And there they were, six of them, bouncing alongside the mighty ship.
'They're beautiful!' Claire cried. 'Aren't they, Daddy?'
He nodded slowly. 'They surely are.'
She gave his arm a little squeeze. 'Don't they say dolphins sometimes come to help people when they're in trouble? Do you think that's what they're doing?'
'I hope so, darling, I hope so.'
***
One deck below, Jimmy was also watching the dolphins. He had the lucky penny in his hand. He was wondering whether, if he threw it hard enough and with enough accuracy, he could hit one of them.
23
The Theatre
Jimmy's cabin on Level Ten was a mess. Stolen clothes and plates of half-eaten food littered the floor, sweet wrappers and half-full cans of soda covered every surface. Every morning a cleaner knocked on the door asking to come in, and every morning Jimmy told her to go away. This morning, she didn't knock. It might have been an oversight or she might have given up. But he suspected it was more than that. It was the Times. It was out there.
He was proud of what he'd done, but it wasn't in his nature to go and face the music. It was in his nature to hide. Or run away. Or to let someone else take the blame. Claire, in fact.
Jimmy phoned the Stanford suite, all ready to ask for Claire in an American accent in case her father answered, but it was Claire herself who picked up. 'What have you heard?' he asked.
'Mr Jeffers came to the door at about five this morning. I'm presuming he showed my dad the paper. I heard Daddy swear, then he told Mummy he had to go out. He hasn't been back since. Mummy spoke to him on the phone — they're all having a meeting in Captain Smith's quarters.'
'They're going to feed us to the sharks. Did your mum read it as well?'
'She did. She said, that's dreadful, I didn't realize, those poor people, there must be something we can do to help. Then she went to get her nails done.'
They were still discussing what to do when they were interrupted by an announcement over the PA. Jimmy recognized First Officer Jeffers' voice calling all passengers and crew to a public meeting in the theatre on Level Three in thirty minutes' time.
'Oh God,' said Claire. 'This is it then.'
***
It was a one-thousand-seat theatre which normally hosted celebrity guest speakers during the day and cabaretet show, at night, but this morning there were well over two thousand people packed into it — mostly passengers but also a large number of crew. It was usually a place of laughter and music, but there was now an almost tangible air of fear and anger. As Jimmy squeezed through to the front row he noted that many people were clutching copies of the Titanic Times.
Claire hadn't managed to claim a seat, but instead sat cross-legged on the floor. Jimmy knelt down beside her. The stage was still clear, but there was a microphone set up with six chairs lined up behind it. From somewhere towards the back of the theatre a slow, impatient hand clapping began and then quickly spread until the entire place reverberated to the sound of thousands of sweaty palms coming together.
Less than a minute later Captain Smith appeared at the side of the stage, then walked slowly across it, followed by Mr Stanford, First Officer Jeffers, Chief Engineer Jonas Jones and Dr Hill. They were greeted with a chorus of boos. Captain Smith stood before the microphone and waited for the hubbub to subside, but it went on and on as questions were yelled along with insults.
Eventually, eventually the noise receded enough for Captain Smith to be heard. He began by thanking everyone for coming — and this was greeted with another chorus of boos.
'I'm here to apologize.' This surprised them. The noise subsided again. 'As you know, when we set sail, it was with the intention of making sure that you enjoyed a marvellous vacation. That is what you paid for. We set sail with the full expectation that this virus would quickly run its course both in America and around the world and that we would return you safely to a country that was already well on the way to recovery. However, as we continued to monitor the situation it became clear that — well, that nothing was clear. All the news we were getting from home was contradictory, misleading and confusing. For this reason I took the decision to limit the amount of news that you had access to. I didn't want to cause unrest or panic. We all have loved ones waiting for us and we are all naturally anxious to know what's going on. I accept now that this was wrong. I also knew it was inevitable that we would have some cases of this . . . Red Death . . . on board, but I have been truly shocked by the speed with which it has spread. The extent of this was also kept from you, and I apologize for this as well. Reviewing the situation last night, and taking on board advice from Mr Stanford and my senior crew, I decided that you all — passengers and crew alike — should be made aware of the true situation, both here on the ship and at home. I decided that the best way to do it would be through our ship newspaper so that you would have all the facts right in front of you . . .'
Jimmy looked at Claire in disbelief. 'He . . .'
' . . and so that you could take the time to properly digest these facts before I summoned you to this meeting. They have been presented in the newspaper by my staff, who have exhausted every possible avenue to ensure their accuracy. I think you will find it is a fair depiction of the state of our two worlds at this moment in time — here, on the ship and, well, everywhere else.'
Captain Smith gave Jimmy and Claire the tiniest nod.
'Ladies and gentlemen, these are not good times. Forty passengers have now passed away . . .' the audience were stunned into silence by this, '. . . and three hundred more are infected. We have established a quarantine area on the hospital deck, but the truth is we just don't know how to stop the virus. Nobody does. Dr Hill . . .' he turned slightly and raised a hand towards him, '. . . and his staff have been working flat out. Two of his nurses died during the night.'
A man in a Hawaiian shirt stood up. 'Captain, sir, that's very sad, and we certainly appreciate everything the doctor and his staff are doing, but doesn't it make sense to turn the ship around now, and return to port?' This was greeted with applause from the audience. 'We all have people we're worried about, and we'd be really happy to go home and see them. Don't see the sense of staying cooped up on board with this Red Death running rampant. At least at home we might get the chance to outrun it.'
There was more applause and some cheering.
Captain Smith raised a hand for calm. 'Sir, we'd all like to go home, but the fact of the matter is that until we can establish exactly what's going on back there we're safer staying where we are.'
The man in the Hawaiian shirt gave a little laugh. 'Well why don't you just phone 'em up and ask?'
That brought a wave of laughter.
'Sir, at six o'clock this morning we lost contact with our home port of Miami. We have to assume that it is no longer functioning. Communication with anywhere is becoming very, very difficult.'
Another man shouted from the back. 'Just sail in, tie up and let us off!'
'Sir, in my opinion it is simply not safe to return to port right now. Until we can establish that it is safe it is my intention to continue with the cruise . . .'
Howls of protest erupted. Those who had seats jumped up and waved their fists and yelled and threw copies of the Titanic Times towards the stage. It took several minutes for them to calm down.
'Ladies and gentlemen,' Captain Smith eventually continued, 'we have no way of knowing exactly what the situation is at home, but certainly there has been rioting, and looting, and shortages of food. At least here on board we have supplies to see us through the remainder of the cruise; plus, at each of our three scheduled stops — later this morning at San Juan, then at the island of St Thomas and Cozumel in Mexico — we have dedicated fuel supplies. We are safe on the Titanic, and we will look after you.'