Knowing there would be no barkentine
to see, Aquila hadn’t stayed on lookout duty during the night. She’d drifted in and out of her shell,
letting Merlin sleep and recharge her batteries, and she’d kept watch on the display
panels and the controls.
It had been shortly after dawn that
she woke Merlin who opened her eyes to a dim gray green gloom and a heaving
deck.
“What is it?” she muttered.
“Take a look,” Aquila invited. “You need me topside.”
Merlin turned to kneel on the sofa and
peer thru the spattered, smeared window.
“Well, that’s just fabulous. Thank you so much. This job isn’t
exactly what I’d call real easy so
you just had to make it more
interesting for me. You couldn’t have
brought the storm to an end, no. You
had to add this on top of everything else.
I am so grateful .. not.”
Aquila, keep a sharp lookout, she added.
For the ship or the cliffs?
I’d say both but we don’t have eyes in
the back of our head, do we?
“Peri ..?” Alex called from the bottom
of the steps. “Talking to yourself?”
“In a way. Y’know something, Alex?
I’m gonna be glad when today is over.
I am getting very tired of this sea of trouble.”
Alex paused halfway up the
stairs. A sea of trouble. A good description, she felt. “Why should today provoke such a reaction
from you?” she asked as she resumed her journey.
Merlin smiled coolly and gestured at
the world outside. “Fog.”
“Oh no,” Alex muttered, putting a
dismayed hand to her mouth.
“Aquila’s topside keeping watch. This is gonna complicate matters no
end. I can keep us from being driven
toward the cliffs just on the instruments but spotting the ship … We’ll have very little warning, Alex. And, if Derek an’ Nick decide to jump,
finding them in this sea and in the
fog ... Don’t expect a rapid
reaction. It could take more time than
they’ll have.” She shrugged. “I’ll do my best for you, but I can’t make
any promises.”
“Okay.” Alex thought for a moment then nodded. “I’ll get the others awake.
We fix breakfast, eat, then we all take a window an’ keep watch. You concentrate on the launch. We handle the rest. Team effort.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Alex smiled quickly and headed back
down again. “Jack, Rachel! Time to rise an’ shine! You too, Kat!”
There were faint groans and mutterings
but they were moving. Alex went to the
tiny galley and began sorting thru their dwindling supplies.
“Why so early?” Rachel yawned as she
came to help.
“Complications. We’ve got fog.”
“Oh no.”
“Rachel, we’re gonna be busy keeping
watch for as long as we have to, or until the fog moves out, so I want you to
be ready. We are going to get them back today.”
“Right. Blankets. A Thermos of
hot coffee. I’ll get the med kit from
its locker,” she agreed. “We may have
to work fast.”
“Exactly. I’d rather be prepared in advance.”
“Absolutely,” Rachel smiled. “Good thinking, Alex.”
Alex hesitated. “I’m okay with the practical decisions,
Rachel, but .. today our time runs out and I still have no idea how to get them
back. Should I try to force it? Should I hold back? What if I choose wrongly an’ it all goes
down the toilet? We could get them back
.. but dead.”
“That’s why you’ve got a doctor on
board. Modern medical science can work
wonders and, even if they fail, we have someone on board who can work
miracles.”
She patted Alex’s arm. “Alex, go with your gut. You’ll know what to do when the time
comes. Until then .. try not to think
yourself round in circles, okay?”
“Okay,” Alex smiled.
Rachel squeezed past Jack who was on
his way in. “Did I hear you say we got
fog?” he frowned.
“Yeah,” Alex confirmed. “We’re on lookout duty, soon as we’ve had
breakfast.”
To her surprise, Jack accepted this
without comment. He merely nodded and
shrugged slightly. But that was the way
he was. When it came down to the wire,
Jack Chivikian was like a rock. He made
his choices and he stuck to them, thru thick, thin and intermediate.
“Jack,” Alex said.
“Uh huh?”
“Thank you.”
He glanced round and smiled
warmly. “You’re welcome, Alex.”
*****
Derek
picked himself up from the deck and righted the lantern. Nick groaned and held a hand to his head as
he sat up. Derek had been thrown off
his feet by the sudden sideways lurch and the listing. Nick had fallen and hit his head on the
corner of the bedpost.
“What
happened?” Derek asked, bending to examine the cut on Nick’s scalp.
“From
the noise an’ the – ouch! Careful! The noise an’ the sudden movement, I’d say
we lost at least one mast.”
Derek
thought quickly back to the wreck they’d examined. “Two down, two more to go.”
“I’d
sit down,” Nick advised. “That way, you
can’t be knocked over when they go.”
“That’s
a nasty cut,” Derek commented, his face concerned.
“Isn’t
the first I’ve had. Sea water’ll wash
it clean.”
“The
storm appears to be have gotten worse again,” Derek remarked, sitting next to
Nick and leaning against the wooden partition.
“They
just love to make a tough job even harder,” Nick murmured, closing his eyes and
resting his head back against the timber.
“Who’s
‘they’?” Derek wondered, worried that Nick might have a concussion. Now was not exactly the best time for Nick
to be rendered incapable.
Nick
waved one hand airily. “Y’know. They. The powers that be. Fate.
