The Titanic Mission

by Dan Gutman

  She pulled out a leather-bound book titled Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and handed it to Isabel. There was a drawing of three golden peacocks on the cover. They were surrounded by gold embroidery and colorful jewels.

  “It’s beautiful,” Isabel admitted, opening the book carefully.

  “And it’s priceless,” Julia whispered. “It’s a book of poems by Omar Khayyam. He was a Persian poet and mathematician in the eleventh century. This is a rare English translation. It was made with over a thousand rubies and emeralds.”

  Isabel read the first line on the first page . . .

  “AWAKE! For Morning in the Bowl of Night

  Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight . . .”

  “A few weeks before the Titanic sailed from England, the book was sold at an auction there,” Julia explained. “An American antique book collector bought it, so the auction house is shipping it to him in New York.”

  “How do you know all this?” Isabel asked, handing the book back to Julia. “And how did you know where to find it?”

  “How does anybody know about anything?” Julia replied. “I Googled it.”

  “Julia, you could get in big trouble! This is very wrong.”

  “Please don’t tell the boys,” Julia begged. “They wouldn’t understand. Can’t we just keep this between you and me? This book must be worth millions. I’ll split the money with you.”

  “Put it back,” said a voice behind them. Both girls jumped and gasped. Julia nearly dropped the book.

  It was Luke and David. Luke took the book from Julia’s hand.

  “This doesn’t belong to you,” he said.

  “We’re not supposed to change history,” said David.

  “Oh, come on!” Julia protested. “If we leave it here, it’s going to go down with the ship, you know. It will be lost forever, and nobody will get it. But if I take it, we can prevent that from happening. What harm is there if I take it?”

  “It’s stealing,” Isabel told her. “Stealing is wrong.”

  “And it’s stealing from people who are going to die,” Luke said, putting the book back inside the drawer carefully. “Don’t you have any conscience? Why do you do these things?”

  Julia hung her head.

  “I couldn’t resist,” she admitted. “I just thought I could grab it and go. Nobody would ever know.”

  “We would know,” David told her. “And I for one don’t want to keep your secrets.”

  “If you hadn’t followed me here,” Julia told him, “you wouldn’t have known. I could have just taken the book and it would be done. Everybody would be happy.”

  Luke stopped before opening the stateroom door to leave.

  “Don’t mess this up for us!” he said, getting right in Julia’s face. “We didn’t come here to steal stuff. We came here to take a picture and get away before the ship sinks. So come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Julia said as they left the stateroom and closed the door behind them. “I’m really sorry.”

  FOUND HER! Isabel texted to Miss Z as soon as they got back out to the main deck. NO WORRIES. She didn’t go into further detail.

  All of us encounter moral decisions in life. Sometimes they’re easy decisions. Stealing is almost always wrong. Lying is almost always wrong. Helping little old ladies cross the street is almost always right.

  But sometimes, decisions like these aren’t so simple. Robin Hood could argue that stealing from the rich to give to the poor could be the right thing to do. You could argue that lying to your aunt and telling her you love the hideous sweater she gave you for your birthday is the right thing to do. And helping a little old lady is probably wrong if she’s robbing a bank as soon as she crosses the street.

  The Flashback Four had made a moral decision not to take the jewel-encrusted Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. And now they were going to face a more difficult decision.

  It was past ten thirty. In about an hour, the Titanic would hit the iceberg. Other than Julia, Isabel, David and Luke, nobody on board had a clue. As the kids made their way toward their meeting place at the bow of the ship, there were a lot more passengers outside enjoying a late-night stroll on deck. Some guys in military uniforms were horsing around with each other. A young couple was kissing. An elderly couple walked arm in arm. A crew member was swabbing the deck with a mop.

  “Good evening,” a man said as he passed, tipping his hat.

  “Lovely night, eh?” said a woman with a British accent. “A bit nippy, but just lovely.”

  Isabel went to the rail to look out at the water.

