Read Noah's Ark: Encounters for Free Online

danced across the ripples.
    “How did he get out there without the prop-wash being a problem?” Jake asked, breaking the silence, but not the tension that hung thick in the air.
    “He steered to the side, obviously,” Martin said, tutting.
    “Right, of course. It’s just, I don’t see any oars in the raft. I assumed he hadn’t taken any.”
    “Yeah, ’cause that makes sense, doesn’t it? Stieg’s a pro. He’s not going to go out without a way of getting back. If you have to make assumptions, try this one: the oars have gone wherever Stieg has gone.”
    The raft was almost back with them. The last few metres were the most delicate. The fishing net was always deployed from the starboard side, as the Ambush was tethered to the port. Stieg had needed to board the raft though, and that meant using the tender platform on the port side. So the fishermen had to carefully manoeuvre the raft back between the two vessels. The Ambush had surfaced since they had cut the power, making the job at least a little easier. The men, dressed in thick wax jackets that they had found at Faslane, called to each other in clipped Swedish sentences. Jake didn’t need to speak the language to understand that the situation didn’t look good. One of them turned to him and shook his head.
    The winch ground to a halt. Jake unfolded his arms and strode forwards, Martin following a step behind.
    “No,” the fisherman said. “Not here.”
    Jake leaned over the railing and stared down into the raft. It was, as he had thought, completely empty.
    • • •
    They met in a conference room on deck two, the last one that hadn’t been taken over by the school. It was used by the committee for their regular meetings and for their drop-in surgery sessions with the community. Jake was used to outpourings of emotion in that very room, most of it negative. Now he was among those professing shock and incomprehension at what had happened.
    Nobody sat at the large oval table that filled most of the space. Instead, Jake, Martin and the two fishermen stood around uselessly, staring out of the windows. The ship was turning. Jake had ordered the manoeuvre, ignoring protocol which said that the committee must approve any change of route. There was no way they were going on without at least trying to find Stieg. They wouldn’t leave a man at sea. Coote could have stopped him, of course. Jake knew that. They were reliant on his nuclear reactor for power. He also knew that Coote would back him fully in front of the committee if they argued with him.  
    The door opened and ship’s doctor Grau Lister hobbled in, supported by crutches. He nodded solemnly at the men.
    “Grau, thank you for coming.” Jake found a chair for him and helped him to sit down. “You should be in a wheelchair, Grau.”
    “Nonsense. That is no way to rebuild muscle tissue. I have to walk as much as possible. And before you say another word, I will remind you that it is I who am the doctor. Who else are we waiting for?”
    “Coote. He says he may have something important. And Amanda, Ella, and Silvia are all coming down too.”
    The captain of the Royal Navy submarine was the next to arrive. Jake was surprised to see that he’d brought ‘Eagle-eyes’ Jason Fletcher with him too.
    “Captain Noah, gentlemen,” Coote said, tipping his cap to the gathering. “Terrible business. Losing a man at sea is a special kind of awful, one I have, sadly, experienced too often. One that never gets easier.”
    “He’s not lost yet,” Jake said. “You know that, Coote. A man is only lost when he gives up, and those around him give up on him. We have not given up on Stieg.”
    “Yes, of course,” Coote said kindly. But there was something in the way he said it that made Jake think that the navy man knew the fisherman was not coming back.
    Martin wasn’t so diplomatic. “You’re wasting your time, Jake. You’re wasting the time of everyone aboard. We’ll never find him. We don’t even