‘That’s one step too far,’ Cody uttered as he looked at the blade. ‘Back off.’
‘Out of my way, freak,’ Denton spat, ‘or I’ll gut you here and now.’
Cody stood his ground and glanced up to the quarterdeck. The captain was standing with his hands behind his back, watching but clearly not about to intervene. Denton, Taylor, Seth and several others were all wearing expressions of fervour, infected with a lust for blood.
‘What the hell will that achieve?’ Cody snapped at Denton with more gusto than he felt.
‘Just like I said,’ Denton replied, ‘less bellies.’
‘Gut him,’ Seth sneered, his tattooed face pulsing with delight. ‘Do him!’
The sailor hopped forward and swiped the knife at Cody’s face. Cody leaped backwards in shock as the wicked blade flashed past an inch from his eyes. A moment later, a heavy chunk of rigging tackle swung past in the opposite direction and landed in Denton’s belly with a dull thud that folded the sailor over and dropped him to his knees.
Cody turned to see Bethany haul the rigging up again, Jake moving alongside her.
The crew turned to face them when Charlotte’s cry echoed across the deck.
‘He’s in the water!’
Every head turned to the shore, which had almost vanished through the fog. Cody gasped as he saw the BV’s exhaust stack billow smoke as it charged to the shoreline and plunged into the black water, scattering chunks of ice before it.
‘Christ, he’s insane,’ Taylor growled.
‘The BV’s amphibious,’ Jake replied. ‘But it won’t take hits from icebergs for long. If he loses a window he’s done for.’
‘Let him sink!’ Denton screamed as he sucked in a lungful of air, his hands clasped around his stomach as tears streamed down his face. ‘Let the bastard sink!’
Charlotte looked up at the captain, who was watching the BV as it churned through a flotsam of ice in its desperate attempt to reach the ship before she cleared the headland.
‘He’s not moving fast enough!’ Charlotte yelled at Hank. ‘Do something! Lower a boat!’
The captain’s voice boomed across the deck. ‘Shorten sail!’
The crew remained silent and motionless. Cody felt alarm ripple through his body as he saw Seth’s malicious grin spread like a disease across his features.
‘To hell with them all!’ he bellowed back at the captain, and glared at Jake. ‘This ship is our priority, not your friend,’ he snapped enough force to carry across the entire deck. ‘It’s not worth the risk.’
Cody looked up at the captain, who merely shrugged.
Charlotte took one look at the BV struggling through the thick ice and then whirled away, one hand across a face that streamed with tears as she dashed past Cody and the crew and into the fore deckhouse.
Denton looked up at Seth and grinned through his pain. ‘Ten dollars says he doesn’t make it.’
‘I’m in,’ Seth chuckled.
Cody span on his heel and saw the BV colliding with huge chunks of ice, careering in the water as it weaved left and right in an attempt to avoid the biggest obstacles.
‘He’s not going to make it,’ Jake uttered.
The Phoenix was drifting out of the sound, where the deeper water moved faster. The BV could not keep pace and seemed encased in an undulating floe of ice that closed in around it. The engine laboured and belched thick diesel clouds onto the frigid air.
‘Don’t panic,’ Cody whispered under his breath. ‘Just keep moving.’
A voice called out. ‘He’s taking in water!’
Cody felt his guts plunge as the BV’s Articulated rear began to drag in the water, the engine note changing as Bradley struggled to keep the vehicle moving. He was aiming for an intercept point some fifty yards ahead but almost certainly could not make it as water flooded in through a cracked window.
Denton chuckled in delight as he struggled to his feet. ‘He’s a goner, boys!’
Cody stared with macabre fascination into Denton’s manic gaze, stunned by how a man could be so intensely callous. Cody whirled away and called across to the captain.
‘Is this what you are? Is this what you’ve become?!’
Hank did not respond, his gaze fixed upon the struggling BV out amongst the ice.
‘Why don’t you swim out and fetch him?’ Denton chuckled maniacally to Cody.
Before Cody could respond, Bethany dropped the rope and tackle she still held in her grasp and it thumped to the deck. ‘He’s sinking.’
