The Map of the Sky (Trilogía Victoriana #2)(44)
“The monster can change into a human being, Captain,” he explained, going into less detail than he had with Allan. “It changed into Carson, which is how it was able to kill Doctor Walker.”
“It changed into Carson? What nonsense are you talking, Reynolds?” said MacReady, his eyes fixed on the trapdoor leading to the hold as he cocked his rifle and began descending the ladder.
“I am telling you the creature can make itself look like any one of us,” the explorer said, out of breath, clambering down after him. “You must warn your men!”
“Keep your crazy ideas to yourself, Reynolds,” the captain muttered when he reached the bottom. “I will tell my men nothing of the sort.”
Reynolds felt his frustration boil over into fury, and without thinking, he tucked his pistol into his belt, grabbed the captain by his lapels, and pushed him against the wall. Taken aback, MacReady stared at the explorer in astonishment.
“Listen to me for once, damn it,” Reynolds said without loosening his grip. “I am telling you that thing can change into a human being, and if you refuse to inform your men we will all perish!”
MacReady listened yet made no attempt to wriggle free, perhaps because he was trying to make sense of Reynolds’s unexpected response, at odds with the crude idea the captain had of him.
“Very well,” he said coldly. “You have said your piece, now unhand me.”
Reynolds let him go, surprised and slightly ashamed at his own behavior. The captain slowly straightened his lapels and gazed contemptuously at the explorer. Reynolds was about to apologize when he suddenly found himself pressed up against the wall, MacReady’s pistol digging into his left temple.
“Listen carefully, Reynolds, because I’m not going to say this twice,” the captain growled in a hoarse voice. “If you ever, ever grab me by the lapels again, you’ll live to regret it.”
The two men stared at each other in silence for a few moments.
Reynolds’s voice seemed to ooze through his clenched teeth. “Captain, if you refuse to do as I say, neither of us will live long enough to regret anything. A few moments ago, Carson was in my cabin, and before my very eyes, and those of Gunner Allan, he changed into the monster from the stars and then tried to kill us both. We managed to shoot at the creature and it escaped, but not before changing into Allan, and then into a kind of gigantic spider. Do you understand what I am saying? That thing can change into anything it likes, including into one of us!”
“Do you expect me to believe that Carson burst into your cabin to treat you to a preposterous fancy dress parade?” MacReady said, beside himself.
“I invited him there because I was suspicious of him,” the explorer explained. “I had stumbled upon the real Carson’s body a few hours earlier while I was looking for the flying machine.”
“What? You found Carson’s body? Why the devil didn’t you inform me?”
“I didn’t consider it necessary,” Reynolds replied, shrugging as much as he dared with MacReady’s gun to his head.
“You didn’t consider it necessary!” roared MacReady. “Who do you think you are? I’ve no more patience with you, Reynolds!”
“Would you have believed me, Captain? You yourself ordered me not to bother you again, nor any of your men,” Reynolds reminded him, with more irony than bitterness.
“Gentlemen,” declared Allan, who had climbed down after them, “I don’t think this is the time to—”
“I’m the captain, Reynolds! It was your duty to inform me of the incident,” bellowed MacReady. “Do you realize that your heroics have put us all in danger?”
“On the contrary, Captain. Thanks to my discovery our lives might yet be saved. Without knowing what the creature is capable of, we would be lost.”
“And if the creature didn’t know that we knew, we would be at an advantage!” MacReady hissed. “God damn you, Reynolds, why didn’t you tell me so that we could capture the thing? What in Heaven’s name did you hope to gain by inviting it to your cabin?”
“I wanted to make contact with it,” Reynolds acknowledged reluctantly, with some embarrassment. “I thought that—”
“To make contact with it?” the captain roared, spraying Reynolds’s face with saliva. “You invited it to take tea, as if you were a couple of young ladies?”
“Captain . . . ,” Allan ventured timidly, “don’t you think that—”
“Hold your tongue, Sergeant!” MacReady snapped. “I thought you had more brains than this idiot. I swear to you, Reynolds, when all this is over, I’ll have you put behind bars for mutiny. I’m tempted to put a bullet in your head right now.” The captain contemplated Reynolds in silence, carefully weighing up his own proposition. “In fact, maybe I should do exactly that. Didn’t you say the monster could change into any one of us? How do I know it hasn’t taken on your appearance?” he said, stroking the trigger of his pistol.
“I can vouch for Mr. Reynolds, Captain,” a voice chimed out behind MacReady. “I was with him when the creature fled before us. I saw it with my own eyes. Lower your weapon, I beg you.”
MacReady glanced sideways at the barrel of the gun aimed at his left temple, and at the skinny arm of the sailor called Griffin, who was clasping it firmly.