When Civil Servants Fail

by John Schou

the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.”

  “And which faculty?”

  “Higher School of Polytechnics”

  “OK, we shall see.” And I concentrated now on giving them at home some work. There was nothing else I could do myself, but so much more it was fascinating to deliver tasks internationally from a ship in the middle of the North Sea. Having sent the mail, Barbara went down to the captain, and almost immediately she followed him back.

  “Mr. Kreschov, we shall make a small stop in Cherbourg on the way.”

  “Really? What for, if I may ask?”

  “Extra cargo. Order from our shipping company. Anyhow on the way. Any objections, Mr. Gusto?”

  “Not if it doesn’t affect the travel significantly. I don’t mind fresh provisions from France.”

  “It should only delay us half a day if we enter the harbour the day after tomorrow morning,” counted the captain.

  “But that is Friday, so any delay will add two days for the week-end,” I argued.

  It was 10 p.m., so now Johan entered the cabin. Since he was superior to Igor in the captain’s stiff hierarchy, he immediately posed the question: “Mr. Krueger, we shall take up some more cargo in Cherbourg. When do you think we can be there?”

  Johan was totally unprepared on this question. “Where are we now and how is the weather forecast?” Igor and Barbara gave him report and he answered, “between thirty and thirty-four hours from now. Barbara, what does the autopilot imagine?”

  “Thirty-three hours, provided stable speed, currents and wind,” she said triumphantly, having already delivered this request.

  “You see?” the captain said, looking joyfully at me.

  “Fresh croissants for me tomorrow morning,” I answered.

  “Ay, ay, Sir,” said the captain as he turned around and went. He was undoubtedly feeling comforted of the event. The others were not, in particular not after Igor gave Johan a full report of our conversation.

  “There is nothing more to do about it tonight. Let’s hope, Mr. Smith can react on our behalf, according to the mail I sent him. Barbara, can you take over now?”

  At three a.m., it knocked silently on my door. It may have done some time already since I heard it first as part of my dream. “Come in,” I said. At least, I had not locked the door, saving me to get out of bed as Barbara entered, fully dressed.

  “If you want to test my virility, you have to take off some of the packing,” I started.

  “Certainly not. I just couldn’t sleep.”

  “With all your clothes on?”

  “I decided to leave them on if something should happen to the ship.” She was really quite upset.

  I should better not tease her anymore. “Listen: if the ship is threaded by its current owners, it is definitely associated with the extra cargo in Cherbourg; therefore there are two nights to sleep, with or without your clothes on, but just sleep. In the meantime, the French police will receive a tip from Denmark about that extra cargo. In fact, I hope it is a bomb, because that would give us a valid excuse to stop our trip. I am feeling very uncomfortable with this export of life-threatening garbage to Africa.”

  “So am I,” she said.

  “If, on the other hand, the pallet does not contain anything particular, we must develop another plan. Or rather hope that Mr. Smith has an idea.”

  “Do you promise that there is no danger?”

  “Not before Cherbourg, at least.”

  “Then I shall try to sleep.”

  “Alone?”

  She smiled. “Absolutely naked but alone. And the door will be locked. No temptations, no disturbance of your relation to your girlfriend what’s-her-name?”

  “Alice.”

  “OK, just like in the alphabet, A comes before B.”

  “Exactly,” I said. I could not guarantee to stand the temptation of the beautiful woman forever, but at the moment, Liu’s anti-doping helped keeping all sexual instincts down. Probably it was also the reason why I slept soon after.

  “Could you make your lifesaving potion a bit less strong, so that I can stay awake longer time today?” I kindly requested Liu as I entered the mass for breakfast half past seven. Only Johan was also there, two were at the bridge and the other three were in no hurry and probably waited till the captain had swallowed his survival ration.

  With Johan, I shared only casual remarks. Anyhow, there were hardly important novelties since I left the bridge and I should now share four hours mostly alone with him there. The breakfast consisted in my case of tea and toast with slices of cheese, since honey and jam had a sad tendency to leave the bread with the next wave, and since I still did not approve of sausage or pie in the morning.

  We went up to release the captain and Luciano from their duties. Luciano nodded to me with the meaning that I was now in charge, whereupon he disappeared.

  The captain had changed completely since I saw him last evening. Confidentially, he turned to Johan, the second in command and therefore, according to his logic, the closest approach to a friend on the ship. “Emmy sent me a mail that Tom has died.” He then turned to me and said, “Tom was our ship dog, nine years-old but still going strong.”

  “But exactly therefore, why did he die?” asked Johan.

  “Perhaps we shall get the answer, because within a few hours, the police appeared and took care of the dog’s dead-body. They’ll perform an autopsy. I thought this honour was only granted humans. I wonder why the sudden interest – nobody called them. I shall return with rest of the crew when they gather for breakfast. We shall all memorize old Tom.” And then he went.

  “Typical,” said Johan. “When Heinz Koller died, he was just bothered about the possible delay. There was no talk about memorizing what we considered a good colleague but just get rid of the body as fast as possible.”

  “Is that still allowed?” I asked.

