The Ditch: A Waverider Novel

By P.A. Cousins

Twice every year, Olympiad Cruises flagship Mercury steams through the Panama Canal, transitioning between summer itineraries sailing to Hawaii or Alaska from San Francisco, and wintering in Caribbean ports sailing from Ft Lauderdale.

Although this Falls eastbound repositioning voyage should be the vacation of a lifetime for Mercurys aging guest complement, and a refreshing change for her crew, they will all suffer an unprecedented betrayal that creates an International crisis.

Combining first-hand description of crew life aboard a modern-day cruise vessel with an action-driven plot based on genuine CIA threat assessments, The Ditch is sure to capture the imagination and open the eyes of all readers from those who want a peek behind the crew doors, to those who call these corridors home, to others who love intense action and a killer chase.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468595444

P.A. Cousins

P.A.Cousins spent over eight years at sea, working for some of today’s largest cruise lines, logging millions of nautical miles and visiting almost every cruise ship port from the Malacca Strait east to the Aegean Sea. Moving up through the staff ranks until becoming a department head in 2003, he spent his time on the Seas traveling, exploring and learning more about not only the World in general, but himself in particular. Now with his feet back home on solid ground in his native Canada, he relives his years of cruise experiences by blending memory with fiction, entertaining readers of all ages with his first novel, The Ditch. Almost ten years after scribbling down scattered initial concepts of this novel on a mess hall napkin, Mr Cousins can finally add Author to a creative resume that also includes Screenwriter, Poet and Composer.

Book preview

THE

DITCH

A WAVERIDER NOVEL

P.A.Cousins

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AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

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© 2012 P.A.Cousins. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means

without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 5/9/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-9545-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-9544-4 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012907453

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are

products of the author's imagination or are used ficticiously. Any resemblance

to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

PRELUDE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

About the Author :

About The Artist :

In memory of my Nana,

Georgina Healey Tarbotton

(1924 – 2002)

Dedication & Thanks

On any given day, hundreds of cruise ships ply the world’s oceans and waterways, bringing tourists to foreign ports of call. Whether they are sailing into Ketchikan, Alaska or Bora Bora, Tahiti, these travelers are often on their vacation of a lifetime. On these elegant vessels of all shapes and sizes, crews ranging in number from hundreds to thousands of persons, from every nation on Earth, perform every function required by a small city of thousands. These Officers, Staff and Crew, operating within a three-tiered society, make guests’ dreams come true on these voyages, every day, in every port.

While most guests enjoying these cruises are taking vacations from a forty-hour workweek, crewmembers who wait upon their every need while on board work eleven hours a day, seven days a week. For most crew, the wages for which they exchange for their service would make minimum wage look like a CEO’s salary in comparison. It is to these people who serve others at sea that this book is dedicated.

For over eight years I was among these ranks, starting off as a Disc Jockey, then moving through Activity Staff to Sports Director and eventually advancing to a coveted position as a Department Head, with my own international staff of persons to direct, instruct and learn from. For the shipmates I worked with, worked for, and supervised, I offer my thanks for making my time at sea some of my best memories.

Finally, to my family and friends, thank you for your love, support and input on various aspects of this book, and my creative career in general. I hope this book proves to be the first of many, and I thank you in advance for your continued involvement in projects to come.

P.A.Cousins

One of Man’s greatest achievements in this modern age is now one of Terrorism’s easiest targets.

PRELUDE

The Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal. A dream of Spanish Conquistadors dating back to 1534, who envisioned a nautical connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across Central America’s isthmus. Originally commissioned through agreement with Colombia, by French engineers that designed the Suez Canal in 1879, it was an engineering and financial disaster that almost bankrupted the French Empire as they tried to create a canal at sea level. Battling the odds, elements, and insects carrying malaria or yellow fever, borne by the flooding and dangerous Chagres River, this attempt would cost the French Treasury $300 million dollars, 28 years, and 22,000 souls before they abandoned this project in 1898. Little did they know, this intended plan was doomed from inception, owing to a difference in ‘sea level’ between the two oceans.

Six years later, an American team handpicked by Teddy Roosevelt, under direction of Chief Engineer John Frank Stevens, took this project over after inciting a quiet revolution that saw Panama break away from Colombia. The United States quickly gave their support and protection to this new nation, including a naval blockade preventing Colombia from retribution. They also bought the canal project rights from the French for pennies on their dollar’s loss. Once Panama was secure, American engineering teams attacked this goal with a new vision, one that required many breakthroughs in engineering ability along the way.

