"Yeah. So."
"I've only seen two today, out lying in the sun. Nice looking ladies. What's the story? You keeping them all locked up for yourself? We sailors appreciate a little eye candy from time to time, you know?"
"Me, too. But, you just can't look at two beautiful women and be happy. You need more?"
"More of some things is always better. Money, rum. Women especially, if they're nice. And yours are."
"They're not actually mine. We abolished slavery a few years after you Brits delivered all those slaves to America."
"Wasn't me, mate. I just appreciate a good female figure. Right now, I might even appreciate a poor female figure."
"They're seasick. Not good eye candy. Maybe tomorrow. They're afraid they might dirty up your pretty ship if they stray too far from the toilet. You wouldn't want to be swabbing the deck six times a day, would you? Not fun."
"I thought maybe they were Chinese and were hiding out. Bringing the plague onboard. Not fun."
"One is Japanese and the other is from Singapore. I ran into her there six weeks ago. Old friends. Besides, if any of us were contaminated by the plague, we'd all be dead by now. It only takes a week to kill. A day to make you sick. We've been in Europe for weeks."
"That's not what the rumors are saying, mate. I heard it takes weeks before you find out if you're sick. And once you are sick, you suffer through a month of the worse pain any human ever had before you die an even worse death."
"Afraid not. Sorry. The Chinese hit a home run with this one. One day to see symptoms. Then, between one day and six days later, you're dead. You don't recover. You die. It's worse every time I hear the news. The virus may have mutated and in a worse way. They never mutate in a good way. Strange that."
The crewman tilted his head toward the cabins. "Maybe, one of your girlfriends is a carrier. Maybe, she's in the room with the other now and the other one is sick."
"No carriers. Just dead people. We all traveled from London to Paris a week ago. We traveled back in a car yesterday. If she were sick. I'd be dead. Marceau would be dead. Elspeth would be dead. Tom would be dead. No matter what you've heard, it takes only one day to become sick. The Chinese biotech people were first rate. Maybe the best in the world, from the way this virus is working. They really knew what they were doing. Made one hell of a virus. Either you are sick and die in seven days or you don't. Nothing in between and more than nine out of ten people get sick and die. That's a fact."
"How can you have more than nine out of ten? That would be ten out of ten."
"These days, we do decimals. Nine point nine become sick and die."
The crewman crowded John against the railing. "I don't trust you, Yank. I'll be watching. Don't get sick or you are all overboard. We have guns. We could make you all jump right now."
"If I'm sick and you touch me, you'll be sick. In fact, if I have it right now, just by talking to me, especially this close, you have better than a nine in ten chance of being sick. Your friends will use their guns to shoot you and throw you body overboard tomorrow."
After backing off and putting some distance between John and himself, the crewman said, "I don't believe that. Nothing is that deadly."
"This one is. I'm telling you. This one is a world killer. The next time you come back to England, you won't want to go off the ship. You'd be better off to find some little island out in the middle of the ocean and stay there until this blows over. May only take a few months. Pierre is a doctor. Ask him."
"I don't like talking to him. He's bloody arrogant. He's French and a doctor. That's a bad combination."
"Just do it. Unfortunately, he learned that doctor arrogance in the US, not in France. He practiced in Washington for a year. Don't tell him you talked to me. Ask him and see what he says. He'll back me up. This virus is bad and it spreads easily. On this ship, either we're all OK together, or we're all going to die together. Most of us, before we make it to the other side of the pond. A ghost ship will land. Probably just run into the land. Beach itself because nobody will be alive to stop it."
"Now you're trying to scare me. It can't be that bad."
John shook his head and let out a deep breath, in frustration. "Look, Mike, I'm being honest. It is that bad. I'm even more scared of the virus than you are. I watch everybody I see for symptoms. You have nothing to worry about with us. We are all in good health. Not even a sniffle. Just a little seasickness. I have more to worry about than you do. I don't know where you or any of the rest of the crew have been or who you have been with. Or the captain."
