Ellie barely heard the raised voices behind her.
The blonde woman said, “What the hell’s going on?”
“She’s Maria’s mom,” Jodi responded. “Isn’t that obvious?”
Earl’s voice. “Come now, it’s a shock for her.”
“You reckon?” Jodi responded. “Maybe we should leave them alone for a while?”
“No way! I’m not letting Maria out of my sight. Bobby would never forgive me!”
Ellie heard this, and turned her wet face upward. Yes, she could see why Bobby would like this woman. As unlike Ellie as it was possible to be. Very petite, where Ellie was athletic. Blonde with blue eyes, where Ellie’s were both brown. But she felt pity for her because, just as she’d been, Bobby had abandoned this Barbie doll.
“I’m happy you’re alive, Mom. I told Papá you would be.”
“And what did he say, darling?”
“He said you would come find me one day. And you did.”
Ellie allowed Maria to disengage as she wiped her face. The child’s eyes were less wet than she’d have hoped. Surely she was worth a tear or two? But then, it seemed Bobby had promised Maria that her mother would return, so the kid wasn’t surprised. Typical. Ruining everything.
“Look,” Jodi said, “I got to go back to Pat, okay?”
Ellie looked up at her. “Sure. I’ll be along soon.”
“That’s okay. You spend a little time with Maria. Just don’t forget about him, you got me? He needs us.”
As Ellie watched Jodi disappear, she looked up at the petite blonde who was now hovering protectively over Maria’s shoulder. “Look, Eve, is it? I’m not going anywhere. I just want to spend a little time with my daughter.”
“Just give us a minute,” Eve said and, without waiting for a response, she touched Maria on the shoulder and the girl instantly followed her to the opposite corner of the room, leaving Ellie fuming. The woman squatted at Maria’s eye level and the two whispered for a few moments as Ellie pretended not to watch. Then, both nodded and Maria walked back to Ellie as Eve turned and, with a final look over her shoulder, shut the door.
“Mamá said to tell you that she’s just outside and all the windows are locked.”
Ellie decided, with a great effort, not to react. “You call her mamá?”
“Papá said I could. He said you were Mommy, but Eve could be mamá.”
Ellie put her arms out and pulled her into a loose embrace. “She looks after you?”
“Yes. She tells me stories at bedtime and she brushes my hair. But she misses Joshua.”
“Who’s that?”
“He’s her son.”
“Oh. Poor woman.”
“He’s at the other camp. Where Papá found me.”
Ellie decided to put a pin in that particular story for now, though she was determined to find out what role this Eve had played in Maria’s life. Was she jealous of the woman? She sure was. Totally unreasonably, for sure, but since when was envy a rational emotion?
“And how is Daddy?”
The little girl’s eyes shone with pride. “He’s a soldier now! Uncle Earl says he’s on a secret mission.” Then her face darkened. “Some of the other children say he’s in trouble. They say he’s run away!”
“Knowing your papá, he could be in trouble, but he always gets out of it, doesn’t he?”
Maria nodded, tears finally framing her pretty brown eyes. “Are you staying?”
“Do you want me to?”
Again, Maria nodded.
Ellie felt a lump growing in her throat.
“Having two mommies would be cool.”
And the lump disappeared, melted by her resentment. She knew she was being unfair. Eve had, after all, been looking after Maria—given their obvious bond this must have been for some time—so Ellie owed her an unpayable debt. But Maria was her daughter; she didn’t belong to that little blonde doll.
Ellie rolled her eyes, cursing herself inwardly. The poor kid had two genetic parents, one currently AWOL and the other a self-obsessed bundle of infantile jealousy.
“Mommy,” Maria said, looking directly into Ellie’s eyes.
“Yes, my darling.”
“I love Eve. But you’re my mommy.”
Somehow, this eight-year-old child had peered into Ellie’s soul and seen the poison at its center.
