Lessons From Underground Read online

  The ship dropped anchor at France that evening, while my party gathered for dinner with the Fortunes. Mrs. Fortune repeated my little joke to her husband, who rolled his eyes. “We’ve heard that one a few times,” he said, but laughed all the same.

  Mr. Jackdaw stoked the engines of his distinctive charm, asking all sorts of questions about Mr. Fortune’s property business. I had to try not to laugh when the Fortunes asked Mr. Scant about his hat-making secret and he said, “Well, you know, it’s, er . . . best not to do anything too outrageous. Just stay close to the trends and put a small unique spin to it so that you stand out.”

  After dinner, a number of new passengers had arrived. Groups moved about first class, meeting one another and reaffirming old friendships, but of Aurelian there was no sign. I thought I spotted him for a moment, behind a loud American lady who kept throwing her head back to guffaw. But when I darted around her, I could see no trace of him. In the end, we retired for the night, promising tomorrow we would search every inch of the liner if we had to.

  With the constant movement of the ship, I found it hard to sleep. And so as I lay in my small bed, I imagined some of the remarkable things I’d overhead about the ship. Her rudder weighed more than a hundred tons and needed special engines to move it. And almost two hundred men worked night and day to feed coal into the great engines. But my mattress was so comfortable and the fine dining so heavy in my stomach that before long, I was drifting off after all.

  Mr. Scant woke me at seven the next morning and left me to dress myself. I decided on my warmest gray waistcoat and jacket, the ones Mother had ordered from an expensive catalogue. The other children and teenagers had worn similar clothes yesterday, so I was sure nobody would think I looked out of place. We met Mr. Jackdaw and the Valkyrie at breakfast, both of them dressed up again in fine but somewhat more comfortable-looking clothes. The Valkyrie seemed very tired and said she could never sleep well in a room that wasn’t her own.

  “How did you sleep, my boy?” asked Mr. Jackdaw.

  “Surprisingly well,” I said.

  “Mr. Scant wasn’t snoring too much?”

  “I sleep in silence,” said Mr. Scant.

  The Titanic was due to stop at one more city before crossing the Atlantic Ocean—Queenstown, Ireland, this time. After that, we would begin the voyage to America at about lunchtime.

  “We have to keep searching,” said Mr. Jackdaw.

  And so search we did. As the Valkyrie walked around the promenade deck for the third time, she decided to strike up a conversation with me.

  “I’m thinking of becoming a suffragette,” she said.

  I wasn’t sure how to respond for a moment. “One of those ladies who chain themselves up to railings?”

  “For the sake of getting votes, yes.”

  “Father says it’s a lot of silly nonsense.”

  The Valkyrie paused. “So what do you think?”

  “I’m not sure I know enough about it.”

  “Oh? Well, what’s your first impression?”

  “Well, we do say Queen Victoria was the best monarch we ever had, but even she wouldn’t have been able to vote. I think that’s a bit strange. And, you know, why should Jack the Ripper’s view count more than Miss Florence Nightingale’s? I can’t say I really understand politics.”

  “I think you understand better than a lot of people I know,” said the Valkyrie. “I spoke to that Mr. Jackdaw about it, and he said intelligence doesn’t come into it. Women have motherly instincts, he told me, and want to care for the poorest and most vulnerable. He thinks we’d be fooled into squandering all the wealth of the Empire—letting the poor take it all and spend it on having more children. Such a narrow view. And the worst part was that he said it so nicely. Like he assumed I wouldn’t understand that what he was saying was selfish.”

  “Mr. Scant always said you were a very clever person.”

  “He did? Oh, when I remember those days, running about with my cleavers and squeezing money out of business owners. I don’t feel like I was in the least bit clever. I was a fool.”

  “But good at fighting,” I said, leaning down over the rail. “And wiser now.” Ahead of us, the vessel’s pointed bow reached forward like the axe-head of some god of war.