"Where we've been! Who we've been with? We haven't been anywhere. Been with nobody. We've been on this bloody ship for the last week. They wouldn't let us off in England. My home country wouldn't let me back in. What a load of rubbish. Said they'd let us know next trip. Bollocks." He spat over the rail in disgust.
"What about all those other people I saw aboard when we arrived? Company people. Port people. Even some Navy people. What was the last ship they were on? Did it have the plague? Did they carry it on? I'm telling you. I'm more worried than you are."
* * *
Back in his room, John mulled over the conversation with Mike. He decided he should get another opinion before doing anything drastic. He cautiously knocked on the door of Tom and Elspeth's cabin. It opened and he said, "I need to talk. I'm worried about something."
"Come in. If we can help, just say the word," said Elspeth. "We'll do what we can. You can't do this all alone. We're with you," she said sitting on the bed. She patted the bed beside her and John sat down. Tom stood across the room and leaned against the bathroom door.
"I'm not sure what to do. One of the crew is suspicious of Cho and Masako. Mike, the tall, thin one."
"I remember him," said Elspeth. "He's definitely a British sailor. Drinks like a fish anytime he's off duty. I saw him as we boarded. He was trying to hide it, but he was drinking then. If he gets drunk and talks to the others, he could be trouble. What do you think?"
"I don't know, Elspeth. He said if I was sick, he'd throw all of us overboard. He said they have guns. I think I calmed him down, but he could be a problem. If he starts agitating the crew, he could get start a riot."
John thought. A gun battle on a ship would be bad. His group probably had more guns. But, if his group killed the crew, who would run the ship? And when they got to the US, the police would surely put them in jail. John began to wonder how his group got their guns onboard. Then he remembered that Terry Porter had arranged passage on the ship and, no doubt, arranged for special handling of the luggage as well. Maybe gave them some kind of diplomatic status.
Tom perked up. "My grandfather gave us a lecture before we left. The British government thinks China will collapse in a few weeks, a month at the latest. They've done computer models. He said the only thing that now matters is staying alive. Within two months, governments everywhere will stop worrying about anything but survival. They will go into their bunkers, eat their frozen food and hope their generators hold out. No more traffic tickets. No more trials. No more law and order. The only law will be the one you enforce yourself. How well can your girlfriends take care of themselves?"
"Cho is solid. Masako has a job teaching Jujitsu and I've seen her shoot. Marceau can handle a knife. What about you, Elspeth? Still shooting?"
"I'm decent with a forty-five. We need to remember what Tom's grandfather said. Now, we have only one rule. Survival. We do what we have to. That means throwing the old concepts of morality and ethics overboard. If Mike's on duty tonight, we throw him overboard. Before he tries to throw us overboard. Before he talks to anybody. It's that simple."
"OK, Elspeth. Sounds like you have a plan."
She rose, walked across the room, opened her suitcase and took out her makeup kit. She removed a small bottle and took out a pill. "I'll give him this in a drink. I'll take care of the rest. You stand guard."
"Sure," said Tom.
"No, not you Tom, John. I'm not sure what I might have to
do to make him take it. I don't want you to see it."
"Maybe, I should do it, if it's going to be dangerous."
"It won't be dangerous, just -- complicated."
"You've changed Elspeth. You used to be a pacifist. You too Tom."
"When the whole world changes, only a fool stays the same."
* * *
After dinner, Elspeth said she needed some air and winked at John. She left the table and shortly, John followed. He kept his distance and stayed out of sight with his hand on his gun. The sound of a gunshot would bring every sailor on the boat and was definitely a last resort.
Elspeth walked around the deck, with John not far behind, until she found her quarry. "Hello, Mike. I heard you haven't been on land for a week. That's terrible."
"Elspeth, is it? I was watching you sunbathing today. What a fine British lass you are. You don't know the half of it. Those bloody gits wouldn't let us off the ship. My own country. I was born not twenty miles from the dock. I waved at me mum as we sailed in. And then, I waved at her as we sailed back out."
