Coincidence - Alan May [46]
What made the situation even stickier was that Mac was with them, too. By rights, he ought to have enforced the rule even if the kids were willing to flout it. But he had been so involved in his story, he’d never given it a thought.
“At home in Scotland, the legal drinking age was sixteen,” he said. “It didn’t seem out of the usual to me for these young adults to be havin’ a beer or two.”
Silly rule, anyway, he thought, while apologizing profusely. It had been his responsibility, and he had blown it.
“Ye couldn’t blame the kids for seein’ what they could get away with; that’s the way of kids. If there was to be any disciplinary action, it should be taken with me.”
Mary and Tom were in full agreement with that. However, there wasn’t anything they could do other than give him a light reprimand. Mac was an independent contractor, hired directly by Captain Marzynski, so he was not directly accountable to the BWA program. And the fact was, he was such a valuable member of the crew, such a steady and capable workman, with unparalleled skills and ingenuity, there was no way they could do without him.
In the end Anika decided to give the students a port suspension, meaning no shore leave at their next port of call. It was a lesser penalty than the usual two-week suspension at home but one she still hated to levy on the students. The next port of call would be Easter Island, another high point of the voyage and a fantastic educational opportunity. Why couldn’t the kids have had their beer somewhere else on the trip? It wouldn’t have been so bad for them to miss the sights of Puerto Vallarta, but Easter Island?
Easter Island was thirteen days away, she thought. A lot could happen in that time. Maybe the thought that they were going to miss out on seeing Easter Island would be punishment enough for the kids. It certainly was punishment enough for her.
16
Jon Tun Aung, crewman of the MV Great Princess, was brimming with good cheer this morning at breakfast, as he had been every morning since the oceangoing freighter had left from Taiwan twelve days ago.
The Great Princess was headed for Lima, Peru, fully laden with a cargo of textiles and electronic equipment. At six hundred feet in length, she was a modestly sized cargo vessel, with a crew of twenty-two, most of them from the Philippines. Her skipper was Captain Than Hun. She was now roughly three hundred and seventy-five miles west of the Galápagos Islands, about eight hundred and seventy-five miles from her final destination.
The reason for Jon’s cheerfulness was simple: The day before the Great Princess had set sail, he had at last persuaded his sweetheart of several years to be his wife. The marriage was to take place as soon as it could be arranged after his return from Lima. He’d been grinning from ear to ear, unfazed by the teasing of his crewmates, ever since. This morning, as on every other morning, he was ravenously hungry. He could never seem to get enough to eat.
He was reaching across the table to pour himself a third cup of tea, imagining what his fiancée, Lili, might be busy doing today in preparation for the wedding—another fitting for her gown, perhaps?—when he suddenly felt as though someone had plunged a dagger into his back.
He collapsed against the table, struggling for breath, the pain radiating from his back through to the left side of his chest and all the way down his left arm.
His crewmates sat agape for a moment, unsure what the jovial Jon was up to now. Then, realizing the man was not joking, they laid him out on the floor and called for the captain.
Captain Than found no obvious external reason to account for the pain; no blood or signs