I should be used to them screwing over everything. In the Legacy, it’s almost a rule. Nothing ever runs smoothly from start to
finish. We never get a simple case to
investigate an’ put right. They just love to complicate things.”
“Doesn’t
that make the challenge more interesting?”
“I
don’t object to interesting, Derek,” Nick replied. “It’s dangerous that gets me mad.”
Derek
frowned. “But you thrive on
danger. You actively seek it out.”
“Me,
alone, sure. I know I can handle most
situations. But I’m not alone in this,
am I? You’re here. Alex, Rachel an’ Peri are fighting to
survive this storm as well. If the
conditions are a match, they got fog too.
All complications none of us need.
Challenging, interesting, none of us have any problem with being
stretched. Dangerous .. to a degree,
yeah, we can go with that as well.
Dangerous just for the hell of it .. that’s down to them. And we still don’t know how to break out of
this. No guarantees, remember?”
Derek
watched him carefully. It wasn’t like
Nick to be so down. He always bounced
back, always had ideas on strategy and tactics, no matter how dire the
situation.
“I
don’t think you should sleep,” he cautioned.
Nick
grinned without humor. “I’ve got the
mother of all headaches, not tiredness.”
He opened one eye a slit. “You
think I could sleep thru this? Could you?”
Derek
listened to the distant crack of thunder and the groaning of timbers in
distress. He swallowed as he remembered
the wreck on the seabed. A hundred
years in the future, and yet so terribly, horribly close.
“Not
for one second.”
*****
Alex
clung to the sofa as the thunder cracked overhead and the sea surged higher
than it ever had before. Her heart was
thundering too, racing in her chest in a mixture of outright fear and hollow
terror.
“How
far are we from land?” she called, staring wildly at the eerie green fog.
“About
half a mile,” Kat replied, sounding calm.
Rachel
noticed too how calm her daughter’s voice was.
She was holding on to whatever solid object she could find but she
risked a sideways glance at Kat, and then she understood.
Kat
was next to Merlin and, in a strange way, feeding off Merlin’s composure. The Enforcer was busy with the wheel,
concentrating totally, and like a rock.
For once, Rachel had no problem with Kat having Merlin as a role
model. She thought she could learn from
her daughter’s example.
“Why
is it worse?” Jack inquired irritably.
“I thought it was actually starting to get easier. But now it’s a lot worse.”
“It’s
like some people,” Merlin answered.
“Doesn’t know when to quit.”
“Could
it be like .. a blaze of glory?” Rachel suggested. “One final show of force before it exhausts itself?”
“That’s
a nice thought, Rachel,” Merlin remarked.
“Everyone, hold that idea.”
“The
thing with final shows of force is that they’re usually devastating,” Jack
commented.
“Shut
up, Jack,” the women chorused.
*****
“First
boat’s away, sir,” Paul reported. “I’ve
told them not to head for land too soon.
This may be over in an hour or so, and they’ll have a better chance.”
John
Marriott nodded. “Helm, steer east
north east. Sixty seven degrees
starboard.”
“Aye,
sir. East north east.”
The
Santa Theresa’s bow began to turn to the right. Paul swallowed. This was
it. They were now on the last stage of
their voyage. At the end was a date
with destiny.
“Mr
Delacroix, I’m going below to update the log.”
“Aye,
sir.”
“Report
to my cabin in thirty minutes.”
Paul
nodded and checked his pocket watch, wiping the rain from the glass face. “Steady as she goes, helm.”
“Difficult,
sir, when the waves are hitting us almost broadside one moment and up the stern
the next.”
The
words had no sooner left the helmsman’s mouth, snatched away and devoured by
the greedy wind, when lightning spit and hit the first mast.
“Take
cover!” Paul yelled, knowing that the terrible squeal of cracking timber meant
another mast was about to be lost. Men
scattered, trying to find somewhere safe and not knowing where it might be found.
The
mast fell in slow motion and landed sideways, smashing the deck rail and
heeling the barkentine to starboard.
“Cut
the lines! Get it over the side!” Paul
ordered. “Fast now, or it’ll drag us
under!”
As
the crew hurried to obey, the remaining mast was hit. It sheered with horrific quickness and toppled down on the men
working below. The Santa Theresa listed
even more. Paul didn’t need to shout
any more orders. The crew scrambled to
free the masts and rescue their shipmates.
As the masts splashed over the side and sank, the barkentine heaved
upright and plunged on.
Paul
strode down the deck. “How many
injured?”
“Ten,
sir. Three dead.”
“May
God have mercy on their souls. You know
their names?”
“Aye,
sir.”
“Then
report to the Captain’s cabin. Tell
him. He’s updating the log.”
The
sailor nodded and ran. Paul gestured to
two others. “Give them to the sea. You two, pull the wounded to safety and
ready a boat for launching. Ten
volunteers to man the oars!”
Ten
of the crew stepped forward.
“Don’t
make for land just yet. Try and wait it
out for an hour or so. Go!”
*****
Merlin
peered thru the small window right in front of her and her eyes widened.
“Everyone,
hang on!” she called, spinning the wheel and punching up the engines. The launch surged forward.
Jack’s
eyes narrowed as he squinted over his shoulder at what she’d seen, then he
closed them tightly. “Oh my God … ”
It
was a wall of water and it had emerged out of the fog. It towered over the Shamrock, dwarfing
it. The launch was facing it square on.
