's limb.

'Kick!' Ben yelled.

Trajan, as he dangled there, kicked as hard as he could. The toe of his shoe struck the creature in the side of the head. With a howl it released its grip and fell into the water. By now the creatures in the river used one another as floating platforms in order to climb up the stern of the boat. Already, he saw fingertips brus.h.i.+ng the bottom of the guard rails as they tried to get a grip so they could haul themselves on board.

Ben gritted his teeth while he dragged Trajan on to the deck. As soon as he was satisfied the man was back over the rail, and in relative safety, Ben set to work. By now, vampires had begun to climb up the hull. He let fly with almighty kicks that smashed fingers as they gripped the rail. The creatures screamed as they tumbled back into the water.