ICEBREAKER
Part XI - Left Behind II
Once everyone had gotten into the subtrain, Eliah started the car off down the track before turning to the others.
"I am well aware of Wilford's plans." She stated quickly. "My question is 'What do you think I can do about it?'."
Eliah waited for someone to say something.
"Oh, wonderful." She finally stated. "No one here has a plan even how to handle this?"
The three men remained silent. But this time Eliah read something else in their response.
This time she dropped her prim and proper persona and reverted to the one she seemed more comfortable with, especially when she needed to confront something head on.
"Or ya' have a plan. Ya' just know I'm not going to be bonkers for it."
"If you want to stop a snake," Hes put in, "you got to take it's head off. We figure if we can get control of Wilford, the rest of the train will fall in line."
Eliah turned to the man. "And exactly how do you purpose to get control of this particular snake then?" She asked.
"You already laid the roadwork." Bennett put in.
"How so?"
"Wilford allowed you to come over to Snowpiercer. We hold you 'hostage' in return to going back for Melanie and Layton."
Eliah gave a sharp laugh at the plan. "You think Wilford holds me in that high esteem, mate?"
"If nothing else, he needs you as his engineer, Eliah."
"Wilford will feed himself drugs till the end of time to stay awake and drive that train himself if it means getting rid of those two for good."
"But he needs a second engineer. He surely wouldn't risk losing you."
Eliah fixed a pointed stare on the Second Engineer. "That man has 'risk losing me' by his own hand plenty of times." She replied. "A threat from you won't make no difference."
Eliah quickly caught his her father's look at the disclosure. "Now, don't go gettin' yourself in a stir, Manny." She stated in a much softer tone. "I'm fine enough. But you know what that one is like. He gets a bee in his cap. Suddenly there are spies hiddin' under his bed and then no one is above suspicion at those times. He's dragged me in for 'interrogation' more than once. Few times we thought the whole operation was kippers for sure. But the lads know me. Ol' Eliah doesn't break or bend. And the next day he's all blubbering and apologizing for it. He just has his moods. When he's in a bad one, you try to stay out of his way."
Frank fell back into his somber mood at the statement, preferring to just listen for now.
"You can't play 'hostage' with Wilford." Eliah went on. "He doesn't care about anyone but himself. So forget that plan, mate."
The three exchanged looks.
"What?" Eliah asked. "No plan 'B'?"
"Not like we had a lot of time to come up with three or four." Hes replied.
Eliah gave a sigh as she cast a quick glance at her father. "All right. I have to get some readings over here. Give me a little time and maybe I can make something work."
Over the next half hour Eliah worked under one of the panels in the engine room while Frank sat next to her on the floor. All the time Eliah worked with the wires, she and Frank were deep in a discussion in the Russian dialect they favored when speaking to each other.
Once she was done, Eliah and Frank walked over to the table where Hes was watching them. Bennett soon joined the group from the helm.
"All right then." Eliah stated. "Manny and I think we have a workable plan, but everyone will have to play their part well. We all work together, no one should come out any the worse for wear and you get you train leader and Ms. Cavill back onboard nice and safe."
Bennett and Hes exchanged a look, then turned back to the young woman.
"And what would this plan be?" Hes asked.
"You remember your plan centered around me being the hostage in the negotiations. I told you that wouldn't work because Wilford doesn't care about anyone but himself."
Both men nodded.
Eliah gave both of them a pleased smile. "The new plan ain't much different from your old one." She announced. "Just be changing up hostages."
"Changing up hostages?"
"I told ya' before Wilford don't care 'bout no one but himself." Eliah said, her smile growing all the more. "And that's how we're going to play this to put Snowpiercer back in a negotiating position."
Standing still surveying the horizon, Layton was well past an uneasy feeling. It was now over an hour past Snowpiercer's time to return, and every passing minute made him more anxious about what was happening on Snowpiercer.
Walking back over to where Melanie still sat, he took his usual position in front of her.
Just from the look in her eyes as she stared up at him this time, he knew she was more inline with his own thinking now. And it wasn't a thought he much cared for.
"OK." Layton stated. "Can we now officially say something has gone wrong?"
Melanie gave a deep sigh as she turned her own stare to the horizon. "It's going to get dark soon." She stated. "Then the temperature's going to drop significantly."
"I'm not looking for a weather report here, Melanie." Layton answered her. "What I'm looking for is a plan."
But Melanie slowly shook her head. "There isn't much to work with." She replied. "We have really only two choices. Stay out here and freeze," She said, then turning her stare back to the engine, "or risk going back on Icebreaker."
Layton offered her his hand. "Well, at least if I'm blown up I'll be warm." He replied, trying to make some light of the situation.
Melanie took his hand. But half way to her feet, her own hand slipped free and she fell back against the pile of snow behind her.
Reaching out the other hand to try and soften the short fall, her hand sunk into the snow of the small hill they sat behind.
Layton watched as she sat against the hill again, but she wasn't trying to get to her feet. Instead she was feeling around in the snow where her hand had buried itself. Suddenly she pulled her hand free and quickly turned around and began brushing the snow away where it had gone in.
"What is it?" Layton asked.
For a few moments Melanie didn't answer him. But when she finally, slowly pulled back from where she had been frantically clearing the snow away from the hill, in the aftermath of her work, Layton could clearly see a hand extending from the side of the hill now.
Quickly joining her, the two of them continued pushing more of the snow aside until they had uncovered a space of about three square yards of the side of the hill.
Standing back up, the two paused as they surveyed the now exposed 'hill' that had offered them shelter.
