“How long you two been going out?”
“Six months or so. How about you? Are you with anyone?”
Jack thought about the last time he had kissed a woman and shook his head. “I’ve been single for a long time. Not really interested in being with anyone.”
“Bad break up?”
“Something like that.”
Jack looked around the deck again, becoming more and more anxious when the waitress failed to appear. If she didn’t turn up, he would have to resume his wild goose chase. Before he started hunting, though, he wanted to ask Claire one last question. He wasn’t sure why.
“Does Conner make you happy?”
Claire raised her eyebrow. “What? That’s a bit of a nosey question.”
“I know,” Jack admitted. “You seem like a nice girl, that’s all. I hope he treats you well.”
“He does. Well…most of the time. To be honest, I-”
“Hey, babe, who’s this?” Conner stood in the gap between Jack and Claire’s sun loungers and didn’t look happy.
“My name is Jack. I was just having a chat with Claire, here. Is there a problem with that?”
Conner’s eyes narrowed. “Depends. If you’re on the pull, old man, then you and me have got a problem for sure. She’s half your age, d’you get me?”
“Yes, I do get you,” Jack said. “Thankfully there are no laws against chatting to someone, regardless of age.”
Conner snarled like a kicked dog. “You cheeking me, mate? Because that would be a mistake.”
Jack couldn’t help but smile. The threats meant nothing. He knew Conner’s fate, and it wasn’t at all good. “You sure you’re up to making threats?” Jack goaded. “Because you’re not looking so hot, to be honest.”
“Yeah,” Claire butted in, trying to stop the back and forth between them. “You look bad. How are you feeling, babe?”
Conner turned his attention from Jack toward his girlfriend. “I’m fine. Just a cold.”
Claire put her arm around him. “Let’s go get some food in you. This guy wasn’t doing anything except talking to me, so it’s not worth causing trouble over. You know I only love you.”
“You better,” Conner said, with a slight edge to his voice.
The two of them started walking away, but Jack shouted after them. “Hey, Conner,” he said.
Conner turned around. “What?”
“It seems like a lot of people onboard have a cold. Do you have any idea where you caught yours?”
The lad shrugged. “I was fine until I got on this bloody ship. Probably just some bug brought on board by a greasy Spaniard.”
Nice, Jack thought. He’s a racist as well as a thug. What a catch, Claire.
“Maybe you should go to your room and lie down,” Jack said. “It might make you feel better.”
“I don’t need advice from you, mate. I don’t even know you. There’s a doctor on the bottom deck. I’ll go see him if I need to, but you can mind your own business.”
“Just trying to help,” Jack said absentmindedly, already thinking about other things. The first thought was that Conner had gotten sick once onboard the ship, not before. The second was that there was a doctor onboard. Jack was irritated at himself because he had known that already – it said so on the ship’s newsletter that came every day. There was a chance that the doctor could make some sense of whatever was infecting the passengers. Perhaps the ship’s doctor would already know something about what was happening. The question Jack now had to answer was whether to spend the afternoon looking for the brunette waitress or seeking out the ship’s medical centre.
He eventually made the decision to visit the lower decks and check out the infirmary. The reasoning being that he had no idea where to find the waitress, anyway, so there was just as much chance he’d find her there as anywhere else.
The main elevators in the foyer of the Mariner Deck – where High Spirits was located – took Jack all the way down to C Deck and opened up right outside the medical bay. It was a grim, green painted corridor with a couple of offices and consulting rooms on either side. There were no members of staff present so Jack went and took a seat on a green-cushioned bench running along one side of the corridor.
Voices came from somewhere nearby, most likely the ship’s doctor with a patient. Jack had expected the waiting area to be filled with coughing passengers, but it was just he, sitting there alone.
He checked his watch a while later and was surprised to see that twenty minutes had gone by. For the last several months, every minute had seemed like an hour. Each day seemed longer than the last, but the last twenty minutes had flown by in what seemed like seconds. The anticipation of learning something new made time abstract and inconsequential. He felt alive again, his investigative spirit reawakened.
Someone entered the corridor a short time later. It was the two parents and their pigtailed daughter. Jack knew that the little girl was one of the first to turn savage in High Spirits, but whatever was wrong with her, the doctor obviously didn’t do anything to help. Jack could only assume that the family came here every day, looking for answers but failing to get any. Everyone onboard followed the same routines.
Except the brunette waitress.
Jack was still eager to talk to the brunette, but right now he had other things to concentrate on. The doctor had just entered the corridor.
The towering medic was dark-skinned and heavily bearded, obviously from African descent. When he asked Jack to follow him into the consulting room, he spoke English well but with a French twang.
“Are you the doctor?” Jack asked as he entered the confines of the small office. There was a padded examination table in the centre of the room and several cabinets lined the walls.
“Yes, I am Doctor Fortuné. What is it I can do for you, sir?”
“I need to know what was wrong with the little girl who just left.”
“I’m sorry? Are you ill yourself?”
“No,” Jack replied. “But lots of other people on this ship are. I need to know what is wrong with them. I want to know what you know.”