“This
is gonna be a little rough,” Merlin warned.
“A
little?” Jack choked.
The
wall collapsed. For several seconds,
the Shamrock was a submarine. Merlin
gunned the engines harder and the launch shot out, rolling wildly but on the
surface again and with water streaming from it.
“That
should have sunk us,” Jack muttered.
“If
you can’t get around or over, you punch a way thru,” she explained. “Do it fast enough, no one realizes what
you’ve done till it’s long over. Alex,
I know what I said before but, now, I think it’d be a good idea to put some
distance between us an’ land. These
waves are gigantic. They’ll only be
huge farther out, an’ we know we can do huge.”
“Okay,”
Alex agreed, her heart returning to its place in her chest. She’d seen the wave as well and, like Jack,
had believed it would sink them.
Slowly, her knuckles went from white to brown and she offered up a
small, silent prayer of gratitude.
“Just
as a matter of interest,” Jack began conversationally, “has anyone seen The Perfect Storm?”
“Jack
– ” they said sharply.
“I
know, I know,” he quickly cut in. “Shut
up, Jack.”
*****
With
the masts now all gone, the barkentine’s progress was a little smoother. The Santa Theresa seemed to be flying thru
the water. People seemed almost
cheerful. They’d survived and they were
going home. Paul, however, had a
clenched knot of fear in his stomach.
Below,
Jonas was guarding his hatch and feeling nervous. His heart was racing, his mouth was dry. He felt sick with terror. He saw Paul come clattering down the steps
and pause to shake himself like a dog, then go to the Captain’s cabin. Jonas clutched at his rifle, holding it against
his chest like a shield.
“We’ve
lost the other two masts, sir,” Paul reported.
“The
names of the dead have been recorded in the log, Mr Delacroix.” John Marriott had wrapped it and his journal
in a square of oilskin. “The time?”
“Just
on eleven o’clock, sir.”
“I
estimate we will strike the cliffs at around twelve noon. Time now, I think, to abandon ship. I’ll give the order. If there is anything personal you wish to
take, now is the time to get it ready.”
“Aye,
sir.”
John
Marriott rose heavily and looked around.
“A fine ship, one it has been my pleasure and my privilege to
command. And, you, sir, it has been an
honor. I hope, should we both survive
the next two hours, to serve with you again at some point in the future.”
Paul
smiled. “Thank you, Captain. I hope I have the honor of serving with you
again as well.”
He
followed the Captain out to the main deck then turned aside to his cabin. He spent a hasty few minutes updating his
journal then wrapped it and the sepia toned photograph of his wife Eliza in an
oilskin and tied it with string. He put
it with his coat. Paul didn’t rush, not
now. His fear had gone, replaced by
purpose. There were things to be done,
promises to be honored, the less fortunate to save.
When
he emerged from his cabin, the main deck was empty. He could hear voices overhead and orders being shouted, the
rumble and splash of boats being launched.
Paul rounded the thick mast to go to the first hatch and he halted.
“Jonas? Didn’t you hear the order to abandon ship?”
Jonas
nodded. He was wild eyed, his nostrils
flaring. His body was twitching, like
his muscles were in some kind of spasm.
“Mr Mate told me to ignore it, sir.
He said I had to stay at my post, sir.”
“Nate
told you that? Why ..? Everyone else has gone.”
“Not
me, an’ not Mr Mate, sir. Not you.”
“Jonas,
get up on deck – ”
“Why? What are you doing here, sir?” the young
sailor cut in, his voice rising and edged with hysteria.
“I
have to go below.”
Jonas
shook his head and brought the rifle to his shoulder. “No, sir!”
“Jonas
– ” Paul said impatiently.
The
rifle cracked and Paul staggered back, blood soaking his shoulder. His left arm hung uselessly at his
side. Jonas whimpered and flung the
rifle away as Paul pitched forward onto his face.
“What
the hell have you done?” Nate Tucker demanded, running up to him. “I told you to remember the Captain’s
orders!”
“Shoot
anyone attempting to go down there!” Jonas screamed.
“No! Written permission! Shoot anyone attempting to come up!” Nate corrected feverishly, then he
paused. “He was going down there?”
“He
said so! I swear!”
“Is
he dead?”
Jonas
moaned and nodded.
A
shadow fell over them. “What’s the
meaning of this?” John Marriott inquired.
“A
misunderstanding, sir,” Nate replied quickly.
“Jonas believed the First Officer was trying to free the cargo against
your express orders.”
“He
was obeying his orders, you
fool! Get topside. Now!”
the Captain thundered. “I’ll deal with
the both of you later.”
Nate
grabbed Jonas’s arm and hauled him away to the steps.
“He’ll
order us executed,” Jonas moaned. “I murdered
the First Officer.”
“No,
he won’t,” Nate muttered. His eyes held
a damning and insane purpose. “Captain
goes down with the ship, right? Come
on, lad. We’ve got work to do.”
*****
Merlin
checked the displays and throttled back the engines. “We should be able to ride it out here.”
“The
fog’s thicker,” Rachel muttered, “but it does seem smoother.”
Jack
looked at his watch. “Eleven twenty … ”
*****
John
Marriott bent quickly and rolled Paul onto his back. Paul groaned and flinched.