  “It seems to me nothing’s about to change in England without a fight,” said the Valkyrie. “So maybe fighting would be some help to these suffragettes. My only worry is that if I join them and then it all comes out, everything I did in the past, well, that might be a bad thing for the movement. I don’t know if I could live with the shame.”

  “Some of them get taken off to prison already, don’t they?” I said. “I don’t suppose they’d be that troubled.”

  “Ah, but it’s a big difference, isn’t it? They’re going to prison for their cause. I deserve to be put in prison for other things altogether.”

  “I suppose,” I said, putting my chin down on the rail. We’d seen the view below several times before. There was seating for the steerage passengers, but they must have been divided by sex, because I could spot only men. The weather was cold at the moment, so there weren’t many on the deck, but a few sat there enjoying themselves with card games or newspapers. I looked past them to the forecastle, a raised area near the front of the ship where all manner of cranes and tools could be found, as well as the ship’s anchor—apparently the biggest and heaviest ever made. I felt a little sad that passengers were forbidden from going out to see it. Which was when I noticed a figure there.

  I stood up straight, then leaned forward, squinting to make sure I had really seen what I thought I had seen.

  “What is it?” asked the Valkyrie.

  “There’s someone up on the forecastle.”

  “Those sailors?”

  “No,” I said, “past them. Right up at the end. I think it’s him—his outline’s different from the rest. I think it’s Aurelian.”

  “What’s would he be doing there?”

  “He’s not doing anything. He’s just . . . standing.”

  “We should get the others.”

  “What?” I said. “No, we’ll lose him. We need to get down there.”

  “Why don’t you go and find Mr. Scant, and I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  “It’s all men below. I’m sure they’ll kick up a big fuss if you’re down there. I’m going. You find Mr. Scant and Mr. Jackdaw.”

  “I don’t think I should leave you alone.”

  “If I’ve learnt one thing from Mr. Scant,” I said, “it’s been following people without them seeing me.”

  The Valkyrie hesitated for a moment but then nodded and withdrew. I couldn’t reach the forecastle without going lower first. So I ran down the steps that led to B deck. It was level with forecastle, but I couldn’t get there without first going down again and crossing the well deck. At the bottom of the next flight of stairs, a little gate stood to remind the steerage passengers not to come up into the first class area. Nobody seemed to care that I went through it the opposite way, dashing out amongst the steerage passengers. I had to dart through the men gathered there as best as I could, which most of them seemed to find amusing.

  “Steady on, lad!”

  “Sorry, pardon me.”

  “Bloody ’ell, what’s the rush?”

  “Just got to get through, excuse me.”

  “Now what in tarnation?”

  “I do beg your pardon.”

  So it went until I reached the steep steps leading up to the forecastle. That’s when more people took notice, as a nearby sign clearly said no passengers should go beyond that point. I rushed up undeterred and made for the breakwater, a big barrier that directed water across the forecastle and away from the well deck below. Some sailors were there, at the base of the big mast for the telegraph wires, and they came at once to stop me.

  “Oi, you there!” called a red-faced seaman with a nose like a cauliflower. “You can’t be here. No passengers!”

  I ignored him and vaulted over t
he breakwater and onto the deck beyond. I found all manner of chains and cranks there, but no sign of Aurelian. Certain by now that I had seen him, I peered around the enormous anchor at the prow of the ship, but by then the sailors were trying to surround me.

  “It’s dangerous, boyo,” another sailor said, a man with a bushy ginger beard. “Come back here where it’s safe.”

  Then a clear voice sounded from the first-class deck. Not a shout, but it carried over the rest, as if the speaker were trained for the theater. I recognized it at once. Aurelian.

  “Don’t hurt him!” he cried out. “He’s my brother and he’s only doing it for a dare. It’s all right, William! You win! You won the bet. Just come back now.”

  I glared at him and started back toward the steps. The big-nosed sailor grabbed my arm and pushed me toward the breakwater when I was close enough. “It’s bloody dangerous here,” he growled. “One big wave and we’re all swept overboard. No place for games.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I climbed. “He dared me.”