The doctor seemed irritated and confused. “I’m afraid I cannot discuss these things with you, sir. If you are not ill then you will have to leave.”
Jack sighed. He respected the confidentiality of the Hippocratic Oath – as a police officer, he abided by similar virtues himself – but this was not the time for ethics or convention.
“Okay,” Jack relented, deciding to try a different tactic. “But there’s something nasty going between the passengers onboard this ship and, in the interest of my own health, can you tell me what I should be looking out for? You have a duty to inform me if I am at risk.”
The doctor let out a long breath and relaxed a little, apparently happy to have the loophole presented to him. “Okay, sir. What I can tell you is that there seems to be a highly contagious cold virus aboard this ship. There have been several cases this morning already, but none are at all threatening. It is just a cold, my friend. Nothing to worry about, okay? Wash your hands regularly and avoid touching your face. You will be fine.”
“It can’t just be a cold,” Jack protested. “People don’t turn into psycho killers because of the sniffles.”
The doctor looked confused. “I’m sorry?”
“Oh, yeah.” Jack chuckled. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to you, does it?”
The doctor stared at him.
“Look,” Jack continued. “Is there anything unusual about this cold going around? You said it’s highly contagious. Is that normal?”
“Yes and no. Cold viruses are often highly infectious, but the numbers of cases I’ve seen today is a little high. Still no reason for alarm.”
Jack sighed. This was going nowhere. “Okay, Doctor. Thank you for your help.”
He was almost out the door when the doctor suddenly spoke up. “Actually, my friend, there is one thing that I found a little strange.”
Jack spun back around. “What?”
; The doctor seemed to change his mind about divulging the information and looked upon Jack with scrutiny. “Who are you, exactly? Why are you so interested in this?”
“I’m a police officer, and I have a very bad feeling. This isn’t just a cold virus, I assure you.”
“Do you know something I do not?”
Of course Jack knew many things the doctor did not, but there was no way to explain any of them without sounding like a lunatic. “No, I don’t anything for sure,” he said. “Just, please, tell me what you know.”
The doctor let out a sigh and started talking. “There’s something strange about this cold virus. The people who have it are suffering from elevated blood pressure. The later it has gotten in the day, the quicker their pulses have been when I’ve measured them. It’s almost like their hearts are speeding up.”
Jack grunted. “Jesus. Isn’t that something to be worried about?”
“I don’t know. I cannot explain it, but the measurements are still within safe levels. It’s just very strange, that is all. A simple cold should not affect a person in such a way. At least, not typically”
“What would happen if their heartbeats keep getting faster?”
“Tachycardia can cause excitement and even mania, but eventually it leads to ischemia.”
“What’s that?”
“It is where the heart beats so fast that it can no longer supply the body efficiently with blood. The resulting oxygen deficit can result in the vital organs shutting down and muscle deterioration.”
“What can be done for someone with…ischemia?”
“An antiarrhythmic agent could be administered but, as I said, what I have seen is nowhere near the required levels to make a diagnosis like that appropriate. My prognosis is still a simple cold virus. In fact, I shouldn’t have spoken as freely with you as I have.”
“Okay,” Jack said, understanding he would get nothing more. “I’ll leave you to your work, but I do have one last question.”
The doctor sighed. “What is your question?”
“If someone’s heartbeat gets to a dangerous level, how would I know?”
“They would become lethargic and pale. They might also have chest pain.”
“If I bring someone like that to you, could you help them?”
The doctor frowned at Jack, probably trying to work out what was going on here. “I could try.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “That’s a start.”
He left the doctor alone and headed back towards the elevators. A plan had begun to form in his mind.
***
It was ten-past-seven and Jack was sitting in High Spirits, nursing a shot of bourbon. The parents and their daughter were sitting two tables ahead. The little girl lay across her mother’s lap as she did every night at this time. She was both lethargic and pale.
It was Jack’s intention to get the young girl downstairs to the doctor, before eight-o-clock when her condition would take an irreversible turn for the worse. Once the little girl started tearing into people, there was no doctor in the world who could help her. Jack needed to get her to the medical bay before that happened. The only thing standing in his way was getting her parents to comply. He was not without a plan, though.
He stood up from his table and headed over to the family. They looked up at him as he approached, immediately distrustful. Jack wore his most reassuring smile, perfected during years on the force. It was something he relied on to calm people down when he had little else at his disposal. Thankfully, it worked now, and the family loosened up and smiled back.
“Hey, there,” he said in a friendly voice. “I’m sorry to come over like this, but I’m a nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. I couldn’t help but notice how poorly your little angel looks.”
The mother looked on the verge of tears. It was obvious the woman was feeling under the weather, too, but her concern was only for her daughter.
“She’s been ill since she woke up this morning. The doctor said she just has a cold, but I’m beginning to worry.”
Jack nodded as if he knew exactly how she was feeling. He’d never had children himself, so he didn’t have a clue, but he could imagine it. He knew what love was like.
