Hope: After It Happened Book 4 by Devon C Ford

Author:Devon C Ford [Ford, Devon C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Devon C Ford
Published: 2016-07-21T18:00:00+00:00

ALL AT SEA

“Well we can’t stay here,” said Mitch, “no idea if they were on their own or if they have boats or anything. It’s pretty clear they don’t want us visiting.”

Dan agreed, looking around at the assembled faces. Marie, Kate, Neil, Mitch, Jack and himself huddled in a small circle on the upper deck of the Hope. Leah was inside, relieved of her equipment on Kate’s strict instructions – although Dan doubted she was still totally unarmed – and lay flat being kept watch on by Sera with the recently sedated dog lay flat against her, snoring loudly.

“Well we can’t go out to sea without any working radar equipment or anything,” said Neil, “that’s just asking for trouble.”

“Options?” said Marie, fractionally before Dan could utter one of his trademark lines. A small smirk to herself told him that she knew exactly what she had done, and the slightly bewildered look on his face let her know that her timing had been impeccable.

“We’ll have to anchor up in the bay for the night,” said Jack. They all looked at him.

“Well we can’t go inland past where we were attacked now, and who’s to say we’ll find anywhere safer there anyhow,” he answered their blank looks. “Plus, as Neil rightly says, we cannot go back into the sea this time of day. We’ve got maybe an hour of daylight left at best and that’s not enough to guarantee finding another safe harbour.”

Nobody had a rebuttal, and nobody offered a better solution.

“Three hour shifts, two on at a time though. Mitch, can you take second watch with Adam?” he nodded.

“Jack? Can you take first watch with Neil, please?” he asked the older man.

“Of course I can,” he replied, almost sounding affronted at the possibility that he wouldn’t be asked. “I’ll get some things and be back.” He left without a word.

Mitch and Neil began discussing where to drop anchor, inevitably turning it into a heated debate so Dan led the two women down the ladder to talk further.

“As Leah’s out for the day, I’ll need a volunteer to work the last shift with me, three AM until six so it’ll be a long day for them tomorrow,” he said to them. He didn’t expect Marie to volunteer, even though she hadn’t once claimed pregnancy to avoid any hardship, but because she simply wasn’t one of those people who can operate without sleep.

“She may be out tomorrow too,” said Kate reprovingly, ever implying that he worked the girl too hard.

A loud noise interrupted their discussion, as the loud chorus of the prow anchor chain falling away overtook all other sounds. It stopped quickly, betraying the shallow depth of the small inlet, and began to slowly swing the boat around so that the nose pointed into the flow of the tide, like a compass finding true north.

“Ask carefully,” said Marie when she could hear her voice again, “because some people in there will say yes to anything you want. Now come and eat something before you get some sleep.

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