“Not
dead then. You’re made of stern stuff,
Mr Delacroix. Can you stand?”
“I
– I think so, Captain.”
Marriott
helped the First Officer to his feet, ripped some cloth from his own coat and
padded the wound, then used another strip as a sling. Only then did Marriott turn and heave open the first hatch. “I’ve reserved the last boat for us,
Paul. Us and our passengers. You go on down. I’ll get the rest of the hatches open.”
“Aye,
sir.”
At
the sound of the gunshot, Derek had gotten to his feet and gone out to the deck
to peer up at the closed hatch. At the
sound of wood hitting wood and dim light spearing down, he’d returned to the
cabin. “Come along, Nick. I believe that’s our signal. Can you walk?”
“Yeah,”
Nick groaned, hoisting himself up and following Derek out.
Paul
descended awkwardly.
“He’s
been shot,” Nick said, seeing the blood.
Derek
was heaving sandbags aside. “He’s a man
of his word, Nick. I can’t do this
alone. Time is of the essence!” he
called, hurrying on to the next hatch.
Battling
his headache and the shifting of the deck, Nick ran to the third hatch.
“Thank
you,” Paul said to his invisible helpers.
“The Captain and I will take them in the last boat.” He nursed his useless arm. “I don’t suppose they will be able to see you
so I must go below.”
Derek
pulled open the last hatch, his muscles bunching with the effort. The stench of death rose sharply but Paul
didn’t hesitate.
“Can
you hear me?” he called as he went down.
“Quickly, those who can move unaided, get to the ladders. We have to abandon ship. Those who require assistance, come to me.”
John
Marriott clattered swiftly down from the main deck. “Derek, Nick. Good to see
you’re well. You are welcome to come
with us.”
“We
have to stay,” Derek replied. “We wish we
didn’t have to but the choice is not ours to make.”
Paul
came up with the first of the victims as others emerged from other hatches.
“Well
.. God speed to you,” John Marriott nodded.
“I pray you return to your own time and place.”
Paul
started up the next steps but halted between decks. “Nate, what are you doing?”
Farther
down the deck, water was starting to pour in.
“Stopping
the evil,” Nate replied. “Stopping it
spreading.”
“What
do you mean?” Paul demanded. He was in
pain and he had a job to do. He didn’t
have time for nonsense.
“Nick,”
Derek said quickly. “Up the other
stairs.”
“Right.”
“I
won’t let the evil spirits win. I’d
rather sink the Santa Theresa myself than let them do it,” Nate shouted. “Jonas is away and I’ll take the last boat. You an’ the Captain .. you’ll do the
honorable thing.”
Nick
was up the steps in a flash and took in the scene. Nate Tucker had picked up the discarded rifle and had it aimed at
Paul’s head. Water was cascading in
from all the opened hatches along the upper deck. Nick took his firearm and aimed it.
“Derek,
he’s got a rifle on Paul. He’ll shoot
if anyone tries to get up here. You
want me to take him down?”
John
Marriott led up two more of the passengers from the hold. “That’s all the survivors. What’s the delay?”
“Your
ship is being scuppered,” Derek replied.
“Nick, shoot to disable.”
“Aye,
skipper.”
Nick
aimed carefully at Nate’s arm and squeezed the trigger. The barkentine, filling fast with water,
lurched as her balance changed and Nate staggered. The bullet took him in the neck.
“Damn,”
Nick muttered as Nate, his face frozen in an expression of surprise, collapsed
and hit Paul. The First Officer moved
awkwardly aside and let Nate tumble down to the lower deck.
“Nick,
what happened?” Derek demanded.
“He
moved. It was an accident.”
“Coast’s
clear, sir,” Paul reported. “We’d
better hurry.” He glanced down at the
dead First Mate. “You got it all wrong,
Nate. There was no evil on this ship,
only superstition and prejudice.”
Derek
was the last to leave the lower deck.
Water was swilling around his ankles and the body of Nate Tucker was
being gently moved to a corner where it would become lodged. Derek looked at it for a long moment, then
he and Nick went to the upper deck and helped get the last boat away. Every wave which crashed over the stern or
the bow or the side poured thru the open hatches.
They
looked at each other.
“Now
what?” Nick asked.
“We
wait,” Derek said with a small shrug.
“What else can we do?”
*****
Merlin
shook her head. “I don’t like
this. It’s giving me a bad feeling.”
Alex
felt her heart turn over. When anyone
else said that, she got concerned. When
Merlin said it, it usually heralded disaster.
Rachel beat her to the question.
“What
d’you mean?”
“These
waves, we’re riding them but we’re going backwards. They’ve pushing us back toward the land.”
“And,
for land, think huge great cliffs,” Jack invited.
“Keep
us on station,” Alex said, glancing at her watch and wondering how much longer
this day could last. It was only eleven
forty five and it already felt like two weeks.
Merlin
opened up the engines and the Shamrock battled her way forward again.
*****
“We
are definitely lower in the water,” Nick remarked, peering over the railing
from his place at the bow. “It can’t be
much longer now, Derek. Decision
time. Do we wait till the very last
second an’ jump? Do we take our chances
an’ jump now? Or do we go down with the
ship?”