  “The captain claimed it happened in international water, and onboard this ship he is the highest authority after God – with whom he appears to stand in direct contact.”

  Shortly after, a strange ceremony was carried out. The remaining crew appeared, Liu balancing eight small glasses in a basket – a tray would have been impossible to keep in this rough swell. The captain brought a half empty bottle of Danish schnapps, which he parted for all. Barbara protested with something about an empty stomach, but it was overheard. Each one of us took control of a glass, whereupon Liu filled it up, thereby emptying the bottle completely.

  Deeply moved, and the only one being so, the captain shortly spoke out: “I have received notice that our beloved ship-dog Tom has died. Let us memorize the moments we had together with him. Cheers!”

  I noticed how Konstantin showed his teeth behind the back of the captain. When he after a minute in silence had disappeared, I asked him of the meaning of it.

  “I remembered how he bit me the first time we met. I hated that dog.”

  “But it was a good liquor,” thought Johan while Barbara showed her disapproval.

  “How can you know, in this microscopic amount?” asked Igor.

  Luciano explained, “The Russians drink Vodka like we others drink water.”

  Igor shuddered. “You can sail in Water, possibly even bath in it, but drink it?”

  Everybody had forgotten about Tom and they went down, except Igor, whom I held back. “What about my predecessor, Heinz Koller, did he leave anything written?”

  I can look in his cabin. I don’t think anybody entered it after he was ... eh ... buried.” He went down and came back with a small handwritten notebook and a ring binder with various articles in German and English. Then Igor left us.

  Many Dutchmen speak multiple languages, and Johan was one of them. I was not so attentive in German at school, so I gave him the notebook and started myself with the articles. It was all about human destruction of the environment, obviously Heinz’ great interest. There was a particular section about nuclear power plants. I referred it for Johan:

  “Did yo
u know that worldwide there is not a single final deposit for nuclear fuel? It is all stored in more or less secure ‘temporary’ deposits. Only the Americans have found another use for it – but unfortunately, it is then used to make weapons. Several countries in the Middle East have been bestowed by American bombs with so-called depleted uranium, an excellent deception of public awareness, which has so far failed to notice that the nuclear warfare has long begun. Except for Iraq, where the health-problem is extreme, increased cancer-rates from the victimized population have also been referred from Serbia, Lebanon and Gaza.”

  “And the world speaks at best only about the poor soldiers with often fatal radiation disease after some months’ service, not about the population which has to live there forever.”

  “Wrong, Johan, the world does not even speak about the veterans and their ailments. It is as if they had deserved it themselves by being stupid enough to participate in modern warfare.”

  “Which perhaps is not quite wrong, Eric.”

  “We should better discuss our own problems. What did his interest have to do with our load? Do we sail with radioactive cargo?”

  “In the notebook, Heinz has indeed listed some indices of radioactivity from our cargo – even here on the bridge you find an elevated value. He has made measurements here.”

  I should have reacted anxious. In fact, I was certainly not exactly comfortable, but where to escape? Besides, Johan himself seemed not to be upset, so why should I behave more nervous than he? “He must have had an appropriate device for measuring it. But go on.”

  “The levels up here are not problematic for days or weeks. Even in the front loading room, the levels are certainly more elevated but not that dangerous.”

  “So that is not what killed him?”

  “No, but he found other substances there, and his fate gives me no inspiration to look after it. I can believe they are toxic.”

  “In a way, we need no further confirmation of what this ship is carrying. Details are unimportant. Besides, it hardens the suspicion that this ship shall be sacrificed with its crew on high sea. But what can we do about it?”

  “That is a good question. If we declare what we have on board, they will never let us into any harbour, and we can forever sail around in the world. Coming decades will know me as the ‘Flying Dutchman’ – and because of the nuclear waste, I may soon start to glow, adding another dimension to the tale.”

  That gave me an inspiration. “Johan, the E-mails we write are read by many people who should actually care about other things?”

  “You bet they are. Therefore they must be encrypted in a way making them unreadable for anyone except us and the shipping company. Barbara has the key for that procedure.”

  “But I can send a normal mail, if only I and the receptor understand what it is about.”

  Johan nodded. Mr. Smith, a devoted Wagnerian, had just received a new version of the opera ‘The Flying Dutchman’ shortly before our travel, and with reference to that, I managed to describe our situation roughly without mentioning anything directly. Mr. Smith understood and answered rather fast, but unfortunately his replacement of encryption was less genius. It was a long sentence, of which each seventh word gave the meaning ‘abandon ship next harbour.’ Any scout could decipher that, and there were indeed such scouts at work on the continent, as the events would show.

  But at present, our horizon was only disturbed by bad feelings, and they improved as I saw Liu with a fishing line. He was himself lined up to the ship. Johan explained that this was obligate by sailing in a rogue sea, unless you wanted to study the fishes in their true element after being wiped overboard by the next large wave.

  “In the Biscayan, he will not dare to fish,” informed my companion.

  At noon, the captain and Konstantin took over, and Johan and I went down to eat lunch. Liu’s menu surprise was a fresh unnamed fish just drawn up from the water.

  We passed