Captain Gustarv nodded to himself as he saw the green blip on the screen that represented the Cleopatra. It was passing through the Mona Channel, well clear of the coastlines of Puerto Rico to the east and the Dominican Republic to the west. The screen showed the liner slap-bang in the middle of the designated shipping lane.
‘All looks good, Henry,’ the captain said.
First Officer Henry Wells turned from the bridge window. ‘Clear all the way through the channel, skipper,’ said the native of Orlando, Florida.
Gustarv heaved himself out of the chair. ‘I’ll go get ready for dinner. The con is yours, Mr Wells.’
‘Aye, sir, the con is mine,’ Wells replied, acknowledging that he was now officially in control of the ship. ‘Enjoy your dinner, sir.’
Gustarv smiled. ‘Thank you.’
He walked the short distance to his cabin, which was situated directly behind the bridge so that he could reach it in seconds if there was an emergency. The spacious captain’s quarters were made up of a sitting room with comfortable sofas, an office area with desk and computer, as well as a separate bedroom and bathroom. There was a small dining table with six chairs in the sitting room, where Captain Gustarv had his daytime meals, but the captain always ate dinner in the Nile Dining Room with the passengers. Each night, a group of lucky passengers would be invited to join him for dinner.
Once he had dressed in his uniform of black trousers with gold stripes down the sides and a crisp white jacket with gold braid circling the cuffs, the captain checked himself in the mirror. Satisfied with his appearance, he picked up the telephone and placed a call he made at the same time every night. He smiled when he heard a familiar voice. ‘Hi, sweetie,’ he said.
‘Hello, darling,’ his wife, Lauren, said from their home in the Florida Keys.
‘I’m just about to go down to dinner. How’s your day been?’
‘It’s been fine, honey. The usual. How about you?’
‘Yes, the usual here, too.’
‘I checked the long-range weather forecast,’ Lauren said. She had made a habit of doing so every time her husband sailed. ‘It’s looking good for the next week.’
‘Yes, there shouldn’t be any problems. I’ll be home before you know it, then we’re off on our European vacation together.’
Although Captain Gustarv presided over the cruising holidays of thousands of people, commanding a cruise ship was no holiday for him as he was on duty all the time. The crew members of the Cleopatra and the other Kaiser cruise ships worked for ten months straight, with only a few hours off in port sometimes, and then had a two-month break. Captain Gustarv’s ten months would be up when the Cleopatra completed this latest cruise, and he and his wife, Lauren, were planning to take off for Paris once he arrived home. After thirty-nine weeks at sea, he was well and truly ready for a holiday.
‘It will be great,’ he said wistfully. ‘I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it.’
It was a balmy night in the Cuban coastal village of Santa Cruz del Sur, with only a light breeze rustling the fronds of palm trees fringing the beach. In the shadows of the village’s wooden jetty, mysterious figures huddled behind fuel drums, watching as a police jeep slowly drove past. It turned a corner and disappeared from view.
Ricardo Ramos came to his feet. ‘Rapido, amigos!’ he hissed.
The others – ten men and a woman – rose up. The woman, Ricardo’s girlfriend, carried their AK-47 assault rifle, a weapon she knew how to use after service in the Cuban army. Ricardo had the Makarov pistol shoved in his belt. Members of the group began rolling the fuel drums down the jetty. At the jetty’s end sat an old blue-and-white wooden fishing boat, fifteen metres long, tied up to the pier among half-a-dozen other small craft. The fishing boat’s name was painted on either side of the bow: Victoria.
The boat’s skipper and her teenage son, who doubled as both deckhand and the Victoria’s engineer, were already aboard the vessel. The mother had short red hair and was solidly built. Her son, short and slight, was also red-headed. Mother and son helped the others transfer the drums from the jetty to the boat. As the woman with the AK-47 stood guard, the men onshore hurried back to the pick-up truck and removed cartons of food and bottled water as well as fishing rods from its rusty rear. Everything was loaded onto the Victoria.