The newly-envisioned canal was to operate twenty-six meters above sea level, using the Chagres River as their source of fresh water that would elevate ships to this operating height using three locks at either end. By impeding this river with a record-sized earthen dam they would also create one of the largest man-made lakes in history.

Gatun Lake covers 425 square kilometers of Panama’s interior, and represents thirty-seven of the eighty-two kilometers of a full transit voyage. This hydroelectric earthen dam next to the locks on the Atlantic side holds it all back, while providing power to the Canal Zone and nearby port cities.

Galliard Cut, connecting Gatun Lake to the locks at Pedro Miguel, is equally as momentous. A stretch of ditch only 190 meters wide, but thirteen kilometers long, more explosives were expended on this excavation than in all wars combined to that point in history. Men lost their lives almost every day as they blasted this channel through the Continental Divide.

Completion of the canal would take the American team an additional ten years, another $350 million dollars and 5600 more men, opening for universal passage in 1914, just in time for the Great War, and it has remained open almost every day since.

A vital economic artery for the US, thousands of ships traverse this channel annually, transporting more goods from coast to coast than any other method. It is equally as important to the US Navy, with large coasts on both oceans to protect and the occasional immediate need to reposition fleets quickly.

However, in 1999 the Americans fulfilled final obligations of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties and transferred canal control and ownership to Panama, leaving profits, and protection, of the canal to her civil government. Since Panama has been without a military infrastructure since the fall of Noriega during ‘Operation Nifty Package’, protection of the Canal Zone falls to the Panama Public Force, a police organization with few armed divisions.

In a glass-and-steel skyscraper in Cartagena’s New City that overlooks Laguna del Boca Grande, a boardroom is sealed from light of the outside world. A syndicate of faceless men has realized the current Panama Canal condition presents an unprecedented situation and they sit in silence around a conference table while their CEO, an immaculately manicured Latino man in his mid-fifties named Nicola, points out elements on a SMART Board with a laser mouse.

The 3-D computer simulation he has prepared depicts a disaster scenario where a simulated explosion at the center of Gatun Dam’s 250-meter wide curvature causes the dam to collapse, and wash away.

If Gatun Dam were to fail, 425 square kilometers of inland water from Gatun Lake would wash out the immediate Atlantic coast of Panama, including land directly west of the Gatun Locks. The resulting drop in water table would cause this entire system to drain, taking all the water from Pedro Miguel locks in the East with it through Galliard Cut. The cut itself would become a river, and water motion would erode the side and beds of the cut, undoubtedly causing cave-ins of this artificial valley that traverses the Continental Divide. Naturally prone to sloughing, and in need of constant dredge, this man-made channel would not survive such erosion. It would simply collapse upon itself at a faster rate than it already does at present.

At Gatun, the 250-meter dam face would be quickly eroded to easily twice that, washing delta land west of Gatun Locks into the sea, flooding port cities at Cristobal and Manzanillo and washing away the plateau where the canal complex and viewing platform sits. A wall of water twenty-six meters tall would decimate everything in its way, and could be sustained for days.

When these waters eventually subsided, nothing would remain at the dam or locks on the Atlantic side. Two nearby cities would be in ruins. The Gaillard Cut that claimed so many lives would be sealed, and Pedro Miguel locks would stand almost thirty meters above the water table, with no water behind them, eventually causing them to collapsing inwards as ground around these massive walls dried out, losing turgor pressure in the hydrated soil.

The Panama Canal took over 35 years to finish, at a total cost of 27,600 lives and $650 million at the turn of the Twentieth Century. There would not be enough manpower or money to rebuild this modern Wonder of the World. It is a Crown Jewel of American achievement, a testament to persistence and a cornerstone of the American economy. Yet, it is nowhere near the continental US, and since 1999 is no longer under American control, or protection.

Can you imagine a better, softer target?

Nicola moves into the conclusion of his presentation. A hundred years ago, the Americans ripped Panama away from Colombia, used our grandfathers to build their Empire, and when it suited their purposes destroyed the means to protect it, before leaving the Canal Zone behind.

This, gentlemen, is one of the easiest targets you will ever find, and taking it will permanently cripple their economy. We all know what continued operation of the canal is going to cost, and I believe you will agree with me that this can not be allowed to continue.

Nicola snaps his fingers at a male secretary, who immediately turns on lights and opens motorized vertical blinds with a remote control. He distributes a stack of file folders that are named for individuals around the table, each file folder with a beeper attached.

You have your assignments.

The folders remain unopened in front of their respective operatives, who remain facing Nicola, giving no clues to their identities except for markings on one person’s shoulder. Visible only from his back, he is wearing a navy blue sweater, with Captain’s insignia of four gold stripes and braid on his shoulder.