Ellie sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Thank you, my darling. I’m very glad you’ve found someone you can trust to look after you.”
“You’re going away again, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got a job to do.”
“Is it important?”
Ellie nodded. “Very.”
“Like Papá’s job?”
“Yes. He wouldn’t be away from you right now if it wasn’t.” Sometimes you had to say what the listener needed to hear rather than what you wanted to say, however tempting it might be to speak your version of the truth.
“What is it?”
“I can’t say, my darling. But I should only be away for a while and it’s not that far from here. I’ll come back as soon as I can. I want the world to be a better place for you. Do you understand that?”
“Are you going to stop it getting cold?”
Ellie shrugged. “No, but I have a friend who’s working on that. He’s a scientist.”
Maria leaned forward and fell easily into Ellie’s embrace. “I’m sorry, Mommy. I lost Elsa.”
Ellie had just the presence of mind to ask her what she was talking about.
“You only gave her to me last Christmas and I did love her. But she got washed away.”
The penny dropped. Of course: the Frozen 2 doll. Bobby had suggested it when they were negotiating who would be where over the festive season. He’d even included a link in the email so she didn’t mess it up.
“Oh, that’s alright. What matters is that you’re okay.”
“Papá saved me. But then he went off to fetch help and didn’t come back. I was taken by some bad men, but then this lady helped me, but she wanted to keep me. And then Papá and Eve rescued me.”
These words tumbled out just as the door creaked open and Eve’s nervous face appeared. She relaxed as Ellie smiled at her and invited her in. Eve fixed them all some pasta while each, in turn, told their story.
Chapter 22
Plan
They buried Dom and Maisie in the grounds of the Colonial house where Buzz, Hank and Max had first met them. Tom, Ted and Buzz took turns to dig into the stony ground until it was deep enough, and each of the children placed a stone on top to form a cairn. A bitter wind off the sea swept across the grass, blowing the occasional snowflake onto the pile of stones where it would melt.
Lewis, the young boy who had arrived on the island all those months ago with Jodi, Ellie and Reid, was just about to place his rock when Crystal cried out and took his hand. “I don’t wanna do it on my own,” she sobbed, and the boy, who was only a little older than her, wrapped his arm around her shoulders and helped her put it on top.
Buzz watched all this with his own arm around Jo. She’d spent every waking hour, or so it seemed, looking after Dom and Maisie’s daughter and the girl had been crying into Jo’s shirt moments before. Buzz knew that any jealousy he felt was childish and self-indulgent, and yet it was genuine, not the least because he knew what he had to do. Soon, he and Jo would part, and the chances of them ever seeing each other again, seemed perilously remote.
He held on to his emotions like Spock: frightened that if he allowed himself to feel anything while this ceremony proceeded, he’d descend into his own pon farr and lose grip entirely. He’d spent his life avoiding being exposed to strong unpleasant emotions for fear of losing control, and so he kept himself locked up tight, though he knew that Jo saw it as a lack of empathy. And so the gap between them grew.
Max was the only absentee from the ceremony. Seeing in the boy an exaggerated version of himself, he’d agreed to allow Max to remain at the farm with th
e excuse of watching their captive.
Her name was Luong Thi Yen, and she was the granddaughter of Vietnamese immigrants who’d been brought into the country after the Vietnam War. Ted Pope had tried his best to extract any useful information, but it had been Buzz who’d had the most success, spending many hours in her company. She was an excellent poker player, it turned out.
He’d discovered that she had been working for SaPIEnT, though she barely knew the organization. She’d been part of a security contractor team based in Seattle when the wave had come in. They’d barely escaped with their lives, but had made their way to Denver where they’d been hired by Helmut Jager, though, it transpired, the raid on Buzz’s island had not been under his direction. Yen had no idea why, but Buzz guessed the German had fallen out of favor over the past months.
