“It would seem so, yes. There’s a second dive to the wreck taking place as I speak, but everything we’ve seen so far matches the intelligence we had on the alleged 095 program. The latest stealth technology, acoustic tiles, and a near silent pump-jet propulsor. Virtually undetectable to passive and active sonar. She was powered by an advanced reactor. Gunson will want to take a closer look, but the images he’s seen so far have impressed and scared him in equal measure. The reactor easily matches our own in terms of technology.”
“So they weren’t Koreans? It was a different set of survivors?” Jake asked.
“No, this is where it gets weird. Almost all the bodies we’ve found down there so far were wearing North Korean uniforms. The same uniforms as the men who took the Lance.”
“Is the reactor safe? What about weapons?” Coote stroked his beard.
“The reactor shut itself down and is perfectly safe. Still, we’re going to send Gunson down to check it over first hand, to be sure. As for weapons, there are more torpedoes on board, but we haven’t found any missiles or warheads. I don’t think the submarine was on operational deployment. I would guess she was still undergoing sea trials.”
“Sorry, Ewan, still confused about the crew.” Jake glanced around the room to see if he was the only person who didn’t understand. “It’s a Chinese submarine, with a North Korean crew. How does that work?”
“I honestly don’t know. Perhaps they captured it. Perhaps it was a joint project between the two nations. Our friends in the classroom are the only people who can shed any light on that matter now.”
“If they survive,” Coote said. He looked at Vardy, then at Jake. “Any news? Lucya?”
The surgeon lieutenant spoke up for all to hear. “The antidote is working, but we’ll have to keep them in quarantine for at least a few more days. We can’t risk that virus getting out. She’ll be fine though. Two of the Koreans, not so lucky. The virus was too quick for them.”
“And the children? Can we get them out?”
“They’re immune, but that doesn’t stop them carrying the virus. They’ll have to stay put as well. Spirits are high from what I’ve seen. Lucya has got them singing songs and making up stories. They want to see their parents, of course, and can’t really understand why that’s not possible. All things considered, they’re holding up well.”
Coote looked back at Ewan, nodding for him to continue.
“We’ll salvage as much as we can from the 095 wreck. There are some small firearms.” He couldn’t help but look at Jake as he said it. The captain rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut. “There’s also a good amount of food and medical supplies, and some spare uniforms that we can certainly use.”
“Nothing to suggest their motivation, you know, for trying to blow us up?” Jake asked.
Ewan shook his head. “Ralf will see what he can do with the computers. They might be wrecked by the seawater, but he thinks he’ll be able to get some data from the hard drives. We might find end-of-the-world-scenario orders on there.”
“I doubt that very much,” Coote said, throwing a look at Jake. “That’s not the sort of thing you keep in a computer. Look for a safe. It will probably be hidden. Check the computers too, though. If that boat was Chinese, she may be carrying access codes for Yulin.”
Jake raised a hand, and his eyebrows.
“Yulin Naval Base,” Ewan explained. “Hainan Island, southern China. Huge base with twenty submarine pens built right under a mountain. Had the Americans all worked up a few years ago. They say you can sail a couple of aircraft carriers right in there it’s so huge.”
“You think it survived, Coote?” Jake perked up.
“Why not? The underground part of Faslane did. If we wanted to build a sizeable onshore community anywhere, Yulin could be an excellent place to start. Better climate than Faslane too. If there are other subs out there, they could have had the same idea. So if nothing else, I think we could find more survivors in the area, even if the base itself is no longer accessible.”
“I’ll ask Ralf to make it a priority,” Ewan said, scribbling notes as he spoke.
Jake raised a hand again. “Ewan? You said most of the men were wearing North Korean uniforms. Not all?”
The submariner looked up from his notebook. He looked at Jake, then at Ove, then back at Jake. “Perhaps we can talk about that later?”
“Ana,” Ove croaked. He had turned white. His hands were shaking. “You found Ana, didn’t you?”
Ewan grimaced, visibly uncomfortable. “I really think we should discuss this in private—”
“Tell me!”
He took a deep breath. “There were two more people on board. Not Koreans. One was a woman. We’ve recovered the bo— we’ve brought her aboard and she’s with Janice now. I believe it is your wife, yes.” Ewan looked at his feet. “I’m so sorry,” he added.
Ove nodded, the tears dripping onto his lap. “I knew. I pretended it wasn’t true, but really, I knew. Can I see her?”
“Of course. Janice is…preparing her.” He looked to Jake. “The other man…”
“Stieg?”
“Yes.”
“They took him to get information about us. To evaluate the threat.”
“I think so.”
“Did they…hurt him?”
Ewan didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. Everyone already knew the answer.
“Um, I think that’s everything on the submarine,” he said eventually. “I’ll hand over to Martin now, who will bring us up to date on the state of the fleet.”
Ewan moved quickly to the side, leaving the floor for the chief engineer. Martin thanked him, and began his briefing with some dull information about checks and repairs being carried out to the hull and the generators, necessary due to the proximity of the explosion. Aside from that, everything was looking great, he assured them. The Ambush was connected up again, and the Lance was also being attached in such a way as to allow free passage between the ships. Everyone nodded and murmured in the right places, but the mood had been irreparably dampened by the news of the two victims.
• • •
When the briefing was over and everyone was filing out of medical, Jake grabbed Trent, the security officer.
“Still no news? On Max and Grace?”
“’Fraid not. I’m thinking of organising a door-to-door, top-to-bottom. Find out who saw them last, and where.”
“You won’t get far with that. Nobody ever sees anything when people go missing on cruise ships, believe me.”
“There is one other possible lead. I’m on my way to investigate now.”
“I’ll join you, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course not.”
Trent led the way to the lift, and pressed the button for deck twelve. There was a moment’s awkward silence as they rose through the heart of the ship.
Jake spoke first. “Where are we off to?”
“Cabin 1224. Elizabeth Lethbridge. She runs the—”
“The Colaeus. Yes, I’ve met her.” Jake’s mouth curled downwards as he spoke. He looked sideways at Trent, and both allowed themselves a smile. “Not a fan then, Trent?”
“I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with her.”
“Haven’t we all. What’s she’s doing all the way up here?”
“I think she nagged Silvia into finding her a nice cabin overlooking the plaza. Amazing what you can get away with when you control the food.”
They arrived at the stateroom and Trent knocked politely. Lethbridge answered wearing a pink dress, something which took both men by surprise, unaccustomed as they were to seeing her in anything but chef’s whites.
“Yes?”
“Miss Lethbridge?”
“Yes?”
“Security. You called us. About a hole?”
“That was ages ago. I suppose you had better come in.”
The cabin’s longest wall was covered from top to bottom with pictures from around the world. Jake recognised them as destinations they had cruised to in the Spirit of Arcadia. Venice, Freeport, Hamilton, Nova Scotia, Bora Bora, the North Pole, Maui, Amsterdam, Gibraltar, San Diego, Constanta, Christchurch…they went on and on, in no order that he could discern. It was only when he stepped back and squinted that he realised they had been arranged in such a way that their colours made a partial map of the word in a mosaic effect.