Noah's Ark: Encounters (4 page)

“Hello, dear. Nice to meet you. I’m Agnes. What can I do for you?”

“I was looking for Mr Moran, in the cabin just next to yours. You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find him, would you?”

“Giles? No, dear, I haven’t seen him for…let me think now…it must be about a week. Yes, that would be it. He and Claire were very excited about leaving Scotland. I remember them saying.”

“Is Claire his wife?”

“Speak up, dear. My ears aren’t what they were!”

“I said, is Claire the wife of Mr Moran?”

“Yes. Lovely lady. Lovely couple, actually.”

“Do you know where I might find her?”

“No. I haven’t seen them for a week.”

“Either of them?”

“That’s what I said, dear.”

“You said you hadn’t seen Giles.”

“You asked me if I’d seen Giles, and I haven’t. You didn’t ask about Claire.”

Grace took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. She spoke loudly and clearly. “Okay, just so I’ve got this straight: Giles and Claire Moran are in the cabin next door, and the last time you saw either of them was when we left the Scottish lochs?”

“That’s what I’m saying, yes.”

“I see. Thank you, Agnes. You’ve been very helpful. If you do happen to see either of them, can you give me a call? Security is on 112.”

“I’ll certainly do that, dear, yes.”

Grace set off once again, with a bounce in her step. Her missing persons case now looked far more interesting.

• • •

Jake picked up rations for the bridge crew, as was his habit, and headed up to deck ten to take over from Lucya. Lunch consisted of a small portion of fresh fish, rice, a bread roll (dry), and a glass of orange juice. Jake had never liked fish, but he was learning to have to. Only those who had allergies or other medical reasons for doing so had the privilege of deviating from the fixed menu. Vegetarians were expected to eat the same as everyone else. They could refuse the little meat that had been available, and the fish, but there was no substitute offered. The same went for those who declined to eat certain foods for religious reasons. This was a topic that had been hotly debated by the committee, and was up to be discussed again soon. For now though, the consensus was that religion was not sufficiently solid ground to demand a specific diet. Like the vegetarians, everyone had the right to refuse an ingredient or component of their meal, or even their entire meal. They did not have the right to chop and change. Food was too scarce a resource for that.

Rations remained one of the most contentious subjects in the community. It wasn’t just some of the religious groups who were feeling hard done by. The former passengers came from all over the world, and under normal conditions, the kitchens were able to provide meals familiar to most nationalities. Europeans, Americans and Australians were easy enough to cater for; they tended to borrow from the cuisine of the rest of the world anyway. Some of the Asian cultures were having a harder time adapting to the new regime. Jake had little sympathy. As he saw it, they were lucky to be alive at all. The committee largely agreed, but everyone knew that the situation required careful monitoring. Enough angry and hungry people could cause a lot of trouble very quickly.

“Grub’s up, you lot,” Jake announced as he walked onto the bridge. “Officer Levin, status report?”

Lucya beamed at her man, but kept it professional. “We’re making good progress. Conditions remain favourable and we’re maintaining a steady fifteen knots with the
Ambush
partially submerged. The submarine’s last contact was half an hour ago: nothing to report. No more rafts after the one from this morning, and the radio remains as dead as a dodo. If anyone’s out there, they’re not trying to make themselves known. I hear you found another body?”

“Yes, Janice is taking a look now. I assume she hasn’t called?”

Lucya shook her head. “Oh, look, fish again. Lovely.”

“Don’t knock it, it’s fresh!” Dave said, joining them at the large steel map table, where Jake had set down the tray of food. Chuck remained on lookout. As the trainee, he got to eat after everyone else.

“I’m not knocking it,” Lucya said. She perched on the edge of a stool and pulled her plate close to her, loading her fork up with a tiny amount of rice and a sliver of fluffy white cod. “I know how hard Stieg and his men are working to get this for us. I wouldn’t say anything against him. He’s out there again, right now. In a raft.”

“What the heck is he doing in a raft?” Jake put down the bread roll he was about to bite into.

