The Apothecary Page 0,87

give up what he could of his father’s secrets, or give up his father himself. That would be awful, but the alternative was worse. It was unthinkable that he might die right then, in that cold water. Danby and Sakharov looked at me. The pilot waited.

Finally Sakharov said, “Start the helicopter.”

We all ran for the horrible machine. It took off shakily into the wind, and flew low towards the place where Benjamin had fallen.

“There he is!” I yelled, over the noise of the rotors. I could just see Benjamin’s sandy hair, soaking wet, and his arm coming out of the water in a weakened crawl stroke, before a wave obscured him completely. My stomach felt as if it had been tied in a series of painful knots, and I willed Benjamin to stay afloat until we could get there.

The helicopter lowered a rope ladder, and the Scar climbed down it. The ladder whipped in the wind when he was halfway down, and he ducked his head and hung on. I never thought I’d be rooting for the Scar, but I desperately wanted him to keep going. He reached the bottom of the ladder, but he was still ten feet above Benjamin. Sakharov shouted something over his shoulder to the pilot. The helicopter dipped lower.

I’d lost sight of Benjamin in the flat light, with the surging waves and the ladder swinging below. I thought I saw him swimming away, as if he didn’t want to be rescued.

“Benjamin!” I screamed. “Come back!”

The helicopter lurched, and the ladder was over him again, but Benjamin was fighting against being taken. The Scar struck Benjamin across the face, then nearly tumbled off the ladder as it swung. I held my breath, hoping Benjamin would give in and the Scar would stay strong.

“Just get him!” Danby shouted impatiently, but his voice was carried off in the wind.

Then the Scar was lifting something heavy under one arm. He swung Benjamin like a rolled-up rug over his shoulder and pulled himself up one rung of the ladder, then another. Benjamin’s body was dead weight, and awkward, and I closed my eyes. I couldn’t watch the climb, not with Benjamin looking so still and lifeless, and the Scar looking like he might drop him.

I thought about the apothecary, and wondered if he had some kind of healing power that could bring Benjamin back to life. I thought about the sweet smell of the Quintessence, how it smelled like life itself, and I wondered if there was still enough of it lingering in the air to do Benjamin any good.

The Scar reached the top of the ladder, and Danby and Sakharov helped drag Benjamin, in his heavy, waterlogged clothes, into the helicopter. Sakharov felt his neck for a pulse, and listened to see if he was breathing. Then he rolled him on his side and pressed his fists under Benjamin’s sternum until seawater came up. Benjamin coughed, and threw up more water, and inhaled hoarsely, but his lips were purple with cold and he didn’t seem to be awake.

The Scar, too, was freezing and gasping for breath, and the helicopter pilot swung us back towards the destroyer.

“We need vodka and blankets,” Sakharov said.

I was pretty sure that vodka was not what Benjamin needed, and I knew there was nothing for us on the destroyer but pain and death. They had saved Benjamin so they could interrogate him, but now I couldn’t let them hurt him, or force his father’s secrets out of him.

In a pouch hanging on the back of a seat were the tools the pilot had taken out of his toolbox, including the heavy wrench Sakharov had used to tighten the trigger mechanism on the bomb. The Scar was exhausted, and Danby and Sakharov were distracted with trying to revive Benjamin. I slipped the wrench from the pouch, and no one noticed. Sakharov put his jacket over Benjamin, who was shivering uncontrollably. I didn’t know what my next plan was, but if I could get rid of Danby, maybe I could persuade the pilot to land on Nova Zembla . . .

That was as far as I got before Danby turned to me. I saw suspicion cross his face, and I swung the wrench and hit his head with a sickening thud. He cried out in pain and surprise, and I caught his collar with my free hand. I tried to swing him towards the door, but he was heavy and immovable. He wrested the wrench away and