CHAPTER 45
Penny awoke at dawn. Matthew had slept elsewhere. Just as well, she thought. By the sound of the engines, she could tell they were idling. She got up and looked out the porthole. Gulls and cormorants bobbed up and down amongst the waves, even a few grebes, and more birds than yesterday. One flew by with a small fish in its beak. A few of the others were diving down and mostly coming up with breakfast. She dressed quickly and went topside to get a better look.
Becka came up along side of her. She had never spent much time alone with Becka, and this seemed as good a time as any to get better acquainted. “They seem to be enjoying their meal. Herring?”
“Looks like,” Becka said.
“Odd to see so many out here, isn’t it?”
“Some of these species shouldn’t be here at all.”
“Shouldn’t? That’s not a word I’ve heard from you lately. Heard anything about Ripler?”
“He’s still at the Navy hospital. I called. Mary told me he was getting up, going for walks with her. On the grounds. She can talk to him, but people watch them. Doing better every day. Her being there seems to be making a big difference, so I guess she made the right decision, at least as far as Jack’s welfare is concerned. I also feel she wanted a reason to get off the ship. No, I’m not going to go into it.” She didn’t say anything for a while. “I can’t believe she took the ROV parts. Well, don’t want to believe. Anything new on that?”
“No,” Penny responded, “but I’ll let you know if there is.”
“Look, I’m sorry I doubted you and Matthew before. When you first arrived with that story, it seemed justified.”
“I don’t remember you specifically doubting me, more than anyone else, at least.”
“I did. I thought you were both dangerous, to tell you the truth. You have to understand, the work I was going to do on this trip was to be the basis of my thesis, and then you two show up and all of a sudden we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
“The whole thing must have sounded mad.”
“And for Jack, in the end it was, I suppose.”
“I didn’t like Jack.”
“Neither did I, completely.”
“Really? You seemed to spend plenty of time together.”
“He helped me a lot at the Point. Never asked for anything back. He was brilliant at times, inspiring, but there was always this slight edge of mania floating around behind his charm. I tried to look past it, figured it might even be a necessary part of his makeup. I’ll always wonder if it might have been different.”
“Matthew’s not to blame for Jack.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Becka said. “I already said I was sorry. Listen, can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
“What’s your take on Lieutenant Chiffrey?”
“Manipulator.”
“I understand why you say that, but maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on him. This thing must be blowing away his superiors and that puts him in between them and us. I feel he’s been fair and is not really such a bad guy.”
“He’s not just some Air Force lieutenant. He’s working higher up for some other agency. You must know that. I don’t trust people with hidden agendas.”
“That would seem to eliminate just about everyone wouldn’t it? Funny, though, that you and he are the two people on board most suspicious of the dome. You’ve got that in common with him, and maybe a little more.”
“Like what?”
“You both claim not to have been touched in any way during the incident with the whales.”
“We’re not anything alike.”
“Okay, you’re not. Fine.” She looked at her diver’s watch and said, “I have to be somewhere.”
“You are somewhere.”
“What?”
“You’re here,” Penny answered, “but if a date with your new boyfriend is your only idea of ‘somewhere,’ then say hello to Chiffrey for me.”
Becka shook her head in a spasm of anger, her brown eyes blazing up to fire. “You shouldn’t abuse your privilege. No, not ‘a date,’ but if I did have one, I wouldn’t have my own private cabin to bring him to later, would I?”
Becka whirled around and stomped off before Penny could answer.
Damn!
Not much she could say to that, anyway.
She had immediately offered the cabin—her father’s cabin—back to him upon his arrival, but he had insisted on bunking in a hastily cleared-out storeroom that was little bigger than a closet. It was true, she didn’t deserve the cabin, but she smiled to herself. It made her feel better, to know Becka still had her kick and hadn’t, like some of the others, become totally enthralled by their newfound bliss.
Bliss. The cabin, modest by any other standards, was nonetheless an exquisite luxury on a ship like this, and she was glad they hadn’t given it up. The hours she and Matthew shared there were a joy, effortless, life as it seemed meant to be. All the cares of the world left behind. And now the idiot felt compelled to prove his valor locked away in a tin can.
Far From The Sea We Know Page 45