The Map of the Sky (19 page)

“Son of a bitch,” muttered Reynolds, surveying his wrecked armchair, at last finding the perfect excuse to vent all the fear and hatred that had built up inside him over the past few hours. “You won’t escape this time.”

X

H
E WAS STILL ALIVE
.

He had exposed the Martian and was still alive. And that made him absurdly, deliriously happy, despite his plan having turned into a complete fiasco. He had failed to persuade the creature, peaceably or by any other means, and as a result his dream of a glorious future as Earth’s ambassador to outer space was in tatters; indeed, following that debacle he doubted they would allow him to manage an interplanetary telegraph office. Moreover, he had failed to kill or capture the Martian. On the contrary, he had so enraged the creature that in all likelihood Fate had already decreed the death warrant of the entire ship’s crew. But that did not matter. For the moment, he was still alive: breathing, running, feeling life flowing through his veins like a raging river. Whereas before he had considered his life dull, mediocre, and despicable, now it seemed to him like an invaluable gift. He was alive, damn it! he said to himself, as he sprinted down the passage on the lower deck brandishing a pistol, followed closely by Allan, who was groaning bad-temperedly, and the skinny sailor Griffin, who was running behind him, lips pursed, silent and tense. Reynolds had been struck by how swiftly Griffin had come to their aid. Almost as though he had been listening at the door. Perhaps Reynolds’s peculiar behavior up on deck, insisting to Griffin that Carson was dead, then blaming it on a drunken hallucination, had puzzled him, but Reynolds was in too much of a hurry to reflect about that now; he was content that the mysterious, dogged fellow was following him with a loaded weapon.

When their pursuit of the creature took them to the crew’s quarters, the explorer had to hold his breath as they were hit by a stench of lamp oil, soiled clothes, buckets of urine, and even fear, if, as some people claim, fear can be smelled. The creature had left a trail of greenish blood, as well as a row of sailors quaking against the walls, unable to believe the aberration they had just seen scuttle past them. Reynolds instantly realized that the gunshots had brought the whole crew running, from the lookouts up on deck to the carpenters and the kitchen boys. Right at the back, he could make out Captain MacReady, roaring above the noise, trying to get someone to explain to him what the devil was going on.

“The monster is on the ship, Captain,” he heard someone cry out amid the uproar. “It’s gone into the hold.”

“On the ship?” MacReady said, drawing his pistol. “That’s impossible! How in damnation did it get on board?”

No one except Reynolds could answer that. Buffeted like a leaf in the wind, the explorer forced his way through the crowd of anxious sailors until he reached the captain.

“The monster can change into a human being, Captain,” he explained, going into less detail than he had with Allan. “It changed into Carson, which is how it was able to kill Doctor Walker.”

“It changed into Carson? What nonsense are you talking, Reynolds?” said MacReady, his eyes fixed on the trapdoor leading to the hold as he cocked his rifle and began descending the ladder.

“I am telling you the creature can make itself look like any one of us,” the explorer said, out of breath, clambering down after him. “You must warn your men!”

“Keep your crazy ideas to yourself, Reynolds,” the captain muttered when he reached the bottom. “I will tell my men nothing of the sort.”

Reynolds felt his frustration boil over into fury, and without thinking, he tucked his pistol into his belt, grabbed the captain by his lapels, and pushed him against the wall. Taken aback, MacReady stared at the explorer in astonishment.

“Listen to me for once, damn it,” Reynolds said without loosening his grip. “I am telling you that thing can change into a human being, and if you refuse to inform your men we will all perish!”

MacReady listened yet made no attempt to wriggle free, perhaps because he was trying to make sense of Reynolds’s unexpected response, at odds with the crude idea the captain had of him.

“Very well,” he said coldly. “You have said your piece, now unhand me.”

Reynolds let him go, surprised and slightly ashamed at his own behavior. The captain slowly straightened his lapels and gazed contemptuously at the explorer. Reynolds was about to apologize when he suddenly found himself pressed up against the wall, MacReady’s pistol digging into his left temple.

“Listen carefully, Reynolds, because I’m not going to say this twice,” the captain growled in a hoarse voice. “If you ever, ever grab me by the lapels again, you’ll live to regret it.”

