Deadly Impact--A Richard Mariner nautical adventure (28 page)

Engineer Watanabe rose and gave a tiny bow. ‘The board may not be aware of my duties. I am the engineer in charge of the team whose duty it is to communicate with
Sayonara
, to override her on-board systems under certain circumstances, and to take remote control of her on Mr Hiroshi's direction. Now, you will be aware that communication with
Sayonara
has been partial. Incomplete. Intermittent. No more, in fact than the standard information from her black box recorder and occasional bursts of further information which seem to suggest something akin to a series of accidents. We have found this worrying, of course, for many reasons – most immediately because we need to rely on constant, unbroken and accurate communication with more than just the black box recorder when the ship docks tomorrow. Also because this means that whoever has gone aboard for whatever reason has interfered with the computer programmes on which we also rely, and Captain Mr Mariner and his A Team have not been able as yet to resume regular service. We ourselves have been unable to override the computers and take control of the vessel as we would like to do, even having used the master control codes. We cannot, therefore, guarantee to have control over her tomorrow morning when she approaches the terminal. We most strongly recommend that all on-board computer controls except the basic propulsion and ship-handling controls – engine and helm – be shut down, if such a thing can be guaranteed, and a crew with an experienced pilot be sent out to her as soon as she comes to the eighty kilometre mark. Unless we have control, that is.'

‘It would seem sensible to send out an experienced crew and pilot whether you have control of her at that point or not,' suggested Mr Hiroshi. ‘There is a European saying, is there not?
Better safe than sorry.
'

‘Indeed, sir. That would be the wisest course. But it brings us to the next difficulty, which is this. Although our intermittent communications with the computers have closed down once again, we are in possession of the latest GPS position that the vessel's black box recorded. It was sent to us an hour ago. At that time, according to the ship's information, she was at forty degrees north latitude and one hundred and forty-four point four degrees east longitude. That is precisely where she is programmed to be, despite the fact that she has suffered some damage and been forced into some necessary deviation from her route by the recent typhoon.'

‘This might seem to be a very positive thing,' observed Mr Hiroshi. ‘If she can have returned so rapidly to her course.'

‘But, with respect, sir, we at the coastguard do not believe she has,' interrupted Captain Endo. He did not stand up or bow, but he commanded the complete attention of the board. ‘At about the same time as Engineer Watanabe received his information as to
Sayonara
's location, our vessel the
Hida
observed her. And at that time, she was at thirty-nine point five degrees north latitude and one hundred and forty-four point one degrees east longitude.'

‘That does not sound like very much difference,' said Mr Hiroshi.

‘It's forty kilometres or twenty-five miles,' said Robin. ‘What are the implications of that?'

‘Well, there's a time implication, of course,' said Captain Endo. ‘It means she is well over one hour closer to the facility than Engineer Watanabe thought she was. So when Mr Hiroshi observed that she might be coming over the horizon in just over sixteen hours, she might in fact be there in fifteen, which in turn has implications governing when we need to alert any pilots or crew you might want to send out to her.'

‘It also means,' added Watanabe, ‘that there will be some uncertainty about what her position will be when she reaches the point at which the computers have been programmed to allow us to take over her control. How close will we need to let her come before we are forced to take more drastic action if that point never arises?' He looked at Mr Hiroshi for an answer, but the chief executive frowned and failed to meet his eye.

‘And, of course, if I may interject a thought here, gentlemen,' added Robin, ‘it raises the question of whether
Sayonara
will stop at your facility out there as programmed. Or whether she might sail on those extra kilometres right into the middle of the floating city.'

‘No, she won't,' said Anastasia suddenly, her gaze intense. ‘If she doesn't stop, then just before she reaches Kujukuri she's going to run straight into my nuclear power station,
Zemlya
.'

