Voyage in Time: The Titanic (Out of Time #9) (27 page)

He reached into his jacket and took out the watch. He held it out to her. She wanted to tell him to keep it, that she wouldn’t use it without him, but the silent plea in his eyes kept her quiet. Elizabeth took it and tucked it into her coat pocket.

She looked back up at Simon and swallowed down the fear, fear for him that was swelling up inside her, and pushed out a calming breath. He looked down at her, all the love he had for her in his eyes. She tried to capture that moment, to hold it inside her. She kissed him and closed her eyes.

Finally, he eased her away.
 

“I’ll see you soon,” she said.
 

He could only nod.

She didn’t think she’d have the strength to take that first step away from him, but she did. She passed Edmund and Niels who stood nearby, but a few paces back to give them privacy, and tried to smile at them both.

“Look out for each other,” she said.

They nodded. Edmund managed one of his broad smiles.
 

“Don’t you worry.”

If she hadn’t been so close to being sick, she might have laughed. Every inch of her was worried and would be until she saw them all again. She reached the door to the inside and paused. She told herself not to turn around. She never did listen well, though, even to herself, and turned. Even among the growing crowd, he stood alone—tall and handsome, and everything in the world she loved. She held his gaze for one last lingering moment, gave him one last smile, and then turned away. She could feel him watching her even as the door closed between them.

The lifeboat had been lowered to B Deck where it dangled just outside of the railing. By the time Elizabeth got there, the first was full and the order was given to lower it. She could see Louise and Emily were aboard and gave them a small encouraging wave.

Elizabeth waited her turn as lifeboats systematically began to be lowered for loading. Somewhere above her, she could hear the band playing.

She could see a few of the already launched lifeboats in the water. Oars churned the smooth sea as they rowed away from the great ship. One was half empty. Each empty seat a life lost.

She urged one of the men to fill the boats to bursting, but he was too busy to listen. The crew helped women and children climb over the railing and settle onto the wooden planked seats. A few men were mixed in, some to help man the boats and some just forced their way on. But even here, even now, people were almost supernaturally calm. The crew commanding and the people happy to follow orders.

Finally, it was Elizabeth’s turn. At the last moment, she almost ran for it, ran to Simon, but she held fast. One of the crew members helped her clamber over the railing and another helped her to a seat in the back of the boat.
 

Slowly, it filled to capacity and the order was given to lower it. The men on the lines must not have been working together because the bow of the boat jerked down about three feet while the stern stayed where it was. Everyone in the boat lurched forward, some tumbling out of their seats. The other side quickly caught up and they jerkily made their way toward the water.

As they were lowered, Elizabeth could see passengers from the other decks, peering at them through the windows, haunting faces she’d never forget. Finally, her boat reached the water and the crew worked to untie the ropes.

Once they were free, the men sank their oars into the water and moved them out into the open ocean. Elizabeth looked up at the top deck straining to see Simon one more time, but she couldn’t and the boat slowly moved away, farther and farther away and into the darkness.

S
IMON
FOUND
AN
OPEN
space along the railing and leaned over looking for a glimpse of Elizabeth. His heart lurched when her boat nearly toppled over as it was lowered. But finally, it reached the sea safely. He watched as the men rowed it away from the ship until it was swallowed by the night.

He turned back and saw Carrillo move to stand in line to get onto a boat. Typical, he thought. Then he noticed the man shoving something into his jacket pockets. A diamond bracelet dangled there before he quickly pushed it in with the rest.
 

Simon knew that bracelet. It was Elizabeth’s.

“You,” he said as he pointed at Carrillo and strode over to him. “Where did you get that?”

He grabbed onto Carrillo’s wrist and wrenched it free of the pocket. The bracelet and a necklace spilled out onto the deck. Carrillo looked around nervously and bent down to pick them up.

“That’s my wife’s,” Simon said as he snatched it from the man’s hand. Then he grabbed him by the lapels. “You stole these.”

Carrillo, his cowardly nature all too apparent now, shook his head.

