The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

  ‘By what?’

  ‘The thing is…’ Roberts grimaced. ‘Have you ever heard of an attack by whales?’

  It was the last thing Anawak had expected. ‘An attack? On a ship, you mean?’

  ‘Yes. A big ship.’

  ‘It’s almost unheard-of.’

  ‘Almost?’ Roberts was listening carefully. ‘So this wouldn’t be the first time?’

  ‘There’s one recorded incident from the nineteenth century. Melville wrote a novel about it.’

  ‘You mean Moby Dick?’

  ‘The novel was inspired by the story of the Essex, a whaling ship sunk by a sperm whale. The vessel was forty-two metres long, made of wood and probably rotten, but that’s not the point. The whale rammed the boat and it sank within minutes. Its crew are supposed to have drifted for weeks in their lifeboats…Oh, and there were two further cases last year off the coast of Australia. In both incidents a whale was reported to have sunk a fishing-boat.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘It smashed them to pieces with its tail. A man died. He had a heart-attack after plunging into the water.’

  ‘What kind of whales were they?’

  ‘No one knows. They disappeared too quickly.’ Anawak looked across at the Barrier Queen’s hull: there was no sign of any damage. ‘I can’t imagine a whale attacking her.’

  Roberts followed his gaze. ‘It was the tugs they were attacking,’ he said, ‘not the Barrier Queen. They came at them from the side. It was obvious they were trying to capsize them, but they didn’t succeed. So they tried to prevent them attaching the tow line, which was when—’

  ‘They launched their attack.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Impossible,’ Anawak asserted. ‘Whales can overturn objects as big as or smaller than themselves. Certainly nothing any bigger. And they wouldn’t attack a larger object unless they had no choice.’

  ‘The crew swears blind that that was what happened. The whales attacked and—’

  ‘What kind of whales?’

  ‘God knows.’

  Anawak frowned thoughtfully. ‘Let’s imagine the scenario. Suppose the tugs were attacked by blue whales, the largest species. Balaenoptera musculus can grow up to thirty-three metres long and weigh over 120 tonnes. They’re the largest animals to have lived on this planet. Now, supposing a creature like that tried to sink a boat of the same or similar length. It would have to be as fast as the boat, if not faster. Still, over short distances a blue whale can manage fifty or sixty kilometres per hour without too much hassle: its body is streamlined and there’s almost no resistance. But how much momentum would it have? And what would be the counter-momentum of the boat? To put it simply, in the event of a collision, who would be knocked off course?’

  ‘A hundred and twenty tonnes is pretty heavy.’

  Anawak nodded at the truck. ‘Do you think you can pick that up?’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘You see? The ground’s supporting you and you still can’t lift it. In the water you don’t have that luxury. When you’re swimming, you can’t lift more than your weight. It doesn’t matter if you’re a whale or a human. It’s all a question of relative mass. Besides, you’ve still got the problem of the displaced water. How much does it weigh in relation to the whale? It doesn’t leave you with much, just the propulsion from the flukes. With a bit of luck the whale might nudge the ship off course. On the other hand it might deflect at an angle from the hull. It’s a bit like billiards, if you see what I mean.’

  Roberts scratched his chin. ‘Some say they were humpbacks. Others talk about fin whales. And the crew on board the Barrier Queen think they saw sperm whales.’

  ‘Three species that couldn’t be more different.’

  ‘Dr Anawak, I’m a reasonable man,’ Roberts said. ‘It seems to me that the tugs could have found themselves in the middle of a herd by accident. Maybe the boats weren’t rammed by whales but the other way round. Maybe the crews did something stupid. But one thing is certain, the smaller craft was sunk by whales.’

  Anawak could hardly believe what he was hearing.

  ‘The crew had just connected the cable,’ continued Roberts. ‘It was a taut steel one reaching from the Barrier Queen’s bow to the stern of the tug. The whales rose out of the water and crashed down on top of it - so, you see, in this instance there was no displaced water to slow the momentum. And they were pretty big specimens, according to the crew.’ He paused. ‘The tug whipped round and sank. It lifted up and over in the air.’