He made sure to look both the father and the mother in the eyes as he spoke. “Why don’t we take her back down to the medical bay now? We can get the doctor to have another look at her.”
The mother’s eyes widened and she seemed alarmed. “Oh, God, you think there’s something wrong with her, don’t you?”
Jack held his hands up and shook his head gently. “She’s fine, I’m sure, but it’s obvious that she’s suffering. We should go see what the doctor can do to help her.”
“Why, might I ask, are you so interested?” the father asked in a clipped, Scottish accent. Despite the accent, his speech was very prim and proper, in stark contrast to the casual idiom used by his wife. His age was also at least fifteen years her senior – perhaps mid-fifties.
Jack answered quickly, wanting to appear confident. “It’s my job. I don’t stop caring about public health just because I’m on holiday.”
The father seemed to mull this over, eventually saying, “Okay then. Come on, Vicky. Let’s take her down.”
The mother handed her daughter to her husband and stood up on shaky legs. Jack reached out to steady her, but she shrugged him away and told him that she was fine. Together, they travelled down to C Deck. When they reached the medical bay, they found it dimly lit and deserted.
“I don’t think the doctor works at night,” Vicky said, sounding worried.
“He’ll be on call,” the husband responded. “There’ll be some way to contact him.”
“There is,” Jack said, pointing a finger.
In the waiting room was a notice on the wall. It read, above a small red button, CALL FOR DOCTOR. Jack went and stabbed the button with his finger. Five minutes later, Doctor Fortuné arrived, looking sleepy yet well presented in his white lab coat.
“Can I help you?” he asked, seeming to recognise all of them but not quite able to recall why.
“Our daughter needs help,” Vicky said.
“This man here is a nurse,” said her husband, pointing at Jack.
The doctor shook his head. “No, he is not. He told me that he was a police officer.”
So he does remember me, thought Jack, cringing at the position he was now in.
“What?” The husband sounded furious and his demeanour and stance changed to one of capable intent. Jack knew then that the older man was ex-army. From the tone alone it was obvious.
“Oh, God, Ivor,” Vicky whimpered. “Who is this man?”
“I don’t know, but he has a great deal of explaining to do.”
Jack took a step back. “Okay, I admit I lied, but I only did it because I’m worried about your daughter. The doctor gave me some signs to look out for earlier. Things to suggest that this cold bug going around is getting worse.”
The parents looked confused. Doctor Fortuné shook his head. “Sir, you have to stop meddling in affairs that do not concern you. I assure you that there is nothing onboard that requires your attention.”
As if to disagree, the little girl in her father’s arms started to moan.
“She’s lethargic,” Jack said. “She’s pale. Her condition is worsening. Look at her. Look at her.”
The doctor glanced at the girl and then focused his attention on the father. “Has she been having any chest pains or bouts of breathlessness?”
Ivor nodded solemnly.
“Okay,” the doctor said. “Let’s go into the office and have a look at her, then.”
The family headed into the consultation room and Jack went to go with them, but Ivor put a meaty fist against his chest. “I’m not sure what your situation is, friend, but I politely request that you stay away from my family.”
Jack could tell it was a veiled threat and decided not to push it. If his plan worked then the doctor would help the young girl, if
not then the night would end as it always did and nobody would be any worse off. His only intention was to find out if the infected passengers could be helped – or even cured. Maybe if he found a way to save them, he would be released from the hellish prison he found himself in every day. Perhaps that was the reason he was here.
He needed to stay close and see what happened, so he took a seat on the same green bench he’d been sitting on earlier in the day. From inside the nearby office, he could hear the voices of the worried family and the concerned doctor. He looked at his watch: five-past-eight. Not long left. All around the ship, infected people would be gearing up to explode. There was nothing to lose now, so Jack stood up and pushed open the door to the doctor’s office.
Ivor glared at him as he entered, but didn’t say anything. His little girl was laid out on the examination table, breathing in shallow gasps. Her condition was bad, Jack already knew that, but he had never been this close to one of the infected right before they turned into a monster.
“How is she?” Jack asked.
“She’s tachycardic,” the doctor replied. “You were right to bring her to me. I’ve given her something to slow her heart rate, but it is still worryingly fast.”
The girl’s mother, Vicky, was sobbing on a chair in the corner, while her husband stood beside her. Jack went over to the both of them. “I’m sorry for deceiving you both,” he said.
“Thank you,” Vicky said between sobs. “You knew she need a doctor.”
“How did you know?” Ivor asked. “You’re not even a nurse.”
“No, I’m not. I’m a police officer, and ex-army like you, Ivor. I’ve gotten pretty good at sensing danger.”
Ivor lowered his guard finally and shook Jack’s hand. “Major Curtis, good to meet you.”
“Sergeant Wardsley. Pleased to meet you, too, sir.”
Ivor laughed. “Been a while since I had a sergeant calling me that. Takes me back.”
“You been retired long?”
“Good ten years now. I married Vicky two years before I signed out. Wanted to spend time with her. Have a family while I still had some lead in my pencil. A few years and we had this little gift from God, Heather.”
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