He took a twist of line around his arm, for his fingers could no longer
hold, and he clung with the remains of his strength as they dragged them
in.
jagged ice brushed and snatched at them, but he held the boy with his
free arm.
Pull/he whispered. Oh, for God's sake, pull! And then they were
bumping against Warlock's steel side, were being lifted free of the
water, the twist of line smearing the wet skin from his forearm,
staining his sleeve with blood that was instantly dissolved to pink by
sea water. He felt no pain.
With the other arm, he hung on to the boy, holding him from slipping out
of the life-ring. He did not feel the hands that grabbed at him. There
was no feeling in his legs and he collapsed face forward, but David
caught him before he struck the deck and they hustled him into the
steaming warmth of Angel's galley, his legs dragging behind him.
Are you okay, Skipper? David kept demanding, and when Nick tried to
reply, his jaw was locked in a frozen rictus and great shuddering spasms
shook his whole body.
Get their clothes off/ grated Angel, and, with an easy swing of his
heavily muscled shoulders lifted the boy's body on to the galley table
and laid it out face upwards.
With a single sweep of a Solingen steel butcher's knife he split the
crimson anorak from neck to crutch and stripped it away.
Nick found his voice, it was ragged and broken by the convulsions of
frozen muscles.
What the hell are you doing, David? Get your arse on deck and get this
ship on course for Golden Adventurer/ he grated, and would have added
something a little more forceful, but the next convulsion caught him,
and anyway David Allen had already left.
You'll be all right. Angel did not even glance up at Nick as he worked
with the knife, ripping away layer after layer of the boy's clothing. A
tough old dog like you - but I think we've got a ripe case of
hypothermia here. Two of the seamen were helping Nick out of his sodden
clothing, the cloth crackled with the thin film of ice that had already
formed. Nick winced with the pain of returning circulation to
half-frozen hands and feet.
Okay/ he said, standing naked in the middle of the galley and scrubbing
at himself with a rough towel. I'll be all right now, return to your
stations. He crossed to the kitchen range, tottering like a drunk, and
welcomed the blast of heat from it, rubbing warmth into himself, still
shaking and shuddering, his body mottled puce and purple with cold and
his genitals shrunken and drawn up into the dense black bush at his
crotch.
Coffee's boiling. Get yourself a hot drink, Skip/ Angel told him,
glancing up at Nick from his work. He ran a quick appreciative glance
over Nick's body, taking in the wide rangy shoulders, the dark curls of
damp hair that covered his chest, and the trim lines of hard muscle that
moulded his belly and waist.
Put lots of sugar in it - it will warm you the best possible way/ Angel
instructed him, and returned his attention to the slim young body on the