“The net got tangled. They were going to bring it back on board, but he seemed to think it would save time to go out and sort it out while it’s trawling. Something to do with the floats on top getting twisted up.”
 

Jake stood up and went to the rear-facing window on the starboard side. He picked up a nearby pair of binoculars and adjusted them, scanning the miles of sea behind the ship.

“I don’t know if you’ll be able to see him,” Lucya continued. “I think he is almost directly behind us, in the blind spot”

“In a life raft? The wash from the propeller will turn him over!”

“No, he’s a long way out. They worked it all out with Martin. They put a long line on the raft and they spooled it out slowly, keeping him at a safe distance from the wash. Honestly, I think it would have been easier to bring the net back onto the ship, but he is a very determined man. He won’t risk losing another catch.”

Jake’s index finger rolled across the focus control. “I think I see him. Bloody hell, he looks tiny out there. How did you know about this? How come
I
didn’t know about this?”

“He and Martin made the plan. Martin told me about it earlier.”

“Right,” Jake said, and stared out to sea for a while longer.

“Have you seen him?” Lucya asked cautiously.

“Martin? Sure. At the last committee meeting.”

“You two should go out, spend some time together. A bit of R and R.”

Jake made a noise that sounded like “hmm.”

“He needs you, Jake. He needs all his friends. He’s still very upset about Kiera.”

“We’re all upset about someone, Officer Levin. Martin has to deal with it the same as we all do.”

Lucya shook her head slowly, and returned to her meal. Jake rejoined them, and they ate in silence for a while. When Lucya had polished off the last of her bread, she took another stab at conversation, changing the subject.

“Did you see Erica?”

“Yes. She looked like she was enjoying herself. I think it helps that she’s in the same group as her friend Andrea. She’s a constant in her life. The only constant left really.” Jake’s eyes brightened as he talked.

Lucya breathed a silent sigh of relief. “I’m so glad Andrea’s mum changed her mind about them staying behind at Faslane. I’m not sure Erica would have coped with losing her as well. I heard her crying in the night again. She won’t talk about it though; about her dad.”

“She was asking me about Crozon, on the way down to school this morning. She wanted to know if there would be people there; new people.”

“What did you tell her?”

“That I hoped so, but it would probably be like Scotland. Just another empty submarine base. She was very excited though. Apparently her dad used to take her on camping holidays to France. She thinks it’s going to be just like that. I tried to let her down gently, but, you know…”

Lucya nodded. “Yeah, I know. Hey, Chuck, come and get something to eat. I’ll take the watch for a while.”

While the crew shuffled places, Jake returned to the rear-facing window and took up the binoculars again, trying to pick out the tiny inflatable life raft tethered behind the ship. He leaned forward until the lenses were almost touching the glass. He put the binoculars down, screwed up his eyes and looked out as far as he could, then took up the binoculars again and readjusted them.

“Lucya! Full stop!” he shouted, without moving position, still staring fixedly out to sea.

“What? Why?”

“Stop the ship. That raft is empty. I think we’ve lost Stieg.”

Four

G
RACE
QUICKLY
REALISED
that she could have picked a better time to quiz the restaurant supervisor. The middle of the lunchtime sitting was the busiest part of the day for everyone involved in food service. Incredibly, despite the meagre portions on offer, a sizeable percentage of the population skipped breakfast altogether. The evening sitting was spread out over a longer period of time. Lunch though, was where the action was. Nobody missed that meal, and the window for dishing out rations was short. There were more people packed into the restaurants at midday than at any other time.

Grace was in the Colaeus Restaurant, one of the largest on the ship. Her heart had sunk when she’d checked the census data and found that this was the restaurant allocated to the Morans. She’d already had a run-in with the supervisor, and now she was going to have to ask her for a favour.

“I’m looking for Elizabeth Lethbridge,” she announced to the first person she saw behind the counter, a young freckled boy who looked like he was in serious need of a break. Sweat trickled down his reddened face as he spooned out plate after plate of fish, trying to keep up with the endless queue of hungry people. “Elizabeth Lethbridge! It’s important.” The young man looked up, clocked her security uniform, thought for a second, and plonked down the plate he was about to charge.

