“We thought you might react this way,” Sherwood said, a nasty grin spreading across his face. “So we came prepared. We aren’t taking no for an answer.” He turned to look at the woman in the group, nodded to her. She fished a mobile phone from her pocket, passed it to Melvin. He pushed a button, slid a finger across the screen, held it out for Jake to see.

“No!” Jake said. “Where is she? What have you done with Tania?”

• • • • •

Tania Bloom opened her eyes and looked around as best she could. Her hands and feet were bound, her knees were pressed against her chest and more binding held them in place. A woman’s scarf had been folded and tied in a gag over her mouth. Not that anyone would hear her scream if she tried. Not up here in one of the luxury suites; they were soundproofed.

She was in the bottom of a wardrobe. Not many people would have been able to recognise the precise wardrobe if they were in the same position, but Tania knew every cabin and every suite on board like the back of her hand. She was a hands-on kind of manager, and regularly inspected the work of her housekeeping team. Her spot-checks were legendary. She had the ability to find dust in places no human should ever have to look. Even now, bound and gagged in the bottom of a cupboard, she couldn’t help but notice a cobweb between the back wall and the hanging rail.

• • • • •

“I said, what have you done with Tania?” Jake repeated.

“She’s safe. Well, as safe as you can be when you’re tied up. She’s with the passengers now. It’s an equitable swap. We’ve taken one of your senior staff, you get to take a passenger. That would be me. Like I said, I’m taking charge.”

“You’re doing no such thing son,” Max said. In two giant paces he was behind Sherwood, clamping the young man’s hands in his own.

“Tell your ogre to unhand me.”

“Tell us where Tania is,” Jake said.

“This is very simple,” said Sherwood. “My people are holding Mrs Bloom. They are under strict instructions that if they don’t get confirmation I’m in charge by ten thirty, they are to kill her. Then they will abduct another of your crew members, and we’ll start again. Now, unhand me.”

“You animal!” Lucya spat the words in his face. “You piece of shit!”

Three of the rebel passengers surrounded her, restraining her hands. She kicked and screamed until they forced her to the ground.

“She can’t be far, we’ll search the entire ship if we have to, but we’ll find her.” Jake’s mind was racing while he spoke.

“Really? You’ve got about forty five minutes to do it. Of course you would have had longer, but you kept us waiting out there. That’s less than five minutes per deck. Think you can find her in time?”

“Max, let him go.”

“What? You’re not going to listen to this jumped up little idiot are you?”

“Tania’s life could be at stake.”

“You think he’s going to let her go? Come on, think about it. You give him what he wants, he can’t let her go, he knows what we’ll do to him afterwards,” he glared at Sherwood as he spoke.

“Your ogre isn’t as stupid as he looks,” Sherwood said. “We have no intention of letting her go. Like I said, an equitable exchange. She becomes a passenger, I become crew. Well, captain. Unless you refuse, in which case she becomes polar bear food. Did the polar bears survive do you think?”

“I can’t relinquish control of this vessel. Maybe we can come to some sort of compromise.”

“Oh for goodness sake, have you gone insane?” Max propped himself up against a console, his forehead in his hand.

Melvin said nothing. He was thinking hard. So far everything was happening exactly like Flynn had said it would. Now he had to decide. He wanted to hold out, to force their hand, to take charge of the ship. But Flynn had been adamant; they would never let him take control he’d said, it was out of the question. They would take the risk of losing Tania and lock down the boat, they would have emergency procedures for that. He had to play the long game, to get a foot in the door. That was the true purpose of the mission. But he couldn’t be seen to give in too easily.

“The passengers have a right to be heard,” Sherwood said cooly.

“And I agree with you,” Jake said. “But this isn’t the way to go about it. There is a chain of command, procedure to follow. I cannot hand over control to a passenger. But I could appoint a passenger representative to join the senior officers when we are making any important decisions.”

“Not just for meetings. There should be a passenger representative on the bridge at all times. Overseeing the operation of the ship, with the power to veto any decision.”

“Okay, we could have a passenger here all the time, but no power of veto. There are international rules and regulations that must be respected. The captain has the final say,” Sherwood was shaking his head, Jake continued regardless, “but the passenger representative will have an equal voice among the senior crew.”

“We can quit saying passenger representative, that will be me. And when I am not on the bridge, one of my deputies.” He looked at his fellow passengers, three of whom were still restraining Lucya.

“You haven’t been elected. There are nearly two thousand passengers on this ship. How many have given their support for this?” Jake raised an eyebrow.

“We don’t have time to ask them all. But I have many supporters.”

“Alright. You get a seat on the bridge. But we’re going to be holding a census tomorrow. We can ask the passengers to vote for a representative at the same time.”

Melvin hadn’t anticipated this, and he wasn’t sure how to react. He certainly couldn’t take the risk of any kind of election, not yet. He needed to prove himself first. He decided to stay on the attack, it had worked quite well so far.

“Yes, there should be an election,” he said. “But it will be for captain of the ship. We set sail tomorrow, we return to port to find out what has happened. If, as the television suggests, the asteroid has destroyed everything, then Pelagios Line is no longer the owner of this ship, and the rules no longer apply, right?”

“That would be the case, yes,” Jake agreed.

“So I will be the representative until we know what has happened. And then, we will hold an election to see who will be the captain. These are my terms. You now have about forty minutes, but it shouldn’t take that long to decide.”

Jake considered the proposition. It seemed fair. The passengers did deserve a say in what happened. And if, as he was sure would be the case, they turned out to be the only survivors of the asteroid, then an election would be the perfect opportunity to stand down, He hadn’t asked to be captain, didn’t want to be captain, and certainly didn’t want to be leader of the last human settlement on earth.

“Then we have an agreement,” Jake said. “But I need to see evidence that Tania is untied and being treated properly.”

Max banged his head against the console. “This is a really bad idea,” he groaned.

“Now please release my radio officer, and tell me how we get your message to those holding Tania.”

Melvin nodded to his supporters on the floor, who helped Lucya to her feet then stepped back in with the others behind their leader.

“There must be an announcement from the captain that we will set sail tomorrow morning.”

“I can’t promise that, I don’t know if the engine will be ready by then.”

“You’d better hope it will be, because if you don’t put out that call in the next thirty five minutes, chomp chomp.”

Jake sighed, walked over to a console, picked up a handset, and flipped up a button marked PA.

• • • • •

The wardrobe door opened, light streamed in, blinding Tania. Two pairs of hands grabbed her and pulled her roughly from the confines of her prison and onto the cabin floor.

“Congratulations,” a voice above her said. “You just got promoted to passenger.”