Frozen In Time - Rescue

Part XX - Secrets And Lies

Melanie stood looking at the woman as though seeing her for the first time as understanding dawned on her as to who she actually was.

The woman suddenly fell to a tone totally out of character with who she had presented herself as up to now.

"What's the matter then, Ducky?" She asked in the same thick, cockney accent Melanie was used to hearing her use. "Is this better for ya' then?"

Frank gave the display a slight sound of derision as he grimaced at it. "I do hate when you do that." He stated.

The woman leaned down to him, giving him a teasing smile as she continued in the same accent. "Oh, what's the matter then, Manny? You don't care for how I talk?"

Frank frowned at her again. "It hardly reflects your pedigree or your education." He stated. "I think few people with a Oxford education talk like they just stepped out of a back alley."

The woman gave his cheek a pat. "Oh, none of that then! I'm a good girl, I am." She stated, quoting a popular movie role.

"Oxford?" Melanie questioned.

The woman turned back to her, reverting to her much more formal manner of talking. "Oxford. Durham. A brief stint at Manchester. It wasn't to my liking though. I believe I even had two years at MIT."

Layton turned to Melanie. "You went to MIT." He put in quickly, hoping the two might find some peaceful common ground in that fact.

The woman favored the train's chancellor with one of her pure white smiles. "Oh, I doubt Ms. Cavill and I would have met." She replied, turning a slightly more haughty smile to Snowpiercer's First Engineer. "I went there as an undergraduate."

"I was there as an undergraduate." Melanie quickly countered when a pair of hands on her shoulders quickly stopped her from saying anything more.

"It's not a contest." Layton leaned over and quietly whispered in her ear.

But Melanie was already off and running. "I also attended Yale and did several of my graduate studies at Harvard. And these trains are more of a testimony to my engineering skills than Wilford will ever be able to claim."

Eliah gave her an unimpressed, but still cordial smile. "And I understand your first train was Big Alice."

Melanie returned the proud, affirmative tone of any parent. "That's right."

Eliah again favored her with that almost condescending tone. "It showed."

Layton kept a firm grip on his first engineer's shoulders as she tried to take a determined step forward. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Eliah!" Came the still weak but firm toned reprimand from the bed. "Stop baiting her."

The woman turned back to him with a questioning look.

"It's undignified." He added.

The woman tossed her head slightly as she turned back to Melanie. "My apologies. I am being told I was rude." She offered to Melanie as a loud sigh came from the bed at her statement. But her tone quickly softened. "I do appreciate the care and concern you have shown Manny." A look of pure affection settled on the man in the bed. "He's very important to me."

The deep scowl slowly melted into a small smile as Frank looked up at her, still holding onto her hand.

Eliah quickly turned back to Melanie. "I know you have no reason to trust me, Ms. Cavill. But my time here is short and due to the delay already, I'll have to speed up my work on Snowpiercer to bring something back to Mr. Wilford to show my assessment of the door jamming was legitimate." She gave a slight sigh as she turned back to the man in the bed. "Which means I have to leave now, Manny."

Melanie didn't miss for a moment to pure desolation in the woman's tone at having to leave Frank's bedside.

"Was what you told WIlford about the door jamming true?" She quickly asked, coming up with a plan suddenly.

Eliah slowly turned back to her, looking at the First Engineer as though assessing the value of that information. But slowly her eyes turned to the floor.

"No. I actually managed to get up into the vent by the circuit earlier to do some additional work to keep the door in it's current state. It will close, but not lock."

"For what purpose?"

The woman became slightly defensive again. "Because it would nearly guarantee me an excuse to come over here." She replied, her hold tightening on the hand she still clung to like a life line. "If I worked everything right, it meant I could possibly find Manny. See that he was all right." Her tone dropped again. "I...I'm sorry if I miss judged you." She directed to Melanie. "But you have to understand...I only know what I saw. I thought you saw your chance for freedom and that was all that mattered to you. So you took it, leaving everyone else behind. Even your daughter. It didn't meld well with how you had presented yourself up until then, but I thought...maybe that had all been a facade. Like the one Mr. Wilford presents. You had studied under him for years." The tone dropped a bit more. "I thought maybe your engineering skills weren't all you learned from him. I apologize for my earlier behavior."

