The City of Mirrors

by Justin Cronin

  “All right?”

  He offered a faint, courageous smile. “Never better.”

  On the tray were a cup of water and a bowl of porridge, also a spoon and cloth. She draped the cloth over Greer’s chest and began to spoon the porridge into his mouth. He worked his lips and tongue hesitatingly, as if these simple actions required tremendous concentration. Still, he managed a good amount before waving her off. She wiped his chin and held the cup of water to his lips. He took a small sip; she could tell he was humoring her. She had noticed, while feeding him, a basin at the foot of the bed, stained with blood.

  “Happy now?” he asked, as she put the cup aside.

  She almost laughed. “What a question.”

  “Michael picked you for a reason. That’s no less true now than it was thirty-nine days ago.”

  Suddenly the tears came. “Oh, goddamnit, Lucius. What am I going to tell people?”

  “You’re not going to tell them anything yet.”

  “They’re going to figure it out. Probably a lot of them already have.”

  Greer gestured to the bedside table. “Open that drawer,” he said. “The top one.”

  Inside she found a single sheet of heavy paper, folded into thirds and sealed with wax. For several seconds she just looked at it, dumbfounded.

  “It’s from Michael,” Greer said.

  She took it in her hand. It weighed almost nothing—it was only paper—but it felt like far more; it felt like a letter from the grave. She wiped her face with the back of her wrist. “What does it say?”

  “That’s between the two of you. All he told me was that you weren’t supposed to open it until we arrived at the island. His orders.”

  “So why are you giving it to me now?”

  “Because I think you need it. He believed in you. He believed in the Bergensfjord. The situation is what it is; I won’t tell you different. But things may work out yet.”

  She hesitated, then said, “He told me how the passengers died. How they killed themselves, sealing the ship and channeling back the engine’s exhaust.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Lore.”

  “I’m only saying he knew it was a possibility. He wanted me to be ready.”

  “We’re not there yet. A lot of things can happen between now and then.”

  “I wish I had your faith.”

  “Feel free to use mine. Or Michael’s. God knows I borrowed his lots of times. We all did. None of us would be here if we hadn’t.”

  A brief silence passed.

  “Tired?” Lore asked.

  His eyes were heavy-lidded. “A little, yeah.”

  She put her hand on his arm. “You just rest, all right? I’ll come check on you later.”

  She rose and went to the door.

  “Lore?”

  She turned at the threshold; Greer was looking at the ceiling.

  “A thousand years,” he said. “That’s how long.”

  Lore waited for more but there was none. Finally she said, “I don’t understand.”

  Greer swallowed. “In case Amy and the others fail. That’s how long before anybody can go back.” He took a deep breath and let the air out slowly, closing his eyes. “I’m only saying this because I might not be around to tell you later.”

  She let herself into the passageway and returned to the pilothouse, where she sat at the chart table. The sky beyond the windscreen showed evening coming on. A mass of clouds, as thick and textured as wads of unspun cotton, had moved in from the south; perhaps they’d be lucky and get some rain. She watched as the sun dipped to the horizon, flaring the sky with its final light. A sudden weariness enfolded her. Poor Lucius, she thought. Poor everyone. The world could do without her for a while, she decided, and she laid her head on the table, cradling it with her arms, and soon was fast asleep.

  She dreamed of many things. In one dream, she was a girl again, lost in a forest; in another, she was stuck inside a closet; in a third, she was carrying a heavy object of unknown type and could not put it down. These dreams were not pleasant, but neither were they nightmares. Each unfolded seamlessly into the next, depriving them of their full power—no climax was reached, no mortal moment of terror—and as sometimes occurred, she was also aware that she was dreaming, that the landscape she inhabited was harmlessly symbolic.

