'Then you'll have to unpack it again,' I said. 'We've got to get rid of it.'
Halstead jerked upright. 'Goddamn it, what are you going to do? That material is priceless.'
'No, it's not,' I said bluntly. 'It has a price on it -- seven lives! Gatt may kill us for it, if he can get it. But if we can put it out of his reach he may not consider seven murders worth the candle.'
Fowler said, That figures. But what are you going to do with it?'
'Dump the lot back into the cenote,' I said brutally. 'Hell never get it out without a lengthy diving operation, and I don't think hell stick around to try.'
Halstead went frantic. 'You can't do that,' he shouted. 'We may never be able to retrieve it.'
'Why not? Most of it came out of the cenote in the first place. It won't be lost forever. Come to that -- I don't give a damn if it is; and neither do these men here. Not if it saves our lives.'
'Hell, no!' said Rudetsky. 'I say dump the stuff.' Halstead appealed to Fallon. 'You can't let them do this.' Fallon looked up. 'Jemmy appears to have taken charge. Hell do what he must.' His mouth twisted into a ghastly simulacrum of a smile. 'And I don't think you can stop him, Paul.'
'The cave,' said Katherine suddenly. 'We can put it in the cave.'
Halstead's head jerked round. 'What cave?' he demanded suspiciously.
'There's an underwater cave about sixty-five feet down in the cenote,' I said. That's a good idea, Katherine. It'll be as safe and unavailable there as anywhere else.'
'I'll help you,' she said.
'You'll do no such thing,' snapped Halstead. 'You'll not lend a hand to this crazy scheme.'
She looked at him levelly. 'I'm not taking orders from you any more, Paul. I'm going my own way for a change. I'm going to do what I think is right. Uaxuanoc has destroyed you, Paul; it has warped you into something other than the man I married, and I'm not going to be used as a tool for your crazy obsessions. I think we're finished -- you and I.'
He hit her -- not a slap with an open palm, but with his clenched fist. It caught her under the jaw and lifted her clean across the hut to fall in a tumbled heap by the wall.
I wasted no time in thoughts of fair fights and Queensberry Rules, but grabbed a bottle from the table and crowned him hard. The bottle didn't break but it didn't do him any good. He gasped and his knees buckled under him, but he didn't go down, so I laid the bottle across his head again and he collapsed to the floor.
'All right,' I said, breathing hard and hefting the bottle, 'has anyone else any arguments?'
Rudetsky grunted deep in his chest. 'You did all right,' he said. 'I've been wanting to do that for weeks.' He helped Fowler to lift Katherine to her feet, and brought her to a chair by the table. Nobody worried about Halstead; they just let him lie where he fell.
Katherine was dizzy and shaken, and Fallon poured out a stiff drink for her. 'I pleaded with you not to have him along,' he said in a low voice.
That's water under the bridge,' I said. 'I'm as much to blame as anyone.' Rudetsky was hovering solicitously behind Katherine. 'Joe, I want his gun. I don't trust the bastard with it.'
'It's in the box by the bed,' said Katherine weakly.
Rudetsky made a sign with his hand. 'Go get it, Smitty.' He looked down at Halstead and stirred him with his foot. 'You sure got him good. He's going to have one hell of a headache.'
Katherine choked over the whisky. 'Are you all right?' I asked.
She fingered the side of her jaw tenderly. 'He's insane,' she whispered. 'He's gone mad.'
I stood up and took Rudetsky on one side. 'Better get Halstead back into his hut. And if it can be locked, lock it We have enough on our plate without having to handle that lunatic.'
His grin was pure enjoyment. 'I'd have done the same long ago but I thought Fallon would can me. Oh, boy, but you tapped him good!'
I said, 'You can have a crack at him any time you like, and you don't have to worry about being tired, it's open season on Halstead now; I've stopped being so bloody tolerant'
Rudetsky and Fowler bent to pick up Halstead. who was showing signs of coming round. They got him to his feet and he looked at me blankly with glazed eyes, showing no sign of recognition, then Fowler pushed him out of the hut.
I turned to Katherine. 'How are you doing?'
She gave me a wry and lop-sided smile. 'As well as might be expected,' she said gently. 'After a public brawl with my husband.' She looked down at the table. 'He's changed so much.'
'Hell change a lot more if he causes trouble,' I said. 'And not in a way he likes. His credit's run out, Katherine, and you can't do anything more for him. You can't be a barrier between him and the rest of the world any more.'
'I know,' she said somberly.
There was a shout from outside the hut and I spun around to the doorway. A single shot sounded in the distance, to be followed by a fusillade of rifle fire, a ragged pattering of shots. I left the hut at a dead run and made for the outskirts of the camp, to be waved down by Rudetsky who was sheltering behind a hut.
I went forward at a crouch and joined him. 'What the hell's going on?'
'Halstead made a break for it,' he said, breathing heavily. 'He ran for the forest and we tried to follow him. Then they opened up on us.'
'What about Halstead? Did they fire on him?'
