Father And Child

by Rebecca York

  JASON ZACHARIAS CAREFULLY replaced the telephone receiver in its cradle, picked it up again, then slammed it down a second time with a loud thunk. Muttering a curse, he turned away from the desk and ran exasperated fingers through his hair. He’d wanted Zeke to wait until they could hook up special communications equipment, but his friend had been in too much of a hurry to get to Mythos. The equipment had finally arrived, but there was no way to get it to Zeke. He was on his own.

  Jason cursed again. He didn’t like the way things were shaping up. In the past few hours he’d received two intelligence reports from Mythos that made him want to get on a plane and fly over there. Only it wouldn’t do any good, he told himself. Steve and Jed had phoned in to say that they’d last seen their passengers getting into a cab and heading for a small port near Piraeus. Zeke and Elizabeth hadn’t checked in after that Probably they’d already set sail.

  He glanced at the phone again, willing it to ring, but it remained silent. Unless he sent a skywriter over the Aegean Sea, the only way he was going to get a message to Zeke was when he decided to call and report his location.

  Jason had to resign himself to the fact that there was no way to get in touch with them—no way to let them know that when they arrived on the island, they’d be walking into a trap.

  Chapter Twelve

  Captain Icarus and First Mate Tyrone sat propped against the bulkhead, their hands tied behind their backs, their feet secured at the ankles. The captain never took his malevolent gaze off Elizabeth. If looks could kill, she thought, I would be at the bottom of the sea by now. In contrast, Tyrone sat with his eyes closed, probably hoping that ignoring her would make her vanish. His grungy shirt lay beside him on the floor, where Zeke had dropped it after changing back into his own pullover.

  Elizabeth stood with her hands fused to the wheel, trying to keep the Amphitrite on a straight course as it wallowed and bucked in the rising swells. Her arms ached from the strain of fighting the seething water. Peering through the droplet-splattered window, she kept her eye on an outcropping of rock off to her right. Were more rocks ahead of them, waiting to slam against the hull?

  Zeke came back along the deck, his dark hair plastered to his head by the flying spray. A sudden jolt from the waves made him pitch forward just before he reached the wheelhouse, and Elizabeth’s heart leaped into her throat as he tumbled toward the rail. Lord, the deck looked as slippery as a frozen pond in winter. Zeke recovered, however, grabbing the door frame to steady himself. He took a moment to catch his breath, his skin pale in the dim light. Elizabeth knew the violent motion of the boat was getting to him again.

  Still, his voice was strong, as he announced, “I’ve put one more guy out of commission.” Moving close to Elizabeth, he brought his mouth to her ear. “But I haven’t figured out where Icarus stowed Cydon.”

  She nodded, keeping her face impassive. No point in letting the captain know they were worried about anything.

  Zeke clasped his hand on her shoulder. “You’re doing great.”

  “How long until we reach port?”

  Zeke shrugged and looked out the window at the waves beating the rocks. Pitching his voice so that their audience couldn’t hear, he said, “Don’t know. It’s a good bet we’ve drifted off course.”

  “Great.” She rolled her shoulders. The boat had once possessed an automatic pilot, but it had gotten broken and never been fixed.

  “I’m going back to look for Cydon. After I round everybody up, we can put them off in a lifeboat.”

  She watched him leave, then jumped when Captain Icarus growled, “Stupid girl, keep your eyes on the rocks or we’ll all end up at the bottom of the sea.”

  The captain was right. In the brief time she’d been distracted, the Amphitrite had drifted closer to the churning water where jagged rocks met sea. Yanking on the wheel, she turned the bow back toward open water.

  Above the howling of the wind, she thought she heard a shout, and the hair on the back of her neck bristled.

  Maybe it was nothing, she decided, until she saw the expression on Captain Icarus’s face. He had heard it, too, and he was suddenly looking more hopeful.

  “Zeke?” she called out.

  Nobody answered, but in the next moment she heard a loud thump to her right. Then two figures appeared and came crashing to the deck, slipping and sliding on the wet boards. Her heart leaped into her throat as she saw that it was Zeke and Cydon, trading punches and wrestling with each other. And Zeke no longer had the gun.

