Chapter Thirteen: Sailing Away
Charity was still wet and shivering from her crash in the snow. Even with a mug of hot chocolate in her hand, she felt chilled to the bone. Her nerves were so frazzled that she longed to go on soma holiday. Yet if she gave in to her jitters and took some pills she would be utterly unconscious when Dr. Carlton explained what was going on.
"What is this place? Where's Dr. Beddington? Who caused that helicopter crash just now, and why?" The trembling redhead could see her breath in the frosty air. There were bright lights overhead, but the mouth of the vast cavern was not heated.
"Hush." Dr. Margaret Carlton put her arm around the shivering girl. Just then a couple of very handsome young men in pilot uniforms approached the two women shivering at the cavern entrance.
"Your rocket is being cleaned and refueled and given a very thorough pre-flight check, Dr. Carlton," said the one with the lustrous head of golden hair and the mischievous bright blue eyes. "We can take off first thing in the morning."
"Splendid," said the raven-haired scientist. "My assistant will fly back to London and report to the World Controller personally."
"I will?" Charity hated the thought of abandoning her quest. "How will I know what to say? I came here to find Dr. Beddington and there's been no sign of her! And now you want me to go back to London and say everything in Greenland is just fine?"
"The sooner we inform Control that the mating experiment is out of hand, the sooner we can launch a full-scale rescue operation. It's obvious that Edith Beddington is in the hands of wild, savage men. They're the ones who brought down our helicopter. The sooner you get back to London, Charity, the sooner we can put a stop to all this madness. We can't have these primitive beast-men running wild!"
"Oh." Charity saw that it all made sense. Dr. Beddington had unleashed the beast-men with her own experiments, and now she desperately needed help! "Aren't you coming home too?" she asked, feeling a bit like a traitor to be abandoning Dr. Carlton too.
"I have work to do here," the slim, raven-haired scientist said. "I have my own operation to supervise, and I'm used to arctic conditions." Giving Charity a gentle push towards the two pilots, she said, "off you go now. Be ready to fly first thing in the morning."
"Charming woman, isn't she? But a bit forceful, perhaps." The tall, golden-haired pilot gave Charity a winsome smile. "Come on, I'll show you where you can sleep. You look ready to fall over!"
"Jan's got it right, doll. You look ready to drop!" The dark-eyed pilot was a bit shorter. He had curly black hair and a muscular build.
"Both of you can stop sniffing around," Charity snapped, with a brisk toss of her head. "I'm not having anyone in my room tonight – not after the day I've had!"
"Just look at that fiery red hair," exclaimed tall, golden-haired Jan. "You can tell she's got a temper, can't you Dean?"
"We'd better watch out. She looks like she could bite our heads off!" The two pilots laughed and nudged each other, but after she set them straight they didn't pester Charity or make her uncomfortable. Instead they guided her down a long maze of warm and brightly lit corridors, then left her at her door with a couple of smart salutes.
"Am I doing the right thing?" Charity moaned with pleasure as she sank into a hot bath, determined to relax and put everything out of her mind. But the question popped into her head and wouldn't go away. She had her bath, and then she dined on roast beef, steaming vegetables and ice cream from a tray in bed. But it was no use. After dinner she took two of her lovely pink pills and closed her eyes, for she was dying to sail away on a glorious soma holiday. Yet Charity knew that the story about beast-men was not the whole truth. She felt it in her bones. Dr. Edith Beddington was out there somewhere, all alone in the cold and begging for help.