Jo pulled away as Crystal ran sobbing into her arms. Lewis, who’d also gotten close to Jo, wrapped his arms around the little girl’s back and the three of them held each other while the others melted away. A few yards away, Tom had his arm around a tearful Anna, and was helping her guide the children back down to the farm. After them stalked the forlorn figure of Ted Pope.
And, last and unregarded, walked Buzz Baxter.
He couldn’t help but catch up with Pope within a few strides. The man seemed reluctant to leave the lawn with its mound of stones. He saw Pope’s eyes register him as he moved alongside, but he gave no other sign of having noticed.
“You know, it wasn’t your fault,” Buzz said.
Pope ignored him until they moved behind the house and out of sight of the grave.
“How do you figure that? I came here to keep the place safe.”
“You came here to protect Max and me, and the work we’re doing. The president wouldn’t have let you come otherwise.”
Ted Pope made a noncommittal noise. He seemed to be pondering what he should say. Even Buzz knew he had something gnawing at his soul, not least because Jo had told him. She compared Pope and Buzz: two uptight alpha males who didn’t know how to deal with their own feelings. She wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t make it any less painful to hear.
“You know, Ted, this flood, and everything that followed it… It’s bound to make us see things differently. Think about things differently.”
Pope’s head bobbed up and down as they plodded along. Maybe he was agreeing. “I thought it didn’t affect me so much. I haven’t got kids, just a couple of ex-wives who hate me. Maybe the feeling’s mutual. If I hadn’t been part of the V.P.’s security team, I reckon I’d have found some community somewhere and made myself useful. Sherriff, or something like that.
“But it got to me in the end. Seeing people suffer in those camps in Hazleton. All the devastation. And the numbers got me down. To start with, I couldn’t get my mind around the scale of it all. The more I did, the worse my head got. I don’t know how you cope with it.”
Buzz glanced at him as they walked along the lane leading along the rim of the valley that hid the farm. “It isn’t easy.”
“I mean, don’t you feel responsible?”
This wasn’t taking the direction he expected. “I have to live with my own demons.”
“Some demons. I mean, even if you’re only partially responsible, that’s a hell of a burden on anyone’s soul.”
Buzz stopped, grabbing Pope’s arm. “Look, I tried to stop them—Lundberg and Rath. And it wasn’t me who blew up the rocket.”
“Well, the president believes you. And I guess I do. But, still, you made a catastrophic situation worse with that Minotaur. Billions died in the wave, and now the survivors are going to freeze.”
“Not if I can help it,” Buzz said, heading back along the lane. “Look, I’ll tell you what—why don’t you handle your demons and leave me to handle mine?”
Pope didn’t respond, he simply continued to walk slowly along the road toward the turning that would take them down to the farm.
Pushing his hands deep into his pockets as he tried to stop them freezing, Buzz waddled along like a penguin, shielding himself against the wind and bitterly regretting choosing suit pants for the ceremony rather than something warm.
As they took a left, a line of trees cut off the wind and Buzz felt his body relax a little. They only had half a mile or so to go, so it was now or never. “Listen, Ted. Max and I are leaving.”
He stopped short, dragged out of deep thoughts by surprise. “What?”
“SaPIEnT attacked the farm because of me. If they know I’m not here, then they’ll leave the people here alone.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you. Lundberg’s a vindictive…”
“She’s also a scientist. She won’t waste effort on revenge—at least not until she’s got me. I’m sure you’ll be able to keep the farm safe if I’m not here. You and Tom and the others.”
Pope started moving again as he processed this. “Where will you go?”
“I’m not sure yet. I need to do some research, take some measurements.”
Again, Pope stopped, but this time he moved closer, checking around as if worried about being overheard. “What’s your theory?”
“I don’t have one.”
“You’re lying.”
Buzz looked into the man’s black-shadowed eyes. He’d kept Pope somewhat at arm’s length since the attack. Something had broken inside of the agent that day, and that made him unpredictable. Not the sort of man you’d confide in. Except that this was not a time for caution. “Okay. I have some ideas, but the only way I’ll know is by taking samples and examining them.”
