Pirate - Duncan Falconer [95]
‘Sorry, mate.’ It was Andy, the security guard. He had shaken Stratton and then jumped back as the operative reacted. ‘I was banging at the door for ages but you didn’t answer.’
Stratton stared at him as he came out of the dream, breathing harder than a waking man should.
‘There’s someone here to see you,’ Andy said.
Stratton put the dream out of his mind, dropped his feet to the floor and ran his fingers through his hair as he got up.
‘What time is it?’ he asked, seeing the daylight through the porthole and wondering how long he had been asleep.
‘It’s just gone four. In the afternoon. You were dead to the world. You must’ve been knackered.’
Stratton still felt exhausted. A sound permeated the cotton wool that seemed to fill his head. ‘Is that a chopper?’ he said, looking to the porthole but not seeing anything but ocean.
‘Yeah. Royal Navy. They’ve come for you.’
Stratton understood. He needed to get going. Still in a bit of a daze, he looked around like he knew he had something to put on but he wasn’t sure what.
‘Did you want any of those clothes back you had? They were pretty manky.’
Stratton shook his head and looked down at his bare feet. That’s what was missing.
‘You want some sandals?’ Andy said, indicating a new leather pair beside the bed. ‘The first officer won’t mind. He said you could ’elp yourself to anything. He’s a good lad.’
Stratton tried on the sandals. They were a perfect fit.
He went to the door and into the corridor. Andy stepped out behind him. ‘They’re waiting for you in the galley,’ he said.
‘Has the girl surfaced?’ Stratton asked as he reached the stairs.
‘She left a few hours ago.’
Stratton stopped and looked at the guard, wearing a puzzled expression. ‘What do you mean?’
‘She took a lifeboat.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Andy stood there.
‘You dropped her off back in the middle of the Gulf of Aden?’
‘It wasn’t quite like that,’ Andy countered. ‘She was pretty knackered, more so than you were. She asked about you and we said you’d got your head down. I offered her a room but she said she wanted to look about the ship. The outside part. Then she asked about the lifeboats and how they were launched. Then we ’ad something to eat. She was quite hungry. Then she went for a walk on deck. She must’ve spent a bit of time loading the boat up with food and water. Next thing we realised, the boat was gone and so was she.’
‘She lowered a lifeboat on her own without you knowing about it?’
Andy looked like he had been cornered. ‘Not quite. You said she was Chinese government. We took it she was working with our side, because of you. So we let her pretty much do what she wanted. Plus she was very nice.’
‘How’d she lower the boat on her own and cast off?’
‘Well, it wasn’t exactly on her own. I ’elped her,’ Andy said, looking embarrassed. ‘Are you saying we shouldn’t have ’elped her?’
Stratton wondered if he was being serious. ‘Where was she going?’
‘I asked her that. She said she was going to RV with a Chinese ship. I asked her how she was going to RV with it without any comms. She didn’t have a radio or anything. She then looked me in the eye, a bit fearsome like, and said she had unfinished business. I was in an awkward situation. I couldn’t come and get you. She’d’ve been gone by then anyway. So I thought, Bollocks, she’s a government operative, even though Chinese, and working with our side. So there you ’ave it. I ’elped her lower the boat.’
Stratton thought hard about the information, his immediate concern whether she could compromise his side’s intentions, based on their respective goals. As far as he had understood her goals, he could see no real issues, no massive ones anyway. The two governments might clash on how they would handle the situation. The Chinese would be less concerned about human rights and international protocols. The UK might be sensitive to China’s embarrassment at letting the weapons slip through their hands in the first place. Ultimately the two countries