Cradle (40 page)

There was a momentary pause in the conversation. Carol was also becoming more sensitive
to the dynamics of their interaction. She had noticed in realtime that Nick’s face
had tightened when she had suggested that she knew more about technology than he did.
Uh oh
, had flashed through her mind.
Come on, Carol. Be a little more tactful and considerate
. She decided to change the subject.

‘How long will it take us to reach the marina?’ she asked. In her excitement on Thursday
afternoon, she had not paid much attention to time during their return trip.

‘A little less than two hours,’ Nick replied. He laughed. ‘Unless I get lost. I haven’t
used manual guidance in these waters for over five years.’

‘And what are you going to say when we get there?’

Nick looked at her. ‘To whom… about what?’ he asked.

‘You know. About our dive. About Troy.’

They stared at each other. Nick finally broke the silence. ‘My vote would be to say
nothing about it… until… until we know for certain,’ he said quietly. ‘Then if Troy
shows up, there’s no problem.’

‘And if he doesn’t ever show up…’ Carol’s voice trailed off. ‘Then we, Mr. Williams,
are both in very deep shit.’ The gravity of their situation was becoming clear to
both of them.

‘But who do you think will ever believe such an incredible tale?’ Nick said after
a moment. ‘Even with your pictures, there’s no really hard evidence to corroborate
our story. These days people can create any kind of photo they want on a computer.
Remember that murder case in Miami last year, where an alibi photograph was produced
and admitted as official evidence? And then later that data processor showed up and
blew the whistle?’ He paused. Carol was listening intently. ‘And whoever built that
place may be dismantling it at this very moment,’ he continued. ‘Otherwise, why did
they let us get away? No. I say we wait awhile. Twenty-four hours or so anyway. And
think carefully about what we’re going to do.’

Carol nodded her head affirmatively. ‘I think I agree with you, although not exactly
for the same reasons.’ She was aware there was still a journalistic voice inside her
that wanted to guard the information for her sensational scoop. She hoped her ambition
wasn’t somehow standing in the way of making the right decision for Troy. ‘But Nick,’
Carol said reflectively, ‘you don’t think we’re endangering Troy in any way by not
contacting the authorities?’

‘No,’ Nick replied immediately. ‘I suspect that if they were going to kill him, they
would have done so already. Or will soon.’

This part of the conversation was too casual for Carol. She walked over to the edge
of the boat and stared out to sea again. She thought of Troy and their wild adventure
after they were sucked into the fissure. He had helped her through it. No question
about it. His humour and wit had kept her from falling apart. And he may well have
saved her life by deflecting the attention of that thing.

He is a warm, sensitive man underneath that funny exterior
, she thought.
Very aware. He also seems to be covering lots of pain. From somewhere
. For a moment Carol convinced herself that Troy was all right. After all, they had
helped her to escape. Then she wondered why she had never run into him again down
there. A seed of doubt was planted in her mind. She squirmed.
Damnit. We don’t really know one way or the other. It’s uncertainty again. I hate
uncertainty. It’s unfair
.

A profound sadness, a deep and disturbing feeling from the past, stirred in Carol.
She felt helpless, without any control of the situation. Tears filled her eyes. Nick
had come up beside her without saying anything. He saw the tears in her eyes but didn’t
comment. He just put his hand over hers for a moment and then removed it.

‘Troy was becoming a good friend,’ Carol said, starting to hide what she was really
feeling. All of a sudden her need to share her true emotions overcame her normal protection
mechanisms. She looked down at the water. ‘But that’s not really why I’m upset just
now. I’m crying because of the uncertainty. I can’t stand not knowing.’ Carol paused
and wiped her eyes.

Nick was quiet. He did not understand exactly what she was saying, but he sensed that
something special was about to happen between them. The gentle waves lapped against
the side of the boat. ‘It reminds me of my childhood, right after my father left,’
she continued softly. ‘I kept believing that he would be coming back. All three of
us, Richie, my mom, and I, would tell each other that it was just a temporary separation,
that someday he would walk through the door and say “I’m home”. At night I would lie
in my bed and listen for the sound of his car in the driveway.’

