“Was. Retired now. Cruising the world. That was the idea anyhow. Before…Hey I don’t wanna sound rude or anything, but maybe you could come out? Might be easier to have this conversation.”

Jake stepped aside, revealing the handwritten notice.

“Oh. Uh-huh. Okay, I see. So I’m here in a professional capacity, that it?”

“I’m afraid so, Mrs Hanson,” Jake said. “We have two bodies down in the morgue. Unrelated deaths. We could use a professional opinion on what the causes were. You’re being integrated into the medical team.”

“And there was me thinking I’d get deck sweeping duty or something. Never considered I’d be called on to do my old job.”

“People are still dying in this new world. More frequently than in the old one it seems,” Jake said, sighing. “Come on, I’ll show you where the morgue is.”

“I’ll need some equipment; I don’t travel with scalpels and saws, you know.”

“In the stores, Jake,” Grau called from behind the door. “There won’t be everything you need, but you should be able to improvise from what we have. Vardy has some more surgical instruments, but we won’t have access to those until they surface again.”

“And somewhere to work?” Janice raised an eyebrow.

“There is a small amount of working space within the morgue. Otherwise,” Grau thought for a moment, “there is always the temporary morgue. Jake, you know where…”

• • •

Jake and Janice’s first stop was the stores just around the corner from the main medical rooms. Jake’s master key opened the door, much to his surprise. Inside they found overalls, gloves, face masks, and a selection of scalpels and knives for the pathologist to work with. Jake took gloves and a mask for himself, and then a second set for Silvia. They locked up and headed down to deck one.

On the way, Jake realised he hadn’t formally introduced himself. He did so, and also filled Janice in on the names of the rest of the medical team and key senior officers.

The ship’s morgue was located near the bow section, well below the waterline. It was tiny, with just enough space to load a body from the trolley in the middle into either of the two refrigerated drawers.

“So this place is full, huh?” Janice said.

“I’ve never known there to be one body in here, let alone two,” Jake said. “They put these tiny temporary morgues on cruise ships for when elderly passengers, well, you know.”

“When they die, Captain, that what you mean? No shame in saying it, we all die!”

“Yes, that we do. I thought I’d seen enough death to last me the rest of my own lifetime these last few weeks. I’d hoped we were getting back on our feet. Didn’t expect to be confronted with mortality again so soon.”

“What the heck did you do with the dead after that ash cloud hit? Can’t have stuffed them all in here!”

“We set up another temporary morgue, much bigger. Come on, I’ll show you.”

They left the compact room and headed fifty metres back down the ship. Deck one was a dingy place, with none of the luxury of the public areas. It was all metal bulkheads and miles of pipework and cabling. It reminded Jake a lot of the Ambush, although it was much more spacious than the submarine. Normally it was deafeningly noisy, but with nuclear power driving the propellers, there was just an eerie hum to be heard, and the ever-so-slight vibration of the prop blades cutting their way through the ocean.

“Here we are.” Jake unbolted the door and swung it open. He fumbled around inside, found the light switch, and pushed it on. Fluorescent tubes flickered into life, illuminating the cavernous store room that had, the last time Jake had seen it, been filled with charred bodies lined up in neat rows on the floor. Since those corpses had been disposed of over the side, the room had been cleaned and disinfected. That didn’t stop it sending a shiver down his spine; he was sure the smell of death lingered on.

“Wow, okay, I guess I can’t complain that there’s no space to work. This place is huge!”

“Yeah, it’s one of our stores. It would normally hold supplies for the kitchens. Lucky it was empty. Well, kind of lucky.” Jake couldn’t help thinking that right now, he’d rather have a massive stock pile of food than space for a morgue, but that was another problem and one he couldn’t do much about. “So, you’ve got two bodies. One is a passenger who Grau thinks has died from a mysterious illness. The same illness that our nurse, Kiera, and our entertainments manager, Barry, appear to have contracted. The doctor can give you more details no doubt. You can call him on the telephone just outside the door there. Medical is on 711.”

“And the other body? You said there were two?”

“Yes, indeed. That’s one we pulled out of the water. Looks to be decapitated. We don’t believe it’s anyone from this ship, nobody has been reported missing, and the body was in the water for a while. But the passenger is the priority. We need to know what this disease is so we can treat it.”

“Without proper equipment, I don’t think I’m going to be able to tell you much. Maybe cause of death, which organs failed first, top level stuff like that.”

“Anything you can find out will be helpful, honestly. And once we reach Scotland and the Ambush surfaces, I’ll introduce you to Doctor Vardy. He may have more equipment that you can use.”

Ten

HAVING LEFT JANICE to prepare her first post-mortem, Jake took the stairs up to deck six to find Silvia, the hotel manager. Her job had been to manage all non-sailing staff on the ship. It was a role that had become hugely more important, and she was now coordinating all the teams established by the committee, as well as overseeing the employment of everyone on board. It was going to take weeks, probably even months to allocate jobs and reallocate cabins to everyone, but Silvia had a reputation for ruthless efficiency, and although softly spoken and gentle, she had a knack for getting the best from people.

Her office door was open when Jake arrived. He peered through and saw Silvia sitting at her desk, working through a pile of documents. He recognised them at once as census forms.

She looked up and spotted him standing in the doorway.

“Hi, Jake, how’s Kiera?”

“She’s okay, I think. I haven’t seen her. Grau’s looking after her.”

“Is it the same as…” Silvia looked over to Erica, who was lying on her tummy on the floor, still drawing away.

“He thinks so. But it’s probably too early to tell. Listen, Grau thinks it’s best if Erica comes down to medical.” Jake leant over the desk so he could speak quietly. “Kiera and Barry both handled her dad and now they’ve got the same thing. She might be at risk too.”

Silvia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “Oh no, poor girl! And Barry too? That’s awful!”

Jake walked over to Erica and knelt beside her. He could feel the mask and gloves in his pocket, but couldn’t bring himself to put them on. He could only imagine they would frighten the life out of her.

“Hi Erica, I’m Captain Noah. How are you? What are you drawing?”

“I’m drawing our house. And some trees. Are you a real captain, like in the films?”

“Yes, I’m a real captain.”

“Cool! Can I see where you steer the ship from?”

“I’m sure that can be arranged. But first we need to go down to see Doctor Lister. Is that alright? Will you come with me?”

“Yay! That’s where Daddy is. Are we going to see Daddy?”

“I think your daddy is sleeping at the moment, but you’ll be nearby for when he wakes up. Come on.”

Erica jumped to her feet and skipped to the door. “Thank you for looking after me!” she said politely to Silvia.

“That’s alright my love, it’s been my pleasure. You come back and see me any time okay?”