The Colossus (The Red Scarf Series Book 1) by Simon Wright

Author:Simon Wright [Wright, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

Part 4

Endeavour

18

August 18, 2012

The Levantine Basin

Daniel and Yousef sat in the Cygnus control pod, staring at the relay images of the ROV repair work going on outside. The engineers had done an amazing job of making the submersible robot serviceable only three days after the storm. Nevertheless, glitches remained, and further troubleshooting work was required after each dive.

‘I still wonder how such a sensitive and fine-tuned piece of kit like Cygnus survived at all, to be honest,’ Daniel reflected.

‘You would be surprised how resilient she is,’ Yousef responded. ‘Remember, she is diving to around two kilometres on every run. You’ve got to be pretty robust to keep that pace up. She has to deal with all the detritus that any strong currents chuck up down there, not to mention the attentions of some of the more predatorial marine life. And on top of that she has to cope with me piloting her. Actually, come to think of it, you’re right, it’s a wonder she’s still in one piece.’

Both men were keenly aware that this polite conversation was papering over a tension between them that had been seeded in their meeting at Randolph Fairlight’s funeral. Daniel wanted to have it out with Yousef but feared what damage may be done to their relationship. If he was honest with himself, he feared hearing the truth even more. So, the fragile interaction continued.

They both smiled ruefully, observing in silence the correction and adjustment work that Brandy and Davy were methodically working through. They had finished the on-deck maintenance and were now going through a series of tests with Cygnus in the water. Looking at the images took Daniel right back to the storm.

He had been pretty shaken up by the events of that night. In the ensuing days, Kal had to provide a lot of reassurance to persuade Daniel to stay with the project, let alone stay on the ship. No one had been lost that night but, in truth, no one could quite believe it.

‘I still can’t fully get my head around what happened, Yous. How did we not all perish?’

Yousef continued staring at the screen, frowning a little.

‘It was what you English like to call a ‘perfect storm.’ I don’t mean the actual storm; I mean the coincidence of several factors coming together at exactly the same moment. In a thousand dives that would never happen again. Cygnus getting tangled’—Yousef counted the elements on his fingers—‘the weather changing direction, the ship listing with the weight of my baby out of the water, the additional weight with the load and a diver, the abnormal wave hitting at that exact moment. All those things coinciding. It was just a freak event. That, or someone up there is trying to tell us something.’

Daniel nodded. He had heard this commentary more than once from Khaled and Brandy over the last couple of weeks.

‘The bizarre thing is that I remember those moments in vivid detail. I remember thinking, okay, so this is how I go.’

‘I’ll tell you this, Danny.

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