‘When did we last see each other?’ Daniel asked, placing two cups under a coffee machine in the wall unit.

As the machine vibrated into life, he ran his other hand through his blond hair, shaved at the back of the neck, where it seemed a little lighter than his eyebrows, causing Julia to wonder whether the colour was now coming from a bottle. Lisa’s godfather had always been hopelessly vain. She knew no other man who went so regularly to the hairdresser’s, for manicures and even to the waxing studio to have bothersome hair removed from his chest, legs and other parts of his body she’d rather not think about.

‘The last time I spent leave in Berlin was two Christmases ago, wasn’t it?’ he thought aloud. Daniel smiled nervously and suddenly Julia sensed she wasn’t the only one who had something on her mind.

The captain was pale, almost grey around the corners of his mouth, like someone in urgent need of fresh air after a long illness. Standing lost in the room beside a wall unit of heavy mahogany, he looked, in spite of his impressive stature, like a man whose white uniform with the four golden stripes on the epaulettes had become too big. Fine blood vessels showed on his cheeks, making the skin beneath his tired eyes look like marble. At least those eyes weren’t swollen, a sign that he was still on the wagon.

It was a miracle that he was still wearing the captain’s hat at all. Five years ago there had been an incident on the Sultan that Daniel had never wanted to talk about, partly because his contract apparently included a non-disclosure clause. All Julia knew was that the episode had hit him so badly that he drank himself stupid over it and was suspended from his job for a year. After coming off the booze he would most likely have turned up on some clapped-out freighter if his boss, the ship owner Yegor Kalinin, hadn’t also been a recovering alcoholic who preached the principle of a second chance.

‘Right then, say it all again, but this time nice and calmly,’ Daniel said. He put the china cups on a table by some chairs. The aroma of freshly ground coffee beans mingled pleasantly with the air freshener that was ubiquitous on board.

‘What did you mean when you said I had to stop the Sultan and turn back? Are you bored already?’

He smiled uncertainly as he sat down on a chair with curved armrests. Julia huddled in her seat and wondered just how much she needed to tell Daniel for him to take her concerns seriously. She opted for the whole truth and thus spoke succinctly and soberly about her affair with Tom and Lisa’s problems. And about the video.