Chapter 46
Daniel
For the first time in a long time, Daniel lost track of time. It was nearing midnight when the junior crew began clearing the plates. He thanked Carlos for the food and everyone else for the company and excused himself.
He headed downwards, towards the deck where the tender was kept. Oscar had been tasked with checking over it earlier that day, but Daniel knew himself well enough to check it over with his own two eyes. He’d only find himself tossing and turning in bed otherwise, trying to dispel recurrent thoughts of an empty fuel gauge, or a faulty drive belt.
As he descended into the lowest part of the bow of the boat, down a particularly narrow staircase, two voices grew ever more distinguishable. They must be coming from inside the garage, thought Daniel. Almost automatically he softened his footsteps; there was something about the tone of the conversation that sounded furtive. Maybe it was Ore’s influence but he found himself drawn in, compelled to eavesdrop.
‘I know we’re a little behind schedule, but tomorrow, tomorrow is the day.’ It was Chuck speaking, and strangely he didn’t sound in control; he was the one trying to impress, rather than needing to be impressed.
Claude’s voice responded in a monotone: ‘It is not ideal. We had wanted to get the images of the site and the dive plans back to Derek and the team tonight. Our engineers need to get started if we’re going to have the operation up and running by the end of the year.’
‘Of course, and I appreciate your patience. The good news is that the authorities don’t seem to be patrolling tomorrow, according to my sources, so we should get all the time we need.’ Chuck sounded nervous.
‘Well my guys are ready, and the chopper is picking them up soon? I think I’ll stay up and brief them, show them the drill prototype, so they can familiarise themselves with it.’
Daniel’s head was spinning. This discussion was definitely not meant to be overheard. Less than a week ago, he would have retreated up the stairs silently and pushed all this clandestine-sounding shit to the back of his mind. The new Daniel though, the one infected by Ore’s curiosity,hecouldn’t help but stay exactly where he was.
‘So this prototype drill, it’s already powerful enough to cut through the reef bed? And it’s what? Handheld?’ Chuck’s voice grew excited.
‘Well it is just that – a prototype – and it’s only for surface exploration, to see if the cobalt responds to an obsidian drill underwater in the same way it does on land.’ Claude sighed, as though he’d explained all this a thousand times before. ‘Of course when we scale this, it won’t just be surface drilling, we’ll aim for the whole face of the reef and maybe even come at it from the underside. That’ll mean we need to ship in a few subsea collectors, but we can’t do that until we have these “authorities” on side.’ Daniel couldn’t see the two men, but he could hear the air quotes.
‘Great, great, I mean, this is all amazing stuff. I think deep sea is the way forward for sure. When I looked into sourcing that kind of cobalt on land …’ Chuck whistled out a lungful of air to emphasise just how painful that kind of expenditure would be before continuing. ‘It’s just that these batteries, they’re basically pure cobalt.’ Claude only grunted in response. It was clear that he didn’t share in Chuck’s enthusiasm for the finished product.
‘But the efficiency of them, you wouldn’t believe – they can run like, ten, twenty times as many servers with like, a fraction of the electricity needed to fully charge them. It’s a revelation. Once we have an underwater sample and we can be sure that it’s just as effective, we’re on our way.’ Chuck’s tone was full of awe, but Claude seemed to be growing impatient.
‘Yes, very good, Chuck, well I’m going to head upstairs and wait for my men. No need to join me. I will see you in the morning.’
Daniel had been so engrossed, and concentrating so hard to try and make sense of what they were saying, that it took him a second too long to compute that the conversation was wrapping up. As Claude’s footstep approached the doorway that Daniel was hiding beside, panic took over.
Instinctively Daniel clambered up the stairs behind him. By the time Claude opened the door, crossed the threshold and turned to his right, Daniel looked like he’d just begun to descend the stairs.
‘Oh, Mr Van Der Bodem, how are you this evening?’ Daniel’s heart thumped against his ribcage. He kept his hand on the banister, for fear of the adrenaline betraying him with a tremor.
Claude turned to look back into the garage behind himwith those dull grey eyes of his and then followed the stairs up to where Daniel was standing. It was the action of a suspicious man, but his demeanour remained eerily calm, as did his voice.
‘I am well, thank you, Captain. I trust you have come from …?’ An innocent question loaded with an opportunity for confession.
‘Dinner,’ Daniel said, trying to walk down the stairs as nonchalantly as possible, ‘with the rest of the crew.’
Just then Chuck emerged. He seemed startled to see Daniel, nowhere near as good at keeping his cool as Claude.
‘Captain Dan! How are you? I was just showing Claude the tender. He’s been dying to take a look.’ Chuck spoke just a little too quickly.
‘You didn’t feel you had a sufficient chance to take a good look when we went out to the island?’ Daniel wasn’t sure why he’d said that. There was something about Chuck that made him act irrationally. He always found himself pulled into the weird mind games. He’d wanted to catch Chuck in a lie, but now as Chuck’s expression turned sour, he regretted pushing it.
‘It is not really the same when there are so many people on board. I like to have a closer look at things.’ It was Claude who cut in, utterly unflustered by the exchange. ‘I am going now – goodnight,’ he added bluntly, before making his way up the stairs.
Daniel and Chuck remained. ‘Excuse me I just wanted to check a few things before the morning,’ said Daniel, making for the garage door. But Chuck put out an arm to block him.
‘I hope you haven’t forgotten our little conversation, Danny.’ Chuck’s tone was sickly sweet, like rotting fruit.
Daniel stood up straight. ‘Sir?’
‘About my feelings when it comes to generosity and betrayal? I do so value … discretion.’ The threat was so thinly veiled that Daniel wondered why Chuck even bothered. Why not come right out and say it?If you repeat anything you heard, you’re toast.
‘Of course, sir, understood.’ Daniel held his ground, meeting Chuck’s gaze. And then suddenly the standoff was over.
‘Great.’ Chuck was smiling again. ‘Well in that case I’ll see you tomorrow!’ With a slightly too hard slap on the back, Chuck was off, marching up the stairs.
The moment he was out of sight, Daniel let out a deep breath. He felt frozen in place, unsure what to do next.What would Ore do?He wasn’t sure that he wanted to tell her what he had just heard, what with Chuck’s threats to him and Claude’s to Ore, it was obvious that neither man would take kindly to any of this information being reported on. The idea of putting Ore in danger made him feel sick, but he knew she would never forgive him if she found out he’d kept this from her. Not to mention that he was invested now, and the only way to get to the whole truth was to dig deeper.
He’d sleep on it. There was no point telling Ore tonight. He had to admit that his checks of the tender were cursory. He was impatient to get back to his cabin and write down everything he’d heard before he forgot any potentially vital detail.