“There was a necklace with a key,” Simon demanded. “Where is it?”

“It’s worthless,” Carillon said, as if that mattered to Simon.

“Where is it?” he asked again, wasting precious time.

Carrillo shook his head. “In my room—”

Simon shoved him away and glared at him. His room. The key was in his room.

“What number?”

“A-6, but—”

“There aren’t enough!” a man yelled. “Don’t you see? There aren’t enough boats?”

Simon turned toward the commotion.

Someone had finally done the math. Even if each boat were filled to capacity, half of the souls on board would still perish.
 

“We’re going to die!”

Simon turned back to Carrillo, but he was gone, disappeared into the crowd.
 

This single spark of panic lit a small fire and others joined in until there was a chorus demanding to know what the crew was going to do. One man pushed another out of the way and jumped into one of the already lowering lifeboats.
 

“Panicking isn’t going to help,” Simon said as he tried with others to restore calm.
 

Thankfully, the episode was brief and isolated, and order was quickly restored. Some of the crowd moved to the other side of the ship as most of the boats on the starboard side had already been lowered.

Time was starting to run out. Simon and the others would have to leave soon, but first he could get the key. Travers be damned.

As the crowd thinned, Simon walked back over to the doorway where he’d left Edmund and Niels. As he emerged on the other side of the gathered passengers, he saw Edmund slumped against the bulkhead, holding his side. He was alone.

“What’s wrong? Where’s Niels?”

Edmund, his face pale and pinched with pain, managed to stand up straight with Simon’s help. He shook his head. “I don’t know. We were just standing here when that man yelled out and the next thing I know …”

He opened his jacket, wincing as he did, to reveal a blossoming bloodstain in his side. Then Simon saw the bloody knife at Edmund’s feet. He’d been stabbed.

Simon winced in sympathy. “How bad is it?”

Edmund ignored the question.
 

“I called for you, but …” he said, then shook his head.

Simon couldn’t hear him over the commotion.
 

“Dammit.” They’d been so close. “Did you see where they went?”

Edmund shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Simon nodded and then put his hand on Edmund’s shoulder, turning him toward the flow of traffic. “Get yourself on a boat.”

Edmund shook his head. “It’s not that bad.” He stood taller and on his own to prove it. “They can’t be far.”

No, but they could be anywhere, Simon thought. He could have taken Niels anywhere, but he wouldn’t. There were people just about everywhere on this ship right now.

“Think, man,” Simon said to himself. “If you wanted to kill someone where would you go to do it?”
 

“I don’t know. The hold?”

Simon shook his head. It was too far, too complicated to get to. He’d want something quick, easy. And suddenly it dawned on him, and he ran inside and down the stairs.

“Where are we going?” Edmund called out after him as he struggled to catch up.

“His room!”

They ran down the stairs, shoving past crowds on the way up until they got to C level where Simon came to an abrupt halt. He knew Kimball’s room was here, but which one? He tried to remember as he stared down one corridor and then the next.
 

“Which way?” Edmund asked.

Simon shook his head and tried to remember. “Twenty-seven, no … wait. Seventy-seven!”

“That’s this way,” Edmund said, and they ran down the hall.

They came to a stop in front of C-77 and Simon tried the door. It was, unsurprisingly, locked.
 

He stepped back and kicked the door by the handle. The locks on
Titanic’s
staterooms were feeble and it gave way in an explosion of wooden shards.
 

Kimball turned at the interruption. He was holding a pillow. Was he going to smother him? Simon started forward when Kimball tossed the pillow aside and Simon saw the gun beneath it. He had the gun cocked, ready to fire, but Edmund came in right behind Simon, something Kimball hadn’t expected. The distraction forced him to make a choice. He chose Edmund. Simon reacted, shoving Edmund out of the way. The bullet chewed into the wood panel where his head had been.

Kimball seemed surprised he’d missed and that moment’s vanity cost him. Simon lunged at him, reaching out to control the gun as he did. Simon grabbed it with his left hand.
 