Melanie answered her in an equally less hostile tone. "I understand how you felt. But I didn't want to leave anyone behind, least of all Frank. He's not just my assistant, he's also a friend. And I tried to make sure he, Alex, and Hes all got off the train, but...," she turned a slightly disapproving stare to Layton, "it wasn't exactly my choice."

Layton met her stare with a small smile. "Well, forgive me for trying to save your life. And that elbow to the ribs is still healing, for your information."

Melanie quickly turned back to the woman standing by her assistant's bedside. "If you tell me what needs to be done to carry on making Wilford think everything you've told him is legitimate, maybe I could do the work, and that would allow you to stay here with Frank for a little longer."

The woman looked suddenly like Melanie had just offered her an invaluable and totally unexpected gift. "You would do that for me?"

Melanie gave her a slight nod. "A...'thank you'...for being so much trouble on Big Alice. For causing some of your people to be hurt."

The woman gave her comment a slight dismissive toss of her head. "Oh, don't worry about them." She quickly reverted to 'E's slang and tone. "My china plates thought it was great fun having you and your lot on board. Gave 'em somethin' to do and led old man Wilford on a merry chase, we did. Great fun it was."

A sharp hand pull and a disapproving look came from the man in the bed again.

"Stop that." He stated once more.

"Just the same," Melanie replied, "if I can help you now, I'd like to return the favor."

Eliah quickly laid our her bogus repairs to Melanie, explaining the data she would need to bring back to show the metrics had changed from before to after the repairs.

"It all seems very elaborate." Melanie replied when Eliah was done with her instructions. "For instance, if we changed the scan of the fourth circuit board and made it more..."

But Eliah quickly stopped her. "It needs to be complicated." She replied.

"Why?"

"Because otherwise Mr. Wilford would be suspicious. A larger part of my being able to help those on Big Alice comes from me being able to maintain my position. I can't risk giving him any reason to mistrust me. In addition, I would like to get Alexandra back on Snowpierer as quickly as possible."

Melanie's anxiety level shot up. "You don't think Wilford would try and harm her?"

But Eliah quickly waved her off. "Nothing like that. Just the opposite, in fact." She stated. "Never doubt, Ms. Cavill, how much Mr. Wilford loves your daughter. For seven years she has been likely the greatest thing keeping him from going completely off the rails. But Mr. Wilford's view of 'love' is a bit..."

"Crazy?" Layton offered up.

Eliah favored him with a small smile. "Skewed, Mr. Layton. If someone he cares for upsets him, or does anything he views as a betrayal, Mr. Wilford feels punishment is the only answer to correcting the behavior. The level of the punishment correlating to what he views was the level of betrayal. But while many of us Mr. Wilford...trusts...have 'felt the whip' of his displeasure many time, so to speak," she added, turning again to Melanie, "Alexandra seems to skirt those punishments with little more than a verbal warning. In addition, if I perform well today, I may be able to secure a position in being another engineer allowed to come to Snowpiercer. If Alexandra takes up a more permanent residence here, I could soon be the only one. Therefore granting me nearly daily access to Manny."

"All right." Melanie agreed. "Then you can stay here with Frank and I can effect the repairs per your instructions. It should take...four hours." She slowly added, thinking the drawn out time would make the woman happy..

But Eliah shook her head. "The repairs shouldn't take more than three at the utmost. Don't give Mr. Wilford reason to be suspicious, Ms. Cavill. I would rather trade an hour now for another day later."

"All right." Melanie agreed. "I'll be back in three hours and escort you back to the border."

"Make it a full escort, Ms. Cavill." The woman replied. "Anything less, Mr. Wilford will be suspicious."

Melanie gave a slight nod, then turned and headed with Layton to the engine room, leaving a very pleased looking Eliah quickly seating herself on the side of Frank's bed as they quickly fell into a conversation that sounded to Melanie like it could have been Russian.