  “I have a bad feeling inside,” she said.

  “Me too,” David agreed. “I wonder which of these people out here are going to live and which ones are going to die.”

  “Most of the men are going to die,” Luke said. “I know that for sure. The lifeboats are going to be filled with the women and children first. And a lot of the boats won’t even be filled.”

  “Only about seven hundred people are going to survive,” said Julia. “Most of the passengers are going to die. Especially the ones in third class. I looked it up.”

  They walked along slowly, passing a woman who was pushing a cute baby girl in a carriage. Maybe that baby would be a survivor. Maybe not.

  “Do you think it’s wrong for us to take a picture of the ship as it’s sinking?” Isabel wondered out loud.

  “What do you mean?” asked Julia. “How can taking a picture be wrong?”

  “Isn’t it sort of like witnessing a traffic accident, taking a few pictures, and then just driving away without helping?” Isabel asked. “It just feels wrong to me.”

  “It is kinda morbid,” David said.

  “Are you saying we should do something about it?” Luke asked. “You know we’re here to record history, not to change it.”

  “I know,” Isabel said. “But think of it! We could save the lives of fifteen hundred innocent people! That baby in the carriage we just passed may die tonight. She’ll never have the chance to live a life, go to school, have a career, and have kids of her own someday. For all we know, she could grow up to be the next Einstein.”

  “Or she could grow up to be the next Hitler,” Julia said. “What could we do about it, anyway?”

  “Simple,” Luke replied. “We could alert the captain. If he knew the ship was going to hit an iceberg, he could steer around it. No collision. No tragedy.”

  “No news,” added Julia. “No Hollywood movie.”

  “And no photo,” David noted. “What would Miss Z say if she zapped us back to Boston and it turned out that the Titanic never sank at all?”

  “That would be weird,” Luke said. “She wouldn’t even know why she sent us here in the first place.”

  “She might say we did the right thing,” Isabel said. “She’s not a cold-hearted person. I say let’s vote on it. All in favor of alerting the captain, raise your hand.”

  Isabel put her hand up immediately. David put his hand up slowly, as if he wasn’t sure. Julia saw the two hands up and decided to put hers up too. Finally, Luke reluctantly put his hand up.

  “I guess I’m in,” he said.

  It was unanimous. The Flashback Four decided to warn the captain that the ship was going to hit an iceberg at exactly 11:40 p.m., so he would be able to steer around it. Now all they needed to do was find the captain.

  “We need to go to the bridge,” David said.

  “The bridge? What’s that?” asked Julia.

  “How should I know?” said David. “But in movies, the captain of a ship is always on the bridge.”

  There was nothing in sight that looked even remotely like a bridge. But a steward rushed by wearing a crisp navy blue uniform. The words WHITE STAR LINE were on the brim of his hat. The Flashback Four ran over to stop him.

  “Excuse me,” David said. “We need to speak to the captain.”

  “The captain is asleep,” the steward replied brusquely, glancing at his watch. “He retires every
night at ten thirty with strict orders to not be disturbed unless there is an emergency.”

  “This is an emergency!” Isabel told him. “The ship is going to sink!”

  The steward looked at her with disdain, rolling his eyes.

  “Look, I have work to do,” he said. “You kids better run along to bed or I’ll tell your mommies.”

  With that, he hurried away.

  “That guy was just a flunkie,” Luke said. “We gotta find somebody more important, somebody who can get us to the captain.”

  In Isabel’s pocket, the TTT buzzed.

  DID YOU GET TO THE MEETING SPOT? it said on the screen. WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG?

  ON OUR WAY, Isabel texted back. IT’S A BIG SHIP!

  They passed some more passengers at the rail, and then Julia spotted a cluster of well-dressed men standing in the middle of the deck. They were all smoking cigars and clinking their glasses as they drank and laughed. Two of them were wearing top hats.

