“Do you think they’ll buy it? The ‘no reason to believe it’s dangerous’ line?”

“Some might. Most? Probably not. What can I say though, Lucya? ‘Sorry, we’ve no idea what it is or how to cure it, but it will probably kill you in twenty-four hours.’ I can’t see that helping.”

“What about staying in cabins? People still have to eat, Jake.”

“I know, but the opinion of the committee is that if people willingly shut themselves in their cabins, they’ll forego dinner, and maybe even breakfast. At least wait it out until it’s clearer what’s happening. It works to our advantage; we’re so low on food this is a way of making what’s left go further.”

“I suppose so. I wish I could have been at the meeting.”

“Someone had to look after Erica. How did you get her to sleep? Wasn’t she still insisting on seeing her father?”

“She was too tired, even she admitted it. But tomorrow we have to tell her the truth; we can’t hide it forever.”

“I know, I know.”

“It’s okay, I’ll do it, Jake, I don’t mind.”

“I wasn’t trying to get out of it. I can tell her, if you want.”

“No, it will be easier coming from me. We’ve got a bit of a bond already I think.”

“Listen, I’m going to head back to the bridge for an hour, just to see how McNair is doing. It feels odd leaving a submariner at the helm, even if it is the computer doing all the work.”

“Coote said he has experience of cruise ships; he’ll be fine. Anyway, it’s only for the night shift.”

“Yeah, but I’m still the captain, it’s still my responsibility. Just for an hour.”

“I might be asleep when you get back.”

“Then again, you might not.”

“Cheeky.”

Fourteen

JAKE ROSE AT six in the morning. He was surprised to have slept so well given his state of mind. He was equally surprised not to have been woken by anyone coming to tell him that the virus had now reached epidemic proportions, or that the last of the food had gone, or that some other disaster had beset them. He dressed quietly, and leaving Lucya and Erica sleeping, headed straight for the bridge.

His trip through the ship was eerily quiet. Normally there was activity at every hour of the day or night, but now the corridors and public areas were completely deserted. There was only the gentle hum of electric strip lights to accompany the sound of his footsteps. He had seen the ship like this once before, when she was brand new and he had been given a tour by Captain Ibsen once he’d been assigned to the Spirit of Arcadia. She was still in dry dock, having a few finishing touches before her official launch. Back then, everything had seemed shiny and new. Now, so many years later, the carpet looked as though someone had turned down the contrast. The walls and doors bore the scuff marks of thousands of children paying not quite enough attention to where they were running in their excitement. Even the ceilings looked different, with the odd yellow stain here and there caused by leaky pipes or condensation. But the feeling of emptiness, of being in on a secret that nobody else knew yet, that feeling was the same. He could almost pretend that everything was fine.

But everything was far from fine.

“Good morning, Captain,” McNair greeted him as he walked onto the bridge.

“Is it? How are things?”

“Well from our perspective we’re doing great. We’ve made good time.”

Jake looked out of the huge windows. They were surrounded by land on three sides. The loch they were sailing through was about fifteen kilometres wide, and the end was just about visible to the naked eye. Much closer than the far end of the loch though, was Faslane. He had expected it to look much like Longyearbyen, but strangely, it seemed worse.

“Hell of a mess, isn’t it?” McNair asked, catching the look on Jake’s face. “Most of that debris is from the ship lift. It’s a monster. Was, anyway. It could lift sixteen-thousand-ton vessels out of the loch. I suppose that’s small fry to you cruiser sorts, but that’s a big sub.”

“It looks like it was stamped on by the foot of a giant,” Jake managed to say, still in awe at the level of destruction wrought by the asteroid.

“There was a shed over the top that must have been pulverised. I didn’t expect the concrete superstructure to be so,” he searched for the right word, “obliterated.”

Jake had seen what the asteroid had done to a concrete pier, but that was further north where the space rock had been gaining altitude and losing some of its destructive force. Here in Scotland it was clear that the base had felt its full might. A gigantic area, kilometres wide, had been flattened. The concrete frame of the ship lift lay strewn across the remains in chunks ranging in size from gravel like stones up to pieces the size of cars. A thick layer of toxic ash enveloped the whole mess like a woolly blanket, making the landscape look something like the surface of the moon.

“Eagle-eyes has been studying it for the last couple of hours from the Ambush, as soon as it was visible from the periscope array. He thinks a pressure wave built up in front of the asteroid and that’s what did the most damage.”

“Like an aircraft breaking the sound barrier?”

“Yes, exactly like that.”

“How many people worked there, on the base, McNair?”

“About six thousand, give or take. Plus the crews of any ships and subs that are in at the time. Were in at the time,” he checked himself.

“Six thousand people, wiped out in what, a second or two?”

“It’s hard to comprehend, I know. The only consolation is that it would have been over quickly for them, very quickly.”

Jake nodded slowly. He didn’t believe it was much consolation at all. Then he thought about the people suffering on his own ship and reconsidered. Perhaps, he thought, being vaporised by a pressure wave in a second was a better way to go.

He made his way over to the unmanned communications console and sat down. He put the phone on speaker and dialled the number for medical, without really knowing where the call would be routed.

“Medical, Mandy speaking?” The voice sounded exhausted.

“Mandy, this is Captain Noah. What’s the situation this morning?”

“Not good. At a guess I would say half of deck eight has gone down with the virus. Your call last night brought us five new nurses; they’re running around doing what they can. We’ve had cases reported on decks six, seven, nine, and quite a few on deck three.”

Jake closed his eyes. Deck three was where the crew cabins were located. He knew that every case was serious, but to hear crew were infected meant more of his friends were likely in danger.

“Are any of the drugs showing signs of working?”

“Not really, no. One or two people have shown a little improvement, but really, all we can do is try and make them comfortable. Kiera is very sick, and I saw Grau a couple of hours ago, he’s not in great shape either. David has also gone down with it.”

“How long have you been working, Mandy?”

“Since I was called to medical.”

“You mean you’ve worked round the clock?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Take a break, please, take a break. We need you on form, don’t kill yourself. If there are other nurses there, let them take some of the strain.”

“I suppose I could try and catch five minutes, if you think it’s okay.”

“Mandy, take more than five. Get some sleep, that’s an order. And afterwards, you’re in charge of medical, okay?”

“What about Janice? She has much more experience than me. I’m just a nurse!”

“There’s no such thing as just a nurse. All nurses are amazing, and that includes you.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

He ended the call, and returned to McNair.

“Listen, are you okay staying on here a bit longer? I need to go and see someone. Chuck should be up in another hour or so to take over.”