Pope simply stared into Buzz’s eyes.
“What? That’s it.”
“I don’t think so. Come on Buzz, this is no time for secrets.”
Buzz chuckled mirthlessly. “Like you and Maisie?”
Bingo. He could see from Pope’s face that he’d been right.
And he immediately wished he hadn’t been.
“You son of a…”
Pope grabbed for Buzz’s windpipe and thrust him back against a tree trunk, knocking the breath out of him. He swung with his fist, but Buzz was just able to twist away, half falling as he scrambled away. “Take it easy!”
“You will never, ever speak of her like that!” Pope snarled.
“I didn’t say anything,” Buzz said, rubbing his neck.
“You called her a whore!”
Buzz shook his head. “No, I didn’t!”
Pope stood still, his fist clenched and the wheels in his mind turning furiously.
“Ted, it’s okay.”
“Who…who else…?”
“Just me.” That was a guess. It had been the only theory that made sense given Pope’s behavior. “I’m sorry, Ted. I really am.”
Pope retreated, finding a boulder to sit on and gripping his head between his hands. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That’s okay. But look, I can’t say too much about my plans because I don’t know for sure. I need to go north.”
Looking up, Pope breathed in deeply, then let out a cloud of steam. “But won’t it get colder the farther north you go?”
“Exactly. The ice is coming south, and I need to get a sample from it.”
“What are you looking for?”
Buzz shrugged. “I’m not totally sure. No, really. Something’s not right.”
“But you expected your bot to cause it to get cold?”
“I expected it to be delivered to the south pole. But yes, I put the change in the weather down to Lundberg’s interference, but I think it’s more complicated than that.”
Pope shook his head. “I don’t get it. You designed the bot, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. But it’s not working how I expected it. So, I need to go north and sample the ice.”
“Then what?”
“I honestly don’t know. But maybe what we learn will help us.”
“That’s a hell of a maybe.”
“I can’t think what else to do. There’s a thread he
re I need to pull, and maybe the whole thing will unravel if I do. This hasn’t been right from the beginning. It’s as if we’re assuming we understand what’s happened, and we’re completely wrong, or at least that there’s a piece of the puzzle we haven’t found yet.”
Pope got back onto his feet and put out a hand. “I guess I’ve got to trust you. Sorry about…”
“Throttling me? You’re not the first to want to do that.”
Pope smiled. “When will you go?”
“Soon. A few days.”
“Who’s going with you?”
“Max. And Yen.”
“What?” Pope’s jaw dropped open almost comically.
“You don’t want her to stay here, do you?”
Pope shook his head. “No, but I’d planned to…”
“What?” Buzz saw the expression on Pope’s face flicker as he thought about it. “I know what you wanted to do at first, but you’re not a coldblooded murderer, and Maisie wouldn’t have wanted that.” He thought he’d gone too far with that comment, but after tightening for a moment, Pope relaxed.
“You’re right. But why would you want her with you?”
“Max and I need someone with us with military and survival training. And, in any case, Yen doesn’t have any skin in the game, not really. She goes north with us, and when we get where we need to go, we part ways.”
Pope looked at Buzz, eyes wide in disbelief. “Are you serious? What does she get out of a long journey in the cold she wouldn’t get by waiting until you’re out of sight of us and shooting you?”
“I’ve spent a lot of time with her, Ted. I trust her. She wants to help. Hell, we can all see what’s going on around us. Who wouldn’t want to help if it meant a chance to stop the end of the world?”
Pope put up his hands as if to put Yen to one side for now. “Level with me. What’s the best-case scenario?”
“That I work out the truth and find a way to reverse it. The ice needs to go where it belongs. That should raise the temperature again and thaw the world out.”
“And then what?”
Deluge | Book 4 | Ice Page 19