The tears were flowing now, big drops cascading down her cheeks and falling into the
vast ocean. ‘When he would come to pick us up for dinner, or on a Saturday, I would
help mom fix herself up, choose her clothes for her, brush her hair.’ Carol choked
up for a moment. ‘After I hugged him at the door, I would always take him to mother
and say, “Isn’t she beautiful?”

‘For six months this went on. I never knew what I was going to feel from day to day.
The uncertainty destroyed me, made me sick. I begged my father to give my mom one
more chance. Richie even suggested that he could buy the house next door if he and
mother couldn’t get along. So we could at least all be close together.’ Carol smiled
grimly and took a huge breath.

‘Then my father took my mother to San Francisco for the weekend. I was so excited.
For thirty-six hours my heart soared, my future was assured. I was the happiest ten-year-old
girl in the San Fernando Valley. But when they came home on Sunday night my mother
was very drunk. Her eyes were swollen, her mascara was running, she was a mess. She
marched right past Richie and me and went to her room. My dad, Richie, and I stood
in the living room, all hugging, and wept together. In that instant I knew it was
all over.’

Carol was calming down now but the tears were still there. She looked at Nick, her
eyes entreating. ‘It would have been so much easier if I could have cried one time
and been done with it. But no. There was uncertainty, so there was still hope. So
every day, every goddamn day, my little heart was broken again.’ Carol wiped her eyes
one more time. Then she looked out at the ocean and shouted with all her might, ‘I
want to know now, or at least soon, what happened to Troy! Don’t make me wait forever.
I can’t take it.’

She turned to Nick. He opened his arms. Without a word, she put the side of her face
against his chest. He closed his arms around her.

Nick reached above the door to Troy’s apartment and found the key on the ledge. He
knocked on the door again and opened it cautiously. ‘Hello,’ he called out, ‘is anybody
there?’

Carol followed him into the living room. ‘I didn’t know you two were such close friends,’
she said, after she glanced with amusement at Troy’s motley collection of furniture.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone where I keep my key.’

What Nick was looking for was not in the living room. He walked down the hallway,
past the large bedroom with its storehouse of equipment, and into the smaller bedroom
where Troy slept. ‘Actually,’ Nick yelled at Carol, who had stopped behind him in
the hall opposite the first bedroom and was gawking at the jumble of electronics filling
every conceivable cranny, ‘it was only yesterday that I came over here for the first
time. So I don’t really know where… oh, good, I think I’ve found something.’ He picked
up a sheet of computer printout that was underneath a paperweight on the end table
beside Troy’s bed. It was dated January 15, 1994, and contained about twenty names,
addresses, and phone numbers.

Nick met Carol in the hallway. He read quickly through the page and showed it to her.
‘There’s not much here. Phone numbers and addresses for electronics and software supply
houses. A bunch of numbers for Angie Leatherwood, probably while she was still on
tour.’ He pointed at one entry. ‘This must be his mother, Kathryn Jefferson, in Coral
Gables, Florida. But there’s no phone number listed with the address.’

Carol took the sheet from Nick and checked it herself. ‘I never heard him mention
anyone but Angie, his mother, and his brother Jamie. No other friends or family. And
I somehow have the impression that he hasn’t seen much of his mother recently. Did
you ever hear him say anything about any other family?’

‘No,’ Nick replied. They had wandered together into the game room and Nick was idly
turning knobs and switches as he walked past the arrays of equipment. He stopped and
thought for a moment. ‘So that means Angie is the one. We’ll tell her right away and
then wait—’

Carol and Nick both froze as they distinctly heard the front door open and close.
After about a second, Nick called out in a loud but uncertain voice, ‘Hello, whoever
it is, we’re back here in the bedroom.’ There was no answer. They could hear soft
footsteps in the hallway. Nick instinctively moved over to protect Carol. A moment
later Troy came around the corner and into the room.

‘Well, well,’ he said, grinning broadly, ‘as I live and breathe. I have found a pair
of burglars in my home.’

