Blood And Ice Part 6

The ship charged toward an iceberg that suddenly loomed up before it like a triton.

"s.h.i.t, I should have seen that," Kathleen muttered, and a moment later, said, "Yes, sir," into her headset. "I do see it, sir. I will," she added, twisting the wheel.

"Hope I didn't distract you," Michael said over the pelting sleet and wind. "If it's any comfort, I didn't see that coming, either."

"It's not your job," she said. "It is mine."

Michael fell silent, to let her concentrate, thinking instead of the graveyard that lay below him, the wreckage of hundreds of ships-schooners and sloops, brigs and frigates, trawlers and whalers-mauled by the ice, broken by the waves, ripped to pieces by the searing wind. And he thought of the thousands of men who had fallen into the raging, empty, endless maw, men whose last sight might have been the masts of their ships snapping like twigs, or a slab of glistening ice tumbling over their heads and plunging them down-what had she said, one thousand five hundred meters?-toward the bottom of a sea so deep no light had ever penetrated it.

What exactly lay right below them, many fathoms under their hull, frozen to the floor of the ocean for all eternity?

The ship careened suddenly from one side to the other. The Ops spun the wheel back to the right and said, "Hard starboard, sir!" to the captain down below. Michael saw the wave, too, gathering force and coming at them like a wall, spreading its wings to either side, lifting chunks of ice the size of houses, and blotting out even the deadening light of the constant sun.

"Hold on tight!" Kathleen barked, and Michael braced himself against the walls, his legs straight, his feet spread. He had never seen anything so large move with such velocity and force, carrying everything-the whole world, it seemed-before it.

The Ops tried to turn the boat so that it would miss the brunt of the wave, but it was too late and the wave, no less than a hundred feet high, was too huge. As it rushed toward the cutter-a streaming wall of angry gray water, rising and widening every second- something else-something white, no, black-something out of control, caught in the storm's unbreakable grip-rocketed toward them even faster. A second later, the window shattered with the sound of a shotgun blast, and shards of ice sprayed the compartment like flying needles. Kathleen screamed and fell away from the wheel, knocking into Michael, who tried to grab her as she slid to the floor. Freezing water pelted his face, and he shook it off, to see- alive and cawing-the bloodied head of a snow-white albatross lying atop the wheel. Its body was wedged against the broken window, its twisted wings splayed uselessly to either side. The wave was still surging over the boat, and the bird clacked its ruined bill, flattened like a boxer's nose. Michael was staring straight into its black unblinking eyes as Kathleen huddled on the floor, and the blue light of the flooded console screens sputtered and went out.

The wave pa.s.sed, the ship groaned, rolled one way, then back in the other, and finally righted itself.

The albatross opened its mangled beak one more time, emitting nothing more than a hollow rattle, and then, as Michael tried to catch a breath, and Kathleen moaned at his feet in pain, the light in the bird's eyes went out like a snuffed candle.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

June 20, 1854, 11 p.m.

THE SALON D'APHRODITE, known to its regular clientele simply as Mme. Eugenie's, was located on a busy stretch of the Strand, but back from the street. A brace of lanterns always hung from the gates of the porte-cochere, and so long as they were lighted, the salon was open for business.

Sinclair had never known them to be out.

He was the first to step down from the hansom cab, followed by Le Maitre and then Rutherford, who had to pay the cabbie. Thank G.o.d he was of a rich, generous-and just now drunken-nature, as he would also have to pay for their privileges of the house. Mme. Eugenie could occasionally be persuaded to extend credit, but it was at a usurious rate of interest, and no one wished to be hauled into court for an outstanding debt to the Salon d'Aphrodite.

As the three of them mounted the stairs, John-O, a towering Jamaican with a pair of gold teeth in the front of his mouth, opened the door and stepped to one side. He knew who they were, but he was paid in part never to say so.

"Good evening," Rutherford said, rather thickly, "is Madame at home?" As if he were paying a call on a society acquaintance.

John-O nodded toward the parlor, partially concealed by a red velvet drape; Sinclair could hear the sound of the pianoforte, and a young woman singing "The Beautiful Banks of the Tweed." With the others in tow, he moved toward the light and gaiety. Frenchie lifted the drape to one side, and Mme. Eugenie looked up from a divan, where she was seated between two of her girls.

