Two Graves

78

UNDERWATER, HIS EYES OPEN, PENDERGAST COULD SEE the boat make a tight turn on the surface and head in the very direction he had planned to take. But even as he saw this, and changed his plans yet again—hovering underwater and holding his breath—the boat changed its trajectory, slowing down even more, as if reading his mind.

Reading his mind? It seemed absurd… and yet even the most unusual hypotheses must be considered to explain the most unusual events. Pendergast was at the cusp of a revelation; he could sense it. A number of threads were twining themselves together in his hypoxic brain—the inexplicable nature of the killings in New York; the recent stalk in the fortress tunnels, with its uncanny display of second-guessing; Alban’s pride-filled statement about his father’s abilities; the youth’s supreme self-confidence that Pendergast could not escape him. And then, the odd quotation from Nietzsche.

Something most unusual was going on. It was as if Alban was reading his mind.

But he needed air. Now. He rose straight up, burst the surface, took a deep breath. And he saw Alban was heading away from him, swerving his boat and coming back around, a look of surprise and even consternation on the boy’s face.

No, Alban wasn’t reading his mind. It was something else. Pendergast recalled what Constance had said about Alban—something about a sixth sense, or perhaps an extension of one of the other five. The line from Nietzsche that Alban had quoted ran through his head, once, twice. What did it mean?

He kicked down under the surface about three feet and swam laterally, deliberately, toward shore. The boat above him swerved and made a loop, the whine of its engine filling his ears, then slowed and headed approximately toward the spot where he would have to surface for air. And yes, he would surface there; he would. That is what he would definitely do.

No, this was not a question of mind reading. Alban could not read a person’s mind. He had some sort of unusual ability, but it was not that. It was both less than that, and more.

Pendergast, long before he needed air, abruptly shot to the surface after a split-second change of plans—and Alban, only twenty feet away but moving in the wrong direction, saw him, again surprised; he swerved the boat and jammed on the throttle. Pendergast waited, dove, and as the boat came overhead and moved in a tight circle he darted upward again, the Nazi hewer in hand, and rammed it into the hull as the boat passed overhead; the heavy blade cleaved the light fiberglass and he gave the knife a twist before the boat’s forward motion wrenched it out of his hand. The propeller passed just inches over his head, buffeting him with turbulence, buzzing like a gigantic wasp.

Surfacing right behind the boat, he gulped air once, then again, and kicked off for shore, swimming like mad. It would take Alban at least a few minutes to deal with the flood of water introduced by the leak, and he was already approaching the shoaling water near shore, a hundred yards from the beginning of the marsh grass and two hundred from thick cattails and swamp.

As much as he could, he swam underwater, making random changes in direction unexpected even by himself, often opposite to what his instincts told him, sometimes actually doubling back on himself. When he surfaced he could see Alban hunched over in the boat, working frantically to stanch the leak, but every time Pendergast rose for air he stood, shouldered his rifle, and cracked out a shot that smacked the water inches from Pendergast’s head; turning and kick-diving down again, he heard several more shots zip past in the water.

His son was, without question, shooting to kill. That answered another important question that had been lingering in his mind.

He continued swimming, maintaining his erratic behavior but always trending toward shore. The boat was listing seriously now, but Alban had apparently blocked or stuffed the hole and was starting to bail, once in a while rising to take another shot when Pendergast surfaced. He was a superb shot: the only thing saving Pendergast was the afternoon sun lying low on the horizon, shining directly toward Alban and reflecting off the water in a blinding sheet.

Pendergast felt his feet brush the muddy bottom, and he swam until the water was waist-deep and he was at the edge of the marsh grass. Now he could wade, albeit awkwardly, keeping low. More shots came, but now distance and the surrounding cattails were in his favor, and then he was hidden by the thickening plants. Still, Alban continued firing—no doubt at the rustling of the vegetation disturbed by his passage. By slipping through the lanes of cattails, Pendergast was able to decoy his movements, reaching out and shaking stalks that were at a distance from him. But Alban quickly caught on to that, rounds ripping through on either side, snipping the cattails and sending up clouds of fluff.

The boat engine fired up and Pendergast redoubled his speed. He heard it approach, slapping through the reeds—and then there was a muffled sound as the propeller hit mud and the vessel grounded out.

A splash—Alban had jumped out and was pursuing him.

Thrashing through the cattails, Pendergast reached thick brush at the edge of the swamp, bulled through it, and continued on into the forest, shouldering past the heavy vegetation.

His son was superior to him physically and, perhaps, even mentally. No stratagem would shake Alban in this forest, a forest he knew well. Pendergast’s only chance was to fully understand Alban’s mysterious advantage—and use it against him.

The strange quotation from Nietzsche came into his mind yet again, unbidden:

Glance into the world just as though time were gone: and everything crooked will become straight to you.

That was when the revelation blossomed over him like a sunrise.