Carol ran up to Troy and threw her arms around his neck. ‘Troy,’ she said, her comments
coming in quick staccato bursts, ‘is it ever good to see you. Where have you been?
You scared the shit out of us. We thought you were dead.’

Troy returned Carol’s hug and winked at Nick. ‘My, my. Such a reception. I should
have vanished before.’ He extended a hand to shake the one that Nick was offering
him. For a moment his face became serious. ‘On second thoughts one experience like
that is definitely enough.’

Carol backed away and Troy saw the computer sheet in her hand. ‘We were going to try
to notify your family…’ she started. Troy reached out to take the page and Carol noticed
a bracelet on Troy’s right wrist that she had never seen before. It was wide, almost
an inch and a half wide, and looked as if its twenty or so links had been made from
flattened gold nuggets. ‘Where did you get this?’ Carol asked, holding his wrist up
so that she could see the bracelet more clearly.

Nick was unable to restrain himself any longer. Before Troy could answer Carol’s question,
he jumped into the conversation. ‘According to Carol,’ he said, ‘you were last seen
disappearing down a corridor in an underwater laboratory. With a six-foot amoeba in
hot pursuit. How the hell did you escape? We searched all over the area….’

Troy held up his hands. He was enjoying being the centre of attention. ‘Friends, friends.
Wait a minute, will you? I will tell you the story as soon as I take care of the necessities
of life.’ He turned and walked into the bathroom. Nick and Carol heard a familiar
sound. ‘Get some beer out of the refrigerator and go into the living room,’ Troy shouted
from behind the closed door. ‘We might as well enjoy this part of it.’

Two minutes later Nick and Carol were sitting together on the large couch in the living
room. Troy plopped into the chair opposite them just as Nick took a huge swig from
his beer. ‘Once upon a time,’ Troy began with a mischievous grin, ‘there was a young
black named Troy Jefferson, who, while diving with his friends, vanished for almost
two hours in a strange building underneath the ocean. When he emerged from his underwater
adventure, he was rescued by divers from the United States Navy, who just happened
to be in the area at the time. Soon thereafter young Troy was flown in a military
helicopter back to Key West. There he was interrogated at length about why he was
swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, all by himself, ten miles from the nearest island.
An hour later he was released without anyone believing any part of his story.’ Troy
looked back and forth from Nick to Carol. ‘Of course,’ he added, now more serious,
‘I didn’t tell them anything that really happened. There’s no way they would have
believed the truth.’

Carol was leaning forward on the couch. ‘So the Navy picked you up. Just after we
left.’ She turned to Nick. ‘They must have been following us for some reason.’
The missile must have been there after all
, she thought to herself.
But where did it go? Did the Navy find it? And how are they involved with this crazy
laboratory? Nothing makes sense…
.

‘We spent over an hour looking for you,’ Nick was saying. He was feeling remorseful
because they had abandoned the search for Troy so quickly. ‘It didn’t occur to me
that you might still be down in that place, whatever it was, and of course we couldn’t
hang around forever. All of our electronics were zapped by this funny carpet thing
that came out of the sea. So we lost all nav—’ He stopped in mid-sentence and looked
at Troy. ‘I’m sorry, friend.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Troy replied with a shrug, ‘I would have done the same thing.
At least I know that you’ve met one of the bizarre characters in my story. You didn’t,
by any chance, also meet one of the wardens, did you? Great big globs of clear jelly,
amoebalike, with little boxes in the middle and removable rods hanging out all over
the top?’

Nick shook his head. ‘Warden?’ Carol asked quickly, her brow knitted. ‘Why do you
call that thing a warden?’

‘Warden, sentinel, whatever,’ Troy answered. ‘
They
told me the warden things protect the principal cargo of the ship.’ Troy stared into
the blank gazes of his friends. ‘Which leads me back to the first question,’ he continued.
‘
They
gave me this bracelet. It is some kind of two-way communications device. I couldn’t
begin to explain how it works, but I know that
they
are listening and watching as well as transmitting messages to me. Only a few of
which I understand.’

Carol was starting to feel overwhelmed again. In her mind this already complex situation
had added a new dimension. Hundreds of questions were crowding into her brain and
she could not decide which one to ask first.