by Chris Ryan
'OK,' said Amber. 'Got you.'
'We go to round up the cattle. The ranch is—' Paulo spread his arms wide to show how big his family ranch was. 'We are out for days. At night, we camp. We cook on the fire and the food, it always tastes so good.' He turned to Li. 'You must come to stay. I will take you out camping and cook for you.'
'Been there, done that,' said Li. 'We don't have holidays in the Cheong family – we go on field trips. I've eaten plenty of meals under the stars after a day spent trekking through some wilderness or other.'
'Outdoor meals are best,' agreed Alex, remembering his own, solitary camping trips in the remoter parts of Northumberland. There was nothing better than a freshly-caught rabbit, roasted on a spit over the fire, or a trout slow-baked in the ashes.
'Hmmm. Best outdoor meal I ever had?' said Amber, her eyes dreamy with remembering. 'We'd been out on the yacht – me, Mom and Dad – and we found this little cove. Deserted. We had a barbecue on the beach. Man, that was some evening . . .' She smiled softly, then her mouth turned down at the corners and her hand went up to touch the twist of gold at her neck. She turned to Hex and a cruel, hard edge came into her voice. 'You're pretty quiet. Anything to share with us? No? I guess the only outdoor eating street-rats do is out of other people's trash-cans.'
The boat rocked as Hex started to move. His fists were clenched and the muscles in his arms stood out like ropes, but then his gaze shifted to the twist of gold around Amber's neck and he stopped halfway to his feet. For a long moment there was silence, then Hex made himself relax back into a sprawl. 'Food doesn't do it for me,' he said. 'Food is fuel, that's all. Something I can slam in a microwave and then eat without getting drips all over my keyboard.'
'A junk-food junkie too,' sneered Amber, but the hard edge had left her voice. The lack of response from Hex had knocked some of the fight out of her.
'So, if food doesn't do it for you, Hex, what does?' asked Li. 'Hacking?'
'Yeah.'
'Why?' asked Paulo, gazing at Hex with genuine puzzlement. 'What is the fascination with this – hacking?'
Hex narrowed his green eyes and considered them for a moment, trying to decide whether it was worth getting into an explanation. 'What the hell,' he sighed, leaning forward. 'Patterns. Puzzles. Codes. You with me? Binary. Morse. Sequences of numbers, or letters, or shapes. They fascinate me. Always have. Cracking them. Figuring them out. Finding what's hidden inside.'
Alex looked down at Hex's hands and saw that the fingers were jumping, keying the air as he spoke.
'When I was a kid, they thought I was slow,' continued Hex. 'They used to take me out for special lessons. They thought I couldn't read. I could, though. Just didn't want to. Once I understood how to do it, I was bored. So I'd sit in lessons, working stuff out in my head, cracking codes, playing with number patterns instead of listening to the teacher. Then I got into computers. A whole new, beautiful code to crack. A whole new language to learn. I was hooked.'
'So you turned into one of those sad, geeky types who sit in front of a screen all day and don't have any friends,' said Amber.
'I have lots of friends,' snapped Hex. 'Real friends. It doesn't matter to us where anyone lives, or how rich they are, or what they look like, or what sex they are. We even choose our own names. That's one of the things I love about hacking. Everyone's equal. You live by your wits.'
'Correction,' said Amber. 'You live by breaking into other people's systems and stealing data – or destroying it for a fee from a competitor. My dad hated idiots like you!'
'You're talking about crackers,'' sighed Hex. 'Hackers don't steal. We break into secure systems just for the challenge. We don't take or destroy anything. We write our own programs and share freeware, instead of buying into second-rate corporate software for dummies. You know,' he added, giving Amber an icy smile, 'the sort of stuff your dad's company churns out.'
'Go on, then,' said Li. 'What's the most difficult system you've ever broken into?'
'I could tell you,' grinned Hex, 'but then I'd have to kill you.'
'And you've never been tempted?' asked Alex. 'You've never gone into a system to get something out of it?'
'Yes,' admitted Hex.
'Ha!' said Amber. 'I knew he was lying.'