Under the snow, their work had uncovered several bodies, all neatly stacked on top of one another.
"Well, I guess we found the crew." Layton commented quietly.
But Melanie shook her head. "Icebreaker could have sustained over five hundred people. There can't be more than...perhaps less than a hundred bodies here."
"So what happened to the rest of them? Or even better," Layton quickly amended, "what happen to THESE people?"
Melanie crouched down and examined one of the bodies as best she could.
"There are no wounds or signs of a fight that I can see. And they're all stacked neatly here. Like whoever put them here wanted to show at least some respect for them."
Layton suddenly had a worrying thought. "What if it was some sort of plague?" He asked, pointing back to the train. "Something that could still be on that train for all we know."
Melanie got back up, brushing off her hands. "In near absolute zero temperatures? For seven years? No virus could have survived that, Layton."
"Well, whatever happened to them, if we don't figure out what we're going to do soon, we're going to end up just as frozen."
Melanie turned to the train again, then back to Layton, her expression set with determination of no turning back.
"Ready?" She asked.
Nearly a half hour after Eliah had left Snowpiercer, she was back at the border. But this time Mr. Wilford was standing next to her.
Meeting them there were Hes and Roche, with a small delegation of guards.
Wilford had already contacted Bennett once his Second Engineer came back with her report, clearly irritated at the news, which seemed to require his own expertise to fix the problem.
"My Second Engineer tells me Melanie was apparently mucking about with my train again and set up another one of her little traps to try and disrupt the connection between Big Alice and Snowpiercer." He stated in a tone that clearly indicated his irritation at having to be bothered with the triviality.
"So she says." Hes replied in a low, suspicious tone, giving the Second Engineer a decidedly unbelieving look.
"Mr. Knox examined the situation." Eliah replied in her utmost formal tone, meeting the Blacksmith's stare head on. "And he confirmed it was not part of the train's original design."
"Regardless of all this," Wilford put in quickly, "Ms. Elson has informed me of the discrepancy and stated she isn't sure she can correct it without causing the...adjustment...in the train's design to fail completely. Therefore it would seem my expertise is called for. Knowing the most about Melanie and her little 'games' she likes to play."
"Am well aware already you be needin' to come on board." Hes replied. "But will be watched carefully."
Wilford assumed a less formidable air as he carefully leaned on his cane, setting his stare on no one but the Metallurgist. Even favoring him with a small smile.
"I know we didn't get off to the best of starts, Hes..."
But the train's current leader quickly cut him off. "'Mr. Jacobs', if you please." He stated firmly.
Wilford gave little reaction to the blunt correction other than to make the change. "Of course, 'Mr. Jacobs'." He stated with a small, offered nod. "Now, be as we did not get off 'on the right foot'," Wilford continued, "and since it appears you will be Snowpiercer's leader going forward..."
"Only until Mr. Layton and Ms. Cavill return." Hes put in with a solid point.
Wilford paused for a moment before continuing. "My good man," he finally replied, his irritation and impatience slowly making it's way back into his tone, "have you not been listening to my conversations with that irritating Mr. Knox?"
"Aye. Have heard."
"They are not COMING back!" He stated a little more forcefully. "In order to move that train, Melanie would have had to reactivated the reactor. The moment they did that, the reactor went into 'melt down'. There is NO ONE to go pick up. You likely would not even recover their bodies at this point. The ONLY good that came out of the situation is...your track is now cleared." Wilford added in a calmer voice with a small touch of a smile.
Hes maintained his stance throughout Wilford's near ranting speech, never moving so much as his eyes off the man.
"Now, currently, YOU are the leader of Snowpiercer." Wilford continued.
"Aye." Was all Hes had to say on the matter.
"Perhaps it's time you 'took' leadership of this train, Mr. Jacobs, and began making the more reasonable decisions that best benefit everyone."
The hard stare remained. "Which would be?"
"Allow me to continue to guide the trains back to the switch and get us back on the main track."
"Main track is damaged." Came the flat answer.
"And it has been over 30 hours since we first encountered the Track Scalers working on that matter. They would have more than finished the work by now and the track should be better than new." Wilford added in an almost jovial tone. "So your see, my good man, going back to the main track really s the best decision for everyone."
"Is not best decision for two members of this train." Hes replied in the same flat tone.
Wilford leaned on his cane as he gave a deep sigh. "I can see you intend to be as stubborn about this as your predecessor." He finally replied, turning back to the man. "But know this. I have NO intention of allowing this train to return to the drop point. And the two trains fighting each other will only end in disaster for both. So I would strongly recommend you think very hard on that, Mr. Jacobs. We can work together for the good of all. Or we can go down in flames fighting each other."
Hes all but ignored the impassioned speech as he turned to the guards standing behind him.
"Take Mr. Wilford and his Second Engineer to engine room." He stated. "Mr. Knox will oversee their work there."
With a deep sigh, Wilford led Eliah past Hes towards the station gate leading to the subtrain, which would in turn take them to the engine room.
Hes silently watched them leave, as did Roche.
Once they were headed down the stairs, Roche stepped up to the train's latest chancellor.
"Once a snake, always a snake." The head of security muttered.
Hes nodded slightly. "Some just more dangerous than others." He commented before turning back to the other man. "Best to be letting Mr. Knox know that one is headed to the engine room."
"Yes, sir."
"And I trust your men will be in place for the final part of this?" Hes asked before the man left.
Roche gave a quick nod. "Everyone is in place, sir."
Hes turned back towards where Wilford had descended the ladder to the subtrain.
"Very good, Mr. Roche." He replied, "Carry on then."