Arctic Fire (40 page)

“Even with all my money, there’s only so much
weight I can throw around outside the political arena. In order to
do any good, any real good, I have to cut the cancer out from the
inside.”

“So you’re a rich terrorist who wants to be
elected so you can be a rich
and
crooked terrorist.”

“Nigel is not a terrorist,” Mallory spat out,
“he’s a patriot.”

“I haven’t looked it up in the dictionary
lately, but I’m pretty sure that killing thousands of your own
countrymen isn’t considered being a patriot,” Pike replied.

Mallory started to get up and Pike had the
distinct feeling she was going to slap him, or worse, but a raised
hand from Cain stopped her. Cain got up and walked back over to the
bar, taking his time to defuse the situation a little. He reached
for a bottle and a small brandy snifter and filled it halfway. He
swished the amber liquid around in the glass then inhaled it
deeply, a smile beginning on his face that blossomed into a full
smile after he took a sip.

“Louis Royer Preference VSOP Cognac. Delicious.
I’d offer you some but then again you don’t drink. Pity really. Did
you know the word Brandy is a Dutch word meaning burnt wine because
they boiled it to distill it?” He took another whiff, another sip
and another smile. “Even though the finest brandies in the world
come from the Cognac region in France, I bet you didn’t know that
it has its origins in the Middle East starting sometime in the
7
^th
or 8
^th
centuries?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was wrong before,” Pike said
snidely, “I should have said you are a rich, crooked,
and
well educated terrorist.” He looked over at Mallory and he could
see that she was seething with anger but Cain calmly kept her at
bay. “Okay,” Pike continued, reeling in his anger for the moment,
“I understand you want political power, but how is destroying New
York going to accomplish that? It’s been tried once before and it
didn’t work then. Can’t you just run for office like everybody
else?”

“What happened in 2001 was the work of madmen;
their only goal was senseless destruction.”

“And you don’t call this senseless destruction?
Pike nearly shouted out.

Gain shook his head. “You lack vision Gabriel,”
Cain continued. “The perfect example of what I’m trying to
accomplish can be found in your own home town of Seattle. The
Seahawks play in Qwest Field, a beautiful new stadium, but in order
for it to have been built; the old Kingdome had to come down first.
A lot of people didn’t want to see the Kingdome go, but in the end,
I think everyone would agree that the new Qwest field is a much
better facility all the way around. Being an engineer you
understand the need to raze the past in order to build the
future.

“Great adversity or challenge brings this
country together like nothing else can. You’re a student of
history. The attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized this nation like
nothing else in history ever has. The modern equivalent to Pearl
Harbor was the Twin Towers. In times of catastrophe, people look
for heroes. Case in point: The name of Rudy W. Giuliani, the mayor
of New York City at the time, skyrocketed to the forefront of
national attention for his handling of the crisis both during and
after the bombing. If you remember, he became so popular that he
ran for president of the United States.”

“So you want to become the president of the
United States?”

“Eventually, yes. But like any complex plan, it
will take time.”

Pike shook his head. “But why would the people
support you when it was your iceberg that caused all the misery and
damage in the first place?”

“It will be my iceberg, but not my fault. What
day is it?”

“It’s the 10
^th
.”

“And tomorrow is…”

“September 11
^th
.”

“Exactly! That’s why I needed to stay on such a
tight time schedule. When the iceberg blows up in New York harbor
on September 11
^th
, everyone is automatically going to
assume it was a terrorist attack. In this country, New York has
become the symbol for terrorist attacks with the World Trade Center
bombing in 1993 and with the Twin Tower attack in 2001. But more
importantly, it has become the symbol of defiance and freedom and
the resolve of the American people against such attacks.

“I will use that justifiable pride when I convey
my sorrows to the people of New York, ashamed that my vessel, which
was meant to bringing hope, instead brought death and destruction,
I will then publicly commit my personal fortune to rebuilding the
city.

