'You know I'm a cetologist, right? An expert in animal behaviour? Whales and dolphins.'

'That's exactly what we need.'

Roberts introduced him to the others. Three were from the shipping line's management team; the rest were representatives from the technical contractors. A short distance away two men were unloading dive equipment from a truck. Anawak looked into the circle of worried faces, then Roberts took him to one side.

'Unfortunately we can't speak to the crew right now,' he said, 'but I'll forward a confidential copy of the report as soon as it's available. We don't want to involve any more people than are absolutely necessary. Can I count on your discretion?'

'Of course.'

'Good. I'll give you a rundown on what's happened, and when I'm done, you can make up your own mind whether you want to stick around or fly home. Either way we'll reimburse you for your trouble and expense.'

'It's no trouble.'

Roberts looked at him gratefully. 'The Barrier Queen is fairly new. When she sailed, everything was in A-l condition and it's all been properly certified. She's a sixty-thousand-tonne freighter that we've been using to transport HGVs, mostly to Japan and back. We've had no trouble with her until now. We put a lot of money into making sure our boats are safe – more than strictly necessary. Anyway, the Barrier Queen was on her way home, fully laden.'

Anawak nodded.

'Six days ago she reached the edge of the two-hundred-mile zone on her way into Vancouver. It was three in the morning. The helmsman changed course by five degrees – a routine correction. He didn't bother checking the display: he could see the lights on a vessel ahead, which gave him perfect visual reference. He waited for the lights to shift right, but they stayed where they were. The Barrier Queen was heading straight on. He tried moving the rudder again, but there was no noticeable change in direction, so he went for full rudder, and suddenly it worked. The trouble was, it worked too well.'

'She hit the other vessel?'

'No, she was too far away for that. But the rudder blade seemed to have jammed. Nothing could budge it. Just imagine: a speed of twenty knots and you're stuck on full rudder … A ship of that size isn't simply going to stop. She heeled with her cargo. A ten-degree heel – do you know what that means?'

'I can guess.'

'The drainage system for the vehicle deck is located just above the waterline. In rough conditions the water floods in, then pours straight back out, but at an angle like that the drainage holes would be submerged. It wouldn't take a second for the ship to fill with water. Luckily for us, the sea was calm that day, but the situation was still critical. The rudder had stuck.'

'So what was wrong with it?'

'We can't be sure… but one thing's certain: that was when the trouble really started. The Barrier Queen stopped her engines, radioed a mayday and waited for help. It was clear she wasn't seaworthy. Several ships in the vicinity changed course to head over in case they were needed. In the meantime two salvage boats set out from Vancouver. They arrived two and a half days later, in the early afternoon. One sixty-metre deep-sea tug and one twenty-five-metre craft. The trickiest part of any rescue operation is to get the rope from the tug to land safely on the vessel. In bad weather it can take hours: first a thin line, then a slightly thicker one, then a heavy-duty cable. It's an interminable procedure. But in this case, well, there should have been no problem. Conditions were good and the water was calm. But the tug was obstructed.'

'By what?'

'The thing is…' Roberts grimaced. 'Have you ever heard of an attack by whales?'

It was the last thing Anawak had expected. 'An attack? On a ship, you mean?'

'Yes. A big ship.'

'It's almost unheard-of.'

'Almost?' Roberts was listening carefully. 'So this wouldn't be the first time?'

'There's one recorded incident from the nineteenth century. Melville wrote a novel about it.'

'You mean Moby Dick?

'The novel was inspired by the story of the Essex, a whaling ship sunk by a sperm whale. The vessel was forty-two metres long, made of wood and probably rotten, but that's not the point. The whale rammed the boat and it sank within minutes. Its crew are supposed to have drifted for weeks in their lifeboats… Oh, and there were two further cases last year off the coast of Australia. In both incidents a whale was reported to have sunk a fishing-boat.'

'What happened?'

'It smashed them to pieces with its tail. A man died. He had a heart-attack after plunging into the water.'

'What kind of whales were they?'

'No one knows. They disappeared too quickly.' Anawak looked across at the Barrier Queen's hull: there was no sign of any damage. 'I can't imagine a whale attacking her.'

Roberts followed his gaze. 'It was the tugs they were attacking,' he said, 'not the Barrier Queen. They came at them from the side. It was obvious they were trying to capsize them, but they didn't succeed. So they tried to prevent them attaching the tow line, which was when-'

'They launched their attack.'

'Yes.'

'Impossible,' Anawak asserted. 'Whales can overturn objects as big as or smaller than themselves. Certainly nothing any bigger. And they wouldn't attack a larger object unless they had no choice.'

'The crew swears blind that that was what happened. The whales attacked and-'

'What kind of whales?'

'God knows.'

Anawak frowned thoughtfully. 'Let's imagine the scenario. Suppose the tugs were attacked by blue whales, the largest species. Balaenoptera musculus can grow up to thirty-three metres long and weigh over 120 tonnes. They're the largest animals to have lived on this planet. Now, supposing" a creature like that tried to sink a boat of the same or similar length. It would have to be as fast as the boat, if not faster. Still, over short distances a blue whale can manage fifty or sixty kilometres per hour without too much hassle: its body is streamlined and there's almost no resistance. But how much momentum would it have? And what would be the counter-momentum of the boat? To put it simply, in the event of a collision, who would be knocked off course?'

'A hundred and twenty tonnes is pretty heavy.'

Anawak nodded at the truck. 'Do you think you can pick that up?'

'Of course no.'You see? The ground's supporting you and you still can't lift it. In the water you don't have that luxury. When you're swimming, you can't lift more than your weight. It doesn't matter if you're a whale or a human. It's all a question of relative mass. Besides, you've still got the problem of the displaced water. How much does it weigh in relation to the whale? It doesn't leave you with much, just the propulsion from the flukes. With a bit of luck the whale might nudge the ship off course. On the other hand it might deflect at an angle from the hull. It's a bit like billiards, if you see what I mean.'

Roberts scratched his chin. 'Some say they were humpbacks. Others talk about fin whales. And the crew on board the Barrier Queen think they saw sperm whales.'

'Three species that couldn't be more different.'

'Dr Anawak, I'm a reasonable man,' Roberts said. 'It seems to me that the tugs could have found themselves in the middle of a herd by accident. Maybe the boats weren't rammed by whales but the other way round. Maybe the crews did something stupid. But one thing is certain, the smaller craft was sunk by whales.'

Anawak could hardly believe what he was hearing.

'The crew had just connected the cable,' continued Roberts. 'It was a taut steel one reaching from the Barrier Queen's bow to the stern of the tug. The whales rose out of the water and crashed down on top of it- so, you see, in this instance there was no displaced water to slow the momentum. And they were pretty big specimens, according to the crew.' He paused. 'The tug whipped round and sank. It lifted up and over in the air.'