Cody saw the BV’s rear section swamped by the water as the front began to rise above the waves, the engine screaming. The cab door opened and Bradley hurled a large canvas sack out onto the roof before hauling himself out of the flooding cab and onto the roof.
The BV slowed in the water barely fifty yards from the Phoenix as Bradley raised his arms and shouted across to them.
‘What the hell are you waiting for?!’
Cody stared as the BV sank further and bitter water sloshed across the cab ceiling and over Bradley’s boots.
‘Do something!’ Bethany screamed at Hank.
Her cry was followed by a harsh rattling that crashed out from the fore deckhouse. Cody saw the bow anchor plunge from its mountings and crash into the water as Denton and the crew’s macabre delight turned to panic.
‘No!’
The Phoenix lurched as the anchor thumped into the seabed and the chain was yanked taut under the ship’s enormous weight. The whole deck titled wildly as the hull began to rotate in the water around its anchor and the chain began thudding out link by link under the strain, threatening to foul the hull.
‘Secure the capstan and get that anchor raised!’ Hank bellowed as he hung on to the quarterdeck rail. ‘Hard to starboard!’
Saunders heaved into the wheel to try to slow the Phoenix’s wild gyration, Hank joining him. The crew scattered for the capstan and Charlotte staggered across to the port bulwarks as the Phoenix heaved in the water.
Cody ran to join her on the tilting deck, the canvas sails above thundering as the breeze spilled from them.
‘What are you doing?!’ Cody yelled.
Charlotte did not reply as she dashed across to the rigging. Coils of spare rope were lashed down near each of the masts, and she dragged one of them across to the bulwarks and tied one end to the railings.
‘Fetch me a float!’ she screamed.
Cody dashed to where a brightly coloured float sat in its mountings attached to the bulwarks. He yanked it out and handed it to Charlotte, who tied the other end of the rope to the float. Cody stared at her in amazement as she whirled and in one fluid motion hurled the float up at a high angle into the sky in the direction of the BV.
The float arced out toward the BV but the weight of the line hauled it quickly back down. It splashed into the icy some fifteen yards from the sinking vehicle.
Bradley didn’t even wait for it to land. As the float flew through the air he hauled the sack onto his back and jumped headlong into the water.
Cody’s heart almost stopped. Bradley had seconds to make it to the float before the brutally cold convection of the water literally sucked the heat from his body and prevented him from moving. Bradley’s head popped up out of the water and he swam powerfully for several strokes, but already his face was blotchy with the severe shock of the cold and his limbs began gyrating wildly as he struggled to swim.
‘Come on!’ Charlotte yelled. ‘Keep moving!’
Bradley splashed his way toward the ship, his head ducking beneath the black water and his legs vanishing. His hands groped blindly for the float as it bobbed on the water, and then both of his arms splashed down onto it and he hauled his head above the surface.
‘Pull!’
Cody hauled with all of his strength on the line, dragging Bradley’s body against the water and the ship’s movement through it. On his third heave the line became suddenly lighter.
‘He’s off the line!’
‘No he’s not.
’
Cody turned and saw Jake, Sauri, Reece and behind them Bethany pulling fiercely on the rope. From Cody’s right, the captain leaped down off the quarterdeck and hurled a rope ladder over the side of the ship, securing it against the bulwarks.
Bradley’s drenched body bumped against the Phoenix’s hull and with trembling arms he managed to clamber up the ladder far enough for Cody and Hank to reach him. With a heave of effort they dragged the soldier’s body over the bulwarks and he thumped down onto the deck in a splash of icy water.
Charlotte dashed to his side, dropping to her knees as she threw her hands around the soldier’s neck.
Bradley’s skin was pale white and his body was trembling and shuddering as though rolling with a live current, but through stuttering purple lips he managed to speak.
‘Got…, medicine, ….Bobby.’
Cody felt something lodge painfully in his throat as Charlotte cupped the soldier’s face in her hands in disbelief and amazement.
‘Taylor, light the generator!’ Hank snapped. ‘Bethany, get something boiled up immediately. Soup, coffee, anything!’