Hex ignored her and continued talking to Alex. 'This PE teacher was giving my kid brother a really hard time. Mr Rutter. Except everyone calls him Mr Nutter. My kid brother, he's – not so strong. He can't run very far. Old Nutter kept making him do this cross-country course, week after week. Said it would toughen him up. My brother started skipping school on PE days. He took to wandering around the shopping centre for hours rather than face Nutter again. Then, one day, the police brought him home. He'd been caught walking out of a shop with a tuna sandwich stuffed inside his jacket.'
'Shoplifting is wrong—' began Amber.
'He was hungry!' yelled Hex. 'He'd missed his school dinner. So, I hacked into the school system – and the Local Education Authority system – and Nutter's bank account. Made a few changes. Planted a few time bombs.'
'Such as . . . ?' asked Li.
'Six hundred pairs of running shoes delivered to the school with his name on the order sheet. Last-minute cancellation of his summer holiday. One month's wages donated to Battersea Dogs' Home. Next month he should get his redundancy notice.'
'Amazing!' giggled Li. 'Do the school know who did it?'
'They know,' said Hex. 'They just can't prove anything. They got their own back on me, though.'
'What did they do?' asked Paulo.
'Sent me on this trip,' muttered Hex.
Li burst out laughing.
'What?' scowled Hex.
'The look on your face,' giggled Li. The laughter was infectious. Even Hex was beginning to smile.
'I'm serious,' said Hex. 'I didn't want to be here. They only sent me because they're scared of what I might do next. As if being out here is going to stop me from hacking.' Automatically he reached for his palmtop, then remembered that the pouch at his belt was empty. A spasm of pain crossed his face and he turned to give Amber a hard stare. One by one, the others stopped laughing and there was an awkward silence.
Until Paulo belched.
It was loud, deep and lasted for a very long time.
'Pardon me,' he said, patting his mouth delicately as though he held a napkin in his fingers. Everyone laughed, even Hex. The tension was broken. They settled back in a companionable silence and watched dappled light playing across the hull of the Phoenix. The day was still hot and sticky, but it was cooler next to the water and the counter-stern above their heads sheltered them from the glare of the sun.
The gentle rocking of the boat started to make them sleepy and, one by one, the five members of A-Watch closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep . . .
FOUR
Alex dreamed he was back home in Northumberland, lying in the hammock his dad had tied between two trees in their back garden. The sun was shining and the hammock swung gently to and fro in the breeze, but something was not right. Alex frowned in his sleep as he felt the sun beating down on his hot face. The hammock started to swing more violently and Alex came awake with a start.
He opened his eyes, then closed them again quickly against the glare of the sun. He was still rocking and, for a second, he could not remember where he was. Then he smiled. Of course! He was in the tender with the rest of A-Watch, bobbing along behind the Phoenix.
Except, the little boat was moving differently, wallowing from side to side. And the sun should not be able to reach into their sheltered spot under the counter-stern of the ship. Unless . . .
Alex sat up sharply, shading his eyes to see through the sun-glare. Amber, Li, Paulo and Hex were all sprawled around him in the little boat, fast asleep – and the Phoenix was gone.
'Wake up!' yelled Alex, a wave of shock and horror flooding through his body. He turned in a full circle, scanning the horizon. The Phoenix was nowhere in sight.
The others were waking u
p, stretching and yawning.
'What's all the shouting for . . . ?' grumbled Amber.
'We're adrift,' said Alex, curtly. He watched as the same wave of shock hit the other four and they all looked wildly about them for any sign of the Phoenix.
'That's impossible,' said Li, faintly.
Alex clambered past Hex into the bows of the little boat and began to haul in the rope that should have still been attached to the aft-deck of the schooner.
'Who secured the painter?' demanded Amber, looking for someone to blame.
'I did,' said Hex.
'Oh, that's just great. What did you do? Tie it in a pretty bow?'
'It was secure,' said Hex. 'I'm sure of it. There's no way that rope could've come loose.'
'Well it did!' yelled Amber.
'No it didn't,' said Alex quietly as he hauled the last length of rope out of the water. He held it up for the others to see. The end of the rope was frayed.
'It is because we pulled it around to the side of the ship,' said Paulo, examining the rope. 'It must have been rubbing against something and, with the weight of all of us, plus the boat—' He shrugged. 'The rope frayed in two . . .'