  The final dream of Lore’s thirty-ninth night at sea was hardly a dream at all. She was standing in a field. All was quiet, yet she knew a danger was approaching. The color of the air began to change, first to yellow, then to green. The hair on her arms and the back of her neck rose, as if with a static charge; simultaneously, a great wind swirled up around her. She tilted her face to the sky. Clouds of black and silver had begun to form a whirlpool overhead. With a crackling explosion and a biting smell of ozone, a bolt of lightning jagged the ground in front of her, blinding her utterly.

  She began to run. Sheets of rain commenced to fall as, above her, the furious, whirlpooling clouds congealed into a single, fingerlike cone. The ground was shaking, thunder crashing; trees were bursting into flames. The storm was pursuing her. It would sweep her into oblivion. As the finger touched down behind her, the air was rent by a deafening, animal roar. Its power seized her like a fist; suddenly the ground was gone. A voice, far away, was calling her name. She was lifting into the air, she was soaring higher and higher, she was being hurled off the face of the earth …

  “Lore, wake up!”

  Her head jerked from the table. Rand was staring at her. Why was he so wet? And why was everything moving?

  “What the hell are you doing?” Rand barked. Rain and seawater were pelting against the windscreen. “We’re in real trouble here.”

  As she attempted to rise from the bench, the deck heaved sideways. The door flew open with a bang, rain and wind blasting into the pilothouse. Another groan from deep within the hull and the deck began to heel in the opposite direction. Lore went tumbling, sliding down the deck and smacking into the bulkhead. For a moment it seemed that they would just keep going, but then the motion reversed. Gripping the edge of the table for balance, she fought her way upright.

  “When the hell did this start?”

  Rand was clutching the edge of the pilot’s seat. “About thirty minutes ago. It just whipped up from nowhere.”

  They were taking the sea broadside. The lightning flashed, the heavens shook; huge waves were crashing over the rails.

  “Get below and fire the engines,” she ordered.

  “That’ll use the rest of our fuel.”

  “No choice.” She strapped herself into the pilot seat; water was sloshing over the floor. “Without helm control, this is going to pound us to pieces. I just hope we have enough left to get through this. We’ll need all the thrust you’ve got.”

  As Rand exited, Caleb appeared out of the storm. The man’s face was white as a ghost’s, whether with terror or seasickness, Lore couldn’t tell.

  “Is everyone below?” she asked.

  “Are you kidding me? It’s like a screaming contest down there.”

  She yanked the straps tight. “This is going to be rough, Caleb. We need every hatch sealed. Tell people to tie themselves down however they can.”

  He nodded grimly, turned to go.

  “And shut that fucking door!”

  The ship heeled into the next trough, listing at a perilous angle before rolling up the other side. With nearly all of their fuel gone, they had no ballast; it wouldn’t take much to capsize them. She looked at her watch; it was 0530. Dawn would soon be breaking.

  “Goddamnit, Rand,” she muttered. “Come on, come on …”

  The pressure gauges leapt; power flowed through the panel. Lore set the rudder, gripped the throttle control, and opened it wide. The compass was spinning like a top. With excruciating slowness, the bow began to turn into the wind.

  “Come on, girl!”

  The bow bit and held, plummeting into the next trough as if down a mountainside. Spray blasted over the deck. For
a second, the front of the ship was almost fully submerged; then it ascended, the hull rearing upward like a great rising beast.

  “That’s the way!” Lore shouted. “Do it for Mama!”

  She drove into the howling darkness.

  For twelve full hours, the storm raged. Many times, as giant waves crashed over the bow, Lore believed the end had come. Each time, the foredeck plunged into the abyss; each time, it rose again.

  The storm did not so much fade as simply stop. One second the wind was howling, the rain lashing; in the next it was all over. It was as if they had simply passed from one room into the next, one of violence, the other of almost perfect calm. With cramped hands, Lore unfastened her straps. She had no idea what was going on below decks, nor did this question, at that moment, concern her very much. She was tired and thirsty and badly needed to pee. She squatted over the pot she kept in the pilothouse and stepped outside to toss the contents over the side.

