Chase the Morning

I hadn’t a second to laugh. There it was, right in front of my nose, an entry in the usual file-card form, complete with a location code for dock and wharf. But what an entry!

SS. Iskander (500 tons)

Out of:Tortuga, Santo Domingo and ports West

Master:Sawyer, Jas. G.

1st Mate:Mathews, Hezekiah I.

2nd Mate:MacGully, ‘Black’ Patrick O’R.

Supercargo:Stephanopopoulos, Spyridion

Bosun:Radavindraban, J.J.

Offladen –

Black Lotus, 2 doz chests (consigned, in bond)

Indigo, 80 kilos approx.

Peppers (dried), 1 tonne

Conqueror root (in bale), 2 tonnes

Coffee Bean (Grand Inca), 4 tonnes

Skins – Merhorse, 2 gross (consigned)

Plank flamewood, 38 tonnes

Auk down, 20 bales (comp.)

Proof Cane Spirits, 50 hg. (consigned)

Nighteye, 1.5 tonnes

Now loading for return Tortuga, Huy Brazeal and ports West

Capacity: spoken for, deck cargo only at shipper’s risk

I was still staring at it open-mouthed when Dave came over.

‘What’s this, then? Still working –’ He stared at the monitor. ‘Well, bugger me! Where’d you get that from? It’s brill!’ He straightened up as somebody came in the door. ‘Hey, Barry! Clare! Come look at this!’

Barry’s beak cut out the light as he leaned over above us. He stared for a moment, then began to chuckle. ‘Very good, Dave, very good! I say, wouldn’t it be marvellous if there was some way we could actually slip that into the database?’

Dave flapped his hands. ‘Hey, I didn’t have anything to do with that! Steve got it –’

Barry stared. Evidently he didn’t think me capable of inventing it. ‘You mean it actually was in the database? My God, nowhere’s safe from those hackers these days. Next thing it’ll be a virus program, mark my words –’

Clare bit gently on a knuckle and giggled. I wasn’t fooled; she was generally thinking hard when she did that. ‘It has to be a fake – hasn’t it? I mean, five hundred tons – what kind of displacement’s that for a merchant ship! And what’s Conqueror Root? And a-a merhorse?’

‘Might be a mistranslation,’ I ventured, having had some time to think about it. ‘For hippopotamus – or walrus – you know what happens when somebody sits down with a dictionary.’

‘Might be,’ agreed a baffled Barry. ‘How come you called this up, Steve, anyhow?’

I shrugged. ‘Just overheard the name of the ship then other day – you know, pub gossip …’

I caught a very odd look from Clare, as if she’d sensed a wrong note somewhere. ‘Well, there’s one way to find out,’ she said practically, going to my shelves and taking down one of the disc binders. ‘Why don’t we see if this Iskander’s in Lloyd’s Register?’ She put a hand on my shoulder as she leaned over me to slip the iridescent disc into the CD-Rom unit, and let it rest there. I typed in my query as soon as the menu came up on screen, and the unit purred for only a fraction of a second before the answer came.

‘Not a bleeding sausage,’ Dave said regretfully.

I pondered, carefully ignoring that light touch. ‘Yes – but this is just the annual Register; it doesn’t include back issues, old entries, historical ones … I’m going to try their main database.’

It took quite a lot longer to get through, and five full minutes to access my query. We were about to give up, when suddenly the answer popped up on the screen. We stared; it wasn’t at all in their usual detailed form.

Iskander, 500 tons – merchant sailing vessel, 3 mtr.

Reg. Huy Brazeal.

Ref. Register of Shipping vol. 1868

Barry cackled wildly. ‘1868? And what’s this Huy Brazeal registry? A misprint for somewhere in Brazil, I suppose. Honestly, I wonder if they haven’t started trading in certain substances down there! Or it really is hackers. There’s nothing else?’

‘I could go down and look up the actual 1868 lists,’ suggested Clare thoughtfully.

Barry snorted. ‘Well, not on the firm’s time you don’t! As of now I for one give up! We don’t chase wild geese, we ship ’em livestock – eh, Steve? I just dropped in to say everything’s in hand, you should push off now and get some rest. See you tomorrow!’ He took one last look at the screen, then shook his head and grunted derisively. ‘Hackers!’