Deadly Impact--A Richard Mariner nautical adventure (29 page)

He was asleep within five minutes. So deeply that he did not even register when the lights went out. When the engines stopped, some uncounted time later still, however, he woke up at once, stood up, felt his way to the door and started hammering on it as loudly as he could.

‘T
welve hours?' repeated Anastasia. She looked at Robin, horrified.

‘Twelve hours to close it all down safely according to procedures, to disconnect it and to prepare it to move,' emphasized Dr Gennadi Obukhov, director of the nuclear power station
Zemlya
, not best pleased at being called from his bed at midnight. ‘And according to protocol, we need to consult the men in charge of the Kujukuri construction project before we even start. It is their power we would be removing, after all.' Anastasia, Robin and the director were sitting in his office on board the nuclear power facility. The NIPEX chopper which had brought the women here sat on the helideck under the yellow security lights, waiting to whisk them away again once they had solved the little local difficulty of removing the power station from
Sayonara
's possible path of destruction. It would take them to the Radisson if they had any sense – and to their beds. But what had seemed a relatively simple matter was proving to be anything but.

‘Removing Kujukuri Construction's power would be better than removing half their city by blasting it to smithereens – and contaminating the rest with radioactive fallout,' snarled Anastasia.

‘Just so,' answered the director frostily, and not a little pompously. Director Obukhov had been put in place by Anastasia's late father and did not take kindly to being bossed around by importunate women. ‘But remember, Miss Asov, the procedures are also there to avoid just such eventualities, whether there is the danger of a collision or not. Look at Fukushima …'

‘Fukushima was abiding by its procedures!' snapped Anastasia. ‘They just didn't include losing power to the cooling system. And, before you bring it up, Chernobyl was testing its procedures when the wheels came off. Look, Doctor Obukhov, how short can you cut procedures and still get ready to move safely?'

‘I would have to consult my engineers,' the director huffed.

‘Kindly do so.' Anastasia dismissed the man. He rose stiffly and went off to do her bidding. She turned to her companion. ‘Robin, how soon could your tugs
Erebus
and
Terror
be ready to move
Zemlya
?'

‘Within the hour, as long as we weren't moving her too far, though the tugs' crews won't relish being dragged out of their bunks either. If you want her moved any great distance we'd have to refuel. That could take some time.'

‘It sounds as though you'll have plenty of time if Obukhov gets his way.'

‘But in theory we won't have to move too far. Just enough to make sure
Sayonara
doesn't collide with us if Richard can't regain control in time.'

‘No. You'll have to move further than that,' said Anastasia. ‘Right out of the blast radius that might occur if she collides with anything and explodes. And we don't know if the 'Ndrangheta might leave a present on board …'

‘Damn!' swore Robin. ‘You're right. I didn't think of that. I do hope Richard has! Do we have any idea how wide the blast radius is likely to be?'

‘There must be someone at NIPEX who has some idea,' said Anastasia.

‘That Engineer Watanabe seemed to have his wits about him. He'll know if anyone will,' Robin suggested. ‘And he said at the end of the meeting, before that impossible bloody dinner, that he would be on the night shift tonight.'

‘Can we get on to him without waking up Mr Hiroshi?' wondered Anastasia.

‘I think so. My laptop is set up for contact with our London office and they have a link to NIPEX control. Give me ten minutes to get through and check, then I should be able to Skype him.'