  She held back a scream that rose in her throat. The last thing Zeke needed was for her to distract him.

  Icarus’s eyes were bright as he craned his neck to see what was happening. Even Tyrone raised his head and shot her a triumphant look. When he and the captain exchanged glances, she understood that they had been biding their time, waiting for this moment. It seemed Icarus had been lying through his teeth when he’d said he’d confined Cydon. The man must have been on the loose all along—and the captain had been counting on him to take the ship from her and Zeke.

  And he was doing a pretty good job, she judged from the progress of the fight. Zeke was too sick to do more than hold his own.

  God, now what? Her hands clenched the wheel. She had helped Zeke when Sebastian had attacked him. But she couldn’t do it now because she had to steer the ship. Because if she didn’t, the Amphitrite would end up on the rocks.

  A picture of the hull crashing and splintering flashed into her mind. In that moment, realization slammed into her like the boat slamming into the shoreline. Their only hope was for her to steer toward disaster.

  She spared Zeke a quick look. He was still locked in mortal combat with Cydon. She murmured a little prayer—for him and for herself. Then, giving a mighty yank, she turned on the wheel, bringing the boat around in the foaming water.

  Icarus felt the motion immediately. “No!” he shouted, as he looked up and saw what she was doing.

  “If we can’t take over the ship, nobody gets it,” she screamed. “I’m steering for the rocks.”

  The captain cried out in anguish and strained upward, trying to see out the window, but the effort was too much and he sank back to the deck. Growling in anger, he kicked out with his legs, almost knocking her off her feet. Elizabeth stayed erect, then danced away, while keeping the boat moving in the wrong direction. “You don’t have much time,” she called out.

  Icarus bellowed with rage. “No. Stop,” he commanded. “You’ll kill us all.”

  Above the captain’s frantic shouts, Tyrone’s voice rose and fell in a loud wail.

  “If you want me to stop, call off Cydon now,” Elizabeth demanded.

  The rocks loomed. Closer. Closer. And she honestly didn’t know whether she would lose her nerve.

  Then Icarus’s shout told her she had won. “Cydon,” he bellowed. “Cydon, you’ve got to do something. The crazy bitch is going to sink the ship.”

  Cydon raised his head.

  “The rocks. She’s steering for the rocks,” Icarus shrieked above the foaming of the water and the moan of the wind.

  The man gave a mighty wrench and broke away from Zeke’s grasp.

  “Yasou!” Icarus shouted, as Cydon pounded toward the console. He raised his hand to knock her away. She ducked, and took only the edge of the blow.

  Zeke pushed himself up and sprang after the hurtling figure. Grabbing him by the back of the shirt, he pulled him away from Elizabeth, then flung him against the bulkhead. Cydon went down, and Icarus let out a mighty curse.

  But Elizabeth barely registered the man’s anguished protest. All her attention was on the gray shapes rushing toward the wildly pitching ship. Water crashed against the window as she fought to keep her footing and yanked on the wheel with all her remaining strength, trying to wrest the Amphitrite away from the impending collision.

  In counterpoint, the first mate kept up a stream of anguished moans, while the captain shouted orders that finally penetrated her brain.

  He was
saying, “Slow down, you fool. Slow down.”

  As the words sank in, she realized she had no idea how to control the speed.

  She was aware of Zeke sucking in huge drafts of air as he reached for a set of levers. The sound of the engine changed, but they were still moving toward the rocks.

  Zeke’s hands came down beside hers on the wheel. She felt his muscles strain as he gave a mighty yank to port Even with the decreased speed, the boat seemed to be hurtling through the waves toward a gray wall that encompassed the whole field of her vision. She wanted to squeeze her eyes shut. She could only stare ahead in helpless fascination, bracing herself for the bone-jarring collision.

  It didn’t happen that way. Zeke kept up the steady pressure on the wheel and the ship came about, avoiding total destruction at the last possible moment. Still, they were too close to escape completely unscathed.

