“As a matter of fact, yes there is. You can operate the winch. You know the two buttons?”

Jake nodded. Stieg dished out instructions to his men and positioned them strategically. All three were armed with boat hooks to guide the steel cables and net. Once in place, he signalled to Jake, who pressed down on the bright green button, bringing the electric motor to life. The spindle began to turn, winding the taut lengths of cable around the drum. The net was deep in the sea and there was a considerable amount of steel cabling to drag back in. Jake could feel the heat from the winch as the motor strained and laboured.

Shouting from the fishermen suggested that the net had surfaced. “Many fish, Captain Noah!” Stieg called out. “Many, many fish!” He worked away with his hook, ensuring that nothing tangled or twisted.

The net drew alongside the winch so it was directly below Jake. He peered over the side and saw that there were indeed many fish. The surface of the sea was boiling as thousands of herring flipped and somersaulted in the few inches of water that were left. Another turn of the drum and that water had gone, and the top of the net was out in the air. Slowly it eased out of the sea, water draining from it, and the true bulk of the catch became clear for the men to see. The net was bulging, it looked set to burst at the seams. And then, quite without warning, that is exactly what it did.

Nine

“T HIS IS AN urgent announcement. Would Janice Hanson and Mandy Chalmers please go to medical immediately. That’s Janice Hanson, and Mandy Chalmers, please go to the medical suite on deck five immediately.”

Kiera listened to the announcement echo out through the ship. The thought that there was a specialist in dead people coming to help, did nothing to calm her fear. The paralysis in her feet was slowly working its way up her legs.

“Try not to worry now, Kiera, we will beat this.”

“You don’t have to give me the full-on customer service, Grau,” she said wearily. “We both know that we haven’t a clue what this is or what to do about it.”

“That doesn’t mean we won’t find out.”

“The question is, will we find out before or after I end up like Scott in there?” She tried not to look at the door to the treatment room, but her eye was drawn to it. She knew that on the other side, Erica’s father was dying slowly and painfully, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. “Will it be before or after I end up a shell like Maryse Wernström?”

“We cannot be sure that the two conditions are related, Kiera.”

“Come on, Grau, I saw Scott earlier. He’s started bleeding from his ears. We found blood on Maryse’s pillow. The sores on his legs have started to open up. It’s exactly the same. Something is eating him from the inside out.”

Grau sighed and sat down. He couldn’t argue with her, she was right. But that was no reason to give up hope.

A knock at the door made them both look up.

“Hi, uh, I think I’m supposed to report to you guys? Or something? There was a message? On the speakers. My name’s Mandy.”

“Ah! Nurse Chalmers, our antipodean saviour!” Grau leaped to his feet and rushed to greet the woman. She was a little shorter than Kiera, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Kiera thought she looked more like a surfer than a nurse. “I’m Doctor Grau Lister, and this is Nurse Kiera Stevens. I’m sorry to bring you here under these circumstances. I believe there is a process in place for starting new teams, but time is not on our side. We have a situation developing and your skills are very much needed here.”

“What, you mean, like a nurse? You want me to come and help you out here?”

“Yes, yes! I’m sure you have already heard that the committee are assigning jobs. Everyone will be employed in one function or another. As from now you are on the medical team. We will talk about shifts and that sort of thing later. Right now you need to get yourself scrubbed up and help me with this patient.”

“Sorry, I thought you said she was a nurse?”

“She is. And now she is a patient. I will explain as we go along.”

Grau took the new nurse to a nearby bathroom where they kept disinfectant soap and some spare white coats. She needed to be prepared before she began dressing the sores that had started to appear on Kiera’s legs.

When the two of them returned to the medical suite reception, a pair of submariners were waiting. Supported between them was Barry Nickelson, his legs dangling uselessly beneath him.

• • •

Stieg lunged towards Jake, pushing him aside and taking control of the winch. He screamed commands at his two fellow trawler men, who tried in vain to manipulate the net with their boat hooks. The winch was reversed and the cables started unwinding, sending the net tumbling back towards the sea.

From what Jake could make out, the idea was simply to salvage as many fish as possible, but it looked like an impossible task. When the net had split, a torrent of fish had exploded out, crashing back into the ocean below. The efforts to try and save them were an act of desperation.

Stieg knew it too, and as frustration got the better of him he turned and kicked the winch hard, swearing in Swedish. He flipped the motor once more, and watched as the net was brought all the way back up.

A handful of herring remained caught in the diamond-shaped mesh, but there were barely enough to feed a large family. The catch had been lost, and the net was going to need serious repairs.

• • •

Jake approached the medical suite, wondering if his day could get any worse. The sign on the door suggested it just had. He’d never seen the door to Grau’s rooms shut before, but there it was, closed tight with a handwritten note that read: “Quarantine. Do not enter.”

Ignoring the sign, he tried the handle. The rooms were locked. He banged a fist on the solid wood. “Grau? Kiera? Anyone in there? What’s going on?”

“Jake?” It was Grau who responded. “Is that you?”

“Yes. What is it, Grau? What’s this quarantine business? Where’s Claude?”

“It is the mystery illness, Jake,” Grau said, his voice clearer as he came to speak through the door. “It is catching. Kiera is down with it, so is Barry. They both handled the first patient, Scott. I have been working with the same patient, so I cannot take the risk of coming out there. We have no idea how this thing spreads.”

“Shit. Did anyone else touch the patient? Anyone else we need to take care of?”

“Yes. Erica, Scott’s daughter. She was with him when Kiera found him. Silvia is looking after her. We should get her down here, to be on the safe side.”

“I’ll take care of it, Grau, I’ll go and find her now.”

“Jake, before you go. I think it would be wise to put on a mask and gloves before touching the girl. Just in case. It is probably fine; if she is not showing symptoms she may not be infectious yet, but it would be better to be safe than sorry, as you say. You will find all you need in the medical stores.”

Jake turned to leave, and found a woman approaching him.

“Hey there, I’m Janice Hanson. This is medical, right?”

“Yes. We’re having a little trouble though. Is your problem urgent, or could you maybe come back later?” Jake moved in front of the sign on the door, not wanting to cause alarm.

“I don’t have a problem. It’s you guys that called me down here?”

“Mrs Hanson?” Grau called from behind the door. “Did I hear that right?”

“Yeah, Hanson. Janice. We established that. So what’s up? I was kinda enjoying watching those islands, came down here special ’cause I was called.”

“You are a forensic pathologist, is that correct?” Grau sounded excited.