As Robin was looking into this, Director Obukhov returned. ‘My chief engineer says we might be able to cut the normal shutdown time in half. But six hours is the fastest we can manage things. And we can only handle that if the Kujukuri Construction people are on the ball. We can insert the control rods within the first hour, in a precise manner. As you mentioned Chernobyl, you will remember that it was the attempt to push the control rods into the core too rapidly that jammed them, shattered them and started the most serious phase of the disaster in Reactor Number Four – the phase that blew the roof off. Then, after
Zemlya
's control rods are safely in place, we will have to allow some time for the residual heat to dissipate. We use the North Pacific as our cooler pool, of course, so we're one step ahead of Fukushima there. But we must use ocean water under very strict conditions. Then, if we are going to move any distance at all, we will have to disengage from the power grid, which means that tenders must come out and take the cables from us because we cannot just drop electric power lines into the ocean. When all of these matters have been attended to, the tugs can start to move us. How far do you envisage moving
Zemlya
? And for how long? I will need to begin negotiations with Kujukuri Construction's night manager. And you may need to consider alerting your lawyers as to the possibility of a lawsuit – and your accounts department as to the likelihood of claims for considerable damages.' He looked at his watch. ‘Though I doubt you will be able to contact anyone. It is after seven in Moscow – the vodka hour. And that means it's
tea-time
in London.' He rolled his eyes.

While Director Obukhov was delivering himself of the speech that was likely to end his employment with Bashnev Oil and Power if they were all still alive in twelve hours' time, Robin was making Skype contact with Engineer Watanabe. The intense young man's face almost filled the screen, but there was room enough to make out Captain Endo behind him, deep in conversation with someone just out of shot. The NIPEX facility was clearly buzzing, in spite of the hour. As succinctly as possible, Robin explained what they needed to know about the possibility that the nuclear power station might collide with
Sayonara
or be caught in the blast even if she moved out of the LNG tanker's way.

Watanabe frowned. ‘We have done much work on the problem of LNG leaks and their explosive potential, examining everything from accidental discharge to a full-blown terrorist attack, such as that planned in the Yemen in August 2013. Up until quite recently the general belief was that a gas cloud that is basically freezing methane would spread around any leaking container. It would remain at ground level or sea level until it began to warm up, then it would lift and disperse, if it had not ignited. The wider the cloud spread, the less the chance there would be of a fatal explosion. This is because an explosion – as opposed to a fire – requires combustion at an extremely fast pace, usually in some kind of container. The potential energy must be released extremely rapidly or there is no blast. But in the situation of a leak and a fire, this is unlikely to occur. Certainly the famous comparison between a cargo of LNG and fifty-five atom bombs has been generally discredited because although the potential is comparable, the different physical laws involved in the nature of each explosion are very different.' He frowned and leaned forward, his broad face filling the whole of Robin's screen. ‘Certainly, the possible blast area arising from any collision involving
Sayonara
would depend on how many tanks were ruptured, how the gas cloud spread – which would be affected by the wind, of course – and the speed at which the gas cloud catches fire. As I said, the received wisdom until recently was that the methane within the gas cloud would burn quite slowly and certainly not explosively, so there would be relatively little blast damage. However, in China on the tenth of October, 2012, a road tanker carrying LNG crashed. A cloud spread just as we expected but then it did explode. It exploded with great force, far more powerfully than we had believed possible. Several people died. There was a great deal of destruction to cars, lorries and nearby busses. The tanker was still burning twenty-four hours later. Since that incident, we have been forced to reassess what LNG might do if it ignites.'

‘So, what are you telling me?' asked Robin.

‘That if
Sayonara
explodes with much of the LNG still in place, there may well be a great deal of blast. There will quite possibly be a great deal of blast as well as high temperatures if a significant amount of the LNG escapes from one of the tanks. If there is a wind, the gas will spread downwind and the effects of the explosion will be greatest in that direction. At the very least I would recommend that
Zemlya
should be moved two kilometres away from
Sayonara
's likely course. If there is a wind, between three and five—'

Watanabe was interrupted by someone calling his name. He sat back and looked round. Coastguard Captain Endo was speaking rapidly and gesturing excitedly. After a moment, Watanabe swung back into close-up. His voice was breathless and his expression elated.
Sayonara
has been in contact,' he said. ‘She is short of the agreed point but she has stopped. We will send aboard engineers, coastguards, armed police, a crew and a pilot to bring her in!'

‘Do we still need to move
Zemlya
?' asked Robin.

