could tell, to avenge the people who’d
died there. Not only did we have the pipe and the detonators and
the fuse, we’d also found another six bags of ammonium nitrate.
That was three-quarters of a tonne altogether. If we could find a
way to blow the lot up in Cobbler’s Bay then, according to Kevin,
we would cause a tidal wave.
It still seemed a dream to me, though. I
couldn’t imagine any way we could actually do it. But excited by
everything we’d seen that day – even the bodies, in a sick sort of
way – Kevin and I talked flat out as we walked back to join the
others.
‘Look,’ I said finally, ‘suppose we got a
truck loaded with this stuff onto the jetty and set it off. How
would that be?’
‘I’m not sure. Obviously it’d be a huge bang,
probably enough to cause a lot of damage in ships that were close
enough to it, and wreck the jetty. But if you could get that truck
on board the ship, down in the bowels of the ship then, because it
was in an enclosed space, you’d blow the ship to smithereens.’
‘Seriously? The whole ship?’
‘Yeah! What do you think? This Texas Bay
thing, you don’t realise: that one ship blew up the whole harbour,
the town, and I think all the other ships that were in port with
it. This is bigger than a fart in a bathtub, you know.’
‘I’m starting to realise that.’
The makings of a plan were coming together,
but with a few vital flaws. I ran through the way I saw it so far,
to Kevin: ‘OK, a truck breaks down. It’s there all night and we
load it with three-quarters of a tonne of anfo. One or two of us
hide in it. That should be cool, because if it’s a big enough truck
they wouldn’t notice a bit of extra weight. Besides, mechanics
probably wouldn’t know if the truck’s meant to be empty or full.
They tow the truck into the harbour. A bush-fire starts. Thank God
it’s been dry again lately. The fire roars down the hill and
distracts everybody. We get the truck onto a ship, light the fuse
and get out. Bang! End of story, we’re legends, and we sell the
movie rights the moment the war is over.’
Kevin didn’t say anything. Maybe it was still
sounding like a daydream to him, too.
‘Did you spot the flaws?’ I asked him.
He laughed. ‘Just a few. How do we make the
truck break down? How do we get the truck onto the ship? How do we
escape afterwards? That’s three for starters.’
‘I think we can at least get away afterwards.
If Homer and I go in with the truck, well, we’re both good
swimmers. We could dive into Cobbler’s Bay and swim right to the
other side.’
Kevin brightened up a bit. I knew why, of
course: for the first time he’d had a glimpse of hope, the hope
that he wouldn’t be one of the people doing the dangerous stuff. I
wished I had the same hope, but I’m a very logical person. Swimming
was our best chance, and only two of us could swim big
distances.
When we got back to the others we found, to my
secret fear, that there might be a solution to the second problem,
too. Two convoys of container trucks had gone through during the
day and the containers had been loaded straight into the hold of a
big cargo ship that had come in that morning. It was now tied up at
a jetty, next to the oil tanker.
‘I’m sure there’ll be more convoys,’ Homer
said excitedly. ‘The ship swallowed up those two lots like an
elephant eating peanuts. And an oil tanker next to it. Oh Ellie,
doesn’t it make your mouth water?’
‘It makes me water all right,’ I said crudely.
‘But not from my mouth.’
‘But how the hell do we make a truck break
down?’ Lee worried aloud. He was pacing around, in and out of the
trees. We were in quite thick bush, where we could just see
splinters of Cobbler’s Bay. Robyn was lying on her back eating
stale jellybeans that she’d found in a holiday house, Fi was gazing
out at the port, Homer was sitting against a tree looking at Lee,
and Kevin and I were trying to concentrate on a game of
died there. Not only did we have the pipe and the detonators and
the fuse, we’d also found another six bags of ammonium nitrate.
That was three-quarters of a tonne altogether. If we could find a
way to blow the lot up in Cobbler’s Bay then, according to Kevin,
we would cause a tidal wave.
It still seemed a dream to me, though. I
couldn’t imagine any way we could actually do it. But excited by
everything we’d seen that day – even the bodies, in a sick sort of
way – Kevin and I talked flat out as we walked back to join the
others.
‘Look,’ I said finally, ‘suppose we got a
truck loaded with this stuff onto the jetty and set it off. How
would that be?’
‘I’m not sure. Obviously it’d be a huge bang,
probably enough to cause a lot of damage in ships that were close
enough to it, and wreck the jetty. But if you could get that truck
on board the ship, down in the bowels of the ship then, because it
was in an enclosed space, you’d blow the ship to smithereens.’
‘Seriously? The whole ship?’
‘Yeah! What do you think? This Texas Bay
thing, you don’t realise: that one ship blew up the whole harbour,
the town, and I think all the other ships that were in port with
it. This is bigger than a fart in a bathtub, you know.’
‘I’m starting to realise that.’
The makings of a plan were coming together,
but with a few vital flaws. I ran through the way I saw it so far,
to Kevin: ‘OK, a truck breaks down. It’s there all night and we
load it with three-quarters of a tonne of anfo. One or two of us
hide in it. That should be cool, because if it’s a big enough truck
they wouldn’t notice a bit of extra weight. Besides, mechanics
probably wouldn’t know if the truck’s meant to be empty or full.
They tow the truck into the harbour. A bush-fire starts. Thank God
it’s been dry again lately. The fire roars down the hill and
distracts everybody. We get the truck onto a ship, light the fuse
and get out. Bang! End of story, we’re legends, and we sell the
movie rights the moment the war is over.’
Kevin didn’t say anything. Maybe it was still
sounding like a daydream to him, too.
‘Did you spot the flaws?’ I asked him.
He laughed. ‘Just a few. How do we make the
truck break down? How do we get the truck onto the ship? How do we
escape afterwards? That’s three for starters.’
‘I think we can at least get away afterwards.
If Homer and I go in with the truck, well, we’re both good
swimmers. We could dive into Cobbler’s Bay and swim right to the
other side.’
Kevin brightened up a bit. I knew why, of
course: for the first time he’d had a glimpse of hope, the hope
that he wouldn’t be one of the people doing the dangerous stuff. I
wished I had the same hope, but I’m a very logical person. Swimming
was our best chance, and only two of us could swim big
distances.
When we got back to the others we found, to my
secret fear, that there might be a solution to the second problem,
too. Two convoys of container trucks had gone through during the
day and the containers had been loaded straight into the hold of a
big cargo ship that had come in that morning. It was now tied up at
a jetty, next to the oil tanker.
‘I’m sure there’ll be more convoys,’ Homer
said excitedly. ‘The ship swallowed up those two lots like an
elephant eating peanuts. And an oil tanker next to it. Oh Ellie,
doesn’t it make your mouth water?’
‘It makes me water all right,’ I said crudely.
‘But not from my mouth.’
‘But how the hell do we make a truck break
down?’ Lee worried aloud. He was pacing around, in and out of the
trees. We were in quite thick bush, where we could just see
splinters of Cobbler’s Bay. Robyn was lying on her back eating
stale jellybeans that she’d found in a holiday house, Fi was gazing
out at the port, Homer was sitting against a tree looking at Lee,
and Kevin and I were trying to concentrate on a game of
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