  ‘And the men?’

  ‘Two missing. The others were rescued. Tell me, Dr Anawak, is there any explanation for their behaviour?’

  Good question, thought Anawak. Dolphins and belugas recognised themselves in the mirror. So, could they think? Could they plan? Could they plan in a way that we could understand? What motivated them? Did whales have a future and a past? What possible reason could they have for ramming or sinking a tug?

  Unless the tug had threatened them or their young.

  ‘It just doesn’t fit with whales,’ he said.

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ Roberts said helplessly. ‘But the crews see it differently. In any case, the bigger tug was also rammed. In the end they managed to attach the cable. This time it didn’t come under attack.’

  Anawak stared at his feet, searching for an answer. ‘Coincidence,’ he said. ‘A horrible coincidence.’

  ‘Do you really think so?’

  ‘We’d have more chance of working it out if we knew what had happened to the rudder.’

  ‘That’s why we’ve called in the divers,’ Roberts told him. ‘In a few moments they’ll be ready to go down.’

  ‘Did they bring a spare set of equipment?’

  ‘I expect so.’

  Anawak nodded. ‘I’m going too.’

  The water was revolting, but it always was in docks. The thick dark liquid contained at least as much dirt as it did water. The bottom was covered with a metre-thick coating of mud, over which swirled a permanent cloud of organic matter and silt. As the waves closed over Anawak’s head he asked himself how he was supposed to see anything. He could just about make out the hazy outlines of the two divers in front of him and beyond them a dark, misty patch - the Barrier Queen’s hull.

  The divers gave him the OK sign. Anawak made a circle with his forefinger and thumb in return. He released the latent air in his dive vest and dropped slowly down the side of the boat. They had only gone a few metres when they switched on their head-torches. Exhaled air bubbled and thundered in Anawak’s ears. Little by little the rudder emerged in the half-light. Notched and stained, its plate was bent at an angle. Anawak felt for his depth gauge. Eight metres. Ahead of him, the divers disappeared behind the rudder, leaving two stray beams of light flitting through the darkness.

  Anawak approached the rudder from the other side.

  At first he could see only raised edges and irregular hollows. Then it hit him. The rudder was encrusted with black-and-white mussels. He swam closer for a better look. At the bottom of the rudder, where the plate swept the shaft, the mussels had been ground to pieces. A thick gritty paste filled the cracks and grooves. No wonder it wouldn’t respond. It was clogged.

  He swam further down the hull. The mussels continued. He reached out gingerly to touch the shells. They were glued to each other in layers, small molluscs no more than three centimetres long. Very carefully, to avoid cutting himself on the edges, he pulled at the mussels until some came loose. They were half open. The fibres that had anchored them in position now poked out of the shells, like tendrils. Anawak stowed them in one of his collection bags, and racked his brains.

  His knowledge of molluscs was sketchy. A number of species had a similar-looking byssus, composed of adhesive fibres secreted by the foot. The best known and most feared were the zebra mussels that had been brought over from Asia. In recent years they had colonised the ecosystems of Europe and America, destroying native fauna. If the mussels that ha
d infested the Barrier Queen were zebras, it would explain why there were so many of them. They could establish themselves in no time, spreading at an alarming rate.

  Anawak prodded the creatures with his finger. So, the rudder had been invaded by zebra mussels. It seemed the only explanation. But how? They usually preferred a fresh-water habitat. They could survive and reproduce in salt water, but that didn’t explain how they could overrun a moving vessel miles from the seabed in the middle of nowhere. Had they latched on to it before it set sail?

  The freighter had been en route from Japan. Did Japan have a problem with zebra mussels?

  Further down the stern, two curved blades loomed up like ghostly apparitions from the murk below. Anawak swam towards them, kicking his fins until he could grip the edge of one. The propeller measured four and a half metres in diameter. Eight tonnes of solid steel. For a moment he imagined what it would be like when it was turning at full speed. It seemed impossible that anything could so much as scratch it without being shredded.

  Yet the propeller was covered with mussels.

