Authors: Madeleine L'engle

Troubling a Star (28 page)

BOOK: Troubling a Star

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“Otto!” I shouted.

“Vicky,” Otto cried, “watchâ”

Calmly and deliberately, Jack slapped Otto across the mouth.

“Otto!” I yelled again.

Jorge spoke sharply to Jack. “No rough stuff.”

Otto was rubbing his lips, wiping away blood. “Let me speak to her,” he said to Jorge.

“Be quick,” Jorge said.

Otto's mouth stretched in a grimace. “Sam needs youâ”

No. Something was wrong. Something other than Sam.

“Otto.” Jorge's voice was low and commanding.

Otto took a deep breath. “Go with them, Vicky. It's not safe toâ”

“Enough!” Jorge said.

I felt myself lifted. My feet were dragged across the black rubber side of the Zodiac and I was dumped, like a sack of potatoes, on the bottom. “Greta and Siri! They'll tellâ”

Jack said, “Captain Nausinio is waiting for them.”

“Captain Nauâhe's not thereâ”

“Captain Nausinio has a Vespugian cutter. He can be anywhere. Be quiet and do what you are told.”

“Are you taking me to Sam?”

Jack raised his hand as though to slap me as he had slapped Otto, but at a look from Jorge he lowered it. They sat on either side of me. “Otto!” Jorge commanded.

But Otto had turned away from the Zodiac. Now he stopped, looking pale, a trickle of blood on his chin.

Jorge said, “You will go back to the station and wait for us there. You are not needed.”

“But Vickyâ”

“You will tell everybody that we are taking Vicky to Sam. You will see to it that everything is under control. You will get what is coming to you. Do you understand?”

There was a double meaning to those words.

Otto drew himself up. “I will stay with Vicky.”

Suddenly Jack had a pistol pointed at Otto. “Prince Otto. You will do as you are told.”

Jorge pulled the starter sharply. The engine coughed and caught. Jack had one booted foot out of the Zodiac so he could push away from shore. Then we were heading out to sea. Jack put his pistol away.

Otto splashed into the shallow waves, almost up to the top of his boots.

“Go,” Jorge snapped. He had the throttle wide open, and the Zodiac was moving rapidly away from shore.

I lay on the bottom of the Zodiac. “Where are you taking me?”

“To Sam, of course.”

“Just relax, honey. You've misunderstood everything. The natives were a little restless, nothing more.” But Jack was still holding me down on the bottom of the Zodiac. “We're going to Palmer Station, where Sam can have proper care.”

“What do they have at Palmer they don't at LeNoir?”

“Vicky.” Jorge sighed heavily. “Palmer is twice the size of LeNoir. They have a proper infirmary.”

Did they? I didn't remember.

Jorge was silent, steering the Zodiac. We were going at full speed. I tried to get off the bottom, but Jack held me down.

“I'm not going to jump overboard,” I grunted.

Jorge nodded, and I scrambled up and sat on the black rubber side. The wind whipped viciously against my face. Jorge looked at me pleasantly. Jack patted my knee. I flinched at his touch. “The problem with you, honey, is that you know too much.”

“About what?”

“What were you doing in the lounge at two o'clock in the morning?”

“You saw me?”

Jorge merely nodded, smiling pleasantly.

Jack said, “We also saw Otto. He will pay for what he did.”

“You should not leave your room at night,” Jorge reprimanded.

Jack added, “Otto has talked to you unwisely.”

“Otto hasn't told me anything!” I shouted.

Jorge said, “A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.”

Jack said, “Otto is a young fool, jeopardizing everything. You should have kept out of this, sweetie. You're in over your head.”

“What's your part in this, anyhow?” I demanded. “What are you getting out of it?”

Jack grinned. “What I came to get.”

I had no idea what that was. Whatever was going on, Jack had not seemed one of the component parts.

I could feel the Zodiac slowing. We weren't near land. The shore seemed very far away. But the Zodiac was definitely slowing down. I looked around a little wildly. All I could see in all directions were icebergs, icebergs of various sizes. Jorge sidled the Zodiac up to a middle-sized berg on
which a seal was sleeping. The Zodiac bumped against the iceberg.

Jorge gestured and suddenly Jack had me under the arms and I was lifted over the side and dumped onto the iceberg. Jorge backed the Zodiac away until there was about a yard of dark water between the iceberg and the rubber boat. “We mean you no harm, Vicky,” Jorge said. “When we are certain that our work can continue, we will come for you.”

“How are you going to make certain?” I shouted to Jorge across the widening water. “Shoot everybody?”

“That will not be necessary,” Jorge called back.

“And Samâwhat about Sam?”

“What about him?” Jorge's voice grew faint as he turned the Zodiac and headed away from me at full speed.

I had been on the iceberg forever. Like Adam II â¦

Thenâ

I heard before I saw. Heard the putt-putt of a motor, the familiar sound of a Zodiac. I froze. Was it Jorge?

The Zodiac coming toward me was smaller than the ones from the
Argosy
. Someone in a heavy parka was driving it, but the parka was not red. It was a faded blue.

Adam!

He jumped out of the Zodiac onto the iceberg, pulled the rubber boat up after him. “Papageno and Cook are on the way,” he said. “The Zodiac's a lot faster than the
Portia
.”

“How did you know where I was?” Relief made me light-headed.

“Guesswork. Not that difficult.” He had brought blankets,
which he draped over me, and hot sweet black coffee, which I hate, but I drank it anyhow to try to stop my teeth from chattering. He had both his arms around me, warming me, and I did my best to control my shivering.

