The Ferry by Amy Cross

so it’s not as if he can haul me over the coals for too long. And don’t worry, we won’t tell him that you knew what we were doing.”
    “What about Carter and the survivor?” I ask. “How long before the new medical team gets here from London?”
    “An hour at most,” Mark replies, “which is why we need to get out to the wreck site before then. As soon as London takes charge of this thing, it’ll be taken out of our hands. We need to find out what the hell’s going on while we still can. If we wait for other people, the ferry’s going to slip away again.”
    “I doubt anything that large can slip away,” I tell him.
    “I’m not taking any chances.”
    “So let me get this straight,” Louis continues. “After everything that’s happened, with one man clearly sick and another who doesn’t seem to speak any language that’s been heard before, you two want to go out there and dive to the wreck? Without any back-up?”
    “Sounds about right,” Mark mutters. “I’m sure as hell not going to sit around waiting all over again.”
    “Me neither,” I reply, climbing into the dinghy. “Not after what I’ve seen so far today. Besides, there’s still an outside chance of someone being alive in that thing, maybe trapped in an air pocket.”
    “You don’t seriously believe that, do you?” Louis asks. “There’s no chance!”
    “Get back to the trailers,” Mark tells him, “and make sure no-one starts seriously looking for us until we’ve been gone for at least a couple of hours. By then, people from London are going to start showing up and the site’s probably going to be in full lock-down, especially if they think there’s any kind of disease. This is our last chance to see the damn thing.”
    “Two hours, huh?” Louis replies. “And where will you guys be by that point?”
    “Hopefully using this stuff,” I point out, holding up one of the diving masks, “and getting to the bottom of whatever’s going on with that ferry.”
    ***
    With a decent outboard motor and some prevailing tides that help us on our way, we reach the location of the sunken ferry must faster than we could have dared hope. The weather all around us is still pretty bad, with choppy waves and a gray, threatening sky, but the worst of the storm has moved east and there are no safety-related reasons for us to hold back from the dive. After all, Mark and I both have more than enough experience with this sort of thing, even if a few of my certificates are a little out of date.
    “Think they’re missing us yet?” he asks as he finishes getting into his diving gear.
    “I doubt Louis can keep his mouth shut,” I reply, slipping the mask over my face.
    “Oh, he definitely can’t,” he says with a smile. “Not for long, anyway. By the time he caves and tells them where we are, they’ll be ready to come and give us a nice lift back to shore. I’m sure the vein on Stratton’s forehead is pulsing like crazy by now.” He pauses for a moment. “You know we could get into a lot of trouble for doing this, right?”
    I nod.
    “I just can’t risk losing the chance to uncover the truth,” he continues. “I need to -”
    “I know,” I reply, interrupting him. “Me too.” Glancing back toward the shore, I can’t help but imagine Eileen Shaw at her window. “That woman I visited earlier said some pretty strong things about the ferry. She told me not to interfere.”
    “Apparently she was shouting at people earlier,” he replies. “Don’t let her get to you.”
    “She suggested that the ferry was involved in the incident that killed the Baldwins.”
    “So did I,” he points out. “The difference is, I don’t see that as a reason to step back and ignore it all. It’s human nature to want to know the truth about something we don’t understand. If we just shrug and accept it, we’re no better than animals.” He waits for me to reply. “Don’t you need to know too?”
    “Of course,” I reply, even though I