Surviving the Evacuation 16: Unwanted Visitors by Frank Tayell

Author:Frank Tayell [Tayell, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Frank Tayell
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18 - A Final Answer

The New World, At Sea

“And that’s when we went looking for Leon, Bran, and the others,” Chester said, finishing his recap of the story.

“Um…” Annette began. “Um, I think Bill’s asleep.”

Chester and Nilda looked over at Bill, as Kim stood and made her way across the swaying deck to the bed in which the patient uncomfortably lay. “Yep,” Kim said. “He’s asleep.”

“We’ll get out of your hair,” Nilda said.

“I’ve not much of that left,” Kim said, raising a hand to her recently shaved scalp, but turning it into a grab for one of the slings hanging from the cabin’s ceiling as the ship bucked and rocked through a wave. “Besides, I’d like to know what happened next.”

“Me, too,” Annette said, her pen hovering over the page.

“Next come the casualties,” Nilda said. “Three of them from Bran’s squad, two from Leon’s. No fatalities, though, which makes it good news. But why don’t you go to sickbay and get the story straight from them, Annette? It would do them good to talk it through.”

“You think?” Annette asked, looking to Kim.

“It won’t hurt,” Kim said. “Not any more than being shot did, and the doctor will turf you out if you’re getting in the way.”

“You didn’t want her to hear the rest?” Kim asked after Annette had left.

“We’ll have to tell everyone,” Nilda said. “And I told Mary I’d tell the entire ship just as soon as we’d spoken with Bill. Which means, when we leave here, I’ve got to say something, but I’m really not sure what to say just yet.”

“What did you see?” Kim asked.

“That’s just it. We’re not sure,” Nilda said. “Chester?”

“First time we were in Calais,” Chester said. “First time we were escaping those slavers, Bill told me he saw something on the roof. He thought it was a radio mast. I can’t remember his exact words, and he told me after he’d been shot, when he was in shock. At the time, I thought he was delirious. Except this time, before we returned to the ship, we went up to the roof and checked. There was a mast. About fifteen feet high. At the base was a rectangular metal cabinet. The door was open. There were cables and wires inside. Whatever had been plugged into them was missing.”

“It was three metres?” Kim said. “How high was the roof from the ground?”

“About thirty metres,” Nilda said. “We took some photographs, and Sorcha’s taken them to those programmers of yours.”

“Mirabelle, Dee-Dee, and Ken,” Kim said.

“And because of that,” Nilda said, “because we can’t keep this quiet, I’ve got to include it in my announcement to the ship, one which will be transmitted over the sat-phone to the people in Dundalk and Elysium.”

“And you need to figure out what to say,” Kim said.

“And what not to say,” Nilda said.

“How far away is Creil?” Kim said, though more to herself as she opened a thin bag and pulled out a bundle of maps. “About two hundred kilometres. Far beyond the horizon.

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