“I guess that bomb was for real,” Sam said in a quiet voice, still peering out the window. “How did we manage to survive the blast?”

“I suspect the hull on this boat is really thick, since it has to contain the pressure,” Tusker shrugged. “Thick enough to survive a bomb blast.”

In fact, the lifeboat had been thrown almost one hundred yards by the force of the explosion. The self-righting lifeboat tossed like a cork, ripping loose everything inside. But the thick walls and high pressure inside resisted implosion. Only now, they were adrift.

“We’ll just have to wait to be found, I suppose,” Tusker said, aimlessly throwing debris into heaps in an attempt to tidy the cabin. “We have no way to pilot this thing.”

Tusker and Sam were merely passengers. Even the emergency radio was in the boat’s pilothouse, which was visible through the thick front porthole, but as inaccessible to them as the shore itself.

“It seems we’re destined to always be lost at sea together,” Sam said, smiling wearily.

“At least this time we have rations,” Tusker replied, holding up a pair of packaged meals he’d found. “Now if we could only find the beer fridge.”

Prevailing Winds

Bay of Bengal, eight nautical miles east of Batticaloa. Later that day.

It had been 30 years since Sebastian de Silva had been on a naval vessel. Now he found himself pacing the decks of the SLNS Samudra, a patrol boat stationed out of Trincomalee, a pair of binoculars pressed to the goggles of his protective mask. He was sweating profusely inside a bright orange hazmat suit. He felt a gloved hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll find them, machang,” Captain Fonseka addressed him informally, though his reassurance was less than convincing. He was also wearing a hazmat suit, just like the rest of the crew who were scanning the water. Sebastian didn’t lower the binoculars from his face. The scene was carnage: dead fish, a raft of debris.

“This must have been ground zero,” he said grimly. “The radius of debris seems to spiral out from here.”

“Yes, and the prevailing wind is offshore, which is good and bad,” Fonseka replied. “The radiation cloud has blown to the east, but it also means so have Samanthi and Mr. Tusk, if…” he trailed off. “There’s little point lingering in this area,” he continued. “I’ll direct the captain to get beyond the debris and we’ll sweep arcs. I’ve also got helicopters coming to search from the air.” He patted Sebastian’s shoulder once more and then walked away.

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