  The clouds had begun to break apart. She stood at the rail for a moment and watched the evening sky. She had no idea where they were; she hadn’t been able to read the compass since the storm had begun. They had survived, but at what cost? Their fuel was nearly exhausted. Beneath the stern of the Bergensfjord, the screws were softly churning, pushing them through the motionless sea.

  Rand emerged from the main hatch and ascended the stairs toward her. He took a place beside her at the rail.

  “I’ve got to admit, it sure is pretty out here,” he said. “Funny how it’s like that after a storm.”

  “What’s the situation below decks?”

  His shoulders were slumped, his eyes rimmed with dark circles of fatigue; a bit of something, vomit perhaps, was caught in his beard. “We’ve got the bilges working—we should be dry pretty soon. You have to hand it to Michael, the guy knew how to build a boat.”

  “Any injuries?”

  Rand shrugged. “Few broken bones, I heard. Some cuts and scrapes. Sara’s taking care of it. Lucky thing no one’s going to want to eat for a week, seeing as how we’re so low on food. The smell is pretty bad down there.” He looked at her for a moment, then said, carefully, “Want me to shut down the engines? It’s your call.”

  She considered this question. “In a minute,” she said.

  For a while they stood together without talking, watching the sun descend over the starboard side. The last of the clouds were separating, lit from within by a purpling light. An area of water near the port bow had begun to boil with fish, feeding near the surface. As Lore watched, a large bird with black-tipped wings and a yellowish head swooped low over the surface, reached down with its bill—a quick, sharp jab—hauled a fish free, tossed it backward into its gullet, and began to climb away.

  “Rand. That’s a bird.”

  “I know it’s a bird. I’ve seen birds before.”

  “Not in the middle of the ocean you haven’t.”

  She darted into the pilothouse and returned with the binoculars. Her pulse was racing, her heart was in her mouth. She pressed the lenses to her eyes scanned the horizon.

  “Anything?”

  She held up a hand. “Quiet.”

  She made a slow circle. Facing due south, she stopped.

  “Lore, what are you seeing?”

  She held the image in the lenses for an extra few seconds to be sure. Holy damn, she thought. She lowered the binoculars.

  “Get Greer up here,” she said.

  By the time they were able to bring him up on deck, darkness was falling. Lucius did not appear to be in pain; that part had passed. His eyes were closed; he did not seem to know where he was or what was happening. With Sara supervising, Caleb and Hollis served as stretcher-bearers. Others had gathered around; word had spread throughout the ship. Pim was there, with Theo and the girls; Jenny and Hannah; Jock and Grace, holding their infant son; the men of the crew, weary after the long battle of the storm. All stood aside as the stretcher passed.

  They carried him to the bow and lowered the gurney. Lore crouched beside him and wrapped one hand with her fingers. His skin was cold and dry, loose on the bones.

  “Lucius, it’s Lore.”

  From deep in his throat, a soft moan.

  “I have something to show you. Something wonderful.”

  She slipped the palm of her left hand beneath his neck and gently tipped his face forward, toward the bow.

  “Open your eyes,” she said.

  His lids separated to make the thinnest slits, then a little more. It was if he were using the last of his strength to perform this tiny act. All stood silent, waiting. The island was well within sight now, directly ahead: a single mountain, lushly green, soaring from the sea, and, above it, a cross of five bright stars, punching through the twilight.

  “Do you see?” she whispered.

  The breath in his chest was barely a presence; death was in his face. A long moment passed as he struggled to focus. At last the faintest of smiles curled his lips.

  “It’s … beautiful,” Greer said.

  86

  Lucius Greer lived three more days, thus earning the distinction of being the first settler on the island, as yet unnamed, to die upon its soil. He spoke no more words; it could not have been said that he regained full consciousness. Yet from time to time, as Sara or one of the others attended to him, the smile would reappear, as if rising from a happy dream.