S
urrounded by the five men on board he trusted least, under the threat of two AR 15 short-barrelled rifles whose load he already knew all about, Richard led the way down the length of the ship. His path was by no means straight, but he knew the vessel well enough by now to follow it unhesitatingly. This was not the weather deck. He was walking swiftly along the corridors and through the work spaces that made up the second engineering deck, Engineering Deck C. Fortunately, the area Richard had been held in and which they set out from was forward of the engine space itself, or an already long and fairly complicated trek would have been a good deal longer – and more complicated. But, watchful though Richard was, he never felt any temptation to try to slip into a side corridor or go dashing up or down a companionway. The others crowded around him. And, if Macavity and his sidekick stayed aloof, Aleks, Dom and Steve were always close at hand. Macavity had decided to start at the bow, and Richard knew intuitively that this was where the pirate had come across whatever aroused his suspicions. But of all the locations he might have guessed at, the starboard chain locker seemed the least likely.

They arrived at the chain-locker door at the end of the final corridor on the deck he had been following and assembled there because they could go no further. Richard noticed the way Macavity eyed the apparently unremarkable entrance before he began to speak. ‘We're going to search this deck,' said the South African. ‘Every nook and cranny. And we'll also take a look at the deck below – and perhaps the one below that if I think it's necessary. But the other teams will also be working above and below us, so take care and move slow. If anyone gets shot I want it to be done on purpose.' Even as he spoke, Richard could hear another team beginning to assemble on Engineering Deck B, immediately above them. Above that team there was only the open forecastle head, the helideck between the anchor winches and the forepeak. In all probability there would be another team at the vertical front of the whaleback containing the five huge LNG tanks, also starting as far forward as possible and working methodically back towards the bridge.

Richard had gone through the logistics of all this himself more times than he liked to think. It had been the basis of many of his discussions with Aleks, whose reluctance to vary from the predictable, methodical approach now looked more sinister than ever. Was he in with Macavity? But, from what Macavity was suggesting, he, like Richard, was also going to favour the occasional unlooked-for departure from the predictable search pattern – the unexpected foray down on to the decks below where his ghostly enemies might be lurking. Richard hoped that the three of them had removed themselves and every trace of their presence to a place Macavity would never think to search, and would be content to wait there until the danger of discovery – or worse – was past. ‘We start here,' rasped Macavity. ‘In the chain locker. Open up, Captain Mariner.' Richard opened the handles and swung the metal door wide, marvelling at how silently it moved on its brand-new, well-greased hinges. Then he held it, feeling its weight shifting in his grip as
Sayonara
continued to ride uneasily over the moderating westerly set of the sea. Macavity slung his rifle over his shoulder and stepped up, swinging in and round to stand for a moment on the nearest rung of the ladder just inside the door. Then he stepped down on to the chain and motioned for Dom to follow him. Richard, of course, was calculating the odds of surviving any attempt to slam the door and go for Verrazzano's gun. Had he felt for an instant he could rely on Steve and Aleks to back him up he might have given it more careful thought, but as it was he dismissed the idea out of hand. It served to keep his attention largely focused outside the chain locker, however, so he never really took as detailed a look inside as he otherwise might have done. He simply registered that Macavity prowled suspiciously if a little unsteadily over the pile of chain as
Sayonara
's head dipped and the chain stirred. He watched him going almost as far as the hawse hole and pausing there, leaning on his rifle to steady himself as he looked down at the anchor secured against the flare of the forecastle.

If there was anything that attracted Richard's gaze into the locker itself, it was the unthinking way that Macavity seemed to trust Dom. Several times he had his back to the Canadian. Once – at that moment when he leaned against his gun and craned over to look out – a simple push might have been enough to eject him through the hole above the anchor, but Dom was ready to help rather than hinder the strange exploration, and both Aleks and Steve showed every sign of having similar thoughts. After a further five minutes, Macavity seemed satisfied and he turned, gesturing to Dom to climb out first. Richard, still holding the door, reached out and helped both men down. Then he slammed the door and closed the handles. But at no time did he look closely or carefully into the iron-smelling little room, so he never saw the wires the Pitman had been following when Macavity had nearly caught up with her less than six hours earlier and sown the seeds of his disquiet.