  One of the men seemed to be the center of attention. He was thin, fiftyish, with a high forehead and a bushy mustache. He was wearing an expensive-looking pinstriped suit and he carried a walking stick even though it didn’t look like he had any disability. The other men were gathered around him as he regaled them with a story. Julia strained to catch a snippet of the conversation.

  “Wait, I think I know who that guy is!” she whispered to Isabel, David, and Luke.

  “Which one?” Isabel asked.

  “The guy with the big mustache. I think he’s John Jacob Astor IV!”

  “Never heard of him,” David said.

  “He’s one of the richest men in the world,” Julia told them. “He’s got eighteen cars. He’s worth something like eighty million dollars. That’s eighty million dollars in 1912! He would be worth billions in our time.”

  “How do you know all this stuff?” Luke asked. “And how would you know what this Astor guy looks like?”

  “How does anybody know anything? I Googled it!” Julia replied. “John Jacob Astor is the most famous person who died on the Titanic. If we can get to him, I bet we can get to the captain. Contacts are everything, you know.”

  “I wouldn’t know how to talk to a guy like that,” Luke said. “I don’t know any rich people.”

  “Don’t look at me,” David said. “He’s not going to take the advice of a black kid.”

  Julia looked at Isabel, who just shrugged.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” Julia finally said.

  She took a deep breath, and marched over to the group of men.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Astor?” she said, a big smile on her face.

  The men turned to face Julia. They seemed shocked and somewhat amused that a girl so young would have the audacity to break into their conversation.

  “May I help you, young lady?” asked Astor, bending over to pat Julia on the head.

  “My name is Julia Brennan,” she said, extending her hand, “and these are my friends Isabel, David, and Luke.”

  The others reluctantly stepped forward. Astor shook Julia’s hand.

  “It is my pleasure to meet you,” Astor said. “And what can I do for you this fine evening?”

  “I have some bad news, unfortunately,” Julia said nervously. “In about an hour, the ship is going to hit an iceberg, and it’s going to sink. The ship, I mean. Not the iceberg. The iceberg isn’t going to sink.”

  “Is that so?” John Jacob Astor replied, amused.

  “Yes,” Julia continued. “The captain is asleep. It’s very important that someone alert him so he can steer around it. Around the iceberg, that is.”

  John Jacob Astor and his cronies stared at Julia for a few seconds. Then, as a group, they broke up laughing. Several of them doubled over. It was as if they had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

  “She’s telling the truth,” Isabel said, stepping forward. “This ship is going to sink. Many people are going to die. You’re going to die, Mr. Astor.”

  “Well, I guess we’re all going to die at some point,” Astor said, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his eyes. “Young women today! One never knows what they will come up with next. Am I right, fellows?”

  Astor’s cronies nodded their heads and laughed.

  “I haven’t had a howl like that in a long time,” one of the men said.

  “No, I mean it!” Julia said, with urgency in her voice. “In a few hours, this ship will be at the bottom of the ocean, and all of you will be down there with it. There aren’t enough lifeboats, and they’re going to fill them with the women and children first.”

  John Jacob Astor no longer seemed amused.

  “And how, may I ask, do you know all this, young lady?” he asked.

  Julia stopped herself just before she would have told him to Google it. She turned to the other members of the Flashback Four for help. Luke stepped forward.

  “It doesn’t matter how we know it, Mr. Astor,” he said. “We just do. You’ve got to wake up the captain right away and let him know.”

  “Young man,” said Astor, who didn’t like anybody telling him what to do, much less a kid, “for centuries, man has sailed the seas, building bigger and stronger and safer vessels. Look around you. This ship is the pinnacle of what we have been able to achieve with our advanced technology. Titanic is unsinkable. Everyone knows that.”

