Page 203 of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt

‘Surely if hehadknown Rhea had taken it from my mother’s skirt during her labour, he would have stolen it back from your mother long before?’

Kreeg frowned and shook his head. ‘Semantics... it was all so long ago. After that night, when I heard my mother talk of the diamond, I asked her about it when you were out of earshot. She told me that she was keeping it for our future, for the day we left Russia. She could not sell it in Tobolsk. I...’

During the retelling of his tale a flicker of uncertainty had crept onto his face at several points.

‘Kreeg,’ I said gently. ‘I have a request. Will you grant me a last supper, perhaps aboard theTitan? We can eat together like we used to do. I have no chef, as I came here alone, but there is the caviar we both used to dream of eating in the refrigerator, and a bottle of the best vodka in the pantry.’

Eszu considered it. ‘Why not? As you say, we grew up as brothers and broke bread together every night – if we had it!’ Kreeg uttered a grim chuckle. ‘You can tell me of your life, and how it was that you came to collect your daughters from the four corners of the earth... as though you were collecting stamps.’

His words failed to wound me. ‘May I stand up? And lead you aboard theTitan?’ Eszu gave a nod. I stood and slowly made my way along to the gangplank that Kreeg had placed between the two superyachts. I crawled across on my hands and knees, before lowering myself onto the deck of theTitan. Kreeg, however, hesitated, unsure of what to do with the pistol.

‘Here. Pass it to me,’ I said.

‘You must think me mad!’ Kreeg replied.

‘Understood. But if you won’t pass it to me, then leave it on board theOlympus. I swear that I am no threat to you. I never was, and I never have been.’

Kreeg eyed me, before gently placing the gun in his back pocket. Then, he hauled himself up onto the gangplank, clearly finding the task physically demanding. As he crawled across the gap between the yachts, his hands began to tremble, perhaps due to the pressure he was exerting on them. This had the effect of wobbling the plank, and Kreeg lost his balance. Unthinkingly, he put his hand out, but found that there was nothing to hold on to. Quick as a flash, I had grabbed it and pulled him towards theTitan.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked, as I helped Kreeg down onto the deck.

‘Fine,’ he replied, whipping his hand away and straightening himself up. ‘It’s a nice boat you have here. The decor is perhaps a little... old-fashioned for my tastes, but it suits you down to the ground.’

I put my hands in my pockets, and gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘I’ve tried to fuse the past and the present.’

‘Exactly what I meant.’

I produced a small laugh. ‘Please, follow me.’ I led Kreeg to the dining table on the main deck on the aft of theTitan.

‘Please, have a seat. I’ll bring some food up.’

I took myself to the kitchen, and on a tray, arranged a selection of caviar, smoked salmon, cheese and cured meats, along with a bottle of Russo-Baltique vodka, which I had been saving for a special occasion. When I returned to the table, the pistol had once again been placed next to Kreeg.

‘I see you’ve developed a taste for the finer things,’ Kreeg quipped.

‘Says the man whose multimillion-euro yacht we’ve just stepped off.’

Kreeg poured us both a shot of the Russo-Baltique. ‘Vashee zda-ró-vye,’ he said, and raised his glass.

‘Vashee zda-ró-vye,’ I replied. Kreeg held still, watching me empty my glass before following suit.

‘Kreeg, if I were to attempt a poisoning, you can rest assured the vodka I’d use would be far cheaper.’

This elicited a chuckle. ‘A man after my own heart.’ Together we enjoyed the caviar, and slowly began to drain the bottle that sat between us. ‘Tell me, Atlas,’ Kreeg continued. ‘You said that certain events in your life have made you question the simplicity of the reality around us. Please elaborate.’

I swallowed my mouthful, and wiped my lips with one of theTitan’s white linen napkins. ‘On my travels across earth as I ran to escape you, I found myself in Granada, Spain. At the time I was broken – at the point of giving up. There, in the great square in front of the cathedral, I met Angelina, a young Gypsy girl, who read my palm and told me my future. She was... astonishing. She told me things about my life she simply could not know. She knew about you, and your relentless pursuit of me across the globe. Then she told me that I would one day be a father to seven daughters... and that one of them was already waiting for me to find her. I...’ My voice cracked. ‘But enough of that.’

Kreeg poured us both another shot, which we gulped down. ‘Did you ever find your father?’ he asked.

I shook my head. ‘No... Although I spent many years searching for him. I was eventually informed he died on his journey home. He made it as far as Georgia. I did, however, hear from my grandmother in Switzerland. When she died, she left me all she had, including the land on the shores of Lake Geneva that Atlantis was built on. From there I amassed my fortune.’ I smiled sadly. ‘Everything I touched seemed to turn to gold, yet it meant nothing to me.’

Kreeg finished lathering a blini in cream cheese, then delicately placed his knife on the table. ‘And I had to stand by and watch you do it.’

I shifted in my seat. ‘Anyway. Tell me about your wife.’

Kreeg paused. ‘You mean Ira?’

‘Who else?’ I replied.