He straightens up. ‘I’m going to see if they’ll put a tannoy call out for her. I can’t stand here doing nothing.’

Swiping at his eyes again, he stalks off. I’m left staring at the water as the sun comes up. By now, most of the passengers have got bored of watching and drifted off to their cabins, so it’s just me, a few stragglers and party die-hards left, and some cleaners mopping the decks around them.

The next time I look down at the water, the search boats have gone. A short while later, the ship starts to move again. I brace myself for some kind of announcement about whether anyone was found, but the tannoys stay silent.

It’s as if nothing happened at all.

4

Press Association, 1 January 2022

A female crew member is believed to have gone missing from Immanis, the world’s largest cruise ship, while out at sea in the Bahamas. The alarm was raised after a passenger allegedly saw a person fall past a bar window from an upper deck. The vessel was turned around and two lifeboats from the ship immediately launched a search of the area where it is believed the woman may have gone overboard, along with a team of rescuers sent by the coastguard in a helicopter and a rescue boat. The search was called off after eight hours, when no trace of the woman had been found.

A spokesman from shipping company Heracles, which owns Immanis, said: ‘We can confirm that a female member of crew went missing on the evening of 31 December. A search-and-rescue operation was launched immediately but sadly the woman has not been found. The search was called off when the chances of finding her alive given the current conditions reached zero. We cannot yet release her name, but our thoughts are, of course, with her family and friends at this very sad time.

‘Heracles and Immanis both have exemplary safety records and the circumstances of the incident are, as yet, unclear. Heracles is cooperating fully with an investigation by local police as well as launching an internal investigation.’

Almost thirty million people take cruises each year, and an average of a dozen or so people are believed to go missing from cruise ships annually. Official figures are hard to find, but while some are rescued alive, most are not. A significant number are never found.

Following the disembarkation of the passengers, Immanis will be ‘laid up’ (out of service) for two months, for reasons unrelated to the incident.

Ends

PART TWO

5

Alice

Two weeks later, 14 January 2022, 12:00

The Caribbean