Ebb Tide: Book 1 of the South Wind Saga

Chapter 7

It's an hour after dawn. I have eleven hours until sunset - the days in the tropics equal to the nights. Mostly. Eleven hours to action my plan.

Which is? asks Katie, as I let out the line attached to the anchor chain's bitter end, adding two metres so Voodoo's stern comes right up on the roof of the sunken Malaysian fishing boat so I can step from my dive platform to the ship and then up the side of Black Harvest.

Which is what?

Your plan. You're being very cagey about the details.

Well. Okay. Step one. Come down with all sail, club haul the boat at the last second and come alongside under the ship's ladder.

Yes. I was here for that part. It was very dramatic. What's step two?

I cinch my belt rig tight and sling my drybag over my shoulder. It clinks, heavy with tools and equipment. I check the magazine on my M4, sling that too, barrel down across my back.

Step two? Guess you could say we improvise.

You can't be serious. We get this far and—

Look, I say. I'm not sure what we're going to find working up there. So I'm going to try options. Do what I do.

Which is?

Trouble shoot this son of a bitch.

You do remember what we saw last night? At sunset. At least a hundred marys. Now, all below decks, waiting for us. How do you think you're going to get past them, to the Pale King and the boy?

She assumes what I assume: that the Pale King knows we're coming for Blong and will use him as bait. It's what I would do if the situation was reversed.

I say, I've got eleven hours to work something out.

I step carefully from Voodoo onto the Malaysian boat. The wooden roof is old, rotten and awash. The edge is a thick beam six by six, which I step lightly on, as if a careful step will make me weightless. Then I reach the ladder running up the side of Black Harvest and start to climb.

I hook the rungs under my wrists, to spare my aching hands. It's a long way up. But it's not a hard climb, considering everything else, and I have the benefit of a second wind, my confidence lending me energy. I have to make hay while the sun shines and this knowledge gives me a light spring that helps drive me up the side. Black Harvest lists to starboard, so it's a little easier coming up the portside. The metal of the rungs and hull is still cool, and I want to get as much done as possible before the day heats up.

Katie's right though. They are alert for me now. Probably waiting in every room, lurking, ready to pounce as soon as I leave the sunlight. So that limits my options.

I plan to create new ones.

At the top of the ladder I swing up over the railing. More quickly than yesterday. Yesterday I thought there would be people, pirates and raiders, dangerous people on board and so I cleared the ship, treating the exterior as carefully as the interior. But now, I know there is only the boy, surrounded by a horde that cannot bear the light. So I rush.

Making hay while the sun shines indeed.

I sit on the railing and scan the ship, fore and aft, looking through my rifle's red dot sight. There are the four big holds that I worked my way through yesterday. Not that I think my recollection of Hold One was accurate. But there are four cranes also - and they are usually located between holds so they can work either side.

In front of the first crane are six containers, in a single row. Their doors facing aft are open, crates and boxes scattered and spilling on the deck.