The yacht was around fifteen metres long and it was very damaged, in a much worse state than it had looked from a distance. Along the full length of the deck there ran a mighty crack, and the mast now tilted at a dangerous angle. Right in the centre of the deck was a metre-wide area that was smashed completely, where something had obviously hit it once before.

‘OK,’ said Soldier John. ‘Do I ’ave a volunteer?’

He looked around the crowd and it was one of those ‘wobble in time’ moments, where a split second seems to last an hour, and an hour seems to last five minutes. I think we all probably felt that excitement and tension and fear and worry. Just climbing on board felt like the possibility of death. But then . . . so did staying put.

‘Yes.’ Kate stepped forward. ‘I’d like to go.’

‘Right,’ said Soldier John. ‘Somebody who’s not a child.’

‘Oh,’ said Kate. ‘I can still—’

‘If there are no other volunteers then I’ll go,’ added Soldier John. Kate stepped back again.

Half the people on board put their hands up immediately.

‘You,’ said Soldier John, pointing to Old Albert. His hand hadn’t been up, but I think we all felt it was a good choice.

‘What do you want me to do? Up there?’ he asked.

‘Tell us exactly what’s in there, and don’t do anything else. Leave everything exactly as it is and don’t touch anything.’

Old Albert nodded, though his eyes went all squinty. He put his hands on the bow rail and pulled himself up, heading straight for the hold. He peered in for a few minutes. ‘There are dead in here. Two girlies and three men.’

‘By “girlies”, do you mean they’re children? Or are they women?’

Old Albert squinted. ‘Women.’

‘Thanks,’ Soldier John remained expressionless. ‘Can you give us more info’mation?’

‘They’re in a room that’s all benches nailed down. But there is a brown carpet and cushions which we could take off.’

‘Thanks. Now go into the ’old.’

There were relieved smiles from the crowd now, and a few people raised their eyebrows at the exciting news about the cushions.

‘He didn’t say if they were wearing clothes. But Old Albert would have mentioned it if they weren’t, wouldn’t he?’ said Lana. ‘I want a jumper. I want whatever one of those women is wearing on their tops.’

‘I’d love a pair of socks. Do you think there are socks?’ said Kate.

‘Socks? What about shoes?’

‘I like feeling what mood the Jellyfish is in, though,’ said Kate. ‘I like to feel its vibrations under my feet.’

‘I like to be friggin’ warm, you idiot,’ said Lana.

Old Albert’s head appeared back out of the hatch. He was chewing on something.

‘What the hell?’ muttered James. ‘Kate should have gone. You’d never have helped yourself to snacks, would you?’