"Bienvenue, mes amis!" she said, quickly rising. She was like an old bird, with bright new feathers; her skin the texture of leather, her dress an elaborate green brocade studded with rhinestones. She came forward with her hands extended, a gaudy ring on every finger. "I am so glad you have come to call."

As Le Maitre guffawed, Sinclair sank gratefully onto a well-cushioned ottoman; he wasn't feeling much steadier on his feet than his companions. The room was s.p.a.cious-it was once the exhibition hall of a bibliographical society, but as there had been too few bibliophiles to keep the house solvent, Mme. Eugenie had swooped in and snapped it up for a song. The bookshelves held knick-knacks-busts of Cupid and silk flowers in chinoiserie vases. A large oil painting, badly rendered, of Leda Seduced by Zeus hung above the hearth.

The studies and workrooms upstairs had been converted to more private and intimate use.

At present, Sinclair counted perhaps half a dozen of the femmes galantes circulating around the parlor, in clinging or revealing costume, and an equal number of customers, lounging about on the sofas and chairs. A servant asked him if he would care to have a drink, and Sinclair said, "Gin, yes. And one for each of my friends."

Rutherford said, "Make mine a whiskey," and threw him a cautionary look that said: If I'm to pay for all this, I'll b.l.o.o.d.y well have what I want.

Sinclair knew he was only going deeper into trouble, and debt, but sometimes, he reflected, the only way out was down. And there was still a ways to go.

Frenchie, he noted, was already entangled with a raven-haired harlot in jeweled slippers.

"That you, Sinclair?" someone asked, and Sinclair could guess whose voice it was. Dalton-James Fitzroy a fool of the first water, whose family's lands adjoined his own. "My lord, Sinclair, what are you doing here?"

Sinclair turned on the ottoman, and saw Dalton-James Fitzroy his bulky rump parked on the piano bench, beside the singing girl. Now that the girl turned, Sinclair saw that, despite her gangly frame, she couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen years old, with a simple country face.

"I thought you'd been hounded out of town by your creditors," Fitzroy said. His pudgy cheeks were gleaming with sweat, and Sinclair steeled himself not to rise to the bait.

"Evening," he simply replied.

But Fitzroy was determined. "How will you pay the apothecary if you catch a dose here tonight?"

This time, he was saved the trouble of answering at all by Mme. Eugenie's intervention, who rushed to the defense of her establishment. She fluttered between them, saying "Messieurs, my companion ladies are clean as whistles! Dr. Evans, he inspects them regulierement. Every month! And our visitors," she declared, sweeping one hand around the room, "are la creme de la societe. Only the finest gentlemen, as you may see for yourself." Wagging one bejeweled finger at Fitzroy, playfully but with meaning, she said, "Shame on you, sir, in front of these agreeable ladies, to be so rude."

Fitzroy took his chastis.e.m.e.nt in the spirit of irony, bowed low over the piano keyboard, and begged forgiveness. "Perhaps it is best that I sheathe my sword and depart the field," he said, which was rich, Sinclair thought, coming from a coward like Fitzroy-always full of bl.u.s.ter until the army came calling for recruits.

He stood up, his silk waistcoat straining at its seams, and clutching the girl's hand walked unsteadily toward the main stairs.

"John-O," Mme. Eugenie called out, "please show our guest to the Suite des Dieux."

The girl cast a frightened eye back toward Sinclair, of all people. But he could see-under her rouge and makeup-just how young and inexperienced she was. And he could not resist one sally.

"Why not have a woman?" he taunted Fitzroy.

Two of the other gentlemen in the room laughed.

Fitzroy stopped, teetering, but did not turn. "Chacun a son gout, Sinclair. You, above all people, should know that."

As Fitzroy left the room with his reluctant prize, Mme. Eugenie came to Sinclair, clucking her tongue. "Why are you so quarrelsome tonight? It is not like you, my lord." Sinclair was not a lord, not yet, but he knew that Mme. Eugenie liked to flatter her customers that way. "That is bad form, and Mr. Fitzroy has paid well for this privilege."

"What privilege?"

Mme. Eugenie reared back as if astonished at his stupidity. "This young girl is a flower that has never been plucked."

