The X Files: Titanix

Chapter 6

6.

Thursday.
9.30am to 11.00am
Ship's time.

Agent Jones stood at the head of the table and stared, hands on hips, at the portable radios laid out before him. All five were compact, slimline affairs in construction, no bigger than a small cell phone. Three of the five were identical, having thin headsets that comprised of an earpiece and microphone mounted on a short transparent stalk.

The remaining two were designed to be more discrete; there was no headset but a single earpiece which had the appearance of a small deaf-aid and was integrated with a microphone.

'Okay, folks,' he said as he picked up one of the discrete radios to demonstrate it. 'You should all have seen these on field ops in the past and they're very similar to the units the Secret Service use. Multi-channel UHF with VOX operation that I've set active, so using them may feel a little strange for a while. They can scramble, but I've configured it off as default and I've given the bridge the frequency, so they can have a direct line of communication with us. Note you can still scramble if you need private comms, and there's a channel selector on the top – but watch you don't catch that, or you may end up off net.

'Uh, sir, can I use you for a second?' He walked around the table and beckoned Spender, who had joined them, to remove his jacket. Being a passenger anyway, Spender had avoided the ramifications of being a member of the ship's crew and wearing a uniform and was dressed casually in dark chinos and a sport jacket. Taking up position behind Agent Spender, Jones began to demonstrate the mounting of the radio.

'The main unit is designed to discretely clip to your belt or wherever it is comfortable, and the wire to the headset or earpiece runs up your back like this...' Jones snapped the radio onto Spender's belt behind his right hip and passed the thin wire connecting the headset up Spender's back and over his shoulder with a flick of his wrist. He handed the earpiece to Spender who pressed it into his ear. Handing Spender his jacket back, Jones looked around at his audience and smiled. 'Easy as pie.'

Following his guidance, they put on the headsets; running the wires down under their clothes to the transmitter which they clipped to their belts in a position they each found comfortable. Mulder had his on his left hip, under his shoulder holster; similarly, Scully wore hers on her left hip next to the holster on her belt in the small of her back. Kent chose to position his in the small of his back where it was barely covered by the short uniform jacket.

Testing the set-up proved it worked tolerably well, despite doubts expressed by Kent as to its suitability once among the heavy machinery of the engine room and deck zero.

'Relax,' Jones told him. 'These babies should be more than enough for our needs on board.'

Kent said nothing in return but looked sceptical.

'We have a plan?' Scully asked.

'We are going down to the engine room with Agent Kent.' Mulder informed her. 'While we're there, we will conduct another anti-sabotage sweep, and I want engineers who were on duty yesterday morning interviewed. Agent Spender will remain dividing his time between the Senator and Professor Haynes while Agent Jones will be dividing his time between the CCTV suite and providing backup to Agent Spender should he require it. You have those photographs, Agent Jones?'

Jones nodded and patted his breast pocket. 'Right here. Krycek's file photo, and a copy of the still from the CCTV footage.'

'Good. You know what to do? Okay. Let's do it.'

*

Caroline Benson, the second engineer, pursed her lips and gave a shrill whistle to attract John Taylor's attention. Given the fact they were standing less than fifteen feet apart, separated by part of one of Titanic's alternators, communication in the normal sense of the world was virtually impossible. Deck 0 housed most of the ship's machinery and was packed with equipment that made life on the decks above comfortable. Everything ranging from air conditioning to refrigeration, water treatment to stability control systems in addition to the four dual-fuel engines, their alternators and the two huge propulsion motors. All interconnected and serviced with a structured tangle of cables, pipes and pumps; some insulated, some painted pale shades of green or bright yellow, others labelled with arrows showing the direction of fluid flow. Almost everything in the engineering spaces made noise that, in places, built into a cacophony that made casual conversation almost impossible.