Deck Z - The Titanic by Chris Pauls Page A

warnings?” The doctor tried not to think about Timothy’s skull smashed against the bloody floor. “I couldn’t possibly say.”
    “You have the devil’s heart to speak such things!” came a yell from outside the captain’s quarters, followed by the sound of a hard slap and a shout of pain.
    The door to the captain’s cabin burst open and Weiss was shoved inside. His hands, still bloody from the meat locker floor, were cuffed in front of him. A large, red handprint branded his cheek. Mr. King, the Master-at-Arms, gave Weiss a final push and roughly closed the door behind them.
    Smith stood, returning his cap to his head. “You will hold your hand, Mr. King,” he commanded. “I will not tolerate such behavior from my crew, no matter what this man has done.”
    “My apologies, Captain. I lost my temper,” said King, staring at his shoes.
    “So this is our murderer,” said Ismay, examining Weiss’s swollen face, unimposing build, and nondescript clothing. “Doesn’t quite look the type, does he?”
    “He goes by ‘Nosworthy’ on the manifest, but he’s since changed his tune,” replied King. “Now he’s saying it’s ‘Weiss.’ We can’t be sure because he doesn’t have a passport. Claims that was stolen, along with his traveling bag. This stick is also his. We found it in the meat locker where he bashed in poor Timothy’s head.”
    King handed over Weiss’s cane and Captain Smith gave it a once-over. “This is more than a stick,” he said, activating the mechanism that snapped the hidden blade into view.
    The captain handed the weapon back to King, who looked surprised, then angry at having his ignorance exposed. Weiss noted a formidable sword hanging on the captain’s wall. The blade’s battered sheath indicated the weapon wasn’t merely decorative.
    “What is your true name, sir?” Smith sternly addressed Weiss. “It would not be wise to make me ask a second time.”
    “My name is Theodor Weiss, Captain. Everything I told Dr. O’Loughlin is true. It is imperative that you …”
    “Let’s waste no more time listening to the admonitions of murderers,” snapped Ismay. “We have eyewitnesses, for God’s sake!”
    “Sir, there is a deadly infection aboard that must be stopped,” said Weiss. “Your ship and her passengers are in grave peril. Dr. O’Loughlin, as you say, is an eyewitness.”
    “I … I cannot verify your full account, sir,” said O’Loughlin.
    “
Titanic
’s passengers are quite safe,” Ismay said to Weiss. “No one need fear a thing now that you are in custody.”
    Weiss mustered his dignity, held his cuffed hands in front of him, and addressed Smith. “That cook was incurably sick with a plague that could infect every passenger on this ship. I did what was necessary to stop him. We can’t be sure he was the only one afflicted.”
    “Perhaps we should sound the general alarm!” Ismay threw up his hands theatrically. “Abandon ship!” The Master-at-Arms snickered, but was silenced by the captain’s glare.
    “Let me be perfectly clear,” replied Weiss, looking each man in the eye, one by one. “Unless we get this quarantined immediately, there might not be anyone left to put in a lifeboat.”
    “Dr. O’Loughlin tells us,” said Smith, “that you claim to have stolen the ingredients for this plague from the German government.” He paused. “Are we all now accomplices to your crime?”
    As with O’Loughlin earlier, Weiss knew his story stretched credulity, but he had to convince them. “I was working toward a cure when I discovered our military’s plan to use the disease as a weapon. I had no choice but to take it, for the good of humanity. I fled Germany for America with the vial of what I refer to as “the Toxic” because I believe it might hold the key to a cure for all strains of the plague. But the Kaiser believes the Toxic belongs to him and sent an agent to intercept me. I’m sorry to say the man did his job.”
    “Now you claim