Free On the Edge of Darkness (Special Force Orca Book 1) by Anthony Molloy Page B

months now… I wish you lot would stop calling me Blur!”
    “ No one uses their proper name in the Andrew,” said Wyatt emphatically.
    “ I know that! ‘Tug’ started calling me ‘Blur’ and now everyone does.”
    “ Wyatt finished hanging out his washing before adding, “Well, yer stuck with it now, you’ll never get rid of it. Even when yer change ships it’ll dog your every footstep, I’ve had mine for yonks.”
    Wilson smiled looking up from darning a sock, “Shouldn’t loaf when there’s work about… Should pull yer weight, like the rest of us.”
    “ Yeah! Bloody yeah! said Blur in a rare show of temper. “One sodding time, that’s all it was… and…and I weren’t feeling all that well, either was I?”
    “ You got away swift enough for one so sick, as I remember it,” accused Wilson. “There was this blur and yer was gone!”
    As darkness fell they turned, unobserved , heading east once more, back towards the Norwegian coast.
     
    *     *     *
     
    The darkness descended over the Norwegian Sea with the wind strengthening from the west, the sea livelier; cold grey waves marching in, rank upon foam topped- rank as far as the eye could see. The forecast looked bad for the next twenty-four hours at least.
    At the change of the watch Lieutenant Grey came up onto the bridge to relieve the First Lieutenant.
    Barr was back in his bridge chair following a short, but welcome, spell below. He was the only seaman officer who kept no set watches but his standing order, that he should be informed of any sightings day or night, meant he got very little rest. As a consequence of his own order he found it more convenient to doze in the bridge chair than to struggle into foul weather clothing and come up onto the bridge every time there was a sighting.
    He stared out at the horizon as he waited for the usual exchanges between the incoming and outgoing officers to end.
    “ Number One, before you go below for your well-earned, I’d like a word, if I may.”
    “ Certainly sir… I not in trouble, I trust.”
    Barr smiled through his stubble, “No, no, everything’s fine, you’re doing a great job” he paused his eyes automatically searching the horizon as he assembled his thoughts.
    “ Do you remember the other day, when we were leaving harbour; the day we boarded the E-boat.”
    “ Yes, sir.”
    “ Well, it occurred to me how we were completely relying on those lights the marines were putting out for us. That made me think how Jerry must be doing exactly the same thing; all along this coast…relying on their lights I mean. Now…Just supposing the lights they were relying were not in the right place. What if we were to move them inland?”
    Grant frowned, “You mean…like the wreckers on the coast of Cornwall in the eighteen-century?”
    “ That’s it, precisely. Of course we have no idea when the enemy convoys are coming at the moment. What we need is recognisance. I see a role here for the E-boat. A crew, led by you and the German speaking Midshipman, what’s-his-name, as your second…”
    “ Hogg, sir.”
    “ What? Yes… yes… Hogg, that’s the chap.” Barr was in full swing now, Grant couldn’t remember when he had seen him this animated, he was speaking faster and faster thinking on his feet. “He’s a reliable chap…speaks good German, as you said yourself…You could scout along the coast. Take a couple of marines with you. Watch out for lights marking rocks, headlands, shallows, that sort of thing.
    Ideally you ’d be after full convoys supplying northern Norway, rather than empty ones returning. They’d be sailing north, that means…” he walked over to the chart with Grant following. “You’ll be looking for somewhere like… “His gloved finger moved to a headland on the chart.” …this… of course it’s only an example, you’ll be better placed, on the spot, to choose exactly where. I mean look at this its runs east west and looks as if it would prove a