“S-Sam,” I stuttered. “H-how's Sam?”

Adam said carefully, “I don't know. He's sort of vanished, and Papageno thinks Captain Nausinio took him so they could give you that cock-and-bull story about his falling.”

“Benjy? Siri? Esteban?” Then I realized that Otto had finally met Esteban, and in all the excitement maybe didn't even realize it.

“Save the questions for later,” Adam said. “Cook and Papageno will be coming any minute, and we can get you back to the station, where we can take care of you. Hey, look, here they come!” But he stopped abruptly, his hand tightening on my arm.

Suddenly I was again so cold I felt I'd been frozen into a statue, like the prince with the marble legs in the fairy tale. The boat coming toward us was not Papageno's shabby old
Portia
. It was a gleaming white motorboat, a large one.

Adam swore.

The boat approached us, and I could see Esteban and Captain Nausinio. Nausinio held the rudder, and brought his boat close to the Zodiac.

“See!” Esteban cried out, and said something in Spanish.

Adam said, “He says he promised to come for you. Do you know what this is about? Can you trust him?”

Esteban had given me a warning postcard. Esteban did not wish me evil. If he had been alone, I would have believed him. But not with Captain Nausinio.

The small Zodiac from the
Portia
was safely on the iceberg with us. Captain Nausinio urged the motorboat closer, so it scraped gently against the ice.

Esteban was speaking rapidly, and I could tell that he was urging us to get into the motorboat. He was pointing to the Zodiac and I more or less gathered that he was telling Adam he could pull it behind the motorboat.

“Miching mallecho. Miching mallecho.” I hardly realized I was saying it aloud.

Then Nausinio was pointing a gun at us, just as Jack had, but it wasn't a pistol. It was the big rifle he usually had slung over his shoulder. Esteban leaped onto the iceberg, again speaking rapidly in Spanish.

Adam looked at me. “I think they want us as hostages.”

“No,” I said. “I won't go with Nausinio.”

Esteban grabbed Adam and began wrestling with him, and the two of them grasped each other, hitting each other, fighting as sometimes boys in high school still fight, and then I realized that Esteban was no high-school kid, that he was trained in fighting, that he was urging Adam toward the edge of the iceberg. If Adam fell into that icy water, it would kill him. Even if he could pull himself back up onto the berg, he would freeze to death.

I pushed myself between them and the water and leaped on them with all my strength, knocking them both down on the ice. Esteban wriggled out from under me.

“Oh, Vickeeâ” Suddenly, tears coursed down his cheeks.

I heard a shot and saw Nausinio standing in the motorboat, aiming his rifle. Then I heard another motor, and I scrabbled to my feet with an energy I didn't think I had. A
black
Argosy
Zodiac was coming toward us. There was another shot, and I heard Adam give a yell, and Esteban jumped up and leaped from the iceberg into the motorboat as Adam fell.

I dropped to my knees by him. “Adam. Adam.”

“Stay down, Vicky!” It was Otto in the Zodiac, shouting to me. He had a gun.

Nausinio grabbed Esteban so that he was in front of him, like a shield. The shot cracked the cold white air. Esteban gave a horrible jerk and then he was in the water. He went down like lead.

Adam tried to struggle to his feet, and I rushed to the edge of the iceberg, my instinct being to jump in and try to rescue Esteban.

Otto shouted, “Stop!”

Captain Nausinio was turning the motorboat away and taking off.

Otto raised his gun.

“No.” Adam's voice was a groan. One hand was pressed against his shoulder and I could see blood. “Don't. Let him go.”

“Esteban!” I cried. “Esteban!”

“Esteban?” Otto asked. His eyes were wide and suddenly without color.

“Yes.”

Otto groaned. “It is too late. Oh, God.” He groaned again. “He would have killed you.”

“Who're you?” Adam asked.

Otto was trembling violently. “Otto of Zlatovica.” He sat abruptly on the side of the Zodiac. And then, once again, we heard an engine.

The
Portia
. Cook and Papageno in the
Portia
.

I could hardly see them through the Antarctic whiteout that burned my eyes.

I lay wrapped in warm blankets, propped up on a wide bunk. I was in the captain's sitting room, which I recognized when I saw the great copper table in the middle. The cushions which made my bunk into a couch were piled up behind me.

I was sipping very sweet tea, which Dick said would help me get warm. He and Angelique had rubbed me down with hot Turkish towels until I thought they would burn my skin off, though they told me the towels were not hot, and they were being very gentle, simply trying to get my blood circulating.

The captain's cabin was crowded. Angelique and Dick, sitting by me on the bunk. Adam with Cook and Papageno, on the other couch. Siri was in one of the big chairs, with Benjy perched on the arm, and Sam was standing in the doorway. Oh, Sam.

My voice seemed to have been frozen along with the rest of me. “Sam?”

Sam grinned. “They dumped me up in the hills. Didn't think an old codger like me could make it back to the station. But I did.”

“Estebanâ”

Suddenly the cabin was silent.

Cook spoke quietly, “Do you remember, Vicky?”

“Otto shot him.”

Benjy said, “If Otto had not done that, Nausinio would
have killed you and Adam. Esteban would have let it happen. He was helping it happen.”

I looked at Adam, sitting between Cook and Papageno, and realized that his arm was heavily bandaged and in a sling. “Adamâare you all right?”

“Sure. Dick fixed me up.” But his voice had less than its usual strong timbre.

“Nausinioâ”

Benjy said, “Gone to whichever spurious Vespugian station is nearest.”

BOOK: Troubling a Star