  A terrible rending noise tore at her ears as the starboard side of the ship shuddered and scraped against the boulders. The whole structure of the vessel shook with the impact, grinding against the rocks before bursting free from the barrier like a cork popping out of a bottle. The rocks slid away to starboard, and the Amphitrite bobbed in the waves, rounding a point of land and coming into open water.

  Elizabeth blinked. As soon as they passed the end of the towering gray wall, everything altered like a motion picture cutting abruptly to a new scene. Where before the sea had been like a boiling cauldron, it was suddenly almost as calm as a mountain lake on a sunny day. The howling wind fell away to a light breeze. Even the dark clouds parted to reveal a patch of blue sky.

  Dazed, Elizabeth raised her face toward Zeke’s. “Are we in the same sea?” she asked in an awestruck voice.

  “The Aegean can change like this,” he answered, straightening. “Are you all right?” he asked, his fingers moving to press over hers.

  She turned her palm up. “I think so.”

  “You were magnificent,” he said in a thick voice.

  “I—I took a crazy chance.”

  “It was perfect,” he said.

  She turned to smile at him and saw that his skin was bloodless. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay. That bastard Cydon was waiting for me at the top of the forward ladder. When I climbed up, he jumped me.”

  As she lifted her hand to his face, he repeated, “I’m okay.”

  From the floor, Captain Icarus spat out a dark-sounding curse. “You damn fools. Don’t you know we’re taking on water?”

  Zeke pushed away from Elizabeth and turned toward him. “I guess we’ll have to lighten the load.”

  The two men exchanged a long pregnant look. Zeke broke the contact first, then knelt and used the rest of the rope to secure Cydon’s hands and feet, leaving him lying facedown on the deck.

  Icarus kept his eyes on Zeke, his face murderous. “You haven’t won yet,” he growled.

  Elizabeth shuddered, but Zeke ignored the threat as he turned off the engine and drew her out of the wheelhouse where they couldn’t be overheard.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked, glancing toward the side of the ship where the rocks had scraped them. From the deck, she could see no sign of the collision.

  “Icarus doesn’t know any more than we do about the condition of the hull. He’s just yanking my chain. I’m going to inspect the damage. If we’re not in immediate danger of sinking, I’m going to drop a lifeboat over the side and escort Icarus and his bunch off the ship. That way we won’t have to worry about them attacking us again.”

  When Zeke turned and strode toward the starboard side of the ship, Elizabeth followed. In the next moment, she had to stifle a gasp as he grasped the outside of the rail and bent far over the side to scrutinize the damage. Crossing to his side, she grabbed a handful of his pant leg. If he started to slip, it probably wouldn’t save him, but she felt better for the contact. She held her breath until he hoisted himself back onto the deck.

  “Well?”

  “There are a couple of long gashes in the boards, close to the waterline, but not below, as far as I can see. Even if the waves pick up, we should be okay for a couple of hours.” He strode toward the wheelhouse, and she heard him exaggerate the damage to Icarus before asking how to turn on the pumps. The man gave an answer immediately, and Zeke hurried below.

  A motor cut in, as the pumps began to function. When Zeke returned to the deck, he was holding the gun he’d dropped in the struggle with Cydon. After handing it to her, he went below for the fourth crewman he’d tied up and left in one of the compartments. She marveled at his silent efficiency and his ability to keep pushing himself past his obvious fatigue and seasickness. As the captain cursed, Zeke restarted the engine and steered toward open water.

  “We’ll sink!” Icarus bellowed.

  “I’ll take the chance,” Zeke replied. When he was satisfied that it would take several hours for the crew to row back to shore, he got a lifeboat into the water, then rigged a pulley to lower the captain and Cydon.

  “You can’t leave us tied up like this,” Icarus shouted as he lay awkwardly on his side in the small boat. “We’ll drift out to sea and drown.”

  “That would suit me fine,” Zeke growled as he stared down at the man. “But I’m going to give you more of a chance than you were willing to give us.”