“Contrary to what you may believe, this is not
some quick-fix plan hatched by a madman in a moment of outrage or
indignation. I have been laying the ground work for this event for
years. I have established an elaborate and extensive infrastructure
all designed not only to consolidate my grip on power but to
quickly bring the resources together to rebuild the city bigger and
better than ever. In gratitude, the people will elect me to
continue to lead them as governor, and from there I’ll parlay my
good will and experience and take the presidency. Once I’m in the
Oval Office, with my new political clout and financial resources,
I’ll be able to weed out the corruption and rebuild and focus this
country on issues that really matter, establishing the U.S. once
again as the world leader. First New York… then the country… and
then I’ll rule the world!” He shouted, building to a crescendo,
then bursting out in loud, deep laughter. Then he abruptly stopped
and smiled as he looked at Pike.

“Sorry Gabriel, I just couldn’t resist.”

Pike just shook his head. “But what does K.D.,
the Senator or even I have to do with all this? Why kill them? How
could they possibly be involved with your grand, twisted scheme to
be president?”

“Their deaths are actually your fault.” Mallory
said, taking pleasure in her words.

“My fault?” The words stung as they came out of
his mouth.

“You can actually blame all this on Nigel’s damn
butterfly theory,” Mallory continued, “which he has done nothing
but gloat about nonstop since it happened.”

Pike just shook his head, not understanding but
suddenly feeling guilty to think that he might somehow really be
responsible for K.D.’s death.

“You were right on the edge of signing off on
the safety inspection, then your stupid girlfriend tipped over that
glass of water and that random act set the whole thing in motion.
Once you knew there might be a fire danger, we knew your moral
compass would be set and there would be no changing your course.
For the public legitimacy of the project, we still needed the
safety inspection signed off, so we had to discredit you so we
could get a replacement signature with no questions asked. Marilyn
and your little intern friend were more than willing to help.

“So as you can see Mr. High and Mighty, it
really was your fault that she died because of your self-rightness
and unwillingness to bend from your principals.” Mallory calmly got
up and walked over and slapped Pike hard in the face. “That’s for
calling Nigel a terrorist,” she said. She stared at him intently
for a moment, then quickly turned around and poured herself a
brandy.

She took a drink, then held it in her hand and
thought for a moment. “You know, it’s kind of funny.” She said.
“You have high moral standards and convictions and yet here you
are, all but convicted of a heinous crime and on the other hand
Marilyn, who has the morals of…well you know Marilyn, is walking
around free as a bird with tons of cash. Pretty screwed up world,
huh Gabe?”

“Marilyn helped you?” Pike asked in
disbelief.

Mallory laughed. “She was more than willing to
sell you out. In fact, she not only signed the inspection document
allowing us to enter the harbor, but for a little extra cash, she
was also willing to kill K.D. and the Senator for us.”

“Marilyn killed K.D.?” Pike said quietly.

“As I said earlier, since we knew you wouldn’t
sign we had to find a way to discredit you. Senator Williams was
also becoming a liability and suddenly the opportunity to kill two
birds with one stone presented itself, so we took it. Pug is a
known womanizer so it was easy to set up the fake date-rape
scenario and to have you stumble across it. Pictures are worth a
thousand words so the icing on the cake was having the news cameras
there to catch you red handed. By the way, thank you for picking up
the knife when you did. I couldn’t have scripted it better
myself.”

“The film crews were in on it too? Tabatha?”

“Makes for a great conspiracy theory huh? Hell
hath no fury like a woman scorned, or a man with his toupee torn
off.” Mallory shook her head. “They weren’t in on the original set
up but being reporters, they were more than willing to help spread
the news story once they saw what had happened.”

Mallory sat back down in her chair, still
nursing her brandy. “You should be proud Gabe, your love-triangle
story preempted the President and his economic summit. ‘The Blast
from the Past just crashed!’ Kind of catchy don’t you think? The
newspapers love it.”

“You’ll never get away with it.” Pike said.

Mallory and Cain looked at each other and burst
out laughing.

“That’s so cliché.” Cain roared, “I expected
much better from you.”

“Sorry.” Pike shrugged his shoulders. “You’ll
understand if I’m not at the top of my game right now.”

