Arctic Fire (37 page)

Pike laid his napkin down and moved his plate
away, having lost his appetite. “I’m sorry K.D., this was supposed
to be a light, old-friends-catching-up lunch and here I am
burdening you with my woes.”

“It’s okay,” K.D. said, as she placed her hand
on his.

“Thanks.” They held hands, and for a moment
everything seemed to disappear around them, until Brad came back
with their dessert. Embarrassed, they both pulled back their hands.
As she did, K.D.’s bracelet snagged on her napkin, tipping over her
water glass. In her rush to get out of the way of the flowing
water, she tugged on the tablecloth, knocking over the candle.

“I’m sorry, I’m such a klutz.” She
apologized.

“Nonsense.” Pike replied as he reached over to
the next table and grabbed another napkin to help clean up the
spill. When he turned back to the table, the candle had fallen over
and the flame was resting on one of the ice cubes that had spilled
out of K.D.’s drink, but instead of putting out the flame, the ice
cube itself was actually burning. He studied it for a second then
quickly put it out, then grabbed it and wrapped it in the napkin
then shoved it into his pocket. Neither K.D. nor Brad had seen
it.

“Where did you get these ice cubes?” Pike
questioned the waiter.

“Sir?”

“I said, where did you get the ice cubes?”
Pike’s tone was so harsh it caught K.D.’s attention.”

“Gabe? What’s wrong?” She questioned.

“Brad, the ice cubes?”

Concern filled the young waiter’s eyes, not sure
if he was in trouble but he answered anyway. “We used up all the
regular ice filling the hole during the storm and the icemaker
broke. The guests were complaining about not having any ice so I’ve
been chipping it out of one of the service tunnels near the food
locker. No one’s complained,” he quickly threw in, hoping it would
keep him out of trouble.

Pike dashed out of the restaurant, leaving a
confused waiter and an even more confused friend behind.

Cain was standing
on his observation
level watching a lone seagull soaring around the tower, surfing the
air currents.

“Becoming Jonathon Livingston Seagull are
we?”

Cain turned around and smiled. “I would, but
I’ve seen what they eat,” he said to Mallory. She went over and
poured herself a drink as Cain came down the stairs. “I see you’re
still in one piece, I’ll tell the Marines to stand down.”

Mallory poured a second glass and handed it to
Cain. “How did your talk with the Senator go?” he asked, “did you
set his mind at ease?”

“We are all on the same page now and he has a
clear view of what our expectations are.”

“Excellent. You are my best negotiator,
Elizabeth, always choosing the right words at the right time.”

“Thank you, I do try to look out for your best
interests.”

Just then they heard the door slam against the
wall as Pike came rushing through like a linebacker going after the
quarterback.

“I think we have a major problem on our hands,”
Pike shouted, trying to catch his breath.

“Calm down, Gabriel. What are you talking
about?” Cain said as he went over and guided Pike to a chair.

“It wasn’t the juice; it’s something in the ice
itself.”

“You’re not making any sense Gabe,” Mallory
said, leaning down beside him. “Start from the beginning.”

Pike took two more deep breaths then recounted
the events at dinner, the spill, the candle, the burning ice and
where it came from. He ended by taking the napkin out of his pocket
and unwrapping it, revealing what turned out to be a wet spot and a
piece of ice about the size of a tooth.

Cain took the tiny shard and placed it on a
coaster and tried to light it. They all watched expectantly but
instead of igniting the chunk, the flame simply melted it.

“I know what I saw.” Pike said. “The piece here
is probably too small to burn. But don’t you see? It wasn’t the
juice that was flammable; there is something in the ice itself that
burns!”

“So you’re telling me that this entire iceberg
is made of, well, ice that can catch fire?” Mallory said, her voice
heavy with skepticism.

“This isn’t regular ice, remember? It’s a blend
of water, wood fibers and whatever else you put in it to strengthen
it and retard melting. There must be something in the mixture that
when combined is flammable. Until we find out what that is, we
don’t dare sail into New York harbor or any other harbor for that
matter. In an enclosed harbor setting do you know what would happen
if the entire iceberg caught on fire or exploded? The damage would
be catastrophic.”

