Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [47]
I vomited up bile and bilge water. Christ, I was cold and I was shaking. I was very close to hypothermia. I pushed back into the water and made my way along the wharf face; the cliff-like hull of another giant container ship was on my right side. Far above, I could see the blazing lights of the container cranes working.
I came to a ladder and without hesitation, I started climbing. There were only a dozen rungs and as soon as I was high enough to see over the edge of the dock, I stopped.
The place was insane. There were lights everywhere and shadows that flickered and vanished as the huge container mechanisms worked. There were straddle carriers of all sizes and there were trucks of all sorts, some with trailers. This was the world of boxes: giant rectangular boxes in every recognisable colour. The whole world in a box, I thought, as my mind started to go off on a tangent of its own. Fatigue was crushing me. I dragged myself back to the task in hand.
My next problem was how to get from the edge of the wharf, across a wide open concrete apron, and into the cover offered by the alleyways created by the stacks of containers. The answer wasn’t that long in coming, as it turned out. A blue-and-white Toyota utility with a flashing red light in the centre of its roof appeared away to my right. It was travelling slowly along the wharf in my direction. There were two men in it, one driving, the other leaning out the passenger window looking at the ground. My first instinct was that this was some sort of inspection. The utility was moving slowly.
I went down another rung and waited. I could see the reflected red light from the utility bouncing back from the flank of the ship above me.
I waited until I figured it was past me and then I eased back up the ladder. The utility was ten metres away and moving on at that same pace. I glanced back the way it had come and saw no one, just the endless stacks of containers and the giant machines that moved them.
I climbed the last rungs and slipped over the edge of the wharf. I didn’t hesitate now. I ran for the shelter of the nearest containers. No doubt there were CCTV cameras here and guards, armed guards, but I was going to rely on speed and what shadow I could find to remain invisible.
The alley I ran into stretched for a hundred metres, pushing deep into the heart of the container jungle. It was a metre and a half wide. Narrower bisecting alleyways ran off it parallel to the wharf at intervals. I looked up and the containers stacked eight or nine high almost created a reverse vertigo effect.
I crossed two intersections and almost didn’t make it across the third. I barely managed to duck back and avoid the wheels of the big straddle carrier that crossed the alleyway in front of me. It was moving from left to right. I waited until the rear wheels passed in front of me, then ran on. From that moment on, I paused at each intersection to check for any more of the huge machines. My fixation on the dangers of cross traffic, however, was almost my undoing. What I hadn’t figured on was the absolutely enormous straddle carrier that used the alleyway I was running down. I heard it before I turned and saw it coming after me. The wheels on this monster virtually filled the gap between the rows of containers. I sprinted to the next corner and ducked around it. I figured with Goliath coming this way, the little guys would keep out of his way.
I was right, sort of. The big guy rolled by and I was congratulating myself on being a clever bastard when another of the smaller carriers came hunting for me. I ducked back to what had