Derek
was shivering. Nick was right. It was decision time. He wasn’t afraid of dying but .. to calmly
and deliberately choose to die and for no reason, that was another matter
entirely. The sea was monstrous, a huge
swell which was growing as the Santa Theresa was pushed toward Lopez Point.
Nick
waited patiently for the decision. He
felt impatient inside because precious time was being lost. Lost, not wasted. A choice like this demanded time be given to it.
“We
wait a little longer,” Derek eventually said.
He saw Nick’s shoulders drop a fraction of an inch. “Nick .. for all we know, we may be in our
own time and only the fog is preventing us from knowing it for sure. On the other hand – ”
“Right,
we could still be a hundred years in the past an’ jumping now won’t solve
anything.” Nick studied the condition
of the barkentine, trying to judge how long they had.
“Do
you hear that ..?” Derek said.
The
wind was a low howl and the rain hitting the deck was noisy but, faintly, in
the distance, Nick could hear something else.
Something low, at the edge of hearing, but constant. A roaring, booming noise.
He
nodded. “That’s the sea hitting the
cliffs at Lopez Point.”
Derek
blinked rain from his eyes. “How long
do we have?”
Nick
hunched his shoulders. “Remembering
that the wreck was a distance out from the cliffs .. I’d say five minutes. Maybe less.
Not much more.”
Derek
turned to peer desperately into the fog.
He wasn’t afraid of dying but he had just realized that he didn’t want
to die, not just yet, not like this. He
wanted very much to live and to go home.
*****
Aquila
was watching a ninety degree arc of angry ocean, from north west to south
west. Somewhere, and sometime soon, in
that arc, the Santa Theresa would appear, and sink. At least, she hoped it would appear. There were no reports
of anyone actually witnessing her going to her death.
She
kept this observation to herself – there was no need to burden the others with
yet more worries. Everyone, even Nick,
assumed that the barkentine went down around this area, but it may have already
sunk. It may sink tomorrow, never
materializing again for anyone to notice.
No one knew, not for a fact.
Nick might, but he wasn’t here to ask.
The
fog billowed, writhed like a living thing, smothering everything around it,
muffling sound, disorienting distance and perception.
Having
taken them, the Santa Theresa couldn’t keep them, could it? It would be unfair. It was persecution. There again, Aquila knew life wasn’t
fair. It could be good, bad or
evil. And, while the others may
disagree vehemently, this wasn’t evil.
It wasn’t even bad. It was ..
unfortunate. Poor timing. Nothing more.
Her
head whipped round as a shadow stained the fog. At that exact moment, Merlin cut the engines. Aquila’s eyes widened and she backed away,
one arm rising instinctively to shield her head …
*****
The
fog suddenly parted and Nick took a step back.
“No!” he shouted.
Derek
stared down, his voice frozen, as he saw the Shamrock right in their path. There was no way they could avoid it…
*****
Merlin
looked up sharply as an alarm blared.
“Proximity warning ..?” she muttered, her head already turning to look
thru the window at her side. “Oh ..
shit.”
Alex
spun round, and all she could see was darkness rushing toward her. Jack reached for her hand and held it
tightly.
Rachel
turned to cover Kat’s body with her own and whisper that she loved her …
*****
Nick
and Derek clung to the rail as the bow suddenly lifted high into the air. The water filling the hold, lower and main
decks shot toward the stern and the keel cracked under the pressure. As the aft section broke away and sank, the
bow section smacked down and hit the Shamrock which had slid beneath it. The bow section snapped away and the three
pieces began a journey to their final resting place on the seabed.
*****
Rachel
felt Kat wriggle and she sat up. Jack
opened his eyes and released Alex’s hand.
There had been a moment, a fraction of a split second, when the world
had turned inside out.
“What
happened?” Alex asked faintly.
“That
should’ve finished us,” Merlin said.
“No. It closed a circle,” Derek replied as he
staggered up the stairs from the lower deck.
“Derek
..?” Alex whispered. Rachel’s face
broke into a smile. Derek looked at
them and smiled too.
“We
are dirty, we smell, and we would very much like to stand on solid ground,
somewhere dry,” he said. “And we are
also very grateful that you risked everything to rescue us. If you hadn’t been there when you were … ”
Nick
pushed past him and went to Merlin, hugging her, his eyes closed. “I thought you had to be dead,” he
whispered.
“Yeah,
so did I,” she agreed.
“Okay,
you two, back downstairs,” Rachel ordered.
“Jack
..?” Nick frowned. “What are you doing
here?”
“I’m
the token guy on the mission,” Jack replied with a shrug.
“No,
he isn’t,” Alex denied. “He’s been a
big help.”
“And
Kat ..?” Derek queried.
“Skipping
school but learning more,” Kat answered, grinning. “I knew you weren’t dead.”
“Downstairs,
now!” Rachel insisted. “Nick, that is a nasty gash on your
head. I wanna check you both over, give
you some shots, just in case you’ve been exposed to diphtheria.”
“Peri,
take us back to Morro Bay,” Alex ordered calmly but firmly. “Derek, Nick, I’m in charge so you do what
Rachel tells you.”
Grinning,
Merlin fired up the engines and turned south thru the thinning fog as Rachel
herded her grumbling charges back below.
