‘You’d be willing to do that?’
‘Major, I’d be keen to do it. My wife and business partner are down there and they may be in serious trouble. When you arrived just now I was within a whisker of cutting my shorelines and heading south.’
The major paused, thinking rapidly. Richard watched him narrowly, trying to assess whether his words would be enough motivation to make the officer put a strong case to his superiors. Because, if push came to shove, Richard really had no intention of taking Sulu Queen from one dock to another in the hope that the army and the National Guard could get their act together. But he was wary of getting confrontational before there was any real need to do so. Besides, he had grown to like and respect the major. And, to be fair, he had put a good case to him — and had little doubt that he would pass it on up the chain of command pretty smartly. ‘Well, I guess it would save a shedload of time, sir,’ agreed Guerrero at last. ‘As long as we can get the containers ashore when we get down there.’ He straightened decisively. ‘I’ll put it to my superiors.’
‘Put it to them quickly, Major, or you may find I’ve stolen a march on you.’
While the major went off to contact his superiors, Richard went first to Antoine Prudhomme. The pair of them talked through what Richard was planning to do — and its legal and financial consequences. ‘You think I should draw up some kind of contract?’ asked Antoine.
‘With the army and the National Guard? I wouldn’t have thought so. See what the legal eagles at head office think, then alert me and we’ll take it from there. But the bottom line is that I’m taking Sulu Queen south as soon as I can. It’s been too long since I’ve had direct contact with Robin or Nic. I feel in my bones — in my water, as the Irish say — that there’s something wrong. I want to get down there as fast as I can. But I need to be sure that it’s all legal and above board in terms of contract and insurance.’
‘I see that, Richard. But I have to say I think you’re looking on the dark side. Why make sure your insurance is OK if you think nothing will go wrong?’
‘Sod’s law, Antoine. The absolute certainty that if cover is not in place then something will go wrong …’
‘OK. I take your point. I’ll get straight on it.’
After his brief chat with Antoine, Richard went out on to the poop deck aft of the bridge house. The poop was level and fully decked — not open for container use like the foredeck. The metal decking was painted with green non-slip and marked with a white circle that had a huge capital ‘H’ at its centre. He had hardly had time to appreciate that the clouds were at last beginning to break up and there was the promise of a rose-red sunset in an hour or so when the Bell 429 dropped out of the last of the overcast and settled on to the ‘H’ close in front of him. He thrust his hands deep into his pockets and waited. A moment later, Biddy had climbed out of it and run across to his side.
‘I’m all fuelled up and ready to do some searching if you need any — and if the weather permits. You heard from Maxima or Katapult8?’
Richard just shook his head.
‘What about Sulu Queen? We good to go?’ she asked.
‘Yes, I think we are,’ he answered. ‘Maybe even before the end of the watch. The major’s just dotting a few i’s and crossing a few t’s. And so is Antoine Prudhomme of Southey-Bell, my local shipping agents. Hopefully we’re off with the tide at the end of the watch.’
‘Great,’ she said, with only a trace of disquiet in her voice.
‘Yes.’ He nodded, agreeing with her unspoken concern. ‘It’ll be worse than it was coming up along the Baja. Maybe a lot worse. But if it gets too rough then you’ll be staying safely aboard. In the meantime, I think we’d better get the Bell lashed down tighter than she’s ever been lashed before.’
THIRTY-ONE
Richard’s cynical thoughts about the ability of the army and the National Guard to get coordinated proved unfounded, though it was at the beginning of the last dog watch rather than at the end of the first that the trucks started pulling up beside Sulu Queen. And, in the pink light beneath a rose-red sunset, the trucks deposited squads of soldiers. Male and female. Regular and National Guard. They came at the double up the gangway, with their kitbags on their shoulders and the unfortunate Mr Cheng began trying to accommodate them all.
‘Any more supplies to come with all the new personnel?’ Richard asked Guerrero as they watched from the bridge.
‘No. They carry what they need for themselves in the way of rations and so forth. They go into their target areas self-sufficient. There’s no use going somewhere where the basics are in short supply and then start asking for food and water. What they need to help other people is all in my containers.’
‘Still,’ said Richard, ‘we’ll work out a rota for the showers, heads and dining areas — unless they’re happy to eat their rations in their bunks.’
‘They will be if they’re ordered to,’ said Guerrero.
‘I suppose so. But there’s no need if we can exercise a little forethought. Things will get pretty bad even before we get to Puerto Banderas if the forecasts are anything to go by. Let’s let them at least start out in as comfortable a way as possible.’
‘I’ll get someone right on that.’ Guerrero crossed to the back of the bridge, heading for the lift and the companionways back there.
‘And I’ll come round on inspection before the end of the watch,’ Richard called after him, causing him to pause in the doorway, half-turned to listen. ‘Just to see how they’re settling in before we actually set sail.’
‘Right. Captain’s inspection at nineteen thirty. I’ll warn them.’
After Guerrero vanished, Richard looked across at Biddy, who was the only other person on the bridge except for the second officer, who looked even younger than Cheng. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’ve put you in the owner’s suite. I’ve moved into the captain’s cabin, double-bunking with Antoine, who seems to be set on accompanying us. You have en-suite facilities all to yourself.’
‘On the other hand,’ she said, ‘I guess I could make contact with some of the other girls and share my good fortune around a bit.’ Then she too was gone.
Richard crossed to the bridge communications console and opened a channel to the engine control room. ‘Time to start warming up the engines,’ he ordered. ‘I’ll want to move out by the end of the watch. That will put us at the top of the tide and give us a good, fast start.’ Then he walked through to the radio room and made contact with the harbourmaster to bring him up to date with Sulu Queen’s new schedule and to organize a pilot.
During the next hour, Richard checked the Bell was lashed down as tightly as possible. He had a quick chat with Antoine, who had put all the problems involved in Richard’s proposed plan of action to the legal team at Southey-Bell and was in hourly expectation of enlightenment. ‘Don’t forget to remind them that I only want one set of answers from them and those are Fine, Captain Mariner, full steam ahead,’ he observed, only half jokingly. He went round Guerrero’s augmented command, which seemed to be equally split between engineers and medics, men and women. He approved Guerrero’s competent arrangements for their comfort, smoothing over any friction he sensed between the soldiers and the crew, who were now more than a little overwhelmed. He visited the galley and put the cook’s mind at rest about having to feed a complement that had mushroomed from less than forty to more than eighty. Then he used the cook’s glow of relief to warn him that the deep-fat fryer would need to be cooled and stowed after tonight, and that the big wok would only be used for modest stir-frying and steaming from tomorrow, when they could expect to start catching up with the bad weather again. He did not use the opportunity to grab a bite to eat himself because he was too busy — something he mildly regretted later. However, his abstemiousness meant that he was able to check on the engine control room and on the engine room itself before he was called up to greet the pilot but not the group of officials from the port authority, customs and immigration, homeland security and so forth, who needed to check and stamp his paperwork. Far fewer going out, he thought with some relief, than there had been on the way in, according to poor old Captain Sin.