  One of Astor’s top-hatted cronies put a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Civilization is always improving itself,” he said. “You will learn that as you grow up, young man. Progress marches on. This is a most wonderful time to be alive. For the first time in history, man can control nature. Why, those bicycle mechanics in North Carolina even figured out how to build a flying machine. Imagine that! A machine that can fly and even carry a passenger. Mark my words, someday we will be flying across this ocean. We find a problem and we use our brains to solve it. That’s the American way! Right, fellows?”

  “Right,” said Astor. “So leave the important matters to us. Why don’t you kids go play with your toys or something?”

  Astor and his friends started to turn away, but Julia and Luke were not about to give up. Convincing Astor could very possibly be their only chance to save the ship. Luke grabbed the millionaire’s elbow to turn him around.

  “Look,” he said. “I know you’re really rich and famous. But that’s not going to save you tonight. We know what we’re talking about. I can’t tell you how I know, but I know. You can save fifteen hundred lives, including your own. But you’ve got to help us. There isn’t much time.”

  “Take your hand off me, young man!” Astor shot back, glaring. “Just who do you think you are?”

  Several of Astor’s cronies grabbed Luke and pulled him away, roughing him up a bit in the process. Julia and Isabel tried to stop them.

  “Hey, leave him alone!” David said. “You can’t do that!”

  “We came from the twenty-first century!” Julia shouted as the men pushed her away. “We know what’s going to happen tonight.”

  “You children are disturbing the other passengers!” Astor yelled. “We booked passage on this ship to relax, not to listen to your insane rantings! Stop this right now, or I will call for my bodyguards!”

  “This ship is going to hit an iceberg!” hollered Isabel. “You should be getting the lifeboats ready. Get on your lifejackets!”

  At that moment, three burly men came running over and grabbed the Flashback Four.

  CHAPTER 7

  SECOND THOUGHTS

  “GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF ME!” JULIA shrieked as one of John Jacob Astor’s bodyguards wrapped his hairy arm around her neck.

  “Oh, she’s a feisty one,” he said, sneering. He clapped one hand over Julia’s mouth to keep her quiet, and she tried to bite it.

  “Nobody talks that way to Mr. Astor!” shouted the thug who had grabbed Isabel and Luke. The third one had David in a headlock as the boy punched and kicked and struggled to get free.

  “Get them out of here, fellows,” said Mr. Ast
or. “We were having such a pleasant evening until these hooligans showed up.”

  “This is a free country!” Luke yelled, desperately trying to break away. “I know my rights. You can’t do this to us.”

  “This is no country,” Astor replied. “We are in international waters, young man. I can do whatever I want.”

  “You don’t understand!” Isabel shouted at Astor as the bodyguards dragged the Flashback Four away. “We’re trying to save you! The ship is going to hit an iceberg! It’s going down!”

  “We came from the future,” Julia added, trying to be helpful. “We know everything that’s going to happen tonight!”

  John Jacob Astor and his friends shook their heads, chuckling among themselves.

  “Crazy kids,” one of them muttered as he lit another cigar.

  “In my day, children knew how to behave themselves,” said his friend with a top hat. “Not anymore.”

  “You know what they say,” John Jacob Astor told the group. “Children are to be seen and not heard. And sometimes, they shouldn’t even be seen!”

  His cronies laughed uproariously, as they did whenever Astor said just about anything that was even mildly funny.

  Meanwhile, the Flashback Four were taken away roughly, dragged through a series of twisting corridors, and brought down several flights of stairs until they reached a lower deck of the ship that had plain, dark walls, bare floors, and no fancy staterooms. There was nothing elegant about this part of the Titanic. It was used to store luggage and oversized items that people had paid to ship to America.

  “Stop it! You’re hurting me!” Julia shouted as one of Astor’s bodyguards pushed her against a door and took a key out of his pocket.

  “You keep your mouth shut before I shut it up for you!” the thug replied.

  Keeping one hand on Julia’s arm, he used his other hand to open the door. All four kids were shoved into the room.

  “This ought to hold you for a while,” one of the bodyguards said. “See you in New York!”