Just then the phone rang and Cain answered. He
talked for a few moments then hung up. “That was Captain Gregory.
He informs me that we should make landfall by the early morning
hours and be anchored in the harbor by mid-morning. Allowing for
all the fanfare, speeches, and what not, everyone should be
disembarked by 1:00, leaving the berg empty so the meltdown
sequence can begin. It will take approximately three hours for
enough vapors to build, filling the hold and all the tunnels.
Detonation is set for 4:00, right before the afternoon commute,
insuring maximum effect.”

“You mean maximum carnage.” Pike said flatly.
“When are you going to kill me?”

“Again, straight to the point,” Cain said
smiling, “I really will miss you, Gabriel. I truly wish things
would have worked out differently for you and me. To answer your
question, you are a clever man and I can’t take the chance of you
escaping and causing any more trouble. I’d have you killed now,
which is what I should do but I can’t, you are still The Blast from
the Past so it must be done in the proper time and the proper way
without raising any suspicions. For now, you’ll be led from here to
a holding area where later tonight, after things have settled down
a bit, you will be shot while ‘trying to escape.’ Don’t worry, I
promise it will be quick and painless.”

“Gee thanks,” he replied sarcastically, “but
don’t you think that my being shot will raise a few questions?”

Cain shrugged his shoulders.” Possibly, but
after the explosion, who’s really going to care what happened to a
murderer?”

“Can I go now?” Pike said standing up rather
quickly. “I’m getting a headache.” He noticed that when he stood,
Mallory jumped a little. “What’s the matter Beth, a little nervous
are we?” He leered.

“Good bye, Gabe,” was her simple reply.

Chapter Forty F
ive

A moment later, a man dressed as a deckhand
appeared in the doorway. Though he was dressed in overalls, Pike
could tell by the way he carried himself that he was security
through and through. Pike was a little miffed that Cain didn’t
think him enough of a physical threat to bring more than one guard.
As they passed Cain’s desk, he simply nodded to him as he left.

Once outside in the hallway Pike thought about
jumping the guy and trying to escape. He had never been in a fight
before in his entire life but desperate times called for desperate
measures. He quickly decided however, that that was a bad idea.
This man was professionally trained and knew how to handle himself
in situations like this. But looking into his eyes Pike could see
more than a trained professional; he saw cruelty and malice that
went beyond his training. So in the end, he would still be a
prisoner, only he would be beaten and battered.

They left the main corridor and came to a small
service elevator that he didn’t remember seeing on the schematics.
They descended two floors then got off and followed several more
small passageways. They passed several rat ladders and came to a
small ice room next to an escape hatch.

During his tour, Miles had shown him the ladders
and hatches. The ladders were used to travel between decks and were
supposed to be used by the men who worked deep within the bowels of
the ship as escape routes in case there was trouble. That’s why
they were called rat ladders, because it was for the rats leaving
the sinking ship.

The escape hatches were large, trashcan-lid size
holes in the ice high above the waterline and were less than a foot
thick. Beside each hatch were a sledgehammer and several
lifejackets. In an emergency, the escaping crewmember would take
the sledgehammer, smash a hole through the ice and escape.

The guard opened the door and without even
saying a word, shoved him into the dark room. Pike landed hard on
the floor, hitting his shoulder and left knee. He lay there for a
second, not letting his keeper provoke him. After a few moments,
the guard just grunted and closed the door, disappointed that Pike
didn’t get up and fight.

Pike stood up and felt his way to the door and
found the light switch. He turned it on and surveyed his new and
probably last home. It appeared to be some sort of storage room
that was hastily converted into a brig. Fortunately the entire room
was lined with the same, one-inch thick corkboard panels used in
all the ice rooms, so he knew he wouldn’t freeze to death, not that
he would be around that long to get the chance. There was a pile of
canvas and plastic work tarps in the corner along with a bucket and
mop, a stepladder and an emergency flashlight plugged into the
wall. In the center of the room was a single, bent metal chair that
had his parka on it; how nice, Pike thought, Cain didn’t want him
to catch his death of cold before he shot him.