  “Bloody idiot. If you weren’t some little lord, I’d give you such a smack.”

  The passengers all seemed very amused by me as I made my way back through them. Some applauded, others jeered. One asked me to stay around and have a cigarette, which I politely declined. As I reached the stairs to the first-class section, the rough seaman gave one last barb. “Go on, back where you belong, up with the toffs.”

  By then I didn’t care what the man thought of me. I had only one thing on my mind, and that was finding Aurelian. He wasn’t waiting for me when I reached the place he had shouted from, but I could see him walking away down the promenade—slowly enough that he must have known I’d spot him.

  Each time I turned a new corner, Aurelian rounded the next one. I knew he was leading me in a game of cat and mouse, but I could do nothing except play along. He led me down another flight of steps, into the second-class area, and back out onto another deck. I kept hoping I would run into Mr. Scant or the Valkyrie, but they were nowhere to be seen. Down another flight of steps we went, and then I saw Aurelian disappear through a doorway. A sign clearly read, No passengers beyond this point, but that was where Aurelian had gone.

  I took out my pocket handkerchief and stepped inside, closing the door behind me in such a way that the handkerchief would be caught in the doorway. Now if the others came along, they’d see where I had gone.

  Despite the polished beauty of the Titanic’s passenger areas, its bowels were plain and already grimy, even on the ship’s maiden voyage. I supposed they had been grimy from the day they were made. The walkways and staircases were made of iron, not polished wood. Huge pipes ran this way and that, and strange valves and gauges lined the walls.

  I heard Aurelian before I saw him again.

  “Playing the hero, Master Oliver?”

  “Where are you?” I said.

  “Why? If you caught me, what would you do, all alone?”

  “I’d do whatever I could to stop you,” I said.

  He laughed, and I tried to follow the sound. He was most certainly below me, so I started down the closest flight of iron steps.

  “You know, I envy you,” he said. “That simple view of the world. That lack of understanding.”

  “That doesn’t sound like envy,” I said to the darkness.

  “But it is. To be so unaware of this world’s true face . . . To believe yourself a force for good as you do nothing but take from others . . .”

  The only way down from where I stood was a ladder, at least ten feet tall from the look of it. I eased myself onto it, working to keep Aurelian talking, to keep leading me to him.

  “That’s rich!” I said. “The one who steals a diamond says I take from others.”

  Suddenly he was above me, his narrow face twisted in fury. He reached down and grabbed my wrists, pulling them away from the ladder.

  “You have no idea what you’ve taken from me!” he snarled, and then he let me drop.

  I had no way to stop myself falling. For a moment I thought I could somehow catch myself on the ladder, but I landed hard on the solid metal walkway below. The back of my head hit the surface hard, and my vision swam. For a terrifying moment, I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. Aurelian stood over me, enjoying my helplessness.

  “You took my family from me. You took my father. My mother too. Tore my family legacy to pieces. But you don’t know anything about your mentor or what he is to me. You still think your dear Mr. Scant and his idiot of a brother just accidentally stumbled upon hidden societies?”

  As I managed to gasp my first breath since I fell, Aurelian wrapped a hand around my neck and pulled me to my feet, his long hair hanging about his face like a willow tree at midnight.

  “Slowly, Oliver Diplexito, I’m going to watch as you come to understand. I want to be there when your world crumbles. And I want you to know that I made it happen.”

  Even though I wanted to fight him, even though I tried to stand, my legs failed me, and I crumpled down at his feet. Little fireworks flashed in front of my eyes. When my vision cleared, Aurelian was staring upwards.

  “Ah. Here they come,” he said, then stepped over me and began to run back the way I had chased him. I twisted to watch him sprint down a passageway until he nearly disappeared. A few moments later, Mr. Scant landed beside me. In the dim light, his golden claw seemed to gleam.

  “He went that way,” I managed to croak.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No. Just fell. He dropped me.”

  “This way!” he called upward. Above me, I could hear Mr. Jackdaw and the Valkyrie following.