“Mrs Lethbridge!” he called through an opening behind the counter. “Someone to see you.”

“Oi! You serving, or what?” A disgruntled man spat the words at the overworked server. The young man picked up the plate and carried on where he had left off.

Grace tried to see through the doorway, but there was no sign of anyone coming out. “Can you go and get her please? This is an important security matter.” She tried to sound stern and authoritative. It worked on the boy, but not his customer.

“He’s serving my lunch. You can wait,” the man grunted at her.

Grace looked him up and down. “It looks like you could skip lunch for a week or two and do just fine.”

“Why you cheeky—”

“Move along, sir, or I’ll have you cleaning toilets in the medical suite for the next month.”

“On what grounds?”

“Disrespecting a police officer.”

He laughed, a deep belly laugh. “You ain’t no copper, love. Not on this ship. Security guard, maybe, but not a copper. And you sure ain’t got no jurisdiction over me. Bloody yanks, thinking they’re in charge of the world.” He turned back to the server, but the boy had taken his chance to scarper. “Great, now look what you’ve done you silly bitch!”

Before he could stop her, Grace grabbed the man’s ration voucher from his tray, and read the name. “Joe Keller. Cabin 1024. I’m putting you down for twelve hours a week, toilet cleaning, in addition to whatever duties you currently perform. Fail to comply and you’ll find that this voucher will be refused for any further meals.” She slammed the paper back down on his tray.

“I take it you’re looking for me?” A dour woman with an ill-fitting chef’s hat stepped out of the doorway and addressed Grace in a booming voice that silenced Keller. She stood in a matronly manner, hands on hips, glaring at the security officer.

“Mrs Lethbridge, perhaps we could go somewhere private? I need to ask you some questions.”

“Come back later. We’re too busy now.”

“This won’t take long.”

“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I? You were the one accusing one of my staff of nicking bottles of milk.”

Grace smiled as sweetly as she could manage. “I believe I already apologised for that misunderstanding.”

“I knew it. I never forget a face, me. I knew you were trouble the moment I saw you. Jumped-up police type, and American. Think you’re better than us.”

Grace drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, clenching her fingers into tight fists and stretching them again. “I was investigating a serious allegation—”

“Nonsense. You were poking your nose in where it weren’t warranted. That’s what you were doing. That’s why I complained to Max; got him to sort it out.”

Some of the people in the queue had stopped moving, listening in and gawping at the argument as the decibel level rose. Those behind began jostling and shoving, trying to see what the hold-up was. Grace realised she was in danger of letting things get out of hand.

“Mrs Lethbridge, I need to see the ration records. I’m coming through to the back now. If you don’t open the door, I will return with Max and we’ll see just where this ends up, shall we?”

The supervisor reflected on the ultimatum, before appearing to come to a decision. She jerked her head towards a door off to the left. By the time Grace reached it, it had been opened, allowing her into the rear of the service area. “Through ’ere,” Grace mumbled.

She led them through a huge preparation area, where food from the kitchens was brought down in bulk before being served, then into a tiny windowless office. Like most on the cruiser, it was sparsely furnished. A compact wood-effect desk with a single chair behind it, a filing cabinet, and a framed photo of the
Spirit of Arcadia
hanging on the wall. Lethbridge opened the filing cabinet.

“Which days?”

“The last week, please.”

The supervisor thumbed through some files, selected one, and dropped it onto the desk. The thick wad of paper inside spilled out, most falling to the floor in a mess. “Oops,” she said. “Well, I’ll leave you to go through that lot then. Like I said, we’re busy. Some of us have real work to do.” She stepped over the bulk of the paperwork and left Grace to begin her search for the Morans’ meal records.

• • •

The sun, which had been making an effort to break through the thick-grey-and black cloud, looked to have given up and gone into hiding once more. The murky sky only served to amplify the sense of foreboding as Stieg’s men slowly winched in the line connecting the tiny raft to the
Spirit of Arcadia
.

Jake and Martin looked on, standing back a little from the action. Stieg had always impressed upon them the dangers of a potential cable break. They stood as silently as the men working the winch.