Second Excerpt from

Dark Waters Chronicle of a Story Untold by Magda Allani

This excerpt is about the arrival of a television crew on the scene. At the end is a glossary of all the famous names that wound their way into this story.

Soon, another envelope arrived, this one embossed with the logo of Thames Television. Come on. Open it, Caroline said, barely able to contain her excitement. I found a couple of lines from Peter Gill, the programme editor of Thames Reports, asking if I would consider taking part in a documentary. Caroline got carried away thinking this might be the start of a television career for me; I saw it as a chance to get somebody out there asking some of the questions that should have been asked from the start. - So many hopes and expectations from just a couple of lines. It was like getting a letter from God. After all, television was a portal to the nearest form of immortality known to man and, given its ability to reach so many, seemed to function as our twentieth century temple and Solomons Throne. One by one, Mr. Gill and his team reeled us in like fish. As I said in the letter, we would want to make the documentary very much in the spirit of your article, Mr. Gill said when I called him. It would hopefully be a sensitive piece, and help to change public perception of the, er, disaster victims. Solomons first task, it seemed, was to prove we were indeed human and had feelings too. I was invited to put our case over lunch at Langans in Mayfair next day, and a car was sent to ferry me there. As it crawled through the West End traffic, the sight of theatres, favourite book shops and cafes all the old, familiar haunts shocked me. They were the same as they had always been; how come we were not? Had all this really happened? Suspension of disbelief is most difficult to achieve in the creation of fiction, but during that drive I saw that a cohort of aliens and fairies could penetrate the mind with far greater ease than any unpalatable truth.

Langans was a confusion of well-dressed people seated at large round tables that, with their brilliant white covers, gave the impression of a battalion of flying saucers. Joeys waving hand beckoned me to the table where he was sitting with Phillip - a fellow survivor - and a couple of people who must have been the production team. A waiter sprang to help me into my seat, and Peter Gill shook my hand and introduced me to the shows director, Nina. The multi-coloured bottles lining the wall behind the cocktail bar gleamed like the controls of a space machine, and more waiters arrived with menus, hovering like patient, intergalactic messengers until they could relay our orders to the earthlings in the kitchen. In the careful words of Peter and his team, their eyes round with intent, I saw the caution of natural historians anxious not to scare away the exotic objects of their observation. Fountains of wine tinkled into waiting lakes of half-emptied glasses, and enormous white plates floated onto the table before us, the hallowed extra-terrestrials of the moment. In the flush of mid-day wine, Joey, Phillip and I became story-tellers, adventurers with a tale to tell. Solomons ambassadors were so attentive, so solicitous we spoke in some respects more openly than we had amongst ourselves. I was so out of it. I was in so much pain because Id had half the furniture on the boat smash into me. I remember trying to swallow as much water as I possibly could so I could die as quickly as possible to make the pain go away, Joey confided for the first time. I ended up having one of those out-of-body experiences too. The telling of such a savage event in such civilized surroundings had a surreal pleasure all of its own. Peter and Nina hung on our every word. Even the actor Michael Caine one of the restaurants owners kept glancing over from his table, drawn by the energy we exuded. For a while it was possible to believe all of us and everything would be whisked off in a Langans spaceship of eternal bounty. Next day, I found myself in a van, speeding down to Cambridge with Neil and a Thames Television crew. We thought it would be nice to have a shot of you in College, where you all met, Nina had said, and Neil had been the only one of the Trinity Hall set willing to take part. Though a barrister, he had always had a horror of taking centre stage, and we had always teased him mercilessly for his habit of coughing before saying anything remotely personal. But he put on his smart suit and came along. I was sure he partly wanted to prevent me from going off on some esoteric tangent. I had always enjoyed presenting off-beat theories and scenarios to my Tit Hall friends to provoke them out of the cosy assumption they had it all sussed. Half of them thought I was barmy and Antonio had often been the only one to see through my little games Marcus Powell, who would present the show, was there with Nina. They conferred with each other and made small talk to put us at our ease. I was already familiar with Marcus mellifluous voice from his TV news reports. Dyou still come here? he asked. No not very often, I said. The last time was for a wedding.