"Bloody shame. A sailor separated from his mum and his girl," she said, taking his hand and running it along her bosom.
"Separated from all of them."
"Damn right. How about a drink, sailor?" Elspeth said, removing his hand and pulling a bottle from her purse.
"I'm on duty. The Captain is real strict. Know what I mean?"
"Sure. Bloody Captain," Elspeth said, pretending to upend the bottle and taking a giant drink. Then she clasped his hand again and slid it up and down her side and across her bottom.
"Right. Bloody Captain. Give me that bottle, lass."
He grabbed the bottle with his other hand and downed a large drink, then handed the bottle back. Elspeth pretended to take another drink, then took his hand and again ran it across her bosom while closing her eyes in pretend pleasure."
"What about that guy you're with?"
"What about him. You want him here and not me? He's not here. I am. If you don't want me here, I'll go."
"Calm down, lass. I don't want nobody else here. Just checkin'. Can't be too carful. Know what I mean?" Mike took the bottle back and drank the remainder. She guided him close to the railing and, as he began to lose consciousness, she leaned over, capturing his attention with a good view of her cleavage, grabbed his leg, pulled it up and tossed him over the rail. She threw the bottle over the railing, waved to John and walked back to the dining room.
John watched the cold blooded murder and told himself, never cross Elspeth. This was the third murder his group was responsible for, after the man in France and the Inspector in China. The cab driver, he figured, was self defense, but he was amassing a body count. Was this his future? Kill or worry about being killed? Not a clear moral prerogative.
* * *
The next morning, a knock on John's cabin door made him quickly grab his gun and shove it into his pants at the back. He threw on a shirt and opened the door.
"Hello Captain. How's everything?"
"One of the crew is missing. Mike. Do you know anything about it? Is he here? Or with your lady friends? He was quite curious about them. I'm not sure why."
"Maybe he had been at sea too long. He said weeks. I talked to him last night after dinner. He appeared really high. Was he supposed to be on duty?"
"He was on duty." The Captain pursed his lips.
"That was just after dinner. A fine dinner by the way. Maybe around eight o'clock."
"Thanks. Mind if I come in?"
Standing aside and with a wave of the hand, John said, "Certainly not. It's your ship. There's nobody else in here. Come in and look around all you want. Nothing to hide."
After the captain had looked inside the toilet and the closet, he said, "I'm going to the women's cabin. Those two are staying together, right? Do you want to go with me?"
Without hesitation, John said, "Yes, that would be best."
They walked two doors down the hall and John knocked. He and Cho used a secret knock that meant be careful. Two, one and two. Two and two meant have your gun drawn and be ready to fire. Two and four meant shoot through the door. He repeated the knock just to make sure. A mistake would put a giant hole in his plans as well as his chest.
After a few moments, the door opened and Masako stood in front of the doorway wearing a towel around her body and a towel around the top of her head, drooping over as much of her face as possible.
"One of the crewmen is missing. The captain is searching the ship. He wants to look inside to make sure he isn't here. You aren't hiding anybody, are you? He says Mike was curious about you. I can't blame him," he said, looking her up and down.
Masako backed away from the door and said in her best American accent, "Sure, come on in. We have the whole Yankees baseball team in here. It's been a real blast. Right, Cho?"
Cho was dressed and lying on the bed, reading. She looked over and said, "A real blast."
The captain looked around the room for a minute and then the toilet and the closet. As he and John left and stood outside the door, he said, "By the way. We're stopping in Canada. Halifax. To pick up cargo. Then we go south to Virginia. If the Canadian Navy is searching ships, you will have to be off before that. I can let you have a boat."
"We haven't been to China in the last six weeks."