A virgin? Even in his inebriated state, Sinclair knew that that was the oldest con in the trade. Virgins commanded a premium price not only because they were, by definition, safe as houses, but because they were also reputed to be able to cure-through vigorous use-several of the amatory infections. It was all balderdash, of course, and Sinclair would normally have put the whole business out of mind already-what concern was it of his, after all?-were it not for that stricken look in the young girl's eye. She was either such an accomplished actress that she belonged on center stage at Covent Garden ... or else it was genuine. There was no law against prost.i.tution, and the age of consent was twelve; girls of her tender years were, quite legally, corrupted every day. Fitzroy had no doubt spent twenty-five or thirty pounds for the privilege.

"Come now," Rutherford cajoled him. "That fat b.a.s.t.a.r.d's going to be your neighbor for years to come. Don't begin a fracas now."

Mme. Eugenie winked at one of the other women, with bright red hair spread across a pair of creamy, well-exposed shoulders, who artfully drew Sinclair off the ottoman and onto a loveseat beneath a picture of a nymph fleeing a satyr. The servant appeared with the gin.

Frenchie had taken the country girl's place at the pianoforte, and was playing, as well as his own compromised condition would allow, a lugubrious version of something by Herr Mozart.

The redhead introduced herself as Marybeth, and tried to engage Sinclair in conversation, asking first about his regiment, then where they might be posted, before expressing deep concern- somewhat premature, in his view-for his continued safety. But all the while, Sinclair could only think of that girl, with the coltish frame and the frightened eyes, being dragged up the stairs behind John-O and his golden teeth.

Sinclair had had a sister once. She'd died about that age, of consumption.

"That's quite enough of that," one of the other men called out to Le Maitre. "Give us something with a bit of a song to it. If I wanted to attend the Lyceum, I'd be off with my wife."

A round of laughter and applause followed, and Frenchie, bowing to public opinion, launched into a sloppy rendition of "My Heart's in the Highlands." He had finished with it, and played another number just then sweeping the Strand, when Sinclair heard a cry from upstairs.

Everyone else scrupulously ignored it-though Frenchie did pause for a second, and Marybeth took sudden pains to adjust the b.u.t.tons and collar of Sinclair's shirt. An elderly gent with a matronly brunette on his arm continued his slow ascent of the stairs. When the song ended, Sinclair listened more closely, and even though the Suite des Dieux was a full floor above, he could hear a m.u.f.fled cry, and the sound of something falling to the floor.

"The table d'hote has just been replenished," Mme. Eugenie said, clapping her hands together. "Please, gentlemen, enjoy le canard aux cerises and oysters on the half sh.e.l.l."

Several of the guests roused themselves-Rutherford among them-and made their way toward the buffet in the next room. But Sinclair neatly disengaged himself and went toward the stairs. As luck would have it, John-O was just then welcoming a trio of inebriated men about town, taking their cloaks and hats, and Sinclair was able to mount the stairs un.o.bserved.

The suite was on the second floor, just above the porte-cochere; Sinclair had occupied it himself once or twice. And he knew that its door-like all the doors in the Salon d'Aphrodite-was not locked while occupied. Mme. Eugenie had long since discovered that exigencies of the trade required her, or John-O, to have immediate- if judiciously employed-access to any chamber.

He kept his feet to the carpet runner as he went to the door, and quietly put his ear against the wood. There were two small rooms, he knew-an antechamber with a few sticks of maple furniture, and a bedroom with a ma.s.sive, canopied four-poster. He could hear the rumble of Fitzroy's voice, in the bedroom, and then a low sob from the girl.

"You will," Fitzroy said, his voice raised.

The girl cried again, repeatedly calling him sir, and it sounded as if she were moving slowly, warily, about the room. A vase, or bottle, smashed on the floor.

"I'll not pay for that!" Fitzroy said, and Sinclair heard the whistle of a whip cutting the air, and a scream.

He threw open the door and ran through the antechamber to the bedroom. A bare-chested Fitzroy was standing, his white trousers still on, with one suspender hanging down; the other suspender he held in his hand.

"Sinclair, I'll be d.a.m.ned!"

The girl was naked, holding a bloodied sheet around her. All of her powder and rouge had run down her face in a flood of tears.

"You've got a b.l.o.o.d.y nerve to break in here!" Fitzroy said, moving toward his clothing thrown on the settee. "Where's John-O?"

"Put your things on and get out."