It is time to drain ‘The Ditch’.

Olympiad Cruises Itinerary

Mercury, Cruise A1224

Departure Date September 7th

CHAPTER 1

6:30am, September 7th

San Francisco’s Pier 33 cruise ship terminal on turnaround day is packed with two groups of guests – one group debarking from the trip just finished; and, almost immediately afterwards, guests with vacations to come begin to filter through security checkpoints. Guests leaving from Olympiad’s Mercury this morning have traveled across the Pacific from Honolulu, Hawaii to Ensenada, Mexico, and back up to San Francisco’s Embarcadero. This concludes their vacation, and they are all headed home with luau shirts, Hawaiian leis, and golden tans. This past cruise was also the last time this year Mercury departed for the Aloha State, as her next excursion will be a repositioning or ‘repo’ cruise, relocating her to a Caribbean Sea itinerary for operations over the next five months, sailing from Ft Lauderdale.

As departing guests disembark, Activity Staff wish them a safe trip home, and help them with last minute questions. Everyone is happy. Many of these guests are younger couples and families, or college kids on their last days of summer break. However, sixteen-day anomalous ‘repo cruises’ tend to attract a slightly different demographic. They are older and paler in general. Laden down with carry-on luggage, cameras, camcorders and purses, these guests are waiting in long lines to be processed as departing guests find their luggage and hail cabs.

PA system announcements remind everyone in the terminal to take care of their belongings with an automated message every five minutes, not unlike international airports. Your attention, please. The Port Authority reminds all travelers that you should keep your personal belongings with you at all times. Unattended luggage will be seized by security personnel and disposed of immediately. Thank you.

In one of the seating areas, several older couples are either taking a breather, sitting down or readjusting their loads. One particularly winded husband, with his wife in tow, takes a seat a couple cushions away from three Latino men. Dressed in comfortable clothing for late summer weather, these Colombians have no problem with Californian heat, and are simply observing the line-up, waiting for a better time to join.

Both retirees take off their packs to set them down, and the lady extracts a pill container from her purse before heading towards a nearby restroom. Her husband pulls a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his brow, and also reaches for a small bottle of tablets.

The three Latinos look at each other with an unasked question, and one nods to his companion Pedro, who is closest to this gent. As he looks around for a men’s restroom sign, the younger Pedro leans over to point him in the right direction.

There’s a water fountain just around that corner, he offers.

The elder man looks at him, and gives him a nod in thanks. Thank you, son. Um, would you mind keeping an eye on my bags for me while I take my pill?

With a smile that would warm a mother’s heart, Pedro replies. Not at all. Take your time. This line-up is not going anywhere.

Certain that his belongings are safe with this polite young man, the senior smiles and nods, then walks away to take his pill. Once the man is out of sight, Pedro leans over to his luggage left behind, and checks for ship-issued pre-printed Commodore’s Circle delivery tags on their straps. He finds them, identifying ‘PLUMMER, SUITE 1012’.

He then takes his own luggage with blank delivery tags, and with a felt marker he fills them in: ‘PLUMMER, SUITE 1012’.

As Pedro recaps his pen, Mr and Mrs Plummer return from their respective restrooms and load themselves up once more. Turning to join their queue, Mr Plummer offers, Thanks again.

Pedro responds with, My pleasure. Enjoy your holiday. Perhaps we will see you on board.

The Plummers walk over to a wheeled cart labeled ‘Commodore’s Circle Delivery’, and drop off their carry-on bags – a preferential service for frequent travelers. Shortly after the Plummers move along, Pedro gets up from his seat, and places his two bags on this same cart, then walks past his companions to join a line-up.

As Pedro passes Tomas, another gent arrives in the alcove with a load of luggage, asking a favor: Would you mind watching this while I make a phone call?

Without hesitation, Pedro walks straight through metal detectors at the security checkpoint, unladed and unimpeded, as the cart with his bags is wheeled to a conveyor belt delivering them directly through the ship’s hull to Deck Three.

At the gangway, two Activity Staff from Mercury are awaiting embarking guests, talking between themselves in the interim, handing out papers to those guests that have been processed and are on their way to the embarkation ramp. They are done up in their formal rigs, a smart first impression guests will have of staff on board. Michelle, a Southerner in her late twenties is working with Paul, a Canadian a few years older than she. With no guests approaching at the moment, they keep each other entertained, which normally involves discussing events from their previous cruise.

Michelle starts the volley with, So, what happened with you last night?

A little puzzled by this query out of nowhere, Paul comes back with, Happened with me?

"Yeah, why weren’t you in the staff bar last night? I thought for sure you’d be