  They buried him in a clearing surrounded by tall palms with a view of the sea. Apart from the men who had worked on the boat, few of the ship’s complement knew the man or even who he was, least of all the children, who had heard only vague rumors of a dying man in a cabin, and whose shouts of play could be heard throughout the ceremony. Nobody minded; it seemed suitable. Lore was the first to speak, followed by Rand and Sara. They had decided in advance that each would tell a story. Lore spoke of his friendship with Michael; Rand, the tales Greer had told him about his life in the Expeditionary; Sara, the day she and Greer had met, so many years ago, in Colorado, and all that had happened there. When this was done, they formed a line so each could place a stone upon the grave, which bore a simple marker Lore had fashioned from pieces of driftwood:

  LUCIUS GREER

  SEER, SOLDIER, FRIEND

  It was the next morning that a small group used two of the dinghies to return to the Bergensfjord, which waited at anchor a thousand yards offshore. There had been some disagreement on the matter—the ship contained all manner of usable materials—but Lore was firm and, as captain, had final say. We let her rest, she told them. It’s what Michael wanted.

  She had not, in fact, opened Michael’s letter until their second day on the island, by which time she had begun to suspect what it said. She could not say why this should be so; perhaps it was merely her sense of the man. Thus it was without undo surprise, only a pleasant sense of hearing his voice, that she read the three simple sentences the letter contained.

  Look in aft storage locker #16.

  Scuttle the ship.

  Start over.

  Love, M

  The storage locker contained a crate of explosives, as well as spools of cable and a radio detonator. Michael had left instructions for their proper distribution. Caleb and Hollis ran the cables through the passageways while Lore and Rand distributed the explosives throughout the hull. The fuel tanks, now nearly empty, were full of highly combustible diesel fumes. Lore turned on the mixers, opened the valves, and set the final charge.

  There was no further discussion about what would happen next; the job was Lore’s. The men returned to the dinghies. Lore took a final tour through the ship, its silent rooms and passageways. She thought of Michael as she walked, for the two, Michael and the Bergensfjord, were one and the same in her mind. She was sad but also full of gratitude, for all he had given her.

  She ascended to the deck and headed aft. The detonator was a small metal box operated by a key. She removed the key, which she wore on a chain around her neck, and carefully inserted it into the slot. Rand and the others were
waiting below in their boats.

  “Goodbye, Michael.”

  She turned the key and dashed for the stern. Beneath her, explosions were ripping through the hull, headed toward the fuel tanks. She hit the fantail at a dead sprint, took three long steps, and launched.

  Lore DeVeer, captain of the Bergensfjord, airborne.

  She entered the water cleanly, with barely a splash. All around her, a beautiful blue world appeared. She rolled onto her back and gazed upward. A few seconds passed; then a flash of light lit the surface. The water shook with a muffled boom.

  She emerged just a few yards from the boats. Behind her, the Bergensfjord was in flames, a huge cloud of black smoke soaring skyward. Caleb helped her in.

  “That was a nice dive,” he said.

  She sat on the bench. The Bergensfjord was sinking from the stern. As its bow lifted clear of the water, exposing its massive, bulbous nose, shouts went up from the beach; the children, thrilled by the marvelous display, were cheering. When the hull reached a forty-five-degree-angle, the ship began to slide backward, accelerating with astonishing speed. Lore closed her eyes; she did not want to witness the final moment. When she opened them, the Bergensfjord was gone.

  They rowed back toward shore. As they approached the beach, Sara came jogging down the sand to meet them.

  “Caleb, I think you’d better come,” she said.

  Pim’s membranes had ruptured. Caleb found her underneath a tarp hung between trees on one of the thin mattresses they’d stripped from the Bergensfjord. Her face was calm, though damp in the tropical heat. During the last few weeks, her hair had grown incomparably thick, its color deepening to a rich chestnut that flared with red in the sun.

  Hey, he signed.

  Hey yourself. Then, with a smile: You should see your expression. Don’t worry, I’ll be done in no time.

  He looked at Sara. “How is she really?” He was signing simultaneously; no secrets, not now.

  “I don’t see any problems. She’s only a little short of her due date. And she’s right: for a second birth, things tend to go faster.”