Black Gold

by Chris Ryan

  Amber couldn't see what all the fuss was about. 'So this tanker carried two types of oil. What's the big deal?'

  'They don't do that,' said Mara. Her springy curls waved as she shook her head. 'It's not economical.'

  'You sound as if you have insider knowledge,' said Alex.

  'I worked in petrochemicals a long time ago,' said Mara. 'Before I decided I wanted to be a bit more help to mankind and retrained in medicine.'

  'The other oil could be the ship's operating fuel,' said Hex. 'Maybe its tank was ruptured.'

  'But then they'd say so, wouldn't they?' said Alex. 'Mara, you're the environmentalist. Have they said anything about ruptured fuel tanks?'

  'No,' said Mara. She sat down. When she next spoke, her voice was quiet. 'Carl, are you qualified to dive?'

  Carl shook his head. 'No. Why?'

  'I want to go and look at the wreck,' she said. 'ABC Guardians have a right to know what's really going on. Never mind, maybe I can twist Danny's arm to come with me.'

  'We'll go with you,' said Alex in a low voice.

  Mara looked around in surprise. She looked into Alex's eyes. He nodded, answering her unspoken question. She looked at Hex and at Amber.

  'We're in,' said Hex. 'And Li and Paulo if you want.'

  Mara looked at them earnestly. 'We'll have to go at night. This place is crawling with ArBonCo people during the day. How experienced are you?'

  Carl answered. 'Danny tells me they're good divers, Mara,' he said. 'He told me he's been doing lots of advanced stuff with them.'

  Mara kept her voice quiet. 'Have you ever done anything like this before? If we're going to get evidence you've got to be very precise about the way you work. No contaminating the site.'

  Alex nodded. 'No problem. In fact, it's our speciality.'

  6

  THE TANKER

  The sun went down and the Fathoms Dive Centre bar at last looked out over a deserted beach.

  Below the surface the water was a deep black, sprinkled with green glitter. Passing fish left bioluminescent trails and the divers could see their companions' fins moving in arcs of sparkling light. Some fish were asleep and hidden, and the reef was alive with starry, spiky invertebrates. Brittlestars held out arms like tinsel, looking for plankton, puffing out yellow-green flashes of light at the intruders. Parrotfish hid in the crevices, cocooned inside bags made of their own mucus. The corals waved their polyps, looking for food. But some were already lifeless.

  They swam past a giant anchor, seven metres high, left over from the days when pirates roamed the Caribbean. It was crusted with sponges and corals.

  As Li swept the area with her torch she could see bubbles – but not just the air bubbles they were breathing out. These bubbles were golden brown and drifted in the currents like blobs in a lava lamp. Oil.

  The divers wore full-length suits with neoprene dive boots under their fins and barrier cream on the exposed parts of their faces. They carried two tanks of air each. On their buoyancy control devices or BCDs – the black lifejackets that acted as a harness for the tanks – they also carried lanyards with spare torches and fluorescent light sticks. Most important was a 'slate' – a piece of plastic like a miniature whiteboard with an attached graphite pencil so that they could communicate underwater.

  It took ten minutes to reach the wreck. It was huge, the living quarters like an entire sunken block of flats with the deck stretching away for what seemed like miles. Its straight metal walls were harsh beside the grotto-like surfaces around them.

  They split into three groups of two: Paulo went with Li, Amber with Hex and Alex with Mara. Each pair had designated areas to investigate, based on plans of the ship that Hex had downloaded before they set out.

  Mara and Alex were assigned the outside, to find the hole where the oil had leaked out.

  The hull was nearly as deep as the four-storey structure that sat on top. They swam down to the bottom of it, looking for the hole with their torches. Reaching the stern and swimming around the corner, they saw the propeller. Alex stopped. It was awesome, hanging like a giant fan in the centre of a big metal hole. He could have swum between its blades like a minnow.

  The next place they had to look at was the underside. Mara led the way, playing her torch up and down. As they reached the bottom, the water erupted in a cloud of green plankton and Alex felt the tip of a tail lash close to his face. He whipped his torch around. A brawny body swished away – a moray eel out hunting. He took deep breaths, letting his heart rate come back to normal. It was a timely reminder – night was the time for hunting and creatures that were docile by day were alert and hungry. Even if they couldn't eat you, they could give you a nasty bite.

  The heel of the stern rested on the rocky bottom. Scattered around were several broken crowns of coral. Mara signalled to Alex that she had found oil – a floating blob on the coral reef, reflecting her torchlight like an iridescent amoeba.

  She had previously given each of them a kit for taking samples – a Ziploc bag on a lanyard, containing bottles and a chinagraph pencil – and Alex now took out one of the bottles, held it out and the blob swam into it as though it were a living creature. He put the lid on and labelled it with a note of the location to show where it had been collected, then zipped up the bag. They'd got their first sample.