  “I’m coming too,” I said, getting up onto my knees.

  “Can you manage?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Aurelian was still toying with us, laughing as he stayed just in sight.

  “He’s leading us into a trap,” said the Valkyrie.

  “No doubt,” said Mr. Scant. “We’d better catch him before we get there.”

  But Aurelian knew where he was going and stayed too far ahead to catch. I struggled to keep up until I was no longer pursuing Aurelian but rather pursuing Mr. Jackdaw, the last of my three companions I could see. Once or twice we passed strangers—men with faces completely covered with soot, or rough-looking fellows with flat caps and stubble—but they only watched us pass with mouths agape.

  Finally, I caught up to the others at a hatch that the Valkyrie must have struggled to fit through. Inside was a series of ladders and steep staircases, going both upwards and further down. I had imagined we had already been at the very bottom of the ship, but evidently the vessel went even deeper. Far above us was a half-circle of daylight.

  “Where are we?” I said.

  “I think this is one of the funnels,” said Mr. Scant. “But I see no exhaust coming up.”

  “The fourth stack is a dummy,” said Mr. Jackdaw. “A bit of kitchen steam and ventilation. They have it to make the ship look big and important, you see. We must be inside.”

  “There’s Aurelian!” I said. He was above us and climbing fast.

  “He’ll have nowhere to go,” said Mr. Jackdaw. “We can corner him here.”

  “I wonder,” Mr. Scant said.

  “Come on,” I urged the others. “We can catch him and put a stop to all this!”

  We began to climb. Despite Aurelian’s youth, he was not as fast as Mr. Scant, and the distance between the two of them soon diminished. I was doing my best, but I once again found myself trailing behind. This time I wasn’t alone. Although the Valkyrie showed no sign of tiring out, she wasn’t able to scale the ladders as fast as Mr. Scant could, while Mr. Jackdaw was hampered by the bullet wound on his thigh.

  “Give it up! We’ve got you!” she shouted. “Hand over the diamond or you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

  Aurelian’s laugh seemed to echo all around us. “Why on Earth would I risk bringing the diamond onto a ship like this?” he called down.

>   I stopped climbing.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Aurelian went on. “My associate Mr. Hunter has the diamond. He left from Gravesend for Cape Town this morning.”

  “Don’t believe him!” I said. “We can still arrest him for stealing it.”

  “Really now?” Aurelian said—and jumped. Not upwards but outwards, into the center of the funnel. For a moment, I thought he had lost his mind, but there was a cable of some sort in his hand, and in moments he was sliding down past us. My eye caught his as he dropped below, and I could see the smirk on his face.

  “Two can play at that game,” Mr. Scant said, vaulting over the handrail. One of the talons of his claw sprang loose and wound around the metal rails, slowing his descent.

  “Too slow,” Aurelian said, landing on a lower platform and dashing for the same hatch we had come in through. “This door seals from outside. And I do believe we’ve arrived at Queenstown, my port of call. Adieu!”

  Before Mr. Scant could catch him, the hatch closed, followed by a grinding sound that must have been a lock sliding into place. I heard Mr. Scant’s feet land on metal, a sound I wasn’t used to hearing—evidently he had decided there was no need for stealth. And then we were all alone in the tall, dark dummy funnel of the world’s grandest ocean liner.

  XVIII

  The Napier V

  Scant pounded at the hatch for a little while, then tried to find some gap or slat he could slip the blades of his claw into, but we all knew it was hopeless.

  “Are we trapped in here?” I asked.

  “Not trapped,” said Mr. Scant. “Look up, you can see the sky. We’re assured of a way out. But we need a quicker one.”

  “What’s the point?” said a glum Mr. Jackdaw. “The diamond isn’t even on board.”

  “Only if you believe Aurelian,” I said. “And even if that were the truth, we know he’s going to Cape Town to make the sale. We can still stop him.”

  “Everything he did was timed with precision,” said Mr. Scant. “We’re in here because he knows for certain there’s no way we can escape in time to stop him getting off this boat.”