*****
By
five thirty, they were back at Jordan’s Boatyard and, there, they
separated. Rachel, Kat and Jack took
Derek and Nick in the Range Rover to find some accommodation for the
night. Alex took the rental to the
Sheriff’s office to close off their investigation. And Merlin stayed at the boatyard to pacify a suddenly
incandescent Zeke Jordan.
“You
told me you were heading for Monterey!” he shouted.
“We
were heading that way,” Merlin
pointed out.
“You
said you’d ride it out there!”
She
shrugged. “Take a look for yourself –
not a mark on her. Plus we’re back when
we said we’d be back.”
He
couldn’t argue with that though he looked like he very much wanted to.
“Those
boats are not designed for weather like this,” he growled. “Experienced sailors would run for shelter.”
“Ah,
that explains it then. We’d never been
on a boat like this before. Not been on
any boats where we had to do the work.
Didn’t even know how to start the engines. We had to learn what it could do as we went along and we found it
could do a lot more than the instruction manual said .. so that was okay.” She smiled at his aghast expression. “I think we’re quits. You don’t owe us any refund an’ I don’t owe
you any apologies.” Merlin winked. “Pleasure doing business with you, Mr
Jordan.”
As
she walked away from his spluttering indignation, the rain stopped and the sun
began to punch holes thru the cloud.
*****
“We
found them,” Alex said. Deputy Charlie
Matheson raised an eyebrow. “Farther up
the coast.”
“How’d
they get there?” he asked.
“They
were taken there and .. dropped off.
The Shamrock’s back at Jordan’s Boatyard. Everyone’s accounted for.
That’s the end to your investigation,” Alex smiled.
“Who
took ’em? Did they go freely? If it’s kidnapping – ”
Alex
wondered how to answer that. “No, it
wasn’t kidnapping. It was ..
unusual. I don’t know all the details
yet myself but .. it had to do with the ghost ship.”
He
took a step back, his lips pursing as he nodded slowly. “As you did the searching, I can’t arrest
you for wasting police time,” he said, “so I’ll draw a line under it an’ you
can go home to San Francisco.”
“Okay,”
Alex agreed, knowing he was writing her off as a nut but she didn’t really
care. Derek had left her in charge ..
and she’d done her job.
*****
Later
still, the reunited team sat around a table in the Starlight’s dining
room. Derek felt full and was starting
on his second cup of coffee but Nick was still eating. He chewed and he swallowed and there was a
dreadful resolution to his movement.
Nothing was going to stop him.
Merlin, chin in hand, watched in stunned amazement, wondering where he
could possibly be putting it all but it was only a minor concern. She was happy to sit and watch him. Every so often, Nick would glance her way
and smile .. but he didn’t stop eating.
Both
men were showered and shaved, and in clean clothes for the first time since
September 24. They’d both snatched an
hour’s sleep and they felt like human beings again. Not only that, they felt .. right. They weren’t quite home but they were in the right century.
The
others hadn’t suffered quite so much privation but they’d all spent longer than
usual in the bathroom, making up for lost time.
“Are
you ready to talk yet?” Rachel began gently.
Derek
frowned. “I’m still finding my way to
the answers, Rachel. Once we are back
in the city, I should have it straight enough to be able to share.”
“What
was it like?” Kat asked. “Did they
think you were stowaways?”
“Nah. They couldn’t see us,” Nick replied, at last
pushing his plate away and stretching a hand for his third cup of coffee.
“Couldn’t
see you?” Alex echoed.
“They
thought we were ghosts,” Nick explained.
“Wow
… ” Kat breathed.
“The
transition wasn’t complete,” Derek went on.
“I have no idea why but I’m glad it wasn’t. I doubt we could ever have returned if it was. The ship was solid, we couldn’t walk thru
walls. We could .. eat the food, lay
down to sleep as the floor was solid wood.
The people appeared real to us but they couldn’t see us or hear us. Except one.
The Captain. John Marriott was
the son of Emmaline Marriott – ”
“The
famous medium?” Alex remarked.
“That’s
correct. As might be expected, he had
his mother’s gift and he could both see and hear us. There was one other – Paul Delacroix, the First Officer – who saw
us once but he couldn’t hear us at all.
We communicated by writing.
Those two fed us, gave us something to drink, let us shelter in their
cabins. But none of the others could
see us. It was .. very tense on board.”
“The
diphtheria victims,” Rachel nodded. “If
it was described as a plague ship … ”
She shrugged expressively.
“Referred
to as the cargo,” Nick said. “The crew
hadn’t been told. All they knew was
that there was something dangerous in the hold an’ they had to stay away from
it. An’ then we arrived.”
Derek
drew in a deep breath. “All this food
and coffee, I should stay awake for hours but .. I am very tired. If you will forgive me ..?”
“Of
course,” Alex and Rachel said together.
Derek
paused. “I am really very grateful that
you all risked your lives to stay with us.
Jack, you will come to San Francisco before you head back to Las Vegas?”
“Be
glad to,” Jack nodded. “I wanna hear
the end of the story. No, what I mean
is .. I wanna hear the middle of the
story.”
Nick
leaned sideways. “Don’t be too long,”
he whispered to Merlin, then rose and followed Derek from the dining room.
“Rachel,
you’ll want to get back quickly so Kat won’t miss too much school so .. you two
fly back with Nick an’ Derek,” Merlin suggested. “Alex, how about you, me an’ Jack take the Range Rover? We can race ’em.”