‘No!' said Watanabe. But then he paused. His usual thoughtful expression returned. ‘But perhaps you had better stay on board and continue the preparations,' he suggested. ‘Until we have
Sayonara
securely in dock, with her cargo and everyone on board her safely ashore.'

‘It's all right, Richard,' came the Pitman's voice from outside the door. ‘Hang on a minute and give your knuckles a rest. I'll have you out in a second.'

‘Pitman!' In the darkness Richard didn't need to close his eyes to have a clear mental picture of what Macavity's hollow-point bullets would do to her. But he closed them anyway. ‘Watch out! They'll shoot you on sight.'

‘No, they won't.' The Pitman opened the door and Richard opened his eyes. The light brought tears to them. That and the brightness behind her made her hair shine like a halo. ‘They've gone,' she informed him cheerfully. ‘Taken the lifeboat and vanished overboard. All of the pirates, by the look of things, and some of the guys you brought aboard as well. The turncoats, probably. But they've left some people behind, living and dead. All the living are locked up. I just need to check with you who else to let out, that's all.'

‘We'll decide that in a minute. What's the matter with the engines?'

‘They've shut down.' The Pitman shrugged. ‘Harry says the computer sent a file out on the protected channel we can't access, the one the black box has apparently been using, presumably to NIPEX and Heritage Mariner. Then the engines stopped. She thinks the main programme has switched back on and we're sitting here waiting for a skeleton crew and a pilot. It's as though whatever the pirates did to override the computer system was effectively wiped out when the bridge flooded. But she can't confirm anything with NIPEX at the moment because whatever they have on board blocking our main communication with the outside world is still in place.'

‘My God,' said Richard, stepping out of his prison cell. ‘Stopped and waiting for the pilot. Just like that.' He looked around the artificial brightness of the engineering deck. ‘Where are we? What's the time?'

‘Four a.m. ship's time. Midnight in Japan.'

‘Six hours out. But she was supposed to call for the pilot four hours out – if the NIPEX people couldn't get control of her.'

‘Was that by time, position, or what?'

‘I don't have any real idea about that. Where's Ivan? There might be some details on my laptop.'

‘Ivan's in the sick bay. Or maybe we should start calling it the mortuary. The guy with the massive shoulder wound's dead. Kolchak, was it? And so is Rikki Sato, by the look of things. If he was really working for them, then I guess that's why they've left him. Anyway, there are a few other guys in there who look to be at death's door. But neither Ivan nor I are much good at first aid, so it's a case of “wait and hope”, I guess.'

Richard was torn. He was first aid trained to accident and emergency level, and he kept his qualifications up to date. But there were the engines to worry about. He had to check the men still in the makeshift cells and decide who could be trusted and who could not, balanced against who could be most helpful and who would be least. He wanted to talk things through further with the Pitman, particularly about the jamming device on top of the bridge house that Kolchak had given his life to find. As the Pitman had also done a bomb disposal course, could she disarm the booby traps that were supposed to be protecting it? He was bursting to talk to Harry about what had actually been done to the computer programmes by Macavity and his men and whether Rikki Sato as chief programmer was involved as he acutely suspected; even the apparently unthinking warning Alex had given the programmer about Harry Newbold being part of Plan B back in the hangar at Yelizovo airport suddenly gained a sinister undertone, especially as that revelation had also served as a heads-up to Dom DiVito. And he wanted to go through the records on his precious laptop with Ivan. But there were people apparently dying. And, with the main control programmes apparently kicking in, that fact reordered all of his priorities. He went to the mess.

There were half-a-dozen occupants of the makeshift sick bay, not counting Ivan. They were all crowded in on the floor, most of them lying on sleeping bags. The huge Russian was seated on a plastic chair in the corner, Richard's laptop on the edge of the one remaining table – which was piled with unused medical equipment, bandages and medicines. ‘Ivan,' said Richard as he entered, ‘can you take a look at whether
Sayonara
was supposed to alert NIPEX she was ready for the pilot by time or position?'