  They moved to where the hull touched the coral floor, paddling gently along it with their hands so that they stayed close to it. Somewhere there must be a hole where the oil was leaking. They collected more stray blobs – no different from the first – then turned the corner and went to investigate the other side.

  That's where they found it. A black void, resting on a jagged spear of rock. Blobs of shiny oil were slipping out like fish streaming out of a cave.

  Alex looked round at Mara. She had her sample bottle ready.

  Paulo and Li were in the engine rooms. Li was not impressed. It was only an engine, for heaven's sake, although she had to admit it was quite a big one. But just how long was he going to float there looking at it?

  Paulo was in a blissful dream. The engine loomed out of the foggy black water, pea-green coloured and as big as a two-storey house. Each part was breathtaking. The pistons were so big they could not be circled by five people holding hands. The fuel valves were the girth of a fat man. On the floor beside the engine was a giant metal lever nearly as tall as Li.

  Li swam up close to him, pulled herself upright in the water, cocked her head on one side, folded her arms and mimed tapping her foot. She had forgotten she had a fin on the end and the movement sent her shooting upwards. But as she pushed herself off the roof with her hands and floated back down to Paulo he came out of his dream and beckoned her to move on.

  Now they were in a chamber above the rear oil reservoirs. There were three of these chambers in all, running all the way along the tanker like hangars with low ceilings. At various intervals in the floor there were hatches, each closed with a wheel.

  They swam up to one. In its door was a gauge that registered empty. Paulo turned the wheel and lifted the hatch. He'd expected a large opening but it was only just big enough for a person to pass through, with a valve and another smaller wheel in the corner. According to Hex's plans, this wheel would lift the inner lid and expose the inside of the tank. But he had no need to look in this one as it was empty and he could risk letting out more contamination in the form of gases or oily residue. What they really needed to do was to establish if one still had something in it or was any different from the others.

  Paulo reached for his slate and wrote a note on it which he then showed to Li. Look at all gauges.

  Making sure they were never more than five metres apart, they investigated the other hatches, floating through the hangar and pausing at each one like fireflies visiting flowers.

  Li found a tank whose gauge was in a warning area: PRESSURE LOSS. Could this be the one with the hole? She flashed the torch over the cavernous ceiling to beckon Paulo over.

  He turned the wheel
to release the inner lid, then opened the hatch. A cluster of oil bubbles rose and Li captured them in a bottle, labelling them clearly.

  Paulo shone his torch down into the hole. The oil container was like a cave. He lifted his head out. There was no need to say anything. Li simply zipped up her sample and nodded at him. There might be vital clues inside.

  Paulo upended himself and swam in. Li followed.

  Hex and Amber floated up a staircase like a pair of ghosts. The living quarters were kitted out for voyages of months at a time. Through an open door they glimpsed a squash court and, in a tiny room above a hallway, a cinema with a pair of film projectors pointing at a small glass window. Amber pointed her torch through the glass, watching the plankton swirl in the beam like particles of dust. Cabins came next, the sheets and blankets and pillows still on the beds, cupboards left open and possessions spilled on the floor – an electric razor; a baseball cap. It all looked so normal, thought Hex – not as if they were under all this water.

  They floated through a doorway and found a big, hangar-like room. They swam slowly along the ceiling while below them their torches found a rectangle of turquoise: a swimming pool. Amber suddenly took off at speed, miming front crawl. Hex gave chase, his powerful fins making up the distance easily. They raced to the end of the room, reaching the far side at the same time.

  Finally they came to the bridge, its window now looking out into black water. Set into the floor was a giant lever that reminded Amber of a massive version of a car's automatic gearshift. On this, however, the positions were: DEAD SLOW, SLOW, HALF and FULL AHEAD. It was pushed all the way forward, to FULL AHEAD. Amber looked at it, puzzled. Why would anyone have been doing a speed like that so near to the coast?

  Li and Paulo had found a hole in the container wall. The ragged gash and bent metal told the story – it had been ripped open by a sharp rock. No sabotage there.

  There was nothing more to see. Time to go back. Paulo gestured towards the hole: After you.

  He watched Li put her head through. Her air hose bent on the sharp metal. He tapped her urgently on the leg and pointed. She reversed carefully and pointed to the hatch. They'd have to go out the long way – back the way they came in and through the ship.

  Li led the way up and put her head through.

  And got the shock of her life. A shark loomed above her, a big white blunt-headed torpedo. Its jaw came down like a gangplank and the empty-looking eye looked at her coldly.

  She scooted back down to Paulo and mimed snapping jaws with her hand. They both hurriedly turned their torches so that they pointed downwards. They both knew that sharks were attracted by brightly coloured and shiny objects. Li put her finger to her lips in front of her regulator: Keep quiet. Gently, they moved away.

  The shark was up in the main chamber. If they went up, it might go for them. It was night and in the shallows – prime hunting territory.

  Paulo looked at the hatch. Could they close it from the inside? No. There was no handle.

  Li pointed towards the ragged hole.

