Out Of His Depth, page 15
“How long will it take to get everyone to their muster stations?”
“Less than you might think. You missed the full drill at the beginning of the cruise – it’s very well organised. Half an hour maximum.”
“That’s when they’ll move them. Everyone will be out of their way.”
“Or it might be a genuine emergency.”
“Too much of a coincidence. We need to find out what’s going on in that room. What’s on the other side of it?”
“Other side of what?”
“The conference room. Can we get close to it any other way?”
“There’s the sanctuary at that end, next to the spa. It’s a quiet, adults-only area. We could take a look.”
The corridor outside was beginning to fill with people returning to their staterooms to retrieve their life jackets and go to their Muster stations.
“We need to go now,” said Maria. “Once they start counting heads and realise we’re not at our muster station they’ll come looking for us.”
Barker was halfway out of the door before she’d finished her sentence.
Chapter 84
In the Atrium, all four decks were filling with passengers carrying life-jackets and looking for somewhere to sit. Each of the floors was a designated Muster Station for a certain group of passengers, usually from the staterooms on that same level. In normal everyday use these spaces would never cater for this many people, so every available chair was taken and people were standing in every gap in between. Each person had their Sea Star scanned in through each doorway to be sure everyone was present, and the crew members were directing people away from the lifts and into the staircases.
The mood was one of nervous excitement. Some passengers had spied the land on the horizon so were confident of being rescued quickly if it came to it, but many were quite worried. The elderly and infirm sat in their chairs or wheelchairs looking around them hoping the evacuation would go smoothly and not put them at too much risk. The majority of passengers would have been on board the lifeboats when they were used as tenders to reach some of the ports where a cruise ship jetty wasn’t available. This could be because of a lack of a developed jetty in a poorer destination, or simply too many ships arriving on the same day. But the tenders required a degree of mobility to step onto from the door in Starlight’s side at sea level. A degree of mobility that roughly ten percent of the guests didn’t have. They would have to rely on the crew being well trained to get them safely into a lifeboat, before they could begin to relax.
Through the windows at the sides of the ship, the passengers could see that Starlight had virtually stopped moving. The sea was a little choppy from the breeze but nothing that moved the 150,000-tonne cruise ship. Conditions couldn’t really have been much better.
“Ladies and gentlemen, could I please have your attention?” came a voice over a loudspeaker. The voice belonged to Kirsty, a member of the entertainment team – a familiar face to reassure people. “Thank you for your cooperation so far, we’re all accounted for in the Atrium Muster Stations now. As you are all aware there has been a general alarm signal sent by the captain. First thing to say is that there is no damage to the ship so we are not going to sink.” Kirsty smiled and paused for almost a thousand people to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
“However, we are told that the ship has no power and is coming to a stop which, as you’ve probably noticed will not be long now. It’s too deep to anchor here so the ship will be drifting. So for safety, as were are just eighteen miles from Nassau we will evacuate passengers and non-essential crew from the ship and head to the port.” Kirsty paused again for the inevitable chatter. “This is a big operation and will take time, but with your help and patience it will go very smoothly and everyone will be taken to their lifeboat safely. Pay attention to the crew members nearest to you and follow their instructions. Thanks for your help and we’ll see you in port very soon.”
Chapter 85
Barker was ten yards ahead of Maria by the time she grabbed her shoes and got out of the door and followed. The corridor was filling up with people going in both directions, some carrying life jackets, others looking for their rooms. She could see Barker ahead and was surprised when he turned right at the mid-ship staircase when the Adriatic suite was close to the front. She passed a couple in front and caught up enough to see Barker turn left onto the staircase and head upwards. Crew members were standing in front of the lift doors to stop people using them and directing them towards the nearest muster stations. Barker skipped up the stairs two at a time, turning at each flight landing. Maria’s longer stride meant she was almost caught up with him now.
“John, where are you going?” Maria said
Barker pretended he didn’t hear her and went up to Deck Seven, turning right out of the staircase and right again down a corridor full of staterooms and worried passengers. Maria followed and caught up to him. In a gap between people, she said, ‘We’re on the wrong level John.’
“I’m going over the top,” Barker replied without turning around. “Too risky to go straight there, past that door.”
Maria smiled politely at a family coming the other way and didn’t respond. Barker turned right again at the forward staircase but was stopped by a crew member wearing a life jacket.
“Which muster station do you need sir?”
“Er…” Barker started,
“What’s your room number?” said the crew member, trying to be helpful.
Barker thought quickly. They needed to go down so he made up a number beginning with 6 and hoped for the best.
“6420,” he said.
“OK, down here sir,” said the crew member pointing to the staircase where Barker had wanted to go all along. “Your muster station is in the theatre, bottom floor.”
“Thank you,” said Barker as Maria caught up and linked arms with him.
“Come on darling, we need to hurry,” she said, smiling apologetically at the crew member as they headed down the staircase.