Ricardo looked at his watch, then instructed his companions to board the boat and gave the skipper a hushed instruction. With a nod, she went to the boat’s small wheelhouse. The boat’s diesel engine burst into life and was soon chattering away below deck, gushing dark smoke from the tall, thin smokestack. Two men cast off the bow and stern lines and jumped down onto the Victoria. Soon, the fishing boat was chugging across the bay, heading towards the open sea.
Ricardo left his colleagues on the deck and joined the skipper and her son in the wheelhouse. ‘We must reach the Island of Pines by this time tomorrow night, Consuela,’ he said. ‘My comrades and I must have time to prepare before the big ship comes.’
‘I know, I know,’ Consuela replied. ‘You have told me this several times before. If you have brought enough fuel, the Victoria will get you there. I cannot afford much fuel. If I could, my son and I would be out there fishing.’ She nodded in the direction of the sea ahead.
The woman armed with the AK-47 was standing outside the wheelhouse, her long, silky black hair blowing in the breeze. She stuck her head in through the open doorway. ‘We have brought more than enough fuel,’ she assured the skipper.
‘Keep to the plan,’ Ricardo warned Consuela, ‘and you and your son will never have to fish again. The big fish that we are going to catch before long will make us all rich.’
Josh’s brows furrowed as he concentrated on his bow tie in front of the mirror. It was the third night of the cruise and he and his father were putting on their best clothes, for tonight they were to dine with Captain Gustarv. The previous Christmas, Ben had taught Josh how to do up the bow tie Nan had given him. When Josh had watched Ben do it for the first time, it had appeared like a very difficult thing to do; his dad had created the double bow almost as if by magic. Since then, Josh had got the hang of it and he now preferred to wear a bow tie for special occasions.
Ben sat down in front of the television and began to tie his shoelaces while listening to the news.
‘There is still no word on the gang of dangerous convicts who broke out of a Havana prison two days ago,’ the newscaster reported. ‘The prison escapees hijacked a bus carrying foreign tourists, including eight Americans. The passengers were all found unharmed in a Havana warehouse and, apart from being shaken up, are safe and well. Cuban authorities believe the breakout was engineered by Ana-Maria Estevez, the known girlfriend of Ricardo Ramos, one of the prisoners. Ramos, a former sergeant-major in the Cuban army, was convicted of plotting to rob Havana’s national bank of its gold reserves along with a group of fellow soldiers, who are among the escapees now on the run with Ramos.’
Ben turned off the television and stood up. ‘Ready, son?’
‘How’s my tie look, Dad?’ Josh asked. He turned from the mirror to show his father his handiwork.
Ben smiled proudly. ‘Perfect,’ he said with a wink.
In the next cabin, Maddie was studying herself in the full-length mirror. ‘Nan, are you sure I can’t wear my fairy costume tonight?’ she asked. ‘It’s much prettier than this dress.’
‘The wings would be a bit of a problem, dear,’ Nan said from the bathroom, where she was putting the final touches to her make-up. ‘They’re so large and stick out so far.’
‘That’s what wings do, Nan,’ Maddie reasoned. ‘What’s the point of little wings? Fairies wouldn’t be able to fly if they only had very little wings. They’d just stand there and flap a lot. Us fairies have to have big wings.’
Nan smiled at this. ‘Yes, but the waiters at the captain’s table wouldn’t be able to get by them. I think it we would be much better without them tonight.’
‘Oh, all right,’
Maddie sighed.
Nan popped her head out of the bathroom. ‘Besides, aren’t you getting a bit big for that fairy costume?’
‘Can I at least wear my tiara?’ Maddie asked with pleading eyes.
Nan chuckled. ‘Yes, dear.’
‘Goody.’ Maddie quickly fossicked in a drawer and brought out a gold plastic crown, which she placed on her head. ‘I don’t suppose the captain has many princesses sit at his table.’
There were twelve people at the captain’s table that evening. Captain Gustarv was joined by two of his officers – Chief Engineer Alan McQueen, a Scotsman, and his environmental officer, Gabriella Ponti – as well as nine passengers. Apart from the Fultons, there was an Irish couple, Dan and Maureen O’Connor; and three Spanish-Americans, Juan Santana, his wife, Connie, and Juan’s brother Manuel. Nan was seated next to the eldest of the Santana brothers, Juan, who had a ready smile. She quickly learned that the Santana trio was from Miami, with the brothers originally hailing from Cuba.
