‘No. That’s what I was going to say. Sorry, couldn’t help overhearing. I, well, I could fly you down. Now. Take about an hour. Have you there in a jiffy. Long before them, anyway.’
Aleksey felt a great weight lift from his shoulders and he nodded. Peter turned away and hurried into the reception area.
‘Try calling Squeezy. There’s no coverage on the island, but maybe, just maybe, he’s taken them all over to watch the gig race and you can contact him.’
Harry, who had been lurking a little away off with his back to them all, studying the runway, suddenly stepped closer. ‘Michael is there? With your daughter and this…weapon?’
Aleksey was watching Ben tapping his phone in frustration. Ben looked up and shook his head. ‘He’s not answering.’
Harry came a little closer. ‘I’ll be coming with you then, son.’
Aleksey turned to the old man. ‘No. Thank you for your help. I appreciate it.’
‘I’m coming too.’ Rachel stood beside Harry. Before he could reply to the young woman, she added, ‘Unless you know all about the chimera. If you do, then I’ll just stay here and paint my nails. Up to you.’
Aleksey groaned and slammed the car door and followed Ben into the darkened reception of the little flight school. Peter lifted his eyes from his log books. ‘So, how many of us? It rather determines which plane we take and fuel load.’
Aleksey felt a wave of nausea hit him and sat abruptly. Ben confirmed, ‘Four passengers.’
Harry, who was swaying on the threshold with his eyes closed, corrected this to, ‘Five,’ and held up Snodgrass, whom he had clutched in his arms. Peter paused from his calculations, his hand hovering over the tablet. He twitched his head to one side, frowning deeply.
‘Henry?’
Harry had apparently steeled himself to enter, for he put Snodgrass down and went to offer Aleksey his handkerchief, which was surprisingly clean and crisp for a man who lived in a garden.
‘Henry? It’s Peter. Peter Bennington. My God, man. I thought you were dead! We all thought you were dead!’
Harry just nodded his head thoughtfully, as if he was listening to a conversation about someone else, and he too had thought they’d passed on.
Peter turned to them all pleadingly, as if he wanted someone to back him up. Aleksey waved his hand despairingly at the desk. ‘Please.’
‘But this is Commodore Henry Staveley-Bathurst. He was my captain when I was on the staff at Dartmouth. I’d know him anywhere. But he was…lost at sea…Henry?’
Harry was very busy inspecting the photos of planes. Aleksey was lying down on the couch working on not throwing up. Ben appeared to be trying to help with the flight plan, and Rachel was watching Snodgrass. Getting no help from anyone, therefore, with another shake of his head, Peter just grabbed his headphones, gestured to Ben to do the same and follow him, and they went out into the hanger.
It got very quiet all of a sudden in the reception.
Aleksey murmured to Harry, ‘Do not tell me that mutt is Salty Seadog. If you do, I will retire from this life and go and life in a monastery and commit myself to a God I still resist believing in.’
Harry pursed his lips for a while, wrinkling his nose around, pondering pictures he clearly wasn’t actually seeing. ‘No, Salty went overboard while we were coming through Drake’s Passage. It was twenty years ago, son. Snodgrass has his heart though.’ He frowned, glanced down at a small sound from Aleksey, and added to clarify, ‘Metaphorically. Hold off on that conversion of yours just yet.’
Aleksey quirked his lip. Weakly.
Harry roused himself suddenly and went to the desk. He rummaged behind it, then began to search the shelving. He commented mildly to Rachel, ‘I’m sure they’ll have a first aid kit, lassie, if you’d care to help me look.’
She jumped at the chance to be useful and found one fairly quickly in the small staff room next door.
She came back and sat down beside Aleksey. ‘Can you sit up?’
‘Can you not kill me with mutant bacteria?’
‘Iama doctor.’
‘That’s not all that reassuring at the moment.’
He sat up slowly, and she began to rip the tops off small alcohol swabs and to gingerly dab them on him. She seemed overwhelmed by the task. Then she brightened and suggested, ‘There’s a bathroom in there. Give it a wash first.’
He nodded, regretted this, and rose unsteadily to his feet. His shoulder was stiffening up, and he couldn’t use his arm without extreme pain.