As Bethany and Taylor dashed away a series of cries went up from the foredeck house.
‘We need help here!’
The anchor chain rumbled and the hull creaked as the huge anchor dragged across the seabed below and strained the capstan, Denton, Seth, Ice and Muir struggling to hold the capstan in place and prevent the anchor from ripping it out of its housing.
‘We’re heading for the ice pack!’ Saunders shouted from the wheelhouse.
Astern the Phoenix, dense ice floes as tall as houses loomed through the fog as the ship drifted backward toward them. Cody knew instantly that if the ship hit them stern first she could be damaged beyond repair, her rudder smashed.
‘Get in there!’ Hank bellowed and then ran past them toward the stern.
Cody ran for the fore deckhouse. The Phoenix was listing to port as she drifted backwards with the current, held by the anchor dragging along the seabed. Cody dashed inside to see the crew grimacing with effort as they tried to haul the anchor away from the seabed.
Cody plunged into one of the bars and heaved as Jake and Sauri both fell into other bars and dug in against the immense pressure. The capstan creaked and the sound of bolts, bearings and muscles under immense strain filled the deckhouse as they fought the seabed’s savage grip.
‘As one!’ Jake yelled. ‘Now!’
They heaved together and the capstan suddenly jolted and span viciously as the anchor was torn free of the sediment below. The bars whirled and Cody stumbled as the capstan turned easily beneath their grip.
‘Anchor free!’ Denton bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Cody staggered out onto the main deck to hear the stern anchor plunge into the water as the captain freed her. Saunders held the wheel hard to starboard as soon as the stern anchor chain caught the seabed below. The Phoenix silently and gracefully rotated in the current, and the sails above rumbled as the light wind flukes filled them once more.
Cody rushed into the aft deckhouse and joined Hank at the rear capstan.
‘Stern away!’ Saunders yelled.
In unison, Hank and Cody heaved on the smaller capstan at the rear and moments later the anchor lifted free of the seabed. They turned the capstan until the anchor was secured and Hank drove a belaying pin into the chain.
They dashed outside to see the ice floes drifting past twenty yards out on the starboard bow. Cody sighed in relief, rubbed his face with his hands as he looked at Hank.
‘That was too close.’
The captain did not look at Cody as he replied. ‘Far too close. Keep your people below decks from now on unless ordered otherwise.’
Cody stared at the captain. ‘Why?’
Hank walked away as he replied. ‘Because if any of you ever again endanger my ship or my crew I will kill you all.’
*
The generator bathed the interior of the ship in a rare blanket of warmth, the lights glowing as Cody walked to the for’ard sick bay. Charlotte and Bethany sat on the spare bed alongside Bradley, who lay beneath sheets with hot water bottles tucked around him.
The soldier looked up as Cody entered the bay.
‘About time you came to pay your respects, Doctor.’
‘You made it,’ Cody replied. ‘I never thought I’d say it to such an extraordinary asshole, but I’m glad you got through.’
The soldier’s jaw twisted into a crooked grin, an effort at humour that belied what Bradley must by now already know. Bradley stuck a hand out from beneath the sheets and Cody shook it as the soldier replied.
‘Touched, I’m sure. Wouldn’t be here at all if Charlie hadn’t thrown me a line. What’s the beef with the crew?’
‘They don’t play well with others.’
‘He didn’t make it,’ the soldier said. ‘Bobby.’
‘Buried him at sea just before you turned up,’ Cody replied, and managed somehow to keep his face emotionless. ‘But he succumbed to the infection three days ago.’
Bradley exhaled a long, slow breath. ‘Well, we got plenty of antibiotics now and a few other choice goodies I found at Eureka.’
‘Where’s the bag?’ Cody asked.
‘Here,’ Charlotte replied. ‘I managed to keep it out of Denton’s hands.’
‘Just as well,’ Bradley said, ‘because there are six handguns in there. Sig Sauer P225’s, good kit and two clips each. Probably personal defence against wolves for staff stationed at Eureka.’
‘You find anybody there?’
