‘Don’t be on the wrong side of history, Barthrop.’ Morwenna was doodling islands and waves on her notepad as she said this—a comment that eerily mirrored his own thoughts. ‘You should read more. Get out of your cubbyhole occasionally. The tide is turning inourfavour.’
‘If you call being vilified in all reputable academic journals turning, then, yes, Morwenna, I agree—your tide turned quite a while ago. You once ran the history department of the most prestigious university in the world but are now merely a scribbler who self-publishes silly little books for grockles. Randal would be turning in his grave if he knew the kind of lurid trash you wrote.’
She gave a slightly ironic neck-jerk acknowledgement of this. ‘Well, you’d know, Jerome—you put him there.’
Mark stood up again. ‘Please. I’m going to move this along. Mr Colter, I think we should discuss your availability so we can pencil in some dates.’
Aleksey picked up one of Morwenna’s pens and drew a question mark on one of her islands. She looked sharply up at him, and then with her own pen turned it into a pretty good approximation of a hanged man.
He chose another biscuit and checked his watch, wondering what Ben was up to. He suspected it would also involve food. He tried to catch Emilia’s eye, but she was apparently feigning interest in whatever the boatman was saying. He yawned, but extremely surreptitiously—it was a trick he’d also learned in meetings early in his army career.
‘—great whites.’
Aleksey woke and snapped open his eyes. Everyone was staring at McCullough. He looked around the table at the astonished expressions then leaned forward. ‘I’m sorry, what did you say? My English…’
‘Great white sharks? My new film? Unprecedented feeding frenzy in Scilly waters.Unprecedented. Fantastic evidence of climate change and consequent behavioural adaptation in our marine species.’
He ran this through his internal translator, still got the same result, so asked, ‘Are you telling me there actuallyaregreat white sharks in Scilly?’
‘Well none have been spotted in—bring up the map again, Mark…’ Mark blinked as if in shock, touched his laptop mousepad, and the image came to life once more. Mack leaned over and picked up the laser pointer. A little red dot appeared on the screen. He squinted, tickled it over St Mary’s and Tresco, headed it west, flew it over Light Island, hesitated, and then began to circle enthusiastically.
‘There we go. An area of very cold, very deep water just here. If the myths about Atlantis having mountains are true—sorry Mr Barthrop—then these would be their Alps.Les Dents. Yes, climate change is bringing the sharks here en masse.’
Aleksey kept his eyes fastened on the young professor.
He appeared to feel the scrutiny, for Mark murmured to no one in particular, ‘No sightings where we’ll be. That’s good then.’ He shook himself slightly. ‘So, has anyone got anything else to add? This is just a very preliminary meeting so we could all, well, meet, I suppose. Anyone?’
Aleksey moved his gaze to Emilia. She was studying her nails but eventually looked up and held his stare. She gave the tiniest of nods, and his heart flooded with love for her. He rose lazily from the table and stretched out some kinks. ‘Yes. I think perhaps my business commitments could be postponed. If the offer still holds, I would like to accompany you on this trip. Perhaps I could be of some use after all.’
* * *
Chapter Eleven
Ben hadn’t eaten; he’d gone Christmas shopping apparently, and the boot was consequently full of bags, which neither he nor Emilia was allowed to explore. As they were all starving and cold, they took the back route home across the moors and stopped at a pub on the way. It was well past the lunchtime rush, so they got seats by the log fire. Ben ordered drinks, and as he brought them back to the table, asked Emilia,
‘So? Happy with everything? Looking forward to it?’
They’d both been reticent in the car, hedging Ben’s questions. Then Emilia had commented on her imminent death from starvation; Ben had obviously realised he was similarly afflicted, and that crisis had nicely occupied them both until their current location had been decided upon.
Emilia toyed with her glass. ‘It would be better just us—Mark and us. I don’t know why everyone else has to be involved. It’s embarrassing. They weren’t being honest, were they?’
‘Eliam Colter threatened to kill me—that seemed honest enough.’
Ben spluttered into his beer. ‘What!’ Then he appeared to rethink and muttered, amused, ‘If only he knew…’
Aleksey smiled at the implication. ‘I wonder if perhaps he did, which is why he was putting his cards on the table. I have been told I will go extinct before—not in those exact words, of course, but the sentiment was the same.’
Emilia grinned. ‘Yet here you are.’
He smiled back. ‘Yes.’ Then he glanced away. ‘I am sorry you feel you will be forced to endure our company—that it will be embarrassing for you.’
Ben was getting up to order another round but sat back down.
‘Huh? Endure us where?’
Emilia looked between them.
‘You think I meant—?’ She nodded to herself as if his apology confirmed something important. She snatched up the menus to order, and as she passed him, she ruffled his hair just like Ben always did. ‘Embarrassing… Trust me, that issonot the feeling I have when I think about you two.’