  Paulo didn't like the idea. He looked up. The shark passed overhead again, like a patrolling plane. It was stalking them.

  He followed Li to the ragged hole.

  They ran their torches over it. It was narrow and the edges were like passing between a pair of blades.

  Paulo wrote on his slate: U 1st. I'll guide.

  Li lined herself up with the opening and started to pull herself through. Paulo gently folded the air hoses away from the sharp edges. He nearly caught his fingers and pulled them out of the way just in time. With a shark nearby, the last thing they needed was blood in the water.

  Li got through and swivelled around in the water to look at Paulo. He was much bigger than her. There was no way he could get through with his tanks on.

  Paulo watched her. She mimed taking off her tanks. He went cold. Take off his air supply?

  Li nodded at him emphatically. He knew she was right. At least it wasn't complicated: just undo the BCD and it all came off as one unit. That meant it was easy to put on again, he told himself.

  He looked behind to make sure he didn't damage his regulator hoses.

  A big pale blunt head loomed at him out of the dark water. The shark had swum through the hatchway. And was coming for him.

  Paulo wriggled free of the BCD, took a giant breath and let the regulator go.

  Li saw the shark surge up behind Paulo, attracted by her torch and his beating fins. She grabbed him and hauled him through the opening, as the tanks dropped down inside the tanker with a loud clang.

  Alex and Mara heard a repeated clanging, like a laser-shot through the water. It was coming from the hole. They wasted no time. A diver signalled they were in trouble by banging on their tanks. Whatever had happened? It carried on – bang, bang again and again.

  Alex powered towards the noise and found Li and Paulo by the hole, sharing Li's air supply. Paulo's entire BCD and tanks were gone; the only part of his dive kit that remained was his mask.

  Paulo saw Alex and mimed 'shark', then passed the regulator back to Li. She took long, slow breaths while Paulo kept his mouth tightly closed.

  Alex could see Paulo's kit through the hole. The shark was headbutting the tanks against the hull. One moment there was a dull thud, the next a piercing clang as metal drummed on metal. Alex flinched, his ears ringing. Why did it want the tanks? Paulo's torch swung on the end of its lanyard as the shark attacked again.

  The torch. Was that what it wanted?

  Alex whipped the light stick off his kit and broke the seal to activate it. It glowed bright green in his hand, like a much stronger version of the fluorescent fish. Alex shot it in through the opening.

  The shark saw the light and lunged, getting its jaws around it and chewing, the light flashing on and off. Alex concealed his torch in case the shark came after him too. For a moment the inside of the tanker was dark, then he saw the green glow again, surrounded by serrated rows of teeth. The shark's mouth looked smaller now, chewing on the light stick as it swam away. It vanished and appeared again moments later, even further away.

  Alex turned to see Hex and Amber powering up to them, heads turning from one to the other as they searched their friends' faces for an explanation.

  Paulo scribbled on his slate. If anyone could have penetrated his mask they would have seen an expression of utmost innocence as he turned the slate towards the frantic Hex and Amber.

  Knock knock.

  7

  COVER-UP

  Carl held two test tubes up to the light. One contained a viscous dark brown liquid. The other contained a lighter brown liquid.

  While Danny and Lynn had helped the divers rinse down their gear, Carl had got to work on the samples in the lab in Mara's clinic, next door to the dive centre. Now they were all gathered in the lab, sitting around the workbench waiting for the results. In the background some reggae played softly on a late-night radio programme.

  'This,' said Carl, shaking the lighter brown liquid, 'is the oil you collected from the tanker. And this' – he held up the other tube – 'is from samples I took from the dead birds while you were out. These are not the same types of oil. You took samples from all over the tanker, right?'

  Mara nodded. 'We went over it with a fine-tooth comb.' She nodded at her dive-buddy, Alex, and at the others. 'These guys were great, really thorough.'

  'And nothing was leaking from the engines,' said Paulo. 'I looked at them thoroughly.'

  'Very thoroughly,' remarked Li.

  'It was research,' protested Paulo.

  Mara took the dark tube and sniffed it. 'This isn't engine oil anyway. It's really sludgy. You'd clog up an engine if you tried to put that in it.'

  'So something else is leaking out there,' said Amber. 'What?'

  'Or something dumping its load?' Mara got up and went to the bench where Carl had been working. She put the test tube in a holder, took a pipette and put a small blob of the oil on a sheet of filter paper.


  The five members of Alpha Force looked at her in horror. 'Someone dumping oil?' repeated Amber.

  Mara lifted the filter paper and held it up to the light to look at the stain. 'Some oil companies do that. They dump a load of oil and pay the fine. It's cheaper than transporting it or repairing a leaky boat to bring it up to standard.'

  'That's outrageous,' said Li.

  Mara was still looking at her filter paper. 'You know what this looks like to me? A mudslick. It's not like crude oil that's transported in a tanker, it's the sludge you get from exploratory drilling.' She put the piece of filter paper down on the bench. 'I think someone is drilling and the hole is leaking.'