‘Is this your first Caribbean cruise?’ Nan asked.
‘Our first real cruise,’ Juan replied. ‘My brother and me, we arrived in America when we were only very little. Our parents escaped the Communist regime in Cuba, you understand, bringing us with them. We sailed to Florida in a very leaky boat, with very many other refugees. That was our first cruise, you might say, but the service was lousy.’ He laughed, though his smile quickly faded. ‘I remember something of that boat trip, but my brother remembers nothing. Things are changing very fast in Cuba. One day we will go back, when it is a free country again. First, we will enjoy our cruise.’
Maddie smiled up at Captain Gustarv, who was sitting next to her.
‘I have a niece your age, little lady,’ he said, smiling back.
‘Is she here on the ship?’ Maddie asked.
‘No, no, she is in school in America.’
‘I should be in school, too,’ Maddie confessed, ‘but Daddy brought us on this cruise. He said it would be good for our education.’
The captain nodded. ‘And so it will be.’
‘I’m a princess,’ Maddie told him.
‘Ah, and in which faraway land are you a princess?’ the captain asked.
‘Holsworthy,’ Maddie replied.
Captain Gustarv grinned. ‘Well, I think Holsworthy is very lucky to have you as its princess.’
Maddie nodded vigorously. ‘I think it is, too.’
Meanwhile, Josh and his father were deep in conversation with Environmental Officer Ponti.
‘What do you do with all the rubbish on the ship?’ Josh asked. ‘You don’t just toss it in the ocean, do you?’
‘No, we would never do that,’ Gabriella said earnestly. ‘Modern ocean liners are very environmentally friendly.’
‘What do you do with all the rubbish, then?’ Maddie asked, joining the conversation.
‘As you can imagine, there is much waste produced aboard a ship the size of the Cleopatra. We are like a town floating upon the ocean. The kitchen waste alone is enormous. After all, we produce 15,000 meals a day for passengers and crew. In a week, we will prepare 42,000 desserts. To give you an idea of how much food we use aboard the Cleopatra, in a week we will go through more than 5000 kilograms of chicken and the same amount of beef, as well as 20,000 kilograms of vegetables, 3600 litres of milk and 50,000 eggs.’
Josh’s eyes widened. ‘Wow!’
‘All the waste is sent deep down into the bottom part of the ship, to our recycling plant. Dry waste is compacted and burned. Wet waste is treated likewise, after the water is extracted and reused.’
A look of horror came over Josh’s face. ‘You mean the water we’re drinking used to be human waste?’
Gabriella laughed. ‘No. The recycled water is used for washing decks and showers – that sort of thing. Our drinking water comes from seawater.’
‘We’re drinking the sea?’ Maddie exclaimed. She looked at the glass of water in front of her.
‘Our fresh water is produced in the Cleopatra’s desalinisation plant, where we remove the salt from seawater,’ Gabriella replied. ‘Close to 2000 tonnes of seawater is converted every day.’
‘What about the poo?’ Maddie asked. ‘What happens to that?’
Gabriella grinned. ‘Young people always ask that. That human waste is also treated, and the liquid is treated then recycled. The dry waste is burned in the ship’s incinerator.’
‘Not the best subject for discussion over dinner, Maddie, dear,’ Nan said.
Maddie frowned. ‘But I needed to know, Nan,’ she said.
When they had finished their entrees and main courses, the dessert menu was handed out by their waiters. Both Maddie and Josh ordered banana splits, and as the waiters laid the dishes before the pair, Maddie’s eyes sparkled with delight at the sight of sliced banana and ice cream, oozing strawberry topping and cream sprinkled with hundreds and thousands.
She dug into the dish and shovelled a spoonful into her mouth. ‘I’ve always wondered why they’re called hundreds and thousands,’ she mumbled.
‘Princesses don’t speak with their mouths full, Maddie,’ Nan reminded her.