Macavity's little commando next checked out the port-side chain locker. The technique and result were exactly the same. Then the six of them worked their way back along the length of the vessel. Every now and then, just as Aleks had, Macavity would check with one or other of his men on the shortwave radio. They had brought some radio equipment aboard with them, Richard realized, but they were also using that which they had confiscated from Aleks – probably at about the same time as they had purloined his Rolex and Galaxy. He soon gave up trying to double guess Macavity, or to predict where he would send the other teams or tell his own team to go. The ordered search pattern that seemed to be in place as they all set out soon broke down and Richard saw that Macavity was hoping to catch whoever he suspected of hiding on board unawares. Time passed, but as Richard had spent all of the search so far below decks and without his watch, he had little idea of how much. And no real idea at all of what the time actually was either here on board or outside in the real world.

The next adventure worth his full attention came when Macavity suddenly ordered Verrazzano to lead them down a deck, then another. They were between tanks two and three, immediately below the pulpit where Boris had died and fallen overboard. Up on the covered A Deck, immediately inside the pulpit itself, the corpse of Yoichi Hatta lay at rest. Engineering Deck D seemed empty, though Richard thought he could hear distant voices. The corridors were wider here, for the tanks were curving inwards at a steeper angle than the sides. Macavity led them back towards the bows, unexpectedly retracing the steps they had taken one deck up. Then he led them between the tanks, from the port side back to the starboard. A curt signal and Verrazzano was leading them down another narrow companionway to the lowest deck of all, Engineering Deck E – a scant two and a half metres above the bilges. The sides of the ship curved in much more acutely here. The passageways were cramped and claustrophobic. Richard knew that the only real purpose for anyone to come down this far was to access the ducting within which the pipework joining the bottoms of the tanks followed the central line of the keel. He had never been down here himself, and he was struck by Macavity's cunning. It must indeed be a tempting place for anyone to hide.

He knelt. The deck was not solid here, but fine-mesh grating in long sections, capable of being lifted to allow access to the ducting. And the ducting, like everything else on board, was on a giant scale. It stood more than two metres square, but the central section of it was filled with a sheaf of pipes. There was enough room for a slim engineer with nerves of steel to follow the metal-sided passageway from tank to tank. He could hardly bring himself to imagine Ivan, Harry or the Pitman down there. He straightened and stepped back, only to be replaced at once by Dom DiVito. The wiry Canadian began to lift the steel mesh grating section next along the corridor floor. But Macavity spat, ‘No! Leave it!' And the six of them turned away and went back up into the light and air of the upper decks.

It took nearly four hours to search the ship
.
Then, when they all assembled in the engine room, it took another two hours to search the engine and ancillary equipment spaces as well. By the time they had finished, everyone on board felt that the vessel had been thoroughly inspected. And they'd found no sign of anyone else. At last, Macavity announced that he was satisfied. He assembled them all back at the starting point and locked Richard and his men away once again. But this time he left the lights on. And it was not long before Richard understood why. Section by section, in the teams assigned to the ship's search, he allowed the prisoners out to be fed and watered. Ivan Karitov was in charge of the makeshift galley but there was little left by the time Richard, Dom and the others arrived except the noodles and fish sauce that the Japanese engineers and programmers had brought aboard with them. But then, to be fair, once Richard tucked in to his ramen with miso, he suddenly remembered how much he liked Japanese cuisine, and how much he had been happy to pay for just such fare as this at restaurants like
Shinatatsu Ramen Mentatsu Shichininshu
in Tokyo. Then, full at last, and with his mind more at ease about Ivan, Harry and the Pitman, he allowed himself to be locked up again. He used the latrine, stretched out on the sleeping bag and decided that this was as good a time as any to think things through carefully from start to finish – or at least his most recent experiences, and to really get on top of things.