Offshore Read Free Page B

nasal tone, receiving a hard glare in return.
    “ Everyone else put yours on, too,” said Eddie. “Mr Shaw?” He
extended his arm to the exit indicating their intention to leave
the rest of them to their own devices.
     
     
    Eddie
and Shaw trod their way to the generator plant room, following the
line of power cables snaking along the ceiling.
    “ What a dump,” said Shaw, voicing Eddie’s own opinion. “How
the hell did it get into this state so quickly?”
    “ Any place left to the mercy of the elements can fall into
wrack and ruin soon enough. My Grandma’s house for instance, left
empty for two years after she died, and then condemned because of
rampant damp and rot.” Eddie shivered. “Three months in this hole,
though. Jesus Christ. What were we thinking?”

Chapter 3
     
     
    Shaw’s
bootfall echoed Eddie’s as he walked in his leader’s footprints,
like Good King Wenceslaus’s page, and he chunnered on about this
and that, but Eddie wasn’t really listening. He was trying to
concentrate on where they were going.
    As they
took yet another wrong turning in the unfamiliar labyrinth Eddie
wondered what Shaw had done to end up here and not be drawing his
wages out in some tropical swamp, checking his boots for poisonous
spiders, feeding peanuts to a pet parrot and knobbing the local
lovelies. Was he, like Reynolds, McDougal too probably, being
punished for some indiscretion or other, not quite serious enough
to get sacked outright, but troublesome enough for the company to
want to teach them a lesson?
    Or had
he, like himself, been bribed into spending the whole of the next
fourteen weeks out on this forbidding citadel at sea by the lure of
filthy lucre. He settled on the latter, because mercenary buggers
all, himself included, not one of them had turned up his or her
nose at double pay plus a handsome cash bonus, all tax free,
followed by a month’s leave on completion, all reasonable expenses
paid. A pretty natty package when all said and done, and nigh on
impossible to resist.
     
     
    They
made another wrong turn and had to double back on themselves
before, more by good luck than good management, they came to the
room housing the massive generators - literally the powerhouse of
the whole place.
    Going at
full pelt they could produce enough electricity to light ten
thousand homes. However, to preserve their restricted fuel - an
irony considering where they were, they would be running at only a
fraction of that, and heat and light would be at a
minimum.
    With
hard-hat now in place and foam padded defenders cradling his ears,
Eddie entered the control booth to check the power grid status
boards. As expected all the bulbs were grey and dead, indicating
zero activity.
    Shaw,
also attired in fluorescent yellow green, scuffed yellow hard-hat
and red ear defenders over a black balaclava, located the dials
measuring the levels in the two diesel fuel tanks.
    Number
one tank, full; number two … only a quarter full. That couldn’t be
right. He tapped the glass and the indicator swung sharply to the
right - three quarters full. Better.
    “ Can I ask you something, Mr Capstan?” he said, words
carried on a fine white cloud.
    “ Sure,” said Eddie. “What’s on your mind?”
    “ We all know you’re in charge, but have you had any time to
think about … about who’s going to be your second?”
    Eddie
did not look up from his work. “My second?”
    “ Yeah. You’ve gotta have a second, you know, in case you get
sick or have an accident or something. Got anyone in
mind?”
    “ Actually I have. You ready for a manual start? I think
we’ll get away with just one genny’s output for the time
being.”
    As Shaw
pumped the priming handle to fill the fuel reservoir, Eddie grasped
the large red handle of the main generator with both
hands.
    “ She’s ready,” said Shaw.
    “ Three … two … one …”
    Eddie
heaved the handle upwards and Shaw depressed the green battery
powered ‘start’ button.