Chapter 86
In the Adriatic Suite, the hostages were the only passengers who knew the real reason for the general alarm and the decision to abandon ship. After the piercing whistles had finished and they’d all stared wide-eyed at one another, Janet shouted, ‘You have to let us go! We have to get our life jackets.’
Lucy wasn’t so easily fooled, breathed deeply and looked directly at Michael. But the question in her mind was spoken by someone else.
“This is something to do with you isn’t it?” Jordan piped up from his position sat on the floor with his back against the wall. They’d all had their blindfolds removed to make them more comfortable and were beginning to get a bit braver.
“Yes it is,” replied Michael, turning away from Lucy’s stare and towards Jordan. “This is me giving Miss Jones’ father a bit more to think about. A lot more actually. A demonstration of intent you might say. Obviously, he doesn’t care enough about her to part with his money, but I didn’t come with just one plan. Now we move on to the next stage”
“Don’t hurt us. Please don’t hurt us. I have a child…” said Sam Smithson, Jordan’s wife, desperately.
Michael turned and smiled at her then turned away without speaking and looked at Lucy. “That’s out of my hands.”
Chapter 87
On Deck Six, Daryl and Rose were looking through the windows to see where the noise was coming from. It was the noise of machinery whirring and clanking, accompanied by voices, instructions being shouted and confirmed. A well-oiled machine of metal and people being put into action. The bottoms of the lifeboats were just becoming visible as they began to be lowered into their loading positions at Deck Seven, the promenade deck. The sight of moving lifeboats caused a flutter of anxiety among the passengers that shared their dining-room Muster Station with them, who thought they might have missed their opportunity of rescue.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm. The lifeboats are being lowered into their loading positions. In a few moments we’ll begin to take you up to Deck Seven and allow you to board them. We’ll take you out section by section, so please wait for instructions from the crew member nearest to you. Thank you.” The announcement came just in time and visibly calmed the group down.
Rose was chatting to a woman next to her at the unlaid dining table, as she usually would in a social situation, whilst Daryl was scanning the crowd and the exits to see which way he thought they were likely to be taken out and up to Deck Seven. They were roughly in the middle of the dining room as they hadn’t been the first to arrive, so didn’t get to sit nearest the exit. But the aft staircase was only a few yards beyond so it wouldn’t be too long a walk and only one deck up before they were led out onto the promenade deck and the safety of the lifeboat. He remembered he hadn’t put sunscreen on yet and wondered if there was a small bottle in his day pack on his knee. They might be stood on deck for ages and he was prone to burning. He noticed people in wheelchairs and on frames were already beyond the exit doors and were presumably being taken to the lifts. Once they were out of the way, the rest of them could go.
A crew member walked over to the table nearest the exit and said, “OK folks, if these six tables could stand up and follow me please.” He waved his arms at a group of tables and passengers just beyond them looked at each other hopefully. Daryl knew they would have been in that group if they’d arrived earlier. He watched the first sixty people shuffle towards the exit door and touched his wife’s arm reassuringly and nodded towards the door.
On the opposite side of the room the same was happening with the first group of tables, only they were being led out of the exit on that side and up to lifeboats on the port side of the ship. How would they split people in the centre of the room, Daryl wondered, and was glad they’d sat clearly on one side. His greatest worry about cruising was being split from his wife. He worried when they were in port and she wandered off into a shop and he momentarily couldn’t see her. Irrationally, he worried they might not both make it back to the ship, even though they were well travelled and Rose was quite capable of looking after herself. He breathed in and out and relaxed at the thought they were going to leave the ship together.
All over the ship, in all the other Muster Stations, crew-members were shepherding passengers slowly towards the exits and onto the promenade deck and their waiting lifeboats. It was the first time most of the crew had done this for real and they were excited and a little scared, but their training was thorough and professional. They were helped by ideal weather and a calm sea. It could have been worse. A lot worse.
Chapter 88
On Deck Five Barker and Maria turned right out of the staircase and right again into the port side corridor that led to the Adriatic suite, but continued walking past the lobby area where the entrance was, pretending to be heading for their stateroom to pick up their life-jackets. There were still a few people about, life jackets in hand, heading quickly in the other direction, late for their muster stations.
Barker was nervous now as he knew, or at least suspected, that Lucy was still in the room they were walking past. Why didn’t he just barge in and rescue her? That’s what he felt he ought to do. He felt physically inadequate at the thought he couldn’t protect her. But he’d never been that kind of cop. Besides, he might only get one chance and he couldn’t mess it up. So they walked past into the Sanctuary, a part of the spa where guests go to chill before or after their treatments. It was a lounge area with a dozen or so sets of tables and chairs, and a similar amount of small sofas with coffee tables between. The far wall was tinted glass, and through it they could see the therapy pool, a small, extravagantly-decorated room with a chest-deep pool only just big enough for a dozen or so people. There was a waterfall feature behind it and metal spouts pointing down with jets of water firing into the pool, usually after bouncing off the bodies of the well-heeled guests who’d paid the extra charge to use it. The tables and chairs were not arranged neatly and there were cups and plates left lying around after the staff had left in a hurry.