“Aren’t you overreacting just a little here?”
Mallory said, “We don’t even know what we have here yet and you
already have half of New York going up in a ball of fire.”

“That’s the point! We don’t know what we have
here. We’re two days out. I’m sorry, but if we can’t come up with
an explanation and a solution to the burning ice, I’m afraid I
can’t approve the entrance to the harbor. I know there is a lot at
stake here, Mr. Cain, I really do, but I think you would agree that
the safety of thousands of people is more important than meeting a
deadline.”

“Are you serious Gabe?” Mallory said, anger
replacing the skepticism in her voice. “I don’t understand. We
can’t and won’t shut down this immensely important project just
because you had a Moses at the burning bush experience.”

“Mallory, please.” Cain said looking at his
assistant. “I believe Gabriel here is sincere in his belief that
there may be a hidden danger built into the iceberg but,” he said,
looking at Pike, I’m not entirely convinced of it either. We still
have time to investigate further and gather our facts to make an
informed decision when the time comes.

“Now then, did K.D or Brad see the ice burning
or does anyone else know about this?”

Pike shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think
they were too busy cleaning up the table to notice and I took off
in such a hurry I didn’t have time to relay my suspicions.”

Cain nodded his head, “Good, let’s keep it that
way. We don’t need to raise any suspicion or create a panic until
we have all the facts. Agreed?”

Both Mallory and Pike nodded their heads.

“Excellent. Elizabeth and I will start the ball
rolling on our end.”

“What am I going to tell K.D.? She must think
I’m nuts from the way I ran out of there.”

“Just tell her you got back to back pages, one
from me and one from Nigel, and you were confused. She’ll believe
that.” Mallory said.

Pike frowned at her. “Thanks a lot.”

Mallory just winked at him.

“Now, now children, play nice.” Cain
interjected.

“Seriously, I wouldn’t say anything at all.”
Mallory continued, “in fact, I don’t think you should see her for
the rest of the day. Don’t you have some work to do or is this just
the Love Boat? Don’t worry,” her tone softened a bit, “I’ll tell
her I’m being a slave driver and that you haven’t earned time off
for good behavior yet.”

“Understood. I’ll keep you posted,” Pike said as
he turned and left.

Mallory couldn’t help smiling, he looked like a
dejected puppy.

As Pike left, Cain turned to his assistant. “I’m
going to go talk to Miles to see what he has to say about all this.
You?”

“The clock is running, I’m going to talk to
Marilyn to see if she has any insights into all of this, see if
there was anything in their reports from this morning. I’ll check
in with you later.”

Cain nodded as he went out the door and Mallory
headed toward the phone on the desk.

Chapter
Forty

“Beth, hold up a second,” Robert Thornton called
out. Mallory was walking down the outside walkway but not paying
attention to the beautiful scenery; her mind was on other
things.

“Hi Robert,” she replied, barely breaking
stride.

“I need to talk you,” he said as he ran the last
few steps to catch up to her.

“Can this wait? I have an important meeting to
get to.”

“It’s about the Senator.”

Something in the tone of his voice made her stop
and for the first time she looked at him and saw the worry and
concern on his face.

“What about the Senator?” she asked
cautiously.

Thornton shook his head. “I don’t know what
happened between you two in the office or what you talked about but
when I came back he was furious. I have never seen him that angry
before. He had kicked over his chair and was pacing back and forth
like a raging bull. His face was so flush with anger that I thought
he was going to have a heart attack.

“As he was pacing, he kept muttering something
like, they can’t do this to me, who do they think they are, stuff
like that. He told me to call a press conference for first thing in
the morning, then he ordered me out. When I tried to talk to him,
to ask him what was wrong, he swore at me with words I never heard
before and if I hadn’t left that second, I think he would have come
over and physically kicked me out.”

“What time did you call the press conference
for?”

“At 9:00 am. He’s going to use his pull and have
it interrupt regularly scheduled programming.”

