Page 79 of The Girl Out of Time
Phillips slumped his shoulders. “Fine.” He turned to the transmitter and put his hand on the Morse button. “Message?”
“Tell them to stay on the line for a few more hours. I’ll have an important message regarding their cargo, from England, but I need to wait for my contact to deliver me the information.”
Phillips raised an eyebrow, but then started transmitting, anyway. Will clenched his hands in his pockets, wiping off the sweat. It was an awful excuse, but if it worked, that’s all it had to do.
“They’re not responding,” Phillips said.
“Try again. Please.”
“Sir …”
“Triple.”
Phillips sighed and tried again. “Nothing. Might be the operator has turned in for the night. It is late, after all.”
“It’s not that …” For the first time since they’d started to repair the wireless, Will glanced at the clock on the wall.
Half to midnight.
They were too late.
“I need to go,” he threw out as he was already halfway through the door, and raced through the hallway toward the nearest deck exit. His carefully curated list of possibilities, all the subtle changes he could try, burned in front of his eyes.
All the options, all their hope, gone.
He burst out on the deck, his rapid breath condensing in the chilly night air. The bridge was around the corner; he took to running, passing the firmly lodged, covered lifeboats, and crashed into the wheelhouse, stopping before any of the officers could react to him.
“Iceberg,” he said.
“Sir,” said one of the officers, “you’re not allowed in here.”
“Iceberg warnings. Did you get a warning?”
“All day, yes,” said another officer, nursing a cup of hot tea. “Please, if you might remove yourself from—”
“No, no, you don’t understand.” Will walked past the first officer, blocking his view, and addressed the helmsman. “There’s one right out there. An iceberg. We’re headed—”
“We know about the ice field,” the tea officer responded. “There’s no need to worry. Other ships, much less advanced, have passed it. Why don’t you turn in for the night …”
“No!” How could he make them understand? They’d think he was paranoid.
“Kinsley,” the tea officer said to the first one with a small nod.
Kinsley grabbed Will by the arm and started dragging him out. “Come, sir. As you’ve heard, there’s no danger.”
Will shook off his grasp. “We are in the middle of an ice—”
“Sir!” Kinsley grabbed him again and nodded his head at another officer, who also came to help, securing Will on the other side. “You need to leave.”
“Turn the ship to the left,” Will yelled past Kinsley’s shoulders. “You still have time! Turn it now!”
“Sir, if you don’t calm down, I’ll have to take you to the hospital,” Kinsley said. “And you’ll spend the night in the padded room. Do you understand?”
Will finally stopped resisting. Kinsley’s lowered eyebrows and sharp, icy blue gaze made it clear that wasn’t an empty threat.
He couldn’t leave Sylvia and the children alone. Not after he’d failed in all his other plans.
“Understood. I’m leaving.” He shook off the two officers—or they let him go, now that he’d stopped being a nuisance. “I apologize for the disturbance.”
