Whatever. It had been demonstrated that the thing worked, that was beyond question, and if it worked once Howard could make it work again.
He closed the lid, noticing the dents made when that maniac hit it that night in the warehouse. He snapped the catches, and stood up. He didn't hear the sound of Fuzzy's harness leather ripping.
The next thing he knew, Fuzzy had wrapped his trunk around his neck and slammed him to the floor on his back. He looked up into two tons of angry, hairy death as Fuzzy rammed his massive head downward. He screamed.
Susan bolted back up the stairs. Fuzzy had Howard pinned to the floor, one tusk just missing him on the right, the other poking into the aluminum case on Howard's left.
"Fuzzy! Up, Fuzzy, up! Up, Fuzzy!"
The mammoth paused, down on his knees.
"Up, Fuzzy! That's a good boy. Up, Fuzzy."
Fuzzy moved back slightly, got to his feet, looked down at Howard as if wondering if he might take just one more poke at the guy who had upset Susan so much... then backed up to where he had been and stood there, swaying gently.
"Go, Howard," Susan said quietly. "Just get out of here."
Howard scrambled to his feet, thankful he hadn't wet himself. He brushed himself off, and went outside.
"Are you okay, darling?" Andrea went to him and put her arms around him. She could feel him shaking. He hugged her, and turned to Warburton.
"Will do."
Warburton stood there holding the gun, though he knew Matt wasn't going to try anything stupid. He watched Howard and Andrea hurry down the stairs and cast off the line, then scramble aboard the boat. The engine started and the boat began to back up.
Then it vanished. There was nothing on the water but some backwash bubbles that quickly dissipated.
Warburton started running toward where the boat had been. Very near the edge of the pier he slipped on an oily patch and went down, striking his head on one of the pilings. Matt started toward him, and saw him roll over the edge and fall into the water.
"Matt, what's happening?" He turned and saw Susan standing in the door.
"You keep Fuzzy calm. I'll see." He went to the edge and looked. Warburton was floating facedown in the water. Matt cursed and jumped in. It was quite a shock, hitting the cold water.
He was an indifferent swimmer, but he managed to thrash along and turn Warburton over and get his arm around his neck in the vaguely remembered lifesaving position, and he treaded water for a moment, then started for the dock where the boat had been docked until a few seconds ago.
Susan was waiting for him at the dock, and helped him pull Warburton up and lay him out on the wood planks.
"Do you know what to do?" Matt asked.
"Mouth to mouth, I guess." She didn't seem pleased. At that moment Warburton coughed up some water, shook his head, and sat up.
They helped him to his feet, got his arms over their shoulders, and staggered up the stairs with him. Halfway to the trailer, Matt suddenly stopped, dropped Warburton's arm, and ran toward the trailer. He went up the stairs, was gone for only a moment, then he came back down and faced Susan and a very groggy Warburton.
"That son of a bitch stole my watch," he said.
THEY didn't have any clothes to fit big, bulky Warburton, so he sat across from them in the breakfast nook, soaking wet and shivering and wrapped in a blanket as he sipped from a cup of instant coffee Susan had heated in the microwave. While Susan was out, Fuzzy had entered the living area, curious now rather than angry, and had done a little damage.
"Do you have a first name?" Susan asked. "I never use it. Did you loosen the harness on that animal?"
"Satisfied?"
"Sorry. I had to ask."
"I would never have endangered Fuzzy that way."
"Point taken."
They were quiet for a while, each of them digesting what they had just seen, none of them quite sure what to think of it yet. Finally Matt spoke.
"Howard never told me about the frozen woman between the man and the mammoth," he said. "Looks like you had your little secret, too. Howard never heard about the watch the man was wearing, did he?"
"What was I supposed to do?" Warburton said angrily. "I didn't send a message in the clear, that would have been foolish. I just radioed Howard and told him to get up there where they were digging up his mammoth, there was something he needed to see. Howard knows I wouldn't waste his time. Between the time I made the call and the time I got back to the mammoth, that bastard Charlie had swiped the watch and was over the horizon on his snowmobile. I went up in the chopper and looked for him, and I don't know how he managed to hide in that wasteland, but he did. Some of the other Indians, Eskimos, whatever the hell they were, they said Charlie was a weird one, believed in magic, he must have thought the watch had powerful juju.
"Howard was on his way. Rostov had showed me the box by then. I knew Howard would be so happy about finding that... what the hell did it matter if the guy was wearing a watch? It was obvious he had traveled in time and I figured the box was the way he had done it. There were only me and five other people, counting Charlie, who knew about the watch. I figured the box was the important thing, but it cost me, plenty, to be sure those other five were quiet about it. One of them's dead now." He looked up, saw the expressions on their faces. "Not me. Rostov worked in a refrigerator, he caught pneumonia, he died. End of story. I'm not a hit man."
Susan grasped Matt's hand and squeezed.
"Don't feel responsible for this, Matt," she said. "We were talking about fate all night. I think you pick your fate. Howard did this to himself."
"What about Andrea?"
"That I don't know. But she's with him, I'm sure of that, wherever they are. And a few hours ago I had to consider whether I'd be happier in the Stone Age with you, or here without you. And I know how I decided."
Matt squeezed her hand. "It just seems so harsh. Howard is the last man I'd expect to survive hardships like that. And what took him up to the Arctic Circle?"
Nobody had a comment to make about that. Susan looked at Warburton and sighed. "Okay, when do we start back?"
Warburton shook his head.
"You think I care about that? My boss is gone, and I'm retiring. You saved my life, and I pay my debts. I'll call the search off, I'll tell them I'm on my way back to Oregon with the animal, and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned."
He got up and walked out into the night.
THE rain let up before sunrise, and the ferry pulled into its slip shortly after that. Half a dozen other vehicles had parked before the gate went up and they all drove aboard. It was the same size as the first ferry they had been on.
The crossing to Friday Harbor was smooth, the day overcast. Quite a few more cars got on, and then they were off to Point Roberts. Susan stayed in the trailer with Fuzzy, who was feeling as close to grumpy as he ever got. Matt stood at the bow of the ship and watched some dolphins rolling in front of them, thinking about many things, rearranging his life. It looked like there was another jail cell in the offing, though Susan thought they wouldn't be in custody for long. He could tolerate it if they turned the lights out at night. He didn't think any Canadian jailers would be punching him in the nose.
Howard, why did you do it? There at the end, when he was dying, Howard could have done something, some small thing, to twist events around so that he never would have gone back into the past to live what must have been a very, very hard life. Why didn't he? Before that, he could have refused to go north.
Had a good life. That was the only explanation Matt was likely to get.
The ferry docked and Susan joined him in the cab for the short drive to the crossing, having given Fuzzy another tranquilizer and laid him down in the back. The next few days were going to be stressful.