Page 31 of Soul

“I can’t see. She is a blue boat with red trim. There’s a design on her. It’s not clear,” Oracle said, and his body slumped as blood poured from his nose.

“Get him upstairs,” Warden ordered.

I turned to look forCécile and saw her sitting straight, her eyes as white as Oracles. Etienne was holding onto her shoulder as Cécile sat calmly.

“This is a big loss of life. I can see the ship now. She is blue with red trim, and the design is an infinity loop in white. There is only a little time to be had. The name of the boat is…The Dancing Swan.She is in serious trouble. And it’s going to be happening soon, as in the next few hours,” Cécile explained.

Her eyes blinked and cleared and became her normal colour.

“Call it into the Coast Guard,” Warden said.

“The usual method?” Undertaker asked.

“Yeah.”

I wondered what that was, so got up and followed Undertaker. He sent me a curious look.

“I ain’t sure how this is handled, and if it ever happens on my watch and I’m alone, I want to understand what to do,” I replied.

“Come with me,” he said, and we headed into an office. Undertaker tapped on a shelf and showed me a burner. It had a label on saying fishing disasters.

“Use this to phone into the coast guard. We give a code, see here, so they know it is genuine.” Undertaker pointed to a code on the label. “We’ve always used the same one, so they realise it’s a real call. At first, they ignored us, and people died. But now, if they hear the code, they scramble even though different voices call it in. It protects the club and also saves lives. Watch and listen, Soul,” Undertaker said.

Undertaker punched in the phone number and waited for it to ring. Someone picked up, and the Undertaker spoke.

“Code: Whiskey, Sierra, Lima, Echo, Sierra, Delta, Tango, Indigo, Alpha, Echo, Charlie. Fishing vessel,The Dancing Swan, a failed repair, ship sinks quickly, twelve hands lost. Imminent.”

And at that, Undertaker hung up and switched the phone off.

“You don’t repeat it?” I asked.

“No, the calls are recorded. They’ll replay it if needed.”

“What did the code mean? Those weren’t random.”

“We save lives every single day. This is an emergency call.”

I worked the letters out in my head and grinned. “Clever.”

“I thought so. Warden didn’t, but it stuck. Don’t get into a conversation with them, do not ever repeat. They’ll be trying to track the number. Just remember, the calls are recorded. Wanna take a trip and watch forThe Dancing Swan?”

“Sure, this will be interesting,” I replied.

???

Undertaker and I found a space to sit away from everyone. We had missed the launch of the Coast Guard, but they were out there. We only had a small station here with one boat, which the club sponsored.

Two hours later, we saw the Coast Guard coming back.The Dancing Swanwasn’t behind them.

My gut clenched, and I hoped that we’d got them the warning in time. A smiled crossed my lips as the Coast Guard docked and twelve fishermen climbed off.

“It was a fuckin’ miracle. The Dancing Swan was going down faster than we could believe, and suddenly, the Coast Guard was there. Thought we were dead, couldn’t even release the lifeboat. It had jammed,” a guy was saying to people crowding around.

“Shocked the fuck out of me. And when the life raft hit the water and sank, I didn’t think we were coming home,” another man said.

I swapped a smile with Undertaker as we got to our feet and began walking away. As we turned a corner, I saw a member of the Coast Guard standing on the prow of the boat. His eyes watched us thoughtfully.

I didn’t say anything, but I knew he’d been watching us.

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