Free Noah's Ark: Contagion by Harry Dayle Page B

start.”
    “A forensic pathologist is the jackpot!” Kiera’s face lit up. She leaned in, speaking in a whisper. “We’ve got two corpses down there, and no disrespect to Grau, but he’s better at dealing with the living than the dead. So who’s our new best friend? We’ve got post-mortems waiting.”
    “She’s called Janice Hanson. If my maths is right, she’s fifty-five years old. Retired young, lucky lady. She’s an American; Chicago. Here, you can keep her census form, I made a copy. And here’s the nurse, Mandy Chalmers, Australian. Not much in the way of detail on her form. Let’s see, twenty-eight years old, married, works full-time in an emergency room.”
    “That’s brilliant, Silvia, you’re a star.”
    “Hanson’s already in a nice room so we can’t offer her an upgrade in return for work, but she will get to keep her cabin. Chalmers can be moved up. She’s got a tiny cabin, not even a window. She’s married; her husband isn’t on any team yet. He put himself down as unemployed. He’ll probably end up washing dishes or as a labourer for one of the food teams in time.”
    “I’ll go and see Hanson right away. The quicker we can get some answers the better.” Kiera stood to leave and walked over to Erica. “Hey Erica, I have to go now, but I’ll come and see you again later okay?”
    “Okay. Are you going back to my daddy?”
    “Yes. Not straight away, but I’ll see him later.”
    “Tell him he has to get better quickly, or else!”
    “I will, sweetie.” She ruffled the girl’s hair. Erica pulled a face and went back to her drawings.
    Kiera took a step towards the door, but something was terribly wrong. She tried to move, to lift her foot, but it was stuck to the floor.
    “Kiera? Are you okay?”
    “No,” the nurse replied, panic rising inside her. “I can’t feel my feet, Silvia. I can’t feel or move my feet!”
    • • •
    Jake filled his lungs with cold, fresh sea air. His nose was still filled with smoke from the fire; it felt like it was burning his sinuses and throat. As he took more deep breaths, he looked out from his deck seven vantage point towards the approaching Faroe Islands. They weren’t passing very close by, but even so, the rocky projections were clear to see with the naked eye. The toxic ash from the asteroid had blanketed the once green slopes, making the archipelago look like huge lumps of coal that had been scattered into the sea by some giant unseen hand.
    “Captain Noah, we are about to bring up the net!”
    Jake looked back over his shoulder. Stieg was waving to him, a big grin on his face. He was a man who loved his profession and was delighted to be doing what he adored once again. Jake smiled and went to join the Swede and his men.
    “How do you think it went, Stieg?”
    “Hard to say, but I am, how do you say, quietly optimistic? I saw many herring this morning. If we don’t have some of those in the net I will be surprised. Your chef will have his hands full, I am sure.”
    “My chef has his hands full already,” Jake said, feeling a sudden pang of guilt that he was outside enjoying the fresh air while Claude had suffered much more in the fire. “But that’s a different story. Don’t let me hold you up. Is there anything I can do to help?”
    “As a matter of fact, yes there is. You can operate the winch. You know the two buttons?”
    Jake nodded. Stieg dished out instructions to his men and positioned them strategically. All three were armed with boat hooks to guide the steel cables and net. Once in place, he signalled to Jake, who pressed down on the bright green button, bringing the electric motor to life. The spindle began to turn, winding the taut lengths of cable around the drum. The net was deep in the sea and there was a considerable amount of steel cabling to drag back in. Jake could feel the heat from the winch as the motor strained and laboured.
    Shouting from the fishermen suggested that the net had surfaced. “Many