Fitzroy, his belly hanging down like a market sack, said, "It's you who'll be leaving."

He fumbled in his jacket, and pulled out a silver-plated derringer, the kind a cardsharp might carry. Sinclair should not have been surprised. The girl, seeing her chance, ran past them both and out of the room.

The sight of the gun did not diminish Sinclair's determination. Rather, it inflamed it. "You b.l.o.o.d.y fat coward. If you aim that thing at me, you'd better plan to use it." Sinclair took a menacing step forward, and Fitzroy fell back toward the windows.

"I will," he cried. "I will use it!"

"Give it to me," Sinclair growled, throwing out one hand.

Sinclair took another step, and Fitzroy, closing his eyes, shot the gun. Sinclair heard a loud pop, the sleeve of his uniform ripped away, and an instant later he felt a wetness-his blood-running down his arm.

He lunged at Fitzroy, gla.s.s crunching beneath his boots. Fitzroy flailed at him with the gun, but Sinclair was able to grab it and yank it from his grip. Fitzroy twisted, looking for somewhere to run, but where could he go?

Sinclair heard the heavy tread of John-O running up the main staircase, and Fitzroy must have heard it, too.

"John-O!" he shouted. "In here!"

He leered in victory at Sinclair, and Sinclair, in a blind rage, whirled him around, s.n.a.t.c.hed him by the seat of his trousers, ran him three paces toward the closed windows, and hurled him straight through the gla.s.s. Fitzroy, screaming in terror, tumbled out and landed with a huge thump and a rain of shattered gla.s.s a few feet below, atop the bricks of the porte-cochere. The horses of a carriage parked beneath it whinnied in alarm.

John-O stood stunned in the bedroom door, as Sinclair turned around, a b.l.o.o.d.y patch of his sleeve flapping loosely from his left arm.

"Please advise Madame," he said, brushing past the Jamaican, "to send me the bill from her glazier."

Rutherford and Le Maitre, along with several others, anxiously awaited him at the bottom of the stairs.

"Good G.o.d, you've been shot?" Rutherford exclaimed, as Sinclair descended the stairs.

"Who was it?" Frenchie insisted. "Was it that blackguard Fitzroy?"

"Take me to that hospital we pa.s.sed," Sinclair said. "The one on Harley Street."

Rutherford and Frenchie looked puzzled. "But that's for indigent women," Rutherford said.

"Any port in a storm," Sinclair replied.

It might yet be possible, he thought, to salvage something from this night.

CHAPTER NINE.

December 1, 11:45 a.m.

THE STORM RAGED for hours, and only let up by late morning the next day. The damaged aloft con had been abandoned and sealed off for the duration of the voyage.

Dr. Barnes had helped the ship's own medic to remove the ice and gla.s.s shards from Lieutenant Kathleen Healey's face, but her eyes were still severely compromised and Charlotte thought she should be taken back to civilization-and a first-rate ophthalmologist-as fast as possible.

"She could permanently lose the sight in one or even both of her eyes," she told the captain in his private cabin. Purcell didn't say anything, but looked down at his shoes, thinking hard, and when he looked up again a few seconds later, he said, "Start packing."

"Come again?"

"I'd planned to get you closer to Port Adelie before launching the chopper, but I think we can make it from here."

Charlotte really didn't like the sound of that "I think."

"We'll just have to jettison some of the provisions and supplies, in order to lower the cargo weight. Then we can board you and Mr. Hirsch and Mr. Wilde, with your gear, and take off from here. The chopper should be able to carry just enough fuel to drop you there, and then get back to us while we're already heading back north. Lieutenant Ramsey!" he called out as the officer pa.s.sed through the corridor outside.

"Sir?"

"Prepare the helicopter. Who are our pilots on this trip?"

"That would be Ensigns Diaz and Jarvis."

"Order them to fuel it up and be ready to deliver our three pa.s.sengers to Point Adelie ASAP."

"From here, sir? Won't-"

But the captain cut him short, completed his instructions, then dismissed him. Returning his attention to Charlotte, he asked if she'd tell Wilde and Hirsch to get a move on, too.

"How long should I tell them they've got?"

The captain glanced at his watch, then said, "Let's shoot for 1300 hours."

Charlotte still had to do the quick math-that meant 1 p.m. And that meant she had about fifty-five minutes.