‘You don’t know that!’
For a moment, the two of them glared at each other.
‘I might not get another chance,’ Pod said. ‘It has to be now. I’ve come halfway round the world to help you find your dad. Now, I need to find my sister. If you got to leave without me, leave without me. But I’m going.’
Pod turned resolutely and went to untie the dinghy.
Will watched him go, simmering with frustration. ‘You’d better bring that back!’ he shouted, as Pod started the engine and drove away.
The two of them watched in silence for a moment as Pod puttered off towards the shore. Then Essie turned to Will, frowning. ‘It’s the only thing he wants in the whole wide world,’ she said.
‘I know,’ Will said crossly, because he did understand. ‘Did it have to be now?’
It took a long time for the Blue Water Duchess to traverse the bay and arrive at the deep water dock purpose-built for giant cruise ships. Tugs guided her in, and then as soon as the great ropes had lashed her securely to the shore, hordes of vessels and vehicles came swarming up to begin the enormous task of servicing the ship while the holidaymakers were disgorged into town.
Pod’s plan was simple enough: he would pretend to be a tourist. It had got him and Essie aboard the Blue Water Princess. There was no reason it wouldn’t work again. Impatiently, he watched the waves of cruisers as they came off the boat and fought their way through hordes of eager touts offering services, taxis, trinkets. Just act like you deserve to be there, he reminded himself. He walked up to a uniformed steward guarding one of the gangways and tried to sound rich. ‘Hi. I left my shell in my room. Can I just go back and get it?’
The steward gave him one look and said, ‘You’re not a passenger.’
Pod glanced down at himself. He never thought much about clothes, and now, too late, he realised he looked more like a beggar than a tourist. Last time he’d disguised himself in a souvenir t-shirt. He knew if Essie was here now she would have tried to brazen it out. But he didn’t have her confidence.
‘Go on, hop it, before I call the police,’ the steward said.
Temporarily defeated, Pod slunk away.
But he didn’t go far. He found a good vantage point where he could watch the boat while he thought about what to do next. He couldn’t walk on as a passenger. But could he try to sneak aboard as a crewman? He watched the boat’s operations and saw that there were surprisingly few people other than passengers coming or going, or even visible on board the ship. Stewards controlled the gangways, but where were all the other staff? The maids and the maintenance men, the hands and the sailors?
He turned his attention to the goods being loaded onto and offloaded from the ship. Huge pallets were lined up on the dock ready to be loaded; a claw-like thing on a mighty mechanical arm lifted them up one by one and loaded them into a bay at the rear of the ship. Pod watched as the arm turned and lowered, grabbed and lifted.The whole process seemed smooth and efficient and was conducted without much intervention from actual people.
This, he decided, was his way in.
He stole out from his hiding place and crept towards the pallets. Most of them consisted of boxes of various sizes, packed in tight and swaddled with layers and layers of wrapping. There was no room on most of the pallets to squeeze in with the load. Then, at the far end of a row, he found what he was looking for: laundry, baled and tied. Wielding his pocket knife, he made a little slit in the wrapping, cut the twine holding one of the bales of laundry together, and pulled out enough towels to make a space for himself. Then he crept into the little gap he’d made, pulled the towels around himself, and waited.
The smell of laundry powder was overwhelming, and the smothering weight of all that fabric pressing in upon him from every side started a flutter of panic inside him.Just breathe, he told himself. Think about Blossom.
He hadn’t seen his sister for two years. He wondered, as he often did, how she might have changed. She had been a sweet-natured girl when they were together, silly and funny when they were among friends, although silent and fearful when their masters were around. He had made her a doll out of sticks once, a poor enough thing, but she loved it. It was lost when they were moved from the failed farm to the hulk; she’d been devastated by the loss. She would be too old for dolls now, he guessed. He hoped life hadn’t been too hard for her on the cruise ship. Boring, probably, with long hours. But not dangerous or frightening. At least he hoped not.
Suddenly, his pallet lurched. The towels against him bulged inwards as the claw gripped them and he had to squeeze sideways to avoid being squished. Then the pallet lifted into the air, leaving Pod’s stomach behind. He felt an agony of fear at the unnatural sensation of floating free from the ground; then the pallet was descending. It landed with precision—barely a bump—and Pod let out his breath, grateful to have landed without mishap.
He peeped out carefully from his screen of towels. He was in a huge hold stacked with pallets; now, at last, he could see staff. People moved about, checking lists and ripping open wrappings, moving supplies with hand trolleys. These people all wore uniforms, several different ones. If he was going to move about the ship unseen, he would have to get hold of one.
Footsteps approached; he pulled his head back in behind the towels in the nick of time as someone walked right past him, but fortunately didn’t stop.
When all was quiet