  Taking the gun from Elizabeth, he had her untie the first mate’s hands before lowering him over the side. The fourth crewman followed. Then Zeke tossed the mate a knife. While he was freeing the rest of the men, Zeke untied the line and the boat drifted away.

  Icarus was still shouting obscenities as Zeke started the engine and they moved rapidly away.

  ZEKE MIGHT HATE TO TRAVEL by water, Elizabeth decided, but he knew his way around a ship. She had expected him to head directly for the nearest port. Instead, he prudently bypassed both of the closest fishing villages and set his course for a small port town several miles down the coast. After giving Elizabeth a quick course in reading navigational markers, he left her at the controls for thirty minutes while he searched the ship. Compared to what she’d gone through earlier, steering through the calm water was like sailing a toy boat in a bathtub.

  When Zeke returned, he looked grimly pleased.

  “Money’s not going to be a problem,” he said, as he patted his right front pants pocket before taking over the wheel again. “Icarus must have gotten a down payment from Aristotle before he left for Mythos. There were several million drachmas in a locked drawer in his cabin.”

  She eyed the bulge of bills in his pocket. “How do you know it was from Aristotle?”

  Zeke’s expression underwent a rapid change. “I—uh—found a piece of jewelry I recognized…” His voice trailed off, and he gestured vaguely with his free hand.

  Elizabeth had come to know that wounded look in his eyes. It only surfaced when he was reminded of a certain other woman—the mother of his child.

  “Something of Sophia’s?” she asked.

  “Yeah. A brooch she liked to wear. I guess Aristotle didn’t want it any more.” Zeke made himself very busy with navigating the ship.

  As she watched the muscles bunch under his shirt, she took her lip between her teeth. He didn’t volunteer anything more, and his behavior only confirmed her worst suspicions. Whatever he’d wanted her to think, his feelings for Ariadne’s mother were still strong.

  She began tidying up the wheelhouse, folding charts and coiling rope that had been used to bind their prisoners. As she worked, she tried to keep her mind from spinning off in unwanted directions. But the frantic activity was only partially successful. She kept picturing the guilty look on Zeke’s face when he mentioned the brooch. It was like that every time he thought about Sophia, and each time Elizabeth was reminded of how shallow a claim she herself had on her new husband. He was under a lot of stress. It had been natural for him to turn to her under the pressures of the moment. She wanted to ask if that was the reason he’d made love to her so passionately the previous night. Then s
he decided she didn’t want to know—not if he was going to give her the wrong answer.

  She looked up when she heard the sound of the engine cut to half power. They had rounded a little peninsula, and the scene had changed once more. The Amphitrite was entering a crescent-shaped natural harbor, guarded by a medieval-looking stone fortress on the right and the few remaining columns of a Doric temple built on a rocky promontory to the left.

  “It was dedicated to Poseidon,” Zeke said, when he saw her eyeing the delicate classical lines of the temple. “Insurance for the sailors of the island, so the god of the sea would keep them safe.”

  “I guess he was on our side today. Maybe he even brought the storm.”

  “It could be.”

  Nestled between the two arms of the harbor was a sundrenched town of flat-topped whitewashed houses, rising in tiers above the water. Many were decorated with window boxes filled with flowers blooming brightly. Not much like fall in Maryland, Elizabeth mused. The setting was so achingly charming that she felt a lump form inside her chest. If only life were a little different, she and Zeke might be on their honeymoon cruise around Mythos. Just for the fun of it, they’d picked this beautiful little port at random. They were going in to town to have a bite to eat and then find a room where they could be alone together.

  She glanced at him. He had picked up a pair of binoculars and was methodically studying a low stone sea wall and the beach next to it, where a number of small boats lay on the sand. So much for romantic fantasies, she thought. Zeke was undoubtedly making sure a friendly reception committee wasn’t waiting to greet Captain Icarus and hustle away his passengers.

  “We’re in luck,” he said, pointing to a spot where the wall gave way to a low ramp. A small ferry boat was heading toward the docking area. “We’re not the only ones arriving.”

  Zeke cut the engine fifty yards short of the beach.