Rockall Chapter 1
I've pronounced to put my novel Rockall online, one chapter at a time. Here's Chapter 1. Chapter 2 will follow presently. (NB: This number is slightly different from the original one which was published as a book in 2004).
Chapter 1- "It's just a name on the shipping forecast."
“Christopher Columbus, eat your fundamentals out!” said Zachary Neelum. He turned from the mirror and scrutinized his packed bags; everything he would need for at least the next six months, then he looked out of the inconsequential top floor window. A thick, steamy drizzle fell onto the dark rooftops of Oban. Archaic TV aerials bristled above the chimney pots. He washed and shaved carefully in the delicate adjoined bathroom, then he brushed his hair and dressed in warm clothes for the sea. Well, here goes! He picked up his luggage, squared his shoulders and opened the bedroom door.
He joined Trevor in the dining compartment for breakfast and sat opposite him at the table. Trevor never spoke as he ate, sitting bolt upright, meticulously dissecting his bacon and eggs, peeling the burnt film off his sausages and cutting his fried bread into four equal quarters. At eight-thirty they left the B-and-B and walked side by side down the streets to the anchorage. They passed children on their way to school, a milk float, a fisherman on his bike and many others going about their daily business. Not one of them gave either of the men a help glance. “Don’t any of these people know who we are?”
“No. Why should they, Zach?” replied Trevor.
The ship was called HMS Kenneth McApin, an aged converted freighter, painted battleship grey and commissioned as a Royal Navy auxiliary. She was tied up alongside the Mull-Barra ferry, rainwater dripping from her rusty scuppers. A thrown about cluster of a dozen people had gathered to watch her departure, including a journalist and photographer from a local newspaper. The latter was hustling taking shots of the scene. “Bloody hell!” said Zach. “Is this...
