Dance Of Death

hand.

'You know what to do?' he repeated.

D'Agosta nodded.

'Thank you, Vincent,' he said. 'Thank you for everything.'

Then Pendergast turned and stepped out of the tunnel, into the dim light. Two steps. Three.

D'Agosta remained in the shadows, Glock in hand. The great vault of the roundhouse remained empty and silent, the dark tunnels like so many open mouths, icicles gleaming like teeth.

Pendergast took another step, then stopped.

'Ave, frater!'

The voice boomed out into the dank, dark space, echoing from all quarters, so that it was impossible to tell its source. D'Agosta stiffened, straining to see into the black openings of the other tunnels visible from his own, but he could see no sign of Diogenes.

'Don't be shy, brother. Let's have a look at that pretty face of yours. Step a little farther into the light.'

Pendergast took a few more steps into the open area. D'Agosta waited, gun in hand, covering him.

'Did you bring it?' came the echoing voice. The tone was leering, almost a snarl; yet there was a curious hunger in it.

In reply, Pendergast raised one hand, twisting his wrist as he did so. The diamond suddenly appeared, dull in the dim light.

D'Agosta heard a sharp intake of breath, like the crack of a whip, come out of the darkness.

'Bring me Viola,' Pendergast said.

'Easy, now, brother. All in good time. Step onto the turntable.'

Pendergast stepped over the iron circle and onto the track bed.

'Now walk forward, to the center of the track. You'll find an old hole cut in the iron plate. Inside that is a small velvet box. Put the stone in there. And do hurry-we wouldn't want another passing train to end all this prematurely.'

Again, D'Agosta strained to locate the voice, but it was impossible to know in which tunnel Diogenes might be hiding. Given the peculiar acoustics of the vaulted space, he could be anywhere.

Pendergast walked forward guardedly. Reaching the center of the roundhouse, he knelt, picked up the velvet box, placed the diamond inside it, replaced it by the track.

Then, abruptly, he rose, pulling out his Wilson Combat and aiming it at the diamond. 'Bring me Viola,' he repeated.

'Whoa! Brother! This rashness is unlike you. We go by the book. Now step back while my man takes a look to make sure it's real.'

'It is real.'

'I trusted you once, long ago. Remember? Look where it got me.' A strange sigh, almost like a moan, came out of the darkness. 'Forgive me if I don't trust you again. Mr. Kaplan? Do your stuff, if you please.'

A terrified, disheveled man stumbled out of tunnel XI into the faint light. He blinked, looking around in bewilderment. He was wearing a dark suit and black cashmere coat, muddied and torn. On his bald head was a headband loupe, and he held a light in one hand.

D'Agosta immediately recognized him as the man they'd abducted earlier.

He looked like he'd had an unusually bad day.

Kaplan took a tottering step forward, then stopped again. He stared about, uncomprehending. 'Who…? What…?'

'The diamond is in a box at the center. Go examine it. Tell me if it's Lucifer's Heart.'

The man looked around. 'Who's speaking? Where am I?'

'Frater, show Kaplan the diamond.'

Kaplan stumbled forward. Pendergast waved his gun in the direction of the box.

The sight of the gun seemed to wake Kaplan from his stupor. 'I'll do what you say, but please don't kill me!' he cried. 'I have children.'

'And you shall see your dimpled lunatics again-if you do as I say,' came the disembodied voice of Diogenes.

The man stumbled again, recovered, knelt over the diamond, and picked it up. He lowered the loupe over his eye, switched on the small light, and examined the stone.

'Well?' came Diogenes's voice, high and strained.

'A moment!' the man almost sobbed. 'Give me a moment, please.'

He peered at it, the light blossoming inside the diamond, turning it into a glowing orb of cinnamon. 'It looks like Lucifer's Heart, all right,' he said, his voice hushed.

' 'Looks like' won't do, Mr. Kaplan.'

The man continued to peer into the diamond, his hands shaking. Then he straightened. 'I'm sure it is,' he said.

'Be sure, now. Your life, and the lives of your family, depend on your accurate appraisal.'

'I'm sure. There's no other diamond like it.'

'The diamond has one microscopic flaw. Tell me where it is.'

Kaplan returned to his examination. A minute passed, then two.

'There's a faint inclusion about two millimeters from the center of the stone, in the one o'clock direction.'

A hiss-perhaps of triumph, perhaps something else-came from the darkness. 'Kaplan, you may go. Tunnel VI is your exit. Frater, remain where you are.'

With a grateful sob, the man hurried toward tunnel VI and the waiting D'Agosta, stumbling, half sprawling in his zeal to get away. A moment later, he arrived in the darkness of the tunnel mouth, panting heavily.

'Thank God,' he sobbed. 'Thank God.'

'Get behind me,' said D'Agosta.

Kaplan peered at D'Agosta, fear replacing relief as he recognized the face. 'Wait a minute. You're the cop who-'

'Let's worry about that later,' D'Agosta said, pushing him farther into the protective darkness. 'We'll have you out of here soon.'

'And now, the moment you've been waiting for.' Diogenes's voice echoed around the vaulted space. 'I present you-Lady Viola Maskelene!'

As D'Agosta peered out, Viola Maskelene suddenly stepped out of the darkness of tunnel IX. She paused in the light, blinking uncertainly.

Pendergast took an involuntary step forward.

'Don't move, brother! Let her come to you.'

She turned and looked at Pendergast, took a step forward, not quite steadily.

'Viola!' Pendergast took another step forward.

There was a sudden gunshot, deafening in the enclosed space. A puff of dirt sprang up near Pendergast's outstretched shoe. Instantly, the agent dropped into a crouch, gun in hand, moving its barrel from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth.

'Go ahead, brother. Return fire. Pity if a stray round takes down your Lady Eve.'

Pendergast turned. Viola had frozen at the sound of the gunshot.

'Come to me, Viola,' he said.

She stared at him. 'Aloysius?' she asked weakly.

'I'm right here. Just come to me, slow and steady.'

'But you… you…'

'It's all right now. You're safe. Come to me.' He held out his arms.

'What a touching scene!' said Diogenes. This was followed by mocking, cynical laughter.

She took a shaky step, another, another-and collapsed in Pendergast's arms.

Pendergast cradled her protectively, lifting her chin with a gentle hand and looking at her face. 'You drugged her!' he said.

'Pooh. Nothing more than a few milligrams of Versed to keep her quiet. Don't be concerned-she's intact.'