The Last Passenger by Manel Loureiro Read Free Book Online Page B

was an unexpected change from the outdoor chaos. Everything was pristine and in order, as if at any moment the Queen herself might stop in for an inspection. A coffeemaker gurgled in the corner, a delicious aroma wafting through the air. The room was equipped with a few tables and filing cabinets but little more. The bluish glow of computer screens melted into the white light cast from the ceiling fixtures.
    “Please, have a seat.” Collins graciously drew out a chair for Kate to sit down. “We don’t get many visitors here in the Junkyard, so please forgive our lack of comforts.”
    “The Junkyard?” Kate raised an eyebrow.
    “Just a nickname we’ve given the base,” replied Collins. “I suppose you’ve already guessed why.”
    “The truth is it’s ver y . . . quaint.” Kate chose her words carefully and took off her coat.
    “It’s disgusting is what it is,” confessed Collins with a wide grin. “This is the Royal Navy’s dumping ground. This is where all the rubbish ends up that nobody wants. That includes me. I always liken it to that drawer we all put our useless junk in. But we dare not throw any of it away lest we have a need for it in the future.”
    Kate smiled, captivated by the officer’s sincerity and merriment. “I’m getting the picture. I also have a junk drawer like that in my house.”
    “Ah, but this is the largest junk drawer in all of England!” He raised his hand and signaled out the window. “At this very moment I must have eight destroyers docked here that saw action in the Falklands, nearly a dozen patrollers from the 1960s, three minesweepers, and if I’m not mistaken, about twenty other kinds of ships. That’s not even counting the tons of obsolete equipment strewn about.”
    “You’re the head of a small army, Commander,” Kate laughed.
    “I have enough materials to declare war on a small country.” Collins shrugged, then smiled. “That, of course, is if any of it works. Would you care for some coffee?”
    Kate realized she had not eaten anything since lunch. Next to the coffee machine was a box of doughnuts. Her stomach rumbled. Embarrassed, she felt the blood flow to her cheeks.
    “I like it when a person can get to the point,” joked Collins with a hearty laugh. He passed Kate the doughnuts and coffee. “Now let’s dispense with the pleasantries. You’re here because you want to know about the Sinful Siren , right?”
    “The Sinful Siren ?” replied Kate with half a doughnut in her mouth.
    “The Big S , the Crusher , Hitler’s Vixen . It’s had many names over the years.”
    He removed a manila file from his desk drawer and opened it to the first page. It was an old black-and-white photo of the Valkyrie . The foreground showed two men in uniform posing in very different ways. The older of the two, wearing the captain’s stripes, seemed quite comfortable, whereas the younger man standing at his side wore an expression of worry and fatigue.
    “The ship’s official name is the Valkyrie . It was built in 1938 by the Blohm und Voss shipyard in Hamburg for an organization called KDF.” He looked up at Kate. “Do you have any idea what that might be?”
    Kate shook her head and took a sip of her coffee.
    “As stated in the report, it made its inaugural voyage on the twenty-third of August in 1939, with two hundred and seventeen passengers and fifty-five crew members aboard. Five days later, a coal liner called the Pass of Ballaster came across the luxury cruiser adrift at sea. Neither the ship nor its engines had power when it was found eight hundred miles off the coast of Newfoundland.”
    “Adrift? Was there an accident?”
    “That’s the peculiar thing,” answered Collins. “No one knows. They found nobody on board.”
    “Nobody? But that’s impossible. What about all the passengers and the crew? All those people don’t just vanish without a trace!”
    “I agree,” Collins said, furrowing his brow. “But we do know that before the Pass of