Maddie quickly gulped. ‘But why are they called hundreds and thousands?’ she insisted.
‘Just because they are,’ Josh said.
‘They’re all the same size,’ Maddie pointed out. ‘They’re either hundreds or they’re thousands. If there were big ones and small ones, the bigger ones could be called hundreds and the smaller ones would be thousands because there would be a lot more of them. Don’t you think so, Daddy?’
Ben nodded. ‘That makes sense,’ he agreed.
‘They’re called hundreds and thousands because there are hundreds and thousands of them, Maddie,’ Captain Gustarv said.
‘And when they made them in the factory,’ Ben added, ‘they’d pour them into big bags containing hundreds of thousands of them.’
Maddie beamed. ‘That must be it,’ she said, satisfied. ‘Thank you, Daddy. You always know the answer.’
‘Not always,’ Ben said with a chuckle.
The captain turned to Josh, hoping that he wouldn’t pose such difficult questions. ‘Are you enjoying your first cruise?’ he asked.
Josh nodded. ‘It’s awesome! The ship is super-cool and we got to snorkel at Les Cayes. The water was so clear and warm! And today we got to visit a place called Goldeneye, where the man who wrote the James Bond books used to live,’ Josh said.
‘Ian Fleming’s house,’ Ben added. ‘I’d always wanted to go there. I’m a big James Bond fan.’
‘I have been there,’ the captain said. ‘Quite a magical place.’
‘It is very romantic there,’ Gabriella agreed.
‘I suppose it is,’ Ben replied. ‘I was only thinking what a great place it must have been to get away from everything to write books.’
‘Why don’t you write a book, Daddy?’ Maddie suggested.
Ben chuckled. ‘What would I write a book about, sweetheart?’ he asked.
‘About Caesar, of course, and your special hopping together. I would read it.’
Nan put a hand on Maddie’s arm, silently cautioning her not to say anything more about Ben’s top-secret work.
But Captain Gustarv’s interest had been aroused. ‘Caesar and special hopping? What is that?’
Ben waved a hand and laughed it off. ‘We have a dog named Caesar,’ he said casually.
‘Ben has taught Caesar tricks,’ Nan jumped in. ‘Special hopping tricks.’
‘Caesar is very smart,’ Maddie said proudly. ‘He can do just about anything. He even wears doggles and jumps out of planes.’ Nan squeezed her arm. Maddie looked up at her. ‘What?’
Nan smiled. ‘That’s enough about Caesar, dear.’
Chief Engineer McQueen looked at Ben, raising his eyebrows. ‘Your daughter has a very vivid imagination.’
‘That she does,’ Ben agreed. ‘Josh, why don’t you tell everyone what we did this afternoon?’
&nb
sp; ‘We went to a pirates museum,’ Josh continued, diverting the conversation away from Caesar and special operations. ‘I thought pirates were just made up, like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but it turns out they’re real. Hundreds of years ago, pirates used to steal ships and treasure and make people walk the plank. It must have been real scary back in the olden days.’
‘I think it must have been,’ the captain agreed.
‘Do you know what one of the punishments for piracy was, young man?’ Chief Engineer McQueen asked.
Josh shook his head.
‘Drowning,’ McQueen said. ‘There is a place called Execution Dock in London, beside the River Thames. If a man was convicted of piracy, he could be chained there at low tide. The tide rises quite high at that dock and so, when the tide came in, it covered the pirate and he drowned. He was left there to be covered by three high tides, to be sure.’
‘Yuck!’ Josh exclaimed.
‘Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!’ Maddie said.
‘When you think about it, it was sort of poetic justice, really,’ McQueen said. ‘The water claiming the life of someone who roamed the seas terrorising peaceful travellers.’
‘But the pirates had to be caught first,’ Gabriella said.
‘They caught quite a few of them,’ Ben said. He had been reading a book he’d picked up from the museum. ‘Very few pirates lived to enjoy their treasure, and half the time the pirates fought each other.’
‘It was a cut-throat business, right enough,’ the chief engineer agreed.
‘Were there any girl pirates?’ Maddie asked.
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