'Thank you, Einstein,' muttered Hex. 'Question is, what do we do now?'
The boat rocked as Amber jumped to her feet and started to yell at the top of her voice. 'Help! Help! Phoenix ahoy! Anybody! Help—'
Paulo stood up too and slapped Amber across the face. She came to an abrupt halt and stared at him with a mixture of shock and anger.
'Ow!'
'Sorry,' said Paulo. 'You were panicking.'
'I was not panicking, you idiot!' yelled Amber, and she slapped Paulo back.
'You were doing the mad shouting,' said Paulo, rubbing his cheek.
'Sound travels well across water, you total loser!'
'But, there is no-one to hear,' said Paulo, sweeping an arm to indicate the empty sea all around them.
Amber sighed. 'We're low in the water, which means we can't see very far – and the Phoenix could be just over the horizon—'
'No, she couldn't,' said Alex, tapping his watch. 'We've been asleep for a good two hours. And – there's something else.'
Silently, Amber and Paulo returned to their places and everyone looked at Alex.
'The Phoenix was travelling east,' he explained. 'But, judging by the position of the sun, we're moving north.'
'He's right,' conceded Amber, squinting up at the sun. 'And we're doing more than just drifting. The boat's moving quite fast. I think we must be caught up in a warm-water current.' She and Alex shared a worried look.
'And that's bad because . . . ?' asked Li.
'Our boat and the Phoenix have been travelling in two different directions,' said Hex.
'And that means,' added Paulo, reluctantly, 'we are going to be much harder to find. Even if the Phoenix turned back and retraced her course exactly, we are not going to be there.'
'What do you mean, "if"?' said Li. 'Of course they'll come back for us!' She looked from face to face, waiting for a reassuring nod. 'Won't they?'
'Yeah, well. The thing is . . .' Amber swallowed, then tried again. 'The thing is, Heather told us to stay out of her sight until morning. And everyone else will know about us being banned from the mess or watching the film with them. So . . .' Amber stopped and looked down at her hands.
'So we won't be missed,' finished Hex, flatly. 'We're on our own.'
They sat in silence as the full gravity of the situation finally sank in. Suddenly, the boat felt like a very small speck in a very big sea. Alex remembered his father telling him that open water covered four-fifths of the Earth's surface, and it was the most difficult environment to survive in. He grimaced, then looked up and saw the shocked faces of the rest of A-Watch. Quickly, he pulled himself together. Unzipping his belt pouch, he brought out a small tobacco tin, sealed with waterproof tape. He began to peel away the tape, whistling quietly to himself and, as he had hoped, the others began to get curious.
'OK,' said Amber, finally. 'What's in the tin?'
'This,' said Alex, filling his voice with more confidence than he felt inside, 'is a survival kit.'
'Oh, yeah? What's in there? An inflatable island?'
Alex carefully rewrapped the waterproof tape around the base of the tin, then he pried the lid off. The inside of the lid was highly polished and, as Alex turned it back and forth in his hand, it sent out blinding flashes of reflected sunlight.
'To signal with,' said Alex. 'When a plane or a boat appears.' He slipped the lid into his shirt pocket, then held out the base of the tin so that everyone could see. Inside, there was a whole collection of different items and packages, all nestling in a layer of cotton wool.
'My dad gave me this,' said Alex. 'I always carry it with me. The tin – and my knife.' He patted the knife, which he carried in a sheath at his belt. 'It doesn't look much, but this tin could make all the difference in a survival situation.'
'So, seriously, what's in there?' asked Hex.
Alex reeled off a list of the contents, pointing to each little package as he named it. 'OK. For lighting fires, I have waterproof matches, a candle, a flint and a magnifying glass. Those are needles and thread. A liquid-filled compass—' Alex stopped to hook the little button compass out with his finger. He slipped it into his shirt pocket with the tin lid before continuing. 'Fish hooks and line, aspirin, a beta-light – that's a special crystal which gives off enough light to say, read a map in the dark. Then over here, I've got a snare wire, a flexible saw—'
'It does not look like a saw to me,' said Paulo, leaning forward to prod at the coil of metal wire.