“Sure,”
Alex agreed.
“Early
start? Seven?”
Jack
groaned.
“You
can sleep in the car,” Alex grinned.
“Sure. Seven.”
“Fine,”
Rachel nodded. “We’ll take the rental
back to Santa Maria .. an’ may the best man win the race.”
*****
When
Nick woke at eight thirty, the bed beside him was empty. “Merli ..?
Where are you, babe?”
Silence
greeted him. He rose and padded into
the bathroom. Empty. Retracing his steps, he saw her bag was
gone. Nick quickly showered, taking
slightly longer than usual – he thought it would take some time before he felt
truly clean again – then dressed and went in search of answers.
“You’re
up early,” Rachel commented.
“You
know where Peri’s gone?” he asked.
“Ah. She, Alex an’ Jack have taken the Range
Rover to drive back to the city. They
left .. about an hour ago.”
“How
are we gonna get back?” Nick frowned.
“We’ll
take the rental back to Santa Maria,” she answered. “That’s where Peri left the chopper. Oh, good morning, Derek!
How you feeling today?"
“Rested
and it was a very nice sensation not to wake with my back in pain,” he
smiled. “Did you say Peri flew you down
here?”
Rachel
nodded. “We were in a hurry, obviously,
and it was the fastest option,” she replied.
“She’s an excellent pilot, Nick.
You’ve done a fantastic job training her.”
“I
didn’t know she’d gotten her license,” Derek remarked.
“Neither
did I,” Nick said, diplomatically keep the truth to himself, “but I bet she’ll
show it to me once we get home.”
*****
Alex
glanced at Merlin as the Range Rover pulled up outside the house. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as Jack got out
and stretched.
“Don’t
be. It’s just the way he is. Put him in a car an’ he talks. It doesn’t matter if he’s a passenger or
driving. He just has to do it.”
“I
know but .. six hours?”
“I
did the road trip with him from the desert last year, Alex. Should’ve taught me the lesson. Sometimes, lessons have to be ..
reinforced. Let’s go inside.”
Nick
came out to help unload the bags and equipment. “Hi. Good trip?”
“Nice
to be home,” Merlin said tactfully.
“You?”
“Fine. So .. when did you get your license?”
She
hesitated. “Look, you were missing,
time was critical, it was the best choice.
Nothing went wrong an’ we didn’t crash.
It isn’t a big deal.”
He
grinned, liking to put her on the spot.
“Before you go forge one, how about I give you the test? I got my license the legit way so I know
what they look for. If I consider
you’ve passed, you can do what you want.”
“Deal,”
she accepted briskly, handing him the laptop.
“Rachel
decided that, as it’s Friday, she an’ Kat will stay the weekend,” Nick went on,
following her inside. “Going back for
half a day isn’t worth it. Besides,
they both wanna hear Derek’s theory.”
He laughed softly. “I was with
him an’ I’d like to hear his theory too.”
“When
he’s gonna share it?” Merlin asked.
“Over
dinner tonight.”
“Well,
I just hope Andrew has been stocking up on food. The way you were putting it away last night .. you’ll eat
everyone outta house an’ home.”
“So
would you if all you’d had for nearly two weeks was dry biscuits and salt beef
strips,” Nick retorted.
“You
poor guy.”
His
eyes kindled. “You mean that?
“Do
I look like I mean it?” she grinned.
He
considered. “No. And I think you need to be taught a lesson.”
“Hey,
bring it on, tough guy,” Merlin invited and he didn’t need to be asked twice.
Derek
was in the control room doing some research when Alex found him.
“Back
not half a day and you’re straight to work?” she asked, only half amused.
“Not
exactly,” he replied. “Just .. finding
out about some old friends.”
*****
“Thank
you, Andrew. It looks delicious,” Derek
complimented.
“Welcome
home, sir,” Andrew smiled and withdrew, closing the doors behind him.
Derek
looked around the table. “Eat,” he
insisted.
He
felt blessed to be back with these people, back where he belonged. Even Jack’s presence couldn’t throw him off
balance, not tonight. There was a warm
atmosphere in this room. These were
people who knew they’d had to pull together to get the right results and who
were quietly celebrating their success.
Couples were reunited. Alex and
Jack, holding their conversation at the far end of the table. Nick and Merlin, there to his right. And Rachel and Kat … Derek felt his gaze linger. Rachel glanced round and gave him a gentle,
knowing smile. More than
colleagues. More than friends. It was .. companionship. It was a smile which said to him, no matter
what, I’m here for you.
Yes,
Derek felt blessed that he had been spared .. and, yet, he also felt curiously
disturbed.
After
dinner, Merlin and Alex cleared the table and handed round the coffee then
resumed their seats.
“So
.. what’s your theory?” Merlin asked.
“Why
did the Santa Theresa sink?” Alex went on.
“Did you ever find out?”
Nick
nodded. “It was scuppered. Sunk deliberately.”
“That
isn’t strictly accurate,” Derek replied.
“That’s how it sank, not why.”
“The
passengers. The victims in the hold,”
Rachel decided. “Fear is a strong
motivator.”
“It
wasn’t them either, although, at one stage, we thought it might be. If you recall, Nick, our choices were the
storm, the passengers, the crew rising in mutiny, or the Captain. It was none of them. The Captain and the First Officer helped
evacuate the survivors from the hold and we saw them away in the last boat.”
