Alex gave the brasswork one last swipe and straightened up, rubbing his aching back. He caught the tiniest nod of approval from Heather and grinned again. This trip might just start working out after all.
'Not bad,' said Heather, looking around the deck. 'Not good,' she scowled, folding her arms. 'But – it's a start. Now, listen up. B-Watch'll be relieving us here any minute, so let's get this deck ship-shape for them. Paulo and Alex, stow away your cleaning stuff. Hex and Amber, carry that cookpot down to the galley. Together! Li, enough of the circus act. Come down and take a bow. I'm off to write up the Watch log.'
Heather walked away and Alex breathed a sigh of relief. The Watch was over and nothing had gone wrong. He was beginning to think there might be some hope for A-Watch. He was mistaken.
As soon as Heather was out of sight, Hex dropped his side of the cookpot.
'Hey!' yelled Amber, jumping out of the way as water slopped onto the deck.
Hex ignored her. Pulling his palmtop from the pouch at his belt, he flipped it open and sat down with his back against the mast. His fingers keyed the air and he stared at the screen with a hungry look on his face as he waited for the machine to wake up.
Amber's dark eyes flashed as she glared down at Hex. 'Look at you,' she spat. 'Junkie hacker. Can't you cope with real life?'
'Not when you're in it,' muttered Hex.
Li hooted with laughter as she climbed down the last stretch of rope webbing. 'Way to go, Hex. Straight through the heart. You win the Mr Nasty prize for today.' She paused for an instant, looking down to check out her next foothold, and Paulo threw down his mop.
'Do not worry, Li,' he said, leaping to the base of the mast. 'I am here.'
Paulo reached out his hands to her and Li looked at him with raised eyebrows, then threw herself backwards off the rigging. Flipping over in mid-air, she landed neatly with her arms outstretched and her uptilted eyes full of mischief. The thud of her feet hitting the deck startled Hex, making him look away from his screen for an instant. It was enough for Amber. She swooped down and snatched the palmtop, sprinting away with it as Hex struggled to his feet.
'You are dead!' yelled Hex and Amber laughed over her shoulder at him.
That was when the accident exploded across the deck. Still looking behind her, Amber ran full pelt into Paulo's discarded mop. The wooden handle smacked into her shins, knocking her off her feet and sending her hurtling across the deck. The palmtop flew through the air and disappeared over the side. In an instant that seemed to last for ever, Alex saw that Amber was either going to follow the palmtop into the sea, or smash her skull against the deck rail.
Without stopping to think, Alex put his head down and launched himself at Amber in an attempt to knock her off-course. The impact jarred every bone in his body and stopped his breath. For one, stunned second, he felt as though he was floating in mid-air, then he landed hard on the deck, knocking the remaining breath from his lungs and grating the skin from his elbow.
Alex sucked in air and blinked rapidly to clear his vision. Had he succeeded? He did not dare to look behind him. Instead, he looked up at Li, Hex and Paulo. All three of them were wearing identical shocked expressions. Alex closed his eyes, imagining the worst. Then a fist thumped him squarely in the back.
'You prize moron!'
Dizzily, Alex got to his knees and turned round. A relieved grin spread across his face. Amber was standing over him and she looked furious.
'You think that was funny?' yelled Amber. 'See what you did?' She thrust a grazed and bleeding knee in front of his nose. The wound looked startlingly pink against her black skin.
Alex stopped grinning. 'Sorry,' he muttered. 'I was just-'
'He was just saving your miserable life,' interrupted Hex, with an icy edge to his voice.
'Oh, puh-leeze,' sneered Amber.
'It's true,' said Li. 'Alex stopped you from going overboard.'
'Yeah, right,' said Amber uncertainly, peering over the deck rail.
'Really, he did,' said Paulo. 'You were about to follow that palmtop into the sea.'
Amber looked at Paulo, then at Hex. 'Your palmtop? In the sea…?'
Hex nodded grimly. Amber looked down at her feet. When she raised her head again, there was a smile of pure delight on her face.
'Your precious palmtop…?' She mimed a clownish dive and snorted with laughter.
Hex snapped. He started towards Amber, his green eyes flat and merciless. Amber grinned and settled into a fighting stance, her feet apart for balance. Hex was broad-shouldered and muscled, but Amber matched him in height and her reflexes had been sharpened by training in the sports only rich girls get to play. Years of fencing, archery and downhill skiing had taught her all about balance, avoidance, concentration and speed. Amber felt more than ready to meet Hex head-on but, before the fight could start, a wave of cold water knocked them both sideways. They stopped in their tracks, coughing and spluttering as they tried to clear the water from their eyes.
Alex, Li and Paulo all turned to see where the water had come from. Heather was standing there, holding a dripping bucket. She seemed to crackle with a furious energy. The freckles stood out darkly on her white face and the muscles jumped in her clenched jaw. She threw the bucket to the deck, where it rolled backwards and forwards with a metallic rumbling in the sudden silence. Heather let the silence grow until she had their full attention. When she finally spoke, her voice was tight and small, as though she was holding back a roar.
'Clean up this mess, then report to me on the aft-deck in ten minutes,' she snapped, then strode away without looking back.
TWO
They made it in nine. All five of them had managed to change into clean, dry clothes and Amber and Alex had plasters covering their grazes. Heather was already there, stalking up and down the aft-deck. They looked at one another, then formed a ragged line and waited in silence.
Heather ignored them. She had stopped pacing and was standing with her head down, apparently deep in thought.
Amber looked at her watch and sighed. Then she cleared her throat. Finally, she spoke. 'You do know our Watch is officially over, right? Hey! I said-'
Heather's head went up and she homed in on Amber like a heat-seeking missile. 'Hey? Hey? Hay is what you feed to horses!'
'OK. OK,' muttered Amber.
'No, not OK!' snapped Heather. 'I expect you to do me the courtesy of using my name. Is that clear?'
'Sheesh! What is this? A floating boot-camp?'
Heather took a deep, calming breath. 'No, Amber, to most people this is the trip of a lifetime.'
Alex grimaced. The trip of a lifetime. That was what he had thought when he found out about the Phoenix Project nearly a year ago. A crew of young people from all over the world were to be brought together aboard the Phoenix to take part in the first of a series of eco-voyages. It was to be a special crew. The successful applicants would have to be fit, speak English and have a variety of useful background skills. The advert stressed that this was to be a working voyage, but it didn't sound much like work to Alex. The chosen crew would be surveying and recording the variety of plants, animals and sea-life to be found in the Indonesian Archipelago. They would spend the summer sailing amongst the thousands of tiny island groups dotted around the Java Sea, dropping anchor every few days to explore a new island and dive on its surrounding reefs.
It sounded wonderful. Alex had fired off an application and was thrilled when he was invited to join the crew. It had taken him the whole of a long Northumbrian winter to raise enough money to pay for his place on the Phoenix . He had spent his evenings writing to local businesses, asking for sponsorship. His weekends had been taken up with whatever casual work he could find. He had cleaned holiday cottages and cleared snow from driveways in sub-zero temperatures. For two gruelling weeks in December, he had felled Christmas trees non-stop until there were blisters the size of saucers on his palms.