Babel

Robin is surprised that Victoire, Ramy, and Letty’s first instinct is to help him. Victoire explains that she and Ramy will be implicated in the crime regardless because they are all foreigners on a ship with a dead White man. She says there’s no world in which Robin goes to prison while she and Ramy go free. Letty understands that she is helping her friend. She and Robin both had abusive fathers, and she thinks that Robin must have acted in self-defense. The group begins discussing how they will cover up Lovell’s death.

Victoire says they have to hide the body and make sure that no one thinks that anything is amiss with Professor Lovell’s absence. To do that, Victoire suggests that they throw the body overboard and then tell everyone else on the ship that Lovell is dealing with a mysterious illness. Everyone will be so afraid of contagion that they won’t look further into Lovell’s ostensible quarantine. Later that night, they smuggle Lovell’s body to the ship deck in a trunk. They tie a weight to his body and then throw the body overboard.

After that, Robin’s conscience begins to plague him. Over and over, he repeats to himself that he killed his father. He asks Ramy if he is evil. Ramy says that Robin’s not evil and all that he can do now is pray for God’s mercy. Each member of the group takes turns having a mental breakdown. Letty often seeks ways that they could come clean about what has happened and avoid prison, or worse. Each time she proposes a plan, though, Robin, Ramy, and Victoire point out how unrealistic it is.

On the ship, they’re able to redirect any attention that anyone might have paid to Professor Lovell. Eventually, the nine-week journey is over, and they arrive back in England. As they leave, the group tells the captain that Professor Lovell has gone ahead to find a doctor. Robin can’t believe that no one stops them from leaving the ship. The group decides to go to Lovell’s house in Hampstead (the house where Robin grew up after leaving China). They plan to return to Oxford after that. There’s nowhere else for them to go, really, and they don’t know what else to do. In the back of his mind, Robin still believes it might still be possible for them to all go back to being students.