“I
wonder what happened to them,” Rachel breathed.
“John
Marriott and Paul Delacroix did manage to make landfall,” Derek promptly
answered. “Now I had the names, I could
run some checks. The survivors were
taken to a sanitarium and given treatment.
As a result of their courageous actions, the two officers were given a
medal for bravery. John Marriott
returned to sea, commanding two more ships before he retired and he died
eventually in nineteen twenty nine.
Paul Delacroix was an invalid as a result of his shoulder wound and
never went to sea again. He never
regained the use of his left arm. But
he lived a long life, became an artist specializing in seascapes, and he died
in nineteen sixty four at the age of ninety five. Can you believe that?”
Derek smiled and slowly shook his head.
“It pleases me that they survived that day. Paul’s grandson works as a paranormal investigator in the
Portland area. Apparently, he was
inspired by his grandfather’s story of the ghosts on the Santa Theresa.”
“Maybe
we should track this guy down an’ introduce ourselves,” Nick suggested glibly.
“C’mon,
Derek, we went thru hell. You went thru hell,” Jack conceded,
although he managed to make it sound like the hell on the Shamrock was a lot
worse than anything Derek could have suffered.
As the only guy among four women, maybe it had been. “On the Shamrock, we talked ourselves stupid
trying to come up with ideas. Why did the ship sink?”
Derek
released a long breath. “Because of
us.”
“But
.. we were from the future,” Nick pointed out, sitting up and leaning
forward. “It happened a long time ago,
Derek. How could we be responsible?”
“You
remember Nate saying he had deliberately opened all the hatches? We thought it strange when we found the
wreck off Lopez Point. Strange that, in
a storm, the hatches would be left open like that. Nate said he’d done it to rid the Santa Theresa of the evil
spirits on board. We were in the cabin
when Paul told him about us and it was clear Nate didn’t believe it the way
Paul told it. He put his own spin on
events. We were the evil spirits.”
Derek
sipped his coffee, savoring it. “I
said, on the Shamrock, that a circle had been closed. We had believed that we were in the wrong place at the right
time, or the right place at the wrong time but, in truth, it was the right
place at the only time. We had
to be there so the Santa Theresa could take us.”
“Why?” Jack asked with a frown. “Whatever happened to messing with the
future?”
“I
said it was deliberate,” Kat
commented.
“Yes,
sweetie, you did an’ you were right,” Rachel smiled proudly.
“You’re
looking at it from the wrong angle,” Derek said to Jack. “It wasn’t changing the future, it was ..
confirming the past. Those actions had
already been done a century before
and we had done them, Jack. We had to close the circle by starting it in
the present, by being there so the ship could take us .. just as it did a
hundred years ago. We knew the Santa
Theresa sank. We found the wreck in
three pieces, all the hatches opened, and one skeleton on the lower deck. Those parts of the puzzle were already in
place. If Nick and I hadn’t gone
diving, hadn’t taken the Shamrock the first time, hadn’t been taken by the
Santa Theresa, that would have been
interfering with the future.
“The
hatches were opened because of one man’s superstitious belief in evil spirits –
us – so we had to be on board. Nick had
to be there to accidentally kill the man and so create the skeleton we had
already found. And it wasn’t only us
who were involved. When the Santa
Theresa hit the Shamrock yesterday, it snapped the keel for a second time, thus
creating the three pieces of the wreck.
Because it had all already happened in the past, it had to happen
exactly in the present. Us being where
we were to be taken. You being where
you were to complete the circle and allow us to come back. And that’s what we did.”
“Yeah
– by accident,” Merlin commented. “We
didn’t have a plan to be there when you came outta the fog an’ hit us. It was .. a fluke. Coincidence. Good
timing,” she said, looking sharply across the table. “It was not destiny or fate.”
“Possibly,”
Derek nodded, “or possibly a greater design was at work.”
“So
.. is that it?” Alex wondered.
Derek
stiffened very slightly as he got a flash vision of a newspaper headline –
‘Tourism Hit : Ghost Ship Is No More.’
He smiled briefly. His gift was
back where it belonged as well.
“I
doubt the Santa Theresa will ever be seen again,” he replied. Alex slowly nodded. “And, Alex?”
She
looked up.
Derek
smiled at her. “You did an excellent
job of sitting in the hot seat.
Congratulations.”
“Absolutely,”
Nick agreed. “Next time Derek an’ I
have to go – ”
“No
way,” Alex argued.
“What
.. you don’t trust us?” Derek wondered, frowning.
“Not
as far as I could throw you,” she replied.
Derek
looked at Nick. “I think I’m insulted.”
“I
definitely am,” Nick agreed. “I mean ..
the Precept of this house and his right hand man ..? What possible trouble could we get into?”
“Well,
exactly,” Derek concurred.
“And,
even if, by some chance, we did,” Nick continued, grinning wickedly at Alex who
was staring in amused disbelief, “we’d know the best team in the world would
come rescue us, right?”
Derek
began to laugh, yet his voice was sincere.
“I
wouldn’t trust our lives to anyone else.”
Poltergeist: The Legacy
A Sea Of Trouble
© Jay Brown, 2001
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