  An unpleasant possibility occurred to Anawak. Hanging off the edge of the blade, he swung himself hand over hand towards the middle of the propeller. His fingers touched something slippery. Gobbets of a light-coloured substance slid off and floated towards him. He snatched at them, caught one and peered at it.

  It was jelly-like, rubbery, and looked like animal tissue.

  He stashed it in a collection jar, and felt his way forward. One of the divers appeared on the far side, lamp shining on his mask, making him look oddly alien. He signalled for Anawak to follow. Anawak glided between the rudder shaft and the propeller. He stopped and let himself sink through the water until his fins touched the propeller shaft. A film of slime coated it. The divers were trying to tear it off and Anawak joined in, but they were wasting their energy. It had wrapped itself round the propeller and, without proper tools, they couldn’t pull it off.

  Anawak thought back to what Roberts had told him. The whales had tried to get rid of the tugs. It was absurd. Why would they sabotage a tow line? So that the freighter would sink? In rougher conditions she might easily have gone under - after all, she was effectively disabled. The sea wouldn’t have stayed calm for ever. Had the whales been trying to stop her reaching safe water before the weather changed?

  He glanced at his gauge. Still plenty of oxygen. He signalled to the divers that he wanted to inspect the hull, and the three left the propeller, fanning out along the side of the vessel, with Anawak at the bottom, where the hull curved round to the keel. The beam of his head-torch explored the steel casing. The paint looked relatively new, with few scratches and little discoloration. He dropped down towards the seabed, further into the gloom. His eyes darted back to the surface: two hazy spots of light marked the position of the divers inspecting the hull. There was nothing to worry about. He knew where he was. All the same he had a heavy feeling in his chest. He kicked his fins a few times and drifted along the hull. No sign of any damage.

  All of a sudden his head-torch dimmed. Anawak’s hand flew up to check it - but the problem wasn’t the lamp: it was where the lamp was shining. Further up, the beam had reflected evenly. Now it was swallowed by a bed of jagged mussels, whose dark outline obscured the painted stern.

  How had they got there?

  For a moment Anawak considered swimming back to the others, then decided against it and continued down the hull. As he neared the keel the layer of mussels thickened. If the rest of the underside was covered to that extent, a significant weight had accumulated. But someone must have noticed the state the ship was in. On the high seas a load like that would slow a freighter noticeably.

  He reached the point where he was obliged to swim on his back. A few metres beneath him lay the muddy wasteland of the harbour floor. He could barely see anything, the water was so murky - just the huge mound of mussels above him. Kicking rapidly with his fins he swam towards the bow. Suddenly the bed of mussels stopped as abruptly as it had begun. For the first time he realised the true size of the outcrop. The mussels had formed a layer two metres thick along the bottom of the Barrier Queen.

  There was a chink at the edge of the outcrop. Anawak hovered in front of it. Then he reached down to his ankle, where his knife was in its sheath. He pulled it out and plunged it into the shells.

  The outer crust split open and something shot out towards him, twitching frantically. It collided with his face, almost pulling off his breathing apparatus. Anawak jerked backwards. His head hit the bottom of the boat. A harsh light exploded in his eyes. He wanted to get out of the water straight away, but the keel was above him. Kicking desperately, he swivelled round and was confronted by another mound of shells. Their edges seemed to be stuck to the hull with a jelly-like substance. Forcing himself to calm down, he set about hunting among the floating particles for traces of the thing that had attacked him.

  It was gone. All he could see were strange formations of mussels.

  Suddenly he realised he was clutching something. It was his knife. A scrap of something dangled from the blade - a blob of milky-coloured, semi-transparent material. Anawak stowed it in the collection jar with the tissue. He couldn’t wait to get out of there. His heart was pounding, so he ascended slowly, with small, controlled movements, following the hull upwards until the lights of the two divers appeared in the distance. He headed towards them. They’d found the mussels too. One was using his knife to prise individual shells away from the crust. Anawak tensed, steeling himself for something to hurtle towards them, but nothing happened.

