The Fire · The Cartographer's Daughter · Pulse Beat
The harbour office at Kolar was a one-storey stone building, and the fire had gutted it. Isha stood in the wet ruin with a harbour clerk, a nervous young man called Arun, who kept looking over his…
The harbour office at Kolar was a one-storey stone building, and the fire had gutted it.
Isha stood in the wet ruin with a harbour clerk, a nervous young man called Arun, who kept looking over his shoulder. The ceiling had come down. Blackened filing cabinets lay on their sides like dead animals. In the corner, the strongroom door hung open on a heap of ash.
"The old survey records," he said. "Everything before 2000. Burned."
"Did they investigate?"
"The police said it was an electrical fault." Arun swallowed. "But the wiring was new. I helped install it."
"Arun. Was anything saved?"
He hesitated for a very long time. "I took one thing home," he said at last. "Before the fire. I was told to digitise the Maravanthe sheets, and I did the first, and then they said not to bother. I kept the scan on a memory stick. I don't know why."
He drew it from inside his shirt, a small blue stick on a string. "It's the 1991 admiralty sheet. The real depths. Your father came to see it in March. I think they knew."
"Will you give it to me?"
"Yes." His hands were shaking. "And then I'm going to go and see my mother in Pune for a while."