He nodded and said, “So what’s the plan?”
“I’ll tell you while you help me get dressed.”
Chapter 20
Anand tried to talk me out of going to Male. But in the end, he agreed to take me. I think he realized that I was going with or without his help. He probably figured that I had a better chance of making it there on his boat instead of, say, on my kayak.
Convincing Anand was one thing, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to convince Mohamed and Helen. That’s where William came in. While Anand helped me walk to his boat, William pretended that he had hurt his leg jumping out of the palm tree. It had worked once, so we decided to try it again. Thankfully, it worked again. But this time William joined me. He told me how he had climbed out Mohamed’s window after Helen had taken him to the clinic.
On the trip to Male, I explained to William what I planned to do. The kid seemed up for it. Rick would have been proud.
Just as I finished going over the details, I felt the vibrations from the engines decrease and then stop all together.
“Something’s up,” I said. I looked at my watch. “We’re still fifteen minutes away.”
Nisha came into the room a few seconds later and said, “We must go.”
“Go? Where? What’s going on?” I asked.
“Quickly, into the cargo hold. We have been stopped by an MDF patrol and they are boarding us.” She looked worried. “Come, we haven’t much time.”
We followed her to the hold. I managed to walk without assistance, but each step brought a fresh surge of pain.
“Go in there,” she pointed to a large cube in the center of the room. It was a carbon fiber bin filled with crushed coral powder. The bin was fifteen feet by fifteen feet and almost ten feet tall.
“In there?” I asked.
“Yes, please hurry. They rarely check the powder bin. It is too messy.” She went over to the wall and brought back a ladder. William climbed up quickly. I followed, one rung at a time. Each step felt like someone punched me in the gut. Finally, I managed to get into the bin. As I laid down next to William, I saw the top of the ladder disappear.
The bin was filled almost to capacity and a fine power hung in the air around us like smoke. I tried to keep my mouth shut so that I wouldn’t cough. Ten minutes passed and I thought that maybe they wouldn’t inspect the hold after all, but then I heard the metallic clink of the hatch. I listened as people entered.
“You see, sir, just as I said. We are delivering fruits, vegetables, and some coral powder.” It was Anand’s voice.
An unfamiliar voice said, “Open that so I can see inside.”
“But it is just plantains,” Anand said.
“Open it.”
The pop of a carbon fiber lid echoed across the cargo hold.
“You see, just plantains. Go ahead, take some.”
The voice said. “And what’s in there?”
“Just coral powder.”
“I would like to see for myself.”
“Okay, but it is very messy. The powder sticks to everything and is hard to get out.”
I heard the sound of footsteps coming towards us. A few seconds later I looked up and saw the top of the ladder. My heart raced. If the MDF inspector looked in here, it would be all over. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned towards William. He looked as scared as I felt. I put a finger up to my lips and then looked back at the ladder.
“Here, let me show you.” Anand said. A minute later, I saw his smiling face looking down as me. We exchanged a quick glance before he reached into the bin, pulled out a handful of powder and said, “See, coral powder.”
“Yes, but I’d like to see for myself.”
“Of course,” Anand said. He started to climb down and I heard him fumble on the ladder.
“Stop,” the inspector said. “Look what you are doing!”
“I am so sorry. I told you that the powder was very messy. Oh my, you are all white, please, forgive me. Here, come with me. My wife, Nisha, will help clean you up.”
I smiled as I listened to the inspector continued to complain all the way out of the cargo hold.
When I heard the hatch close, I peeked over the edge. They were gone. I motioned for William to climb down and then I followed him. Once I reached the deck, we looked at each other and laughed. We both looked like ghosts.
“Come on,” I finally said. “We have to get this shit off of us.”
We took our clothes off and beat them against the side of the bin for a while. A cloud of dust enveloped us.
“This isn’t working,” William said. “I think it’s getting worse.” He began to cough.
“You’re right. Grab your stuff and let’s—” I felt the engines start up. “Come on. Let’s go find Nisha. She’ll know what to do.”
We found Nisha up on the bridge. She laughed when she saw us. “You look like spirits,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I know. Can you help us get the powder out of our clothes?”
She shook her head and said, “Coral powder is difficult to get out. I’ll go get you some of Anand’s clothes.”
She returned a few minutes later with a stack of t-shirts and sarongs.
“Thanks,” I said, as I reached for the clothes, but she pulled them away.
“Not yet, first you better get that dust off of your skin.” She motioned for us to follow her. She led us upstairs to a room with a tiny shower stall. “Be quick. We are entering the port now.”
William showered first, and while he dressed, I got in. As I washed the powder off, I inspected the stitches on my side. The gash was only two or three inches long. There was a little seepage, but not much.
By the time I finished with my shower and got dressed, Anand showed up and said, “Come with me.” We followed him back up to the bridge.
The dock was busier that I had seen it in a while. There were four ships unloading their cargo. There was no place for us to dock.
“When that ship is finished, they will start to unload our cargo. The dock workers are already on board getting ready.” Anand pointed down at four dockworkers near the bow. Two were opening the large cargo hatch on the deck.
“So how can we get out of here?” I asked.
“That is going to be the tricky part. Viyaja has imposed security restrictions on all crews. We are not supposed to leave our ships. Only dockworkers are permitted to come and go. See over there?” He pointed at a gate along the perimeter fence. Two MDF guards were checking workers as they entered and left the area.
“Yeah, I see it. Is that the only way in and out?”
Anand nodded. “I am afraid so.”
“I suppose that swimming isn’t an option?” I said.
Anand shook his head. “No. They will spot you for sure.”
“Shit. So how are we going to get past the guards?”
Anand smiled and said, “I have an idea.”
I raised my eyebrows and waited.
“I thought that I could try the same trick that I pulled on that MDF inspector.”
“Huh?”
“You two just go down by the gate and wait. Act like dock workers. You’ll know what to do when the time comes.”
I looked at William. He looked as puzzled as I felt. We shrugged and thanked Anand before we slipped off the boat.
With all the activity on the dock, it wasn’t too hard for William and me to go unnoticed. We walked toward the gate and stopped by a stack of boxes. We pretended to look them over. I kept looking up at Anand’s boat, waiting for something to happen.
William asked, “What do you think he is going to do?”
“I’m not sure, but whatever it is we have to be ready to move. Okay?”
He nodded.
A small cargo crane was welded onto the deck of Anand’s ship. I’d seen Anand use it to load and unload large cargo at Lohifushi. He was up in the cab now, getting ready to unload something from the cargo hold. He lowered the hook into the hold, and a few minutes later, I watched it emerge with the giant bin of coral powder. When the bin was about ten feet above the deck, Anand swung the crane arm around. The bin now hung in the air over the dock. A worker directed Anand to lower the bin. It started to descend, but stopped. A loud metallic clang echoed out from the crane. Suddenly the bin lurched hard to the right. Some powder spilled. A dust cloud drifted down over the dock workers. They turned and ran. Others noticed it. People began to yell and run. A second later, two of the four chains that held the bin broke free and the bin toppled completely over, swinging from the two remaining chains.