"I don't care. They don't care. If the ladies look Chinese, they could be interned. And maybe the rest of you as well, along with my whole crew and me to boot. All the cargo would be unloaded, anything perishable would rot, and everything else would sit on the dock in the rain for months. The insurance cost to the company would be horrendous."
"We wouldn't want that to happen."
"I don't know who you really are or what button you pushed to be on this ship, but I understand it was a big one. You have a friend in a high place. The company president came to see me at the dock, just before you boarded. First time that ever happened. He said I had to take you and I had no choice if I ever wanted to captain a ship again. If I didn't take you, he would replace me and the next Captain would take you. But he also said not to be caught doing anything stupid. Words to live by, bucko."
"Among all this mountain of containers, there's no place to hide two women?"
"Most of the containers have electronic locks. Smarter people than either of us designed them and people more clever than us have tried to break into them -- and failed."
"Not all the containers have the new locks. I checked. The older locks can be broken and then repaired. I'm sure you have a machinist and a welder on board who can handle it." John knew his thorough inspection of the ship the day before would be useful. His planning when he first heard of the virus was also paying dividends.
"It would have to be situated in the right spot. Most of the doors can't be opened because the containers are tightly stacked. That's part of the security of the system."
"I've found the perfect one," John said, holding four gold coins in his hand. "What about the manifest. How would you explain the loss of two people?"
"Not two, nine. None of you are on the manifest. I was not even told your names. I don't know your secret, but I can guess. So, you all go in the container or you all go over the side. We will only be there one day, but it will still be difficult for you. You must take all your belongings, enough food, water, light and toilet equipment. Leave no sign you were ever here."
"No problem, we can do that."
The captain was silent for a minute, then looked at John with curiosity. As if he was trying to read John's mind. "You've really thought this through, haven't you? These ladies must be worth a lot. We could put them over the side and you'd be fine. I would tell Customs that leaving you off the list was a mistake. I would say I thought they only wanted the crew."
"Right now, Captain, loyalty carries a big price tag and it's in short supply. Every week the price will go up and every week the supply will go down."
* * *
The next day, everyone began brainsto
rming the future. John filled notebook after notebook with lists of things to do, things to buy and things to remember. Every day, the lists were rewritten and revised. Day after day was filled with debate, argument and lists. What was important and what wasn't? Was item number two hundred seventy-nine really less important than item two hundred seventy-eight?
What had to be bought now and what could be made, scavenged or grown later? How much of each item was needed? How fast was it used? Oddly, most of them had never noticed how much toilet paper they used. Various experiments were done and a weekly usage rate was calculated.
Elspeth and Marceau gave up on the lists and the arguing after the second morning and began spending time outside on deck working on their tans in their bikinis. The crew found many excuses to walk by where they were sunbathing. Often stopping to ask if either would like a cup of tea or another towel.
"All that planning made me tired, Elspeth. My head hurts."
"I agree, Marceau. Either do something or don't. Talking about it is a waste of time."
"It may not be a total waste. I've been thinking about it all."
"Yes, what's to think about?"
"The big problem is that we've lost whatever control we used to have over our lives. Before, we could travel on the train or a plane or even in a car and go where we wanted. The next city or around the world. Soon, we won't be able to go anywhere. We used to be able to choose our food, our clothing, whatever we wanted. Now we can't. We will have to eat what we stored and what we are growing. We will have to make our own clothes. We've lost all control. We will have to live with what we have. If we want something else, it will take much work to make or it will be impossible to have."
"Yes, I know. All that's gone. No more Harrods. You're making me seriously depressed, Marceau. Where's my flask," Elspeth said, rifling through her purse. "So, what's your point?"
"What the others are doing now is trying to take back control. That's why it's important to them. You know men. They have to control things. Be in charge. Know what's going on. This prepping is now their only way to have control over their lives. If you don't do it, then you've turned over control to someone else. And now, there is no one else to do it. Nobody else will take care of us. If we don't take control of our lives, we'll die."
The Weak Shall Die: Complete Collection (Four Volume Set) Page 13