“It’s okay,” Mallory said, placing her hand on
his shoulder, “you did the right thing by telling me.”

“What’s going on Beth? I’ve never seen him like
this before and quite frankly it scares me a little.”

“Don’t worry. You know Pug when he goes off on
one of his tangents. By tonight he’ll be yelling at you for calling
the press conference, telling you you shouldn’t have listened to
him when he’s upset . I’ll have Nigel talk to him later tonight and
get this whole thing ironed out. In the meantime, I suggest you lay
low and keep this under your hat for now. When this all blows over,
the less anyone knows the less embarrassment there will be to go
around.”

“Thanks Beth, I really appreciate your help and
advice.”

She smiled at him. “We underlings have to stick
together.”

He nodded and turned and left. As soon as he had
turned, the smile on Mallory’s face vanished. “Tick tock,” she said
to herself as she continued to her office.

Mallory was at
her desk working on her
computer when she heard a knock and her secretary stuck her head in
and told her that Marilyn was here. “Thanks, Cindy, send her in in
five minutes please.”

Mallory was still at her keyboard when Marilyn
was brought in. Mallory motioned for her to sit down but continued
to work. Again, she was setting the tone for the meeting by making
her wait.

“Thanks for coming Marilyn. We have a lot to
discuss so if you don’t mind, I’ll get right to it.”

“By all means,” Marilyn replied.

“You know Gabe pretty well, though not as much
as you’d like to. Once he has his mind made up, can he be swayed to
change it?”

Marilyn thought the phrasing of Mallory’s
question was a little strange but ignored its implications and
answered the question. “It depends. He can be a little stubborn at
times but he’s generally open to any suggestions. But if he’s
passionate about his ideas at the time and he
knows
he’s
right, then no amount of talking can dissuade him.”

“I bet you’d like to know a little more about
his passion?” Mallory said conversationally then continued right
on. “So having read his report and knowing him personally, if he
decided not to sign off on the project to allow the berg into New
York, no amount of logic would change his mind?”

Marilyn felt herself growing angry at Mallory’s
questions and her innuendoes about her and Gabe. Still, she bit her
tongue knowing the importance of the contract with Mr. Cain. She
shook her head. “I’m afraid that once his mind is made up and he
sees it as a righteous cause, then nothing can change it.”

“Too bad he doesn’t have his mind on you.”

Contract or not contract, she’d had enough.
“What’s this all about?” Marilyn said, proud of herself for keeping
most of the anger out of her voice. “What’s with the double
meanings and what does my relationship with Gabe have to do with
this project?

Mallory leaned back in her chair looking Marilyn
straight in the eye. “What I’m trying to do is to get into the mind
of one of my employees, to understand their thought processes on
how they make their decisions. Take you, for example: you are a
very beautiful and desirable woman, every sailor’s dream, yet time
and again, Gabe has spurned your advances. And now it looks like
K.D. is going to succeed where you’ve failed. They had lunch
together today you know. Don’t get me wrong; K.D. is not a bad
looking woman but come on, she’s not even in the same league as
you.

“When this is all over and you get back to your
office, are you going to fire her because of your pride or will you
keep her because she’s a good engineer? So, Marilyn, how does it
make you feel that she won and you lost?”

Mallory could see that Marilyn wanted to explode
but to her credit she channeled her anger. “I didn’t lose anything.
I can’t help it if Gabe made the wrong choice. Besides, I don’t
want to marry him so how could I lose, that’s not the goal here.
And to answer your question, I’ll fire her within the first week we
get back, sighting the company’s policy of not dating
coworkers.”

“So you’d get rid of the competition.”

Marilyn laughed smugly, “what competition? Does
that answer your question about my mindset?” she smirked.

“Well it answers one of them but we have one
more key item on my agenda to discuss.” Mallory leaned forward and
slid a piece of paper across the desk in front of Marilyn then held
up her finger to suspend the conversation, then called her
secretary on the intercom. “Cindy, would you bring us some
sandwiches and coffee? We’re going to be here a while.”