Was it really only a year ago that Nick had married Merrilly and their baby, Florian, had still been floating in the unborn ether? Antonio had been best man and made an outrageous speech. On the sun-dappled lawn before the chapel, we gathered in our summer finery. Rom wore a hat to which she had pinned half the garden along with a bunch of grapes. Antonio began: It must be said that the groom is even prettier than the brides dress. He had always had a crush on Nick and been so disappointed that he was not gay. Then he had swept aside the usual wedding wistfulness by raising the spectre of old crushes and affairs, naming names, describing incidents. Seconds before the guests had time to fully register their embarrassment, he concluded with gusto that nothing should be wished or swept away, and that it was wonderful to have overcome the divisive residues of thwarted passions and all be standing here together. He had always loved to knock embarrassment and pretensions his own included - on the head. It had been a perfect party. We all stayed in Hall, and Antonio ended up gate-crashing Nick and Merrillys wedding night, with Joey in tow, keeping them talking till dawn. That had also been the day I discovered my wonderful Director of Studies, Dr. Hinds was dying of cancer. He was only in his early forties, a preposterously young age to die, I had thought. I had visited him before the wedding, and all day my heart had swung between sadness for him, and the happiness of the party. Both emotions had somehow found a way to coexist and wave at each other from opposite corners of my heart. It was an important lesson... Yeah, if you just turn down here and get onto Kings Parade, Neil directed the driver as we entered Cambridge. It was a sunny day. Bicycles flew up and down the road. An exuberant energy rippled over the seas of emerald lawn stretched out beneath the colleges. Everything was the same as it had been on the day I first arrived, breathless with anticipation. Ron the Porter was still there, his copper toupe still shining and ever so slightly askew. He made no comment about the TV crew in tow - even the arrival of a pageant of elephants would have left the porters unfazed, save for making a polite request perhaps to take care not to let them walk on the lawn. It would be nice to get some shots of you in the quad and then maybe walking along the backs, Nina said. Just relax, and chat about your memories of being here. Yes, yes, thats great. Try and forget were here. A few undergraduates up early for the new term were wandering about, disturbing the illusion we had of the place belonging to us. Were we the ghosts, or they?

Random Glossary of Famous Names Gathered Within These Pages Famous People

 John Prescott Winston Churchill Roberto Calvi Sir Isaac Newton Stephen Hawking Henry James Bobby Fischer St Luke Osama Bin Laden Margaret Thatcher Aretha Franklyn Jean-Paul Sartre Hermann Hesse Thomas Mann Procol Harum Soul II Soul Elton John Michael Caine Robert McKee Frederic Chopin Rembrandt Voltaire Aesop Cary Grant

Albert Einstein Bertrand Russell Franz Kafka Fyodor Dostoyevsky Dr. Martin Hinds Albert Camus Mozart King Solomon William Shakespeare Michael Odonoghue Lord Gifford Richard Mytton-Mills Edward Bulwer-Lytton Napoleon Galileo Henri Matisse John Lennon Yves Saint-Laurent Naomi Campbell Beth Boldt Jackie Onassis Louis XVI Marie Antoinette Alexander the Great

Saddam Hussein Silvio Berlusconi Gianni Agnelli Raul Gardini Carlo de Benedetti Michael Mansfield QC Mohammed Al-Fayed Dodi Fayed Martin Scorsese Werner Herzog Robert de Niro Ray Liotta Omar Sharif Audrey Hepburn Boadicea Wagner Vasco da Gama King Juan Carlos Roman Polanski Robert Towne Adolf Hitler Emperor Nero General Augusto Pinochet Tony Benn

 John Pilger Tariq Ali Paul Farrelly

Michael Caplan QC Sheikh Fahed Al-Sabah Abdallah Nobari

Famous Places
Langan's Ronnie Scotts Piccadilly Savoy Hotel Southwark Cathedral Camden St Thomas' Hospital Finsbury Park Hotel Meridien Mