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
GRACE 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.