As they turned right into the room, on their right side was a small counter and kitchen behind, backing onto the Adriatic suite. Barker ignored the mess and walked straight round the end of the counter and into the tiny kitchen area. He was surprised how small it was but realised it wasn’t the busiest place on the ship, perhaps serving just a few dozen people a day, those that could afford the massages and facials and fancy electro therapies on offer. He’d looked at the menu of treatments available in his stateroom, and quickly put it down again.
The kitchen was all stainless steel tables and preparation surfaces and cupboards, with a few small appliances for cooking the few hot meals on offer. Salad, vegetables and breads were lying partially-sliced on the surfaces, abandoned like the tables outside when the alarm had sounded. Barker scanned the back wall and in the stainless steel sheet on the wall there was a door with a steel handle which he quickly walked over to and pushed down. In his haste he didn’t realise that he might have walked straight into the suite, unprepared for what he might find. Luckily, he found himself in a dry storeroom with racks of metal shelving stuffed with ingredients. The room was half the size of the kitchen and lined with white plastic panels. On the far wall about eight feet away was another door.
Chapter 89
Most of the ship by now was quite empty. Crew-members stood dutifully by lifts and staircases and doorways to make sure confused passengers couldn’t get lost. Others walked to-and-fro looking for strays and checking off lists.
Deck Seven meanwhile was full of queues of passengers snaking out of their muster stations, along corridors and out onto the promenade deck, which was a heaving mass of bodies patiently waiting their turn to board a lifeboat and get to safety. The sun beat down but there was a gentle breeze and the overhanging structure of the ship and its lifeboat supports was casting enough shadow to protect people from sunburn. The sea was calm, inviting even, and the sight of land on the horizon kept most people from panicking.
The first lifeboat on the starboard side was full and the door clunked shut by an engineer who checked the locking handles before a reassuringly smooth and solid whirring began as the boat slowly lowered downwards below the handrail and out of sight. A ripple of excitement ran through the crowd as they understood that they were on their way.
Daryl and Rose were in a queue that was just coming out through a door onto the aft end of the promenade deck on the starboard side. They could just see over the heads of those in front of them the sight of the first lifeboat leaving. The boat they were queueing for was about fifteen yards ahead of them, the second to last along that side of the ship. There were about forty to fifty people in the queue ahead of them and loading was slowing down. Daryl wondered if they were going to make it on or would have to wait and move forward to the next one, probably twenty minutes queueing away.
As he stepped out through the door into the fresh air he looked around and saw a webbing barrier stretched between two posts across the deck, preventing access to the rearmost lifeboat which stood empty. Grabbing his wife’s hand he said, ‘Come on Rose,’ and pulled her out of the queue and round the side of the post and back down the deck towards the empty boat.
“No Daryl, we should wait,” said Rose
“It’s empty. Come on.” Daryl replied, guiding Rose up the steps and down into the fibreglass hull of the empty boat. “Better to be on one early and find a seat than get stuck standing up and crammed in by a doorway. It’ll fill up soon.”
A few people in the queue alongside them looked at the empty boat but didn’t follow. One of them mentioned what had happened to the crew-member guiding them to the nearly-full boat in front of them, but he was unable to leave his post. Another two lifeboats further forward began to clunk and whirr and lower down below into the Caribbean Sea. As did Daryl and Rose’s.
Chapter 90
Aidan Jones walked through the door into his office building for the second time this morning and took off his coat. He’d been down to the car park and sat in his royal blue Bentley Continental for five minutes deciding whether to drive off and hide away somewhere quiet for a few days. Somewhere they couldn’t find him. He had the resources and the contacts, and enough favours to call in. But it would only delay the inevitable. They would find him eventually.
They found him in reception. As Aidan smiled at Jodie on the front desk for the second time this morning, he felt someone grab his left shoulder, spin him around and push him back against the reception desk. Jodie gasped, jumped up and stepped back from her seat.
“Tell me what you did Aidan. Tell me everything,” said Stephen Mitchell, grabbing a fist full of Aidan’s tailored white shirt.
“I’m calling the police,” said Jodie picking up the receiver on the desk’s handset.
“No Jodie, don’t,” said Aidan, “It’s OK. Stephen’s upset. We’ll go into the conference room as soon as he puts me down, won’t we Stephen?”
Stephen stared into Aidan’s eyes hard and his face squirmed with anger. His skin was blotchy red. He pushed Aidan back again and let go of his shirt but kept his eyes on him in case he made a run for the door. Aidan stood up off the desk and straightened his shirt collar and jacket.
“This way,” he said as he turned into the downstairs corridor and pushed open the first door on his right into the board room. Reluctantly Stephen followed as a car screeched into the car park and came to an abrupt halt in front of the main door. Two middle-aged women stepped out.
Helen Gibson and Diane Collins pushed through the door and caught sight of the back of Stephen following Aidan through a door. Jodie mouthed a greeting at them but was ignored as the two women marched down the corridor and into the conference room.