Bradley shook his head. ‘Empty. Tried to reach Grise Fjord but on the way I saw a light out to the east and figured somebody was out there.’
Cody felt a meagre crumb of redemption warm his belly.
‘Saunders,’ he replied. ‘I asked him to attach a light to the topmast in case you were close by.’
‘Then I owe you a great deal, Doctor,’ Bradley said.
‘Just get your head down and get recovered. We need you.’
Bradley nodded. Cody saw one of Charlotte’s hands resting atop the soldier’s. As Cody turned away, Bethany joined him and they walked aft down the corridor outside together.
‘Bobby wouldn’t have held on another three days,’ she whispered to him. ‘You know that, right?’
Cody didn’t reply, unable to think of a response that would satisfy him. Bethany gripped his arm in one hand and slowed him down. ‘He wouldn’t,’ she insisted. ‘He was too far gone. I’d have been surprised if he had made it through that night.’
‘It wasn’t our place to decide,’ Cody uttered.
‘Nor was it our place to make him suffer further,’ Bethany replied. ‘We can’t know the future, Cody. We did what we thought was right, for the best.’
‘And next time?’ he asked her. ‘What would you do now, if it were Jake or Charlotte or me suffering?’
Bethany averted her eyes from his, sucked in a breath.
‘Let’s just hope that we never have to think about it, okay? We’ve got a long way to go and God knows what’s waiting for us. One day at a time.’
Cody saw her look up at him in a way he had not really noticed before.
‘One day at a time,’ he agreed.
Bethany smiled and walked away.
***
TEMPERANCE
20
Week 30
Dearest Maria,
We are finally free of the Arctic and have covered some two hundred nautical miles since leaving Ellesmere Island. It is difficult to describe how wonderful it is to feel the sun’s warmth on our faces as we traverse the Davis Strait, to see the decks free of ice and the sails straining to the sound of the winds that drive us ever farther south. Although we maintain a sharp lookout for icebergs which remain a hazard in these waters and the going is tough, spirits are a little higher now than they once were.
Bradley has recovered from his ordeal and already has made his mark on Denton, Seth and their cohorts,
who are now reluctant to threaten us in any meaningful way. However, supplies are running woefully short and we have a long way to go before we raise home. Hunger is a real issue, and the captain informed us that due to our inflated numbers we only have a few meals remaining from the last polar bear shot by the crew.
Attempts at fishing and even whaling have so far proven ineffective.
I have set up the radios taken from Alert in the captain’s cabin and he spends many hours searching the wavebands for some sign of human life. As yet, he has found none.
*
Hank Mears stood over the table in the wheelhouse and pored over the large map spread before them. Cody and the team stood on one side, the crew on the other, while Saunders manned the wheel and watched over the table and the ship beyond through the windows.
‘So, ladies and gentlemen, whence and where to travel?’
The maps and nautical charts were the captain’s prized possessions and kept hidden from the crew and Cody’s team. Hank’s reasoning was that mankind had mostly burned anything that could be ignited to ward off the bitter winters, so any remaining charts and maps were now worth more than any precious metal.
The Phoenix was heeled over before a blow blustering in from the north-east, her bow rising and falling as she shouldered her way into the slate grey waves churning across the endless ocean. Clouds scudded across the sullen sky above, squalls and spray filling the air.
Everybody aboard leaned and swayed with the rolling ship by unthinking reflex, fully acclimatised to the movement of the schooner beneath them.
‘I say Tahiti,’ announced Muir. ‘Saw a documentary about it once. Hot women, hot beaches and nothing to do but breed.’
‘Fiji,’ said Seth. ‘Same deal, less volcanoes.’
‘Boston,’ said Jake. ‘Some of us have families there.’
The crew stared at the old man as though he had gone insane. ‘Forget it,’ Denton spat. ‘You don’t get to make choices here.’
‘Like hell we’d go there anyway,’ Taylor growled. ‘We got the pick of the world and you want some two-bit city on the east coast?’
‘I’m surprised at you, Taylor,’ Jake said. ‘Denton I can imagine being a bastard orphan who would sell his own grandmother, but you must have family too somewhere?’
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