'It is though. See those loops at each end? Well, when I want to use it, I cut two sticks to size, slip them through the loops for handles—'
'Ah, I see!' grinned Paulo. 'That is good. It would cut down a tree?'
'Eventually,' said Alex.
'Yeah, right,' muttered Amber. 'Just what we need right now. A saw.'
Alex ignored her and carried on with his tour of the survival tin. 'That's a medical kit, surgical blades, butterfly sutures, plasters – oh, and a condom.'
'That's for you, Paulo,' giggled Li. 'In case you finally get lucky and find a girl who can't do judo.'
Paulo felt a blush spread across his face as he grinned shame-facedly at Li. He had tried to make a move on her at the start of the voyage. He had come up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. A second later he had been flat on his back, gasping for air. She had simply grasped his arm, shifted her weight and thrown him over her shoulder.
Alex shook his head at Li, pretending to be irritated, but secretly he was pleased to hear her laugh. 'That condom will hold up to a litre of water, Li. It makes a good water-bag in an emergency.' He took the lid from his shirt pocket and closed up the tin. Then he sealed the join once more with the waterproof tape.
'Shouldn't you keep that handy for signalling?' asked Paulo.
'It's more important to keep the tin dry,' said Alex, carefully packing the tin away in his belt pouch. 'I'll be able to reach it quickly enough when we need it. So,' he continued, 'we already have one signalling device to attract attention if a ship or a plane comes along, but we'd better check the stern lockers too. Li and Paulo, have a look, will you? You never know, we might find some flares or an air-horn.'
'Yeah, right,' said Amber, her voice full of mockery. 'Would you like to ask the wish fairy for a VHF radio while you're at it? Or a transponder? Maybe even a satellite EPIRB? Then the wish-fairy helicopter will pinpoint our signal and—'
'Shut up, will you?' said Hex.
'This is not a lifeboat, OK? It's a small, open boat which is only ever used for ship-to-shore hops within full sight of land. We are not going to find any communications equipment aboard this boat.'
'Speaking of communications equipment,' growled Hex. 'If you hadn't thrown my palmtop overboard, I could be sending an e-mail SOS right now!'
'Yeah, right,' sneered Amber. 'From the middle of
the Java Sea.'
'It was state of the art. It had infra-red connections—'
'You have to be near the coast for that to work—'
'It was working on the Phoenix, until you—'
'That's enough!' snapped Alex. 'You two have to stop this. Understand? We are in a survival situation now. Everything depends on our sticking together. Hex, don't mention your palmtop again. No point. It's gone. Amber, you need to stop being so negative.'
'I'm only saying, they won't find anything,' muttered Amber.
'Found something,' called Li. She pulled a plastic sack from the locker. It was full of lumpy shapes and thudded heavily onto the boards in the bottom of the boat. Alex leaned forward as Li struggled with the knot which tied the neck of the sack. Maybe, just maybe, they were in luck.
'This must be one of your knots, Paulo,' said Li, still struggling to untie the sack.
'Ah, yes,' said Paulo, rubbing his nose in embarrassment. 'That is one of my knots.'
'You untie it then,' said Li, shoving the sack towards him.
'No need,' said Paulo. 'I know what is in there.'
'What?' asked Alex, feeling his heart sink.
'Boots,' said Paulo.
'Boots?' repeated Li. 'No air-horn? No flares?'
'Our boots and socks,' explained Paulo. 'The ones we wore in the swamp, on the last island.'
'The dirty ones Heather told you to clean,' said Alex.
Paulo looked stricken. 'I did not want to clean them. So I hid them.'
Everyone groaned and slumped back in the boat.
'Sorry,' whispered Paulo. 'Sorry it was not a radio.'
No-one answered. The creaking of the boat seemed loud in the growing silence. Alex looked around at the other four. He could see that this small set-back had cancelled out the boost in morale he had managed to achieve. They were back to being very frightened but they were all showing it in different ways. Li was about to cry, Amber looked ready to kill someone, Hex had withdrawn into himself and Paulo was a picture of guilt and misery. Alex had to admit he was feeling pretty scared, too. His heart was beating fast and he could feel the adrenalin surging through his bloodstream. He knew that it would be fatal to let this sort of bad atmosphere develop, but he was at a loss for words.