  The second diver motioned upwards with his thumb and they ascended slowly to the surface. Gradually the light grew stronger, but the water remained murky.

  At last Anawak found himself blinking in the sunshine. He pulled off his mask, and breathed in gratefully.

  Roberts and the others were waiting on the jetty.

  ‘So, what does it look like down there?’ Roberts asked. ‘Did you find anything?’

  Anawak coughed and spat out a mouthful of harbour water. ‘You could say that.’

  They were standing around the tailgate of the truck. Anawak had been nominated as spokesman.

  ‘The rudder was blocked with mussels?’ asked Roberts, incredulously.

  ‘That’s right - zebra mussels by the look of them.’

  ‘How the hell did that happen?’

  ‘Good question.’ Anawak got out his collection jar, opened it and carefully emptied the blobs of jelly into a larger container filled with seawater. He was anxious about the tissue: it looked as though decomposition had already set in. ‘There’s no way of knowing, of course, but I’d picture it like this. First, the helmsman tries to apply five degrees rudder. The rudder doesn’t move. As it turns out, it’s blocked by countless mussels that have settled all over the shaft. Now, you guys know more about boats than I do, but a rudder is pretty easy to disable - although in practice it rarely happens. Consequently it never occurs to the helmsman that the rudder might be blocked. He still thinks he hasn’t shifted it far enough, so he tries to shift it further. Again, nothing seems to happen. Then the helmsman goes all out, and the rudder breaks free. As it swings across the shaft, it crushes the mussles in its path, but they don’t fall off. A paste of ground molluscs clogs the rudder. The blade is wedged tight and can’t move back across the shaft.’ Anawak pushed strands of wet hair out of his eyes. ‘But that’s not what really bothers me.’

  ‘What then?’

  ‘The sea-chests are clear of mussels, but the propeller is covered with them. It’s completely infested. I don’t know how they managed to latch on to the boat, but one thing is certain: a rotating propeller would be too big a challenge for even the most determined mussels. Either the molluscs climbed aboard in Japan - which seems unlikely, since the rudder was in fine working order right up to the two-hundred-mile zone, or they clung to the propeller when the engine cut out.’

  ‘The ship was invaded by mussels in the middle
of the ocean?’

  ‘Right, although “appropriated” might be a better term. I’m trying to picture how it happened. A gigantic swarm of mussels settles on the rudder. When the rudder jams, the ship heels. Within minutes the engines are turned off. The propeller stops rotating. More and more mussels descend on the rudder, reinforcing the blockade. In no time they extend across the propeller and along the hull.’

  ‘But the ship was out to sea,’ said Roberts, confused. ‘Where would tonnes of adult mussels come from?’

  ‘Why would whales scare off tugs and jump on a tow line? You’re the one who started telling stories, not me.’

  ‘I know, but…’ Roberts bit his lip. ‘It all happened simultaneously. It almost makes you think there’s a link. But it doesn’t make sense. I mean, whales and mussels?’

  Anawak hesitated. ‘When was the last time you inspected the Barrier Queen’s keel?’

  ‘There are constant inspections. Besides, she’s coated with a special paint. Before you ask it’s environmentally friendly. But there aren’t many things that can latch on to it. At most, a few barnacles.’

  ‘You’ve got more than a few barnacles down there.’ Anawak stared at Roberts. ‘But that’s just it…By all rights, they shouldn’t be there. The Barrier Queen looks as though she’s been exposed for weeks to hordes of mussel larvae. And in any case…there was something else down there…’ Anawak described how something had shot out towards him from inside the crust of mussels. While he was talking, it all came back to him. First the shock, then hitting his head on the boat - he had seen stars.

  No, not stars - flashes of light.

  A single flash of light.

  Then it struck him: the creature had flashed.

  For a moment he was speechless. The flow of words dried up as it dawned on him that the creature had luminesced. But if it had luminesced, it must have come from the depths. It could scarcely have found its way on to the Barrier Queen while the ship was in dock. It must have latched on at the same time as the mussels. Maybe it had been drawn there by them. Perhaps they were a food source. Or a shield. The creature could have been a squid…