The action pack box set, p.16
The Action Pack Box Set, page 16
Cody slowed and turned as behind him the grinding and crunching noise became even louder. He dashed back to the starboard bulwarks as he spotted something moving on the shore far behind them.
‘Bradley! Jesus Christ, it’s Brad!’
Charlotte’s frantic cry caused every head to turn as a pair of headlight beams sliced through the fog on the southern shore of Ellesmere Island. Cody felt his guts lurch as through the grey mist the blocky form of a yellow BV appeared, puffs of black smoke spilling from its exhaust stack as it headed for the shoreline.
Jake whirled to the captain and pointed back at the shore.
‘We’ve got to go back for him!’
The captain stood on the quarterdeck, his gaze unblinking as he surveyed the shore and the thick icebergs spilling from the channel into the sound. Even as Cody watched he knew with an unbearable certainty that there was nothing they could do.
Hank Mears shook his head once.
‘He’s your man,’ the captain said. ‘We can’t turn back now.’
Charlotte screamed something unintelligible and hurled herself at the captain. Jake leaped across and wrapped his arms about her waist to prevent her from scratching the big man’s eyes out. Charlotte broke free and dashed to the bulwarks as the BV shuddered to a halt near the water’s edge and the cab door swung open.
Even across the expanse of ice-flecked water Cody could see Bradley’s haggard features as he staggered to the water’s edge and flung his arms wide at them, shouting and hollering, his voice carrying faintly across the lonely sea.
Cody looked up at the Phoenix’s mainmast and saw that the beacon was still shining there. He looked down to where Saunders manned the ship’s wheel, saw the old man avert his eyes behind the wheelhouse windows.
‘You can’t leave him here!’ Cody shouted at Hank.
The captain did not look at Cody as he replied. ‘Yes, I can.’
Cody whirled away and glimpsed Denton smirking at him. The scrawny youth raised one pierced eyebrow. ‘Less bellies to be fed….’
Denton didn’t see Sauri coming. The Inuit span Denton around by the shoulder punched him hard enough that the crack echoed across the ship. Denton whirled and hit the deck just as Taylor reached Sauri and drove an elbow deep into his belly.
Sauri tumbled sideways into the bulwarks and doubled over at the waist as Taylor stepped in to bring his knee up into the Inuit’s face. Jake dashed across to them and shoulder barged Taylor aside, knocking the big man off balance as Denton scrambled to his feet, a knife flickering in the pale light and his face shining with mindless malice.
***
19
Cody moved without thinking as the crew began swarming to the defence of their fellow seamen, spilling from the rigging lines and the quarterdeck. Cody stepped in front of Denton and blocked his path to Sauri as he raised a hand.
‘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.
