Telex — Wanhai

He didn’t know Captain Sung’s wife, but he knew sulfur was used to acidify soil for Cymbidium ensifolium —the orchid Sung had written a paper about, back when he was a young third officer.

WANHAI 286 // URGENT // STOP ALL UNITS // REEFER CONTAINER WHLU-8821 // LOCATION: 22°15'N 120°17'E // TRANSMITTING VHF CH 16 // REPEAT // HUMAN LIFE DETECTED // SIGNED // CAPT. SUNG Lin stared. Wan Hai 286 had been scrapped in Bangladesh three months ago. He’d attended the virtual auction himself. And the coordinates—that was open sea south of the Pratas Islands, a place no Wan Hai vessel had sailed in weeks. wanhai telex

FIVE SOULS. NO POWER. HULL INTEGRITY 12%. FOLLOWING YOUR TRANSPONDER. ETA DAWN. GODSPEED. Lin checked the AIS. No vessel within fifty miles. No transponder but his own. Then the telex printed one final line, smaller, as if the machine were running out of strength: He didn’t know Captain Sung’s wife, but he

The reply came instantly, the machine hammering so fast the paper tore: Wan Hai 286 had been scrapped in Bangladesh three months ago

At 3:47 a.m., Lin did something against protocol. He typed back:

ACK. STATUS?