Chapter 48
Ore
Day 7
It took a moment for the banging on the door to register first in Ore’s subconscious and then pull her into waking.
‘The tender is ready and Captain Wilsons wants to head off in twenty minutes.’ It was Vicky’s voice, and Ore understood immediately that she had overslept.
‘Yep! Thanks, Vicky.’ Ore scrambled out of bed and before she even made it to the door, Vicky had walked off.
She set about getting ready. What exactly did one wear to go not scuba diving? She decided covering up was probably the best tactic, as they’d be out in the sun most of the day.
By the time she got down to the garage, everyone was already there, waiting for her. Chuck and Mel, Daniel, once again disarmingly not dressed in his uniform, Claude and another three men she didn’t recognise.
‘Hello, all, so sorry … I … I have no excuse really. I overslept,’ Ore offered by way of sorry explanation. Mel giggled and when Ore caught her eye they exchanged a shy smile.
Chuck didn’t look impressed. ‘OK, well now that our lady journalist has deigned to join us, we really should get going.’It was only 9 a.m., and Ore wondered what the rush was. The last excursion hadn’t set off until well after breakfast.
The last time she’d come down to the garage she’d already been feeling so sick that she hadn’t properly taken it in. It would be hard, she thought, to describe the scale of it in her article. It was basically a marina, built into the mega yacht that sat at sea level, which itself was big enough to house the tender, and a small speed boat. The side of the ‘garage’ as they called it, opened up completely to allow the smaller boats out into the ocean. ‘Smaller’ of course was a relative term; the tender had its own indoor salon and two bedrooms as well as a kitchen.
It was surreal really to watch the boat being loaded up, within a boat. Daniel went about helping everybody get on board, instructing the three nameless men to carry their huge crate on first. As he did so he caught Ore’s eye. She wasn’t sure how to interpret his expression, but when he suddenly cast his eyes down towards the crate as it passed him, it clicked: Klauparten Inc was written in stout white lettering across the side of it.
Ore felt a little flustered. She’d been trying to put the strange details of that unfinished story to the back of her mind but now, with another tantalising clue, she felt that familiar buzz of investigative excitement.
‘Ladies first.’ Claude motioned for Ore and Mel to get onto the boat. Both did as they were told, settling down on the top deck. The men took the crate down below deck, Claude following behind them. Chuck came to sit beside his daughter and Daniel was last on. Oscar appeared out of nowhere to help cast off and then the huge wall of metal in front of them began to whir open, and they were on their way.
Ore impressed herself with the strength of her stomach as they rode across the waves. Only a week ago, she’d have chucked her guts up. Now she was almost enjoying herself, although she was not looking forward to the wind fuzzing up her edges.
After about ten minutes, Chuck stood up and motioned for Ore and Mel to follow him into the salon. The boat had obviously been designed and decorated by the same people asLady Thalassa, because the interiors were almost identical: lots of grey velvet and expanses of white.
‘I thought we could do the interview now, since we have a bit of journey time to kill. Is fifteen minutes OK?’ Chuck took a seat at the slightly-smaller-but-still-huge glass table in the centre of the room. Fifteen minutes. It wasn’t enough to interview two people, and honestly Ore had hoped she could conduct them separately, but she supposed she’d have to just take what she could get.
‘Sure, is that OK with you, Mel?’ Ore conceded. Mel nodded and slumped into a chair next to Chuck. Ore took the one opposite them both.
‘Right well, as I explained to Chuck, my editor really wanted to dig a little bit more into your relationship. What is Chuck like as a father?’ Ore kept her eyes on the notepad in front of her as she asked the question. When she finally did look up to meet Mel’s eye, the expression of incredulity was exactly what she’d expected and hoped to miss.
Chuck seemed confused by the loaded pause, turning to Mel with a nervous chuckle. ‘Well Melly Belly, go on, tell Ore what you think.’
‘Daaad, please don’t call me that. I’m not like five anymore.’She rolled her eyes and then dropped them to her lap. ‘He’s a great dad, I guess. We have lots of fun together.’
Ore didn’t think she’d ever heard a less convincing answer and she had to stifle a giggle as she diligently transcribed Mel’s answer.
‘And … What kind of fun things do you do together?’ Ore persisted.
Mel groaned, ‘Oh I don’t know!’
‘Mel! Answer the nice lady’s questions properly please.’ Chuck turned to Ore apologetically and then back to Mel, pleading with his eyes.
‘Sometimes when I beg and beg and beg, he takes me scuba diving, so I can finally see the Great Barrier Reef.’ Her tone was sarcastic and once again Chuck laughed nervously.
But Mel wasn’t done: ‘But even when we do finally do the super fun things I’ve been begging him to do for aaaages, we still have to bring his weird friends, or whatever they are – I don’t really get it – along with us, and sometimes even like the press so they can write a profile about what a great, successful guy he is …’
Mel folded her arms and leant back, looking jubilant. Chuck ran his hand through his hair exasperatedly. ‘No offence or anything,’ Mel chipped in.
‘None taken.’ Ore wasn’t sure if she should write any of that down. The way that Chuck was now scowling at the notepad in front of her, she decided to compromise: ‘Shall I just say “scuba diving”?’
Chuck was quick to reply. ‘Yes please, I think maybe Mel is still recovering from her fall. You haven’t been sleeping all that well with the pain have you, darling?’
