Life Goes On by Tayell, Frank (large ebook reader txt) 📗

It is a risk, but one we should take because this vessel can sail all the way home. Perhaps Mr Kane can answer the question of what lies south beyond French Guiana.”

“He’s sailing down to the Cape?”

“Possibly. Sailing boats have managed it before, Commissioner. It will depend on how the ship performs on its way to Dégrad des Cannes. I might ask the colonel to accompany him, but before I do that, and before I ask Mr Kane to take that additional risk, I would like more information on what he might find deep below the equator.”

“Zach found a diary left by one of the ship’s previous passengers,” Tess said. “Boston, Ottawa, and Toronto were nuked. It sounds as if the entire American northeast was targeted.”

“Which is to have been expected,” Adams said.

“Havana was bombed, too,” Tess said. “They met a Cuban warship going north, hoping to reach a redoubt in Greenland. They traded gold for fuel in Mexico, at a place called Puerto Morelos. But previously, they’d found people in Savannah. A redoubt of some kind who wouldn’t allow them entry.”

“We’ll have photographs taken of the diary, and send those with Mr Kane. Captain Kane. What can you tell me about the ship’s crew?”

“There were probably four of them,” Tess said. “A father and daughter from Atlanta, a man who’d found this boat off the Georgia coast, and a woman they picked up in Mexico. There’s no sign of them aboard, or of violence. A small boat is missing, and we think they took it ashore after they dismantled the engine. I heard the helicopter return. What’s the canal like? Could the survivors have gone ashore here?”

“The canal was the target of multiple missile strikes,” Adams said. “Conventional warheads, which did as much damage to the cities as to the canal. The waterway is clogged with debris. Returning it to operational status isn’t a matter of maintenance but of repair, and will require dredgers and tugs. Manageable, but time-consuming. Delaying the work for six months will make it no more difficult.”

“Assuming it’s such a priority we can divert the resources within six months,” Tess said.

“Commish!” Zach called, running up the steps, and nearly slipping on the deck.

“Steady,” Adams said, catching his arm. “Why the rush?”

He held up the book. “It was right at the beginning. I nearly missed it because it was right at the start. They left Atlanta after the bombs! Someone was running an airlift to Canada from the airport in Atlanta. Hundreds of planes. But not everyone went. A plane was supposed to come back if there was somewhere to land. But everywhere in the north was bombed. That’s why they went to Savannah.”

“Everything that happened in that diary was after the bombs?” Tess said. “How long after they found this ship did they meet the Cubans?”

“Dunno. Weeks,” Zach said. “That means they were aboard really recently. Like within the last few days. We could still find them.”

“I’m sorry, Zach,” Adams said. “That’s very unlikely. We could search the nearby shore for their boat, but they wouldn’t still be on the beach.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess not.”

“People in Savannah survived the nuclear bombs,” Tess said. “Some might have survived in Miami, but they certainly survived in Puerto Morelos, trading fuel for gold, and only a few days ago. You wanted information, Captain. We’ll find it in Puerto Morelos.”

7th April

 

Chapter 41 - Pirates of the Caribbean

Corn Island, Nicaragua

“But I can’t have drunk all the fizzy orange?” Zach said, his plaintive cry directed at the sailor behind the mess-counter.

“No tea. No coffee. No fizz,” the sailor said. “Some of the soda appears to have gone missing. Bit of a mystery. Don’t suppose you’d know anything about it?”

“If water’s good enough for the fish, it’s good enough for us,” Clyde said. “Come on, you.” He pushed Zach away before the young man incriminated himself.

“Iced water?” Tess asked.

“Yes ma’am,” the sailor said. “I can add some essence if you like. Vanilla, almond, or lemon?”

“No worries, that would only make me dream of lattes and pastries,” Tess said, and took her glass over to their table.

“We gave too much food to Mr Kane,” Zach said, looking forlornly at his already-empty breakfast bowl.

“He’s got a longer voyage ahead of him than we do,” Tess said.

“We’re travelling further,” Zach said.

“He’s travelling slower,” Tess said. “If the wind is blowing south, they might attempt to circumnavigate Cape Horn.”

“Fair dinkum,” Zach said. “But he didn’t have to take all the good food.”

 “Those multi-coloured calories wrapped in additives cannot be described as food,” Avalon said. She had ended her voluntary exile and returned to the team’s mess-table.

“There was popcorn,” Zach said. “It’s been ages since I had popcorn.”

“Good news for you,” Tess said. “We’re going ashore in the Corn Islands to look for fuel for the helicopter. With a name like that, we might get lucky finding some corn growing in a field. Or maybe even some food in a store cupboard.”

“Afterwards we’re going to Puerto Morelos, right?” Zach asked.

“It’s the island of Cozumel first,” Tess said. “There are a lot of islands north of Puerto Morelos, and more north of Cancun. But those islands could have been swamped by post-bomb refugees from Cuba.”

“Or zoms,” Zach said.

“I thought Florida was the closest landfall to Cuba,” Nicko said.

“It would depend upon which part of Cuba you’re travelling from,” Avalon said. “If you have a pen, I’ll draw you a map.”

“I’m happy in my ignorance,” Nicko said. “Cancun is a tourist city, isn’t it?”

“Famously,” Avalon said.

“Famous enough for me to have heard of it,” Tess said.

“So it has an airport?” Nicko asked. “That plane had to have come from somewhere.”

“It’s under fifteen hundred kilometres from where we sighted the plane,” Avalon said. “So