The gun went off just as Simon was able to push it aside. The bullet hit the lamp on the desk. The lightbulb exploded and the lamp fell to the floor.
 

Taking advantage of the moment, Simon drove forward and shoved Kimball hard up against the dresser.

Kimball fought back, trying to regain control of the gun when Edmund wrenched it from his grasp. He took a step back, held it up and cocked it.

Kimball paused, his eyes searching for a way out. Simon shoved him backward.

Kimball, his lip bleeding, half-smiled. “You don’t have the guts.”

“He doesn’t have to,” Simon said as he stepped forward and hit Kimball flush on the jaw. His head spun around and hit the dresser with a loud crash. He paused, his cheek pressed against it, like a cartoon, then he slid to the floor unconscious.

“Wow,” Edmund said, impressed.

Simon nodded toward the gun. “Be careful with that thing.”

Then he rushed to Niels’ side. He wasn’t moving.
Please, don’t be dead. Please.
If they’d come this far, risked so much, only to fail now …

Simon shook him. “Niels! Wake up!”

Slowly, the man’s eyes fluttered open.
 

“Thank God.”
 

Niels’ blinked at them in confusion.

“Are you all right?”
 

Niels nodded groggily and Edmund gave him a hand up.
 

“Nearly had you,” he said, nodding his head toward Kimball who was sprawled out on the floor.

Niels took in a breath and tried to clear his head. “What happened?”

“There isn’t time for that,” Simon said as he strode to the doorway. “We need to go. Now.”

They joined him at the door, but Edmund stopped and nodded back toward Kimball.

“What about him?”

“Leave him,” Simon said. The ocean would take care of him.

~~~

Everything had taken too much time. Far too much time.

The bow was nearly completely submerged now. If they went to the right, they’d be going under water. Simon urged them left.
 

 
The ship was listing badly now. The corridor toward the aft staircase was uphill. When they reached the grand staircase Simon realized how oddly angled it was. It lay almost flat now, stretching straight out in front them instead of up like some Escher drawing. But up they had to go. And quickly.

They passed A Deck and Simon knew there wasn’t time to get the key now. If he risked it, they could all die.
 

They raced as fast as they could up to the Boat Deck and outside. Water was racing up the deck now from the bow to the stern. They turned to outrun it, but there were hundreds of people on deck now. Most of the Second and Third Class passengers had finally managed to come up, but all of the lifeboats were gone and the ship had minutes to live.

Everyone, a mass of humanity, surged toward the stern as it rose out of the ocean and into the air. They pushed up against the railings until they could go no further. Simon knew they had to keep going up, as high as they could for as long as they could.

He saw several men climbing up onto the roof of the officers’ quarters.

“There,” he yelled.
 

They hurried over to it. Simon made a stirrup with his hands and helped Niels up first, then Edmund. The roof was too high for Simon to jump onto by himself. Edmund lay flat on his stomach and dangled one arm over the side.

Freezing cold water lapped against Simon’s leg as he reached up to grasp onto Edmund’s hand. He grabbed onto it, but just as he did, the water surged. Somehow, the icy wave managed to lift him up onto the roof. But as it did, it washed several men away. Simon could see one of them tangled in a coil of rope and two more simply disappeared.
 

Niels and Edmund clung to the railing and the three of them managed to keep from being carried away.

Simon looked around for his next perch, their next escape route, but there was nothing. Barring a miracle, they would go down with the ship. Then he caught sight of their one hope of survival—collapsible lifeboat B. It had been washed overboard as the crew attempted to prep it for passengers. He could see it, already swept off the roof and flipped upside down. It was a slim chance they’d be able to survive the water long enough to get to it, but they would find a way.

“Swim that way, as fast as you can!” he yelled, pointing out into the darkness just as the water took them.

It lifted him up again and then pulled him down. He and the others were sucked down into the darkness, into the cold. He’d heard the water described by survivors as being stabbed by a thousand knives, but he didn’t feel it. He didn’t feel anything.