The two men stared at each other in silence for a few moments.

Reynolds’s voice seemed to ooze through his clenched teeth. “Captain, if you refuse to do as I say, neither of us will live long enough to regret anything. A few moments ago, Carson was in my cabin, and before my very eyes, and those of Gunner Allan, he changed into the monster from the stars and then tried to kill us both. We managed to shoot at the creature and it escaped, but not before changing into Allan, and then into a kind of gigantic spider. Do you understand what I am saying? That thing can change into anything it likes, including into one of us!”

“Do you expect me to believe that Carson burst into your cabin to treat you to a preposterous fancy dress parade?” MacReady said, beside himself.

“I invited him there because I was suspicious of him,” the explorer explained. “I had stumbled upon the real Carson’s body a few hours earlier while I was looking for the flying machine.”

“What? You found Carson’s body? Why the devil didn’t you inform me?”

“I didn’t consider it necessary,” Reynolds replied, shrugging as much as he dared with MacReady’s gun to his head.

“You didn’t consider it necessary!” roared MacReady. “Who do you think you are? I’ve no more patience with you, Reynolds!”

“Would you have believed me, Captain? You yourself ordered me not to bother you again, nor any of your men,” Reynolds reminded him, with more irony than bitterness.

“Gentlemen,” declared Allan, who had climbed down after them, “I don’t think this is the time to—”

“I’m the captain, Reynolds! It was your duty to inform me of the incident,” bellowed MacReady. “Do you realize that your heroics have put us all in danger?”

“On the contrary, Captain. Thanks to my discovery our lives might yet be saved. Without knowing what the creature is capable of, we would be lost.”

“And if the creature didn’t know that we knew, we would be at an advantage!” MacReady hissed. “God damn you, Reynolds, why didn’t you tell me so that we could capture the thing? What in Heaven’s name did you hope to gain by inviting it to your cabin?”

“I wanted to make contact with it,” Reynolds acknowledged reluctantly, with some embarrassment. “I thought that—”

“To make contact with it?” the captain roared, spraying Reynolds’s face with saliva. “You invited it to take tea, as if you were a couple of young ladies?”

“Captain . . . ,” Allan ventured timidly, “don’t you think that—”

“Hold your tongue, Sergeant!” MacReady snapped. “I thought you had more brains than this idiot. I swear to you, Reynolds, when all this is over, I’ll have you put behind bars for mutiny. I’m tempted to put a bullet in your head right now.” The captain contemplated Reynolds in silence, carefully weighing up his own proposition. “In fact, maybe I should do exactly that. Didn’t you say the monster could change into any one of us? How do I know it hasn’t taken on your appearance?” he said, stroking the trigger of his pistol.

“I can vouch for Mr. Reynolds, Captain,” a voice chimed out behind MacReady. “I was with him when the creature fled before us. I saw it with my own eyes. Lower your weapon, I beg you.”

MacReady glanced sideways at the barrel of the gun aimed at his left temple, and at the skinny arm of the sailor called Griffin, who was clasping it firmly.

“And if I may say so, Captain, I agree with Allan: this conversation could take place some other time,” he suggested, still brandishing his pistol.

MacReady contemplated the three men in turn, his face apoplectic with rage. Eventually he lowered his gun with a sigh and, pushing past Griffin, strode angrily toward the cargo hold, the others following close behind. A group of anxious sailors encircled the door, awaiting their orders.

“Are you sure the monster is in there?”

“Yes, Captain,” Wallace confirmed. “I saw it go in. It looked like a huge ant . . . Well, not exactly; in fact, it was as big as a pig, though it didn’t look like a pig either. It was more like a—”

“Spare me the descriptions, Wallace,” snapped MacReady.

The captain fell silent, while the crew huddled round the narrow door to the cargo hold watched him expectantly.

“Pay attention,” he said, emerging finally from his deliberations and looking disdainfully at Reynolds. “Incredible though it may sound, that son of a bitch is capable of taking on a human appearance—that is, it can change into any one of us.”

MacReady’s words unleashed a murmur of incredulity among the sailors, yet none dared offer an opinion. Reynolds, surprised by the captain’s reaction, could not help heaving a sigh of relief. At least now there was some hope of salvation. The explorer nodded his thanks to MacReady, who signaled toward the crew, inviting the explorer to address the handful of brave men clustered before him. Reynolds stood beside the captain and cleared his throat before speaking.

“I know it sounds crazy, but what the captain says is true: the
creature can make itself look like any one of us. Do not ask me how, but it can. It killed Carson, then came aboard looking like him. So, if you meet Carson in there, do not hesitate to shoot; the real Carson is lying out in the snow with his guts ripped out.”

He paused, waiting for the sailors to digest his words.

“How do we know it isn’t one of us?” ventured Kendricks, voicing the common fear.

“We don’t. It could be anyone . . . even me,” Reynolds said, glancing at the captain. “That’s why we need to be doubly vigilant.”

“I think it will be safer if we split up into pairs,” MacReady suggested, taking the floor again. “Whatever happens, each of us should try not to lose sight of our partner even for a second. That is the only way we can be sure the monster doesn’t change into one of us.”

“And if you notice anything odd about your partner,” Reynolds warned, “whether a strange glint in his eye, or a change in his voice—”

“Or a hideous tentacle extruding from his mouth,” Allan added, almost inaudibly.

“—don’t hesitate to warn the others immediately,” Reynolds concluded.

“Good. You heard what he said, lads,” growled MacReady, eager for the hunt to begin.

He divided part of the crew into five pairs and told Shepard to distribute the lanterns hanging from the hooks. When the sailor had placed the last of them in the captain’s hands, MacReady spoke to his men once more.

“That son of a bitch couldn’t have chosen a better place to hide. We may have a hard time finding it, but we have one advantage: this is the only exit. Lieutenant Blair, you and Ringwald stay here and watch the door. If that thing tries to get out, shoot it dead, understood? You others,” he said, addressing the carpenters and the rest of the maintenance crew, “I suggest you go back up to the lower deck and wait there, armed with whatever you can lay your hands on.”

“What about me, Captain?” asked Reynolds, who was not prepared to wait outside the hold.

“Reynolds, you come with me.”

The explorer was so astonished he could barely nod his agreement. He drew his pistol and positioned himself next to MacReady, feigning a resolve he was far from feeling. Pairing up with the captain was the last thing in the world Reynolds wanted to do, in particular because he had no idea whether MacReady had chosen him because of his expertise about the monster or because he considered him a liability who would get in the way of any sailor unfortunate enough to be saddled with him. Or perhaps he was intending to shoot him in the back the moment they were alone, thus ridding himself of the explorer’s irksome presence once and for all. Whatever the case, Reynolds said to himself, he must show he was equal to the task if he wanted that fool MacReady to know that he, Jeremiah Reynolds, deserved every bit of the respect and admiration the captain begrudged him.

“All right, let’s get the bastard,” the captain commanded.

•   •   •

W
EAPONS AT THE READY,
the group entered the hold, lanterns aloft, infiltrating the dense blackness like a swarm of fireflies. The icy space seemed at least thirty degrees colder. And despite the large space, Reynolds soon realized it was almost impossible to move around freely, for beyond the pale glow of the lantern he could make out an intricate maze of passageways formed by mounds of crates, coal sacks, water tanks, baskets, barrels, bales, and dozens of mysterious bundles covered with tarpaulins piled right up to the ceiling. At a sign from MacReady, Reynolds watched the other men slip like silent shadows into the narrow spaces, muskets sniffing the air. Peters brandished an enormous machete the length of his forearm as he moved forward, scrutinizing the darkness, his face set in a cruel grimace, in defiance of whatever was lurking in there. Griffin, incredibly small and frail by comparison, ventured into the enveloping blackness with calm self-assurance. Out of all the sailors,
only Allan seemed as convinced as he was that they were all going to die in there.

MacReady and Reynolds took the central aisle. The captain went first, moving very slowly, pistol cocked, lantern held high. Reynolds, his weapon also loaded and ready to fire as soon as he perceived the slightest suspicious movement, tried to follow at what he considered a prudent distance: not close enough to appear fearful, not too far away for them to defend each other in case the monster ambushed them. Reynolds was convinced the Martian would attack him before any of the others. It was a reasonable supposition, for he was the one who had exposed the creature. He was to blame for them hunting it down now.