Free Angel of Europa by Allen Steele Page B

bathyscaphe’s lower half and tell everyone that there had been an accident. And it almost worked …”
    “Except no one believed you’d found something down there. You cut the comlink too soon, and so you didn’t have enough evidence to back up your side of the story.”
    “No.” She looked down at him again. “But then I got lucky. You’d survived the airlock blowout, but I hadn’t expected that the Captain would ask Martha to revive you. But when they did …”
    “You figured you could manipulate me. Just as you did John and Klaus.”
    “You don’t need to think of it that way.” An indifferent shrug, a wry smile. “I told you I like you … you wouldn’t be here now if I didn’t.”
    Evangeline bent closer, bracing her arms against the bed on either side of him. “We can work this out,” she went on. “After all, you were with me. You saw the pseudocetacean, too. Once we’re back home, we’ll be very rich and—” her voice became very quiet “—you’ll always have me.”
    Looking up into her eyes, Danzig saw that they’d become as cold as Europa’s ocean. “Yes,” he said, “yes, I suppose I could.” The smile reappeared, and she leaned forward to kiss him again. “But then,” he added, “I’d have to explain everything to Captain Diaz.”
    “No, you wouldn’t,” she whispered.
    “Yes, he would,” Diaz said.
    Evangeline jerked her head up to see the captain standing on the other side of the room. Danzig had no idea how long she’d been there; Diaz had been very quiet when she entered Evangeline’s quarters through the bathroom she shared with Margaret.
    Evangeline stared at Diaz, her mouth agape and her eyes wide. Then she must have realized that the captain must have heard the entire conversation she’d had with Danzig, because something snapped within her and she lunged forward to wrap her hands around his neck.
    She was still screaming when Diaz hauled her off the bed and slugged her.

X
    T HE NEXT TIME DANZIG saw Evangeline was when he went to the infirmary.
    Except for the bruise and a couple of scratches her hands had left around his neck, he was unharmed by her attack. Diaz wanted him to see Martha, but instead he’d gone straight to his quarters. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally; there was nothing the doctor could do for him that a few hours sleep wouldn’t accomplish just as well.
    Yet all he did was lie in his bunk, staring up at the ceiling while his mind replayed the events of the last few days. He’d already told Diaz everything he knew, even before he’d gone down to Evangeline’s room to confront her. In hindsight, it was fortunate that the Captain had insisted on coming with him. If Diaz hadn’t been hiding in the bathroom, it was possible that Evangeline might have killed him. She’d been stronger than Danzig expected, and he was too weak to fight her.
    But he could have done something else instead, and it was the realization of what he might have done that finally prompted him to reach over to the intercom and call the command center. He’d intended to ask the captain’s permission to see Evangeline, but he was told that Diaz had taken her to the infirmary. Knowing why they’d gone there, he got dressed again and went upstairs to the med deck.
    Danzig found them in the hibernation compartment, along with the doctor and a couple of other crew members. Diaz was surprised when he came in, as was Martha, but Evangeline seemed to have been expecting him.
    “Hello, Otto,” she said. “Come to gloat?”
    She wore the same sort of thin cotton smock Danzig had found himself wearing when he’d been revived. She stood off to one side of the windowless room, with Kirstin Bigelow to her left and Jim Kretsche to her right; they were apparently there to make sure that she didn’t do anything violent. Yet Evangeline was beyond that; her shoulders were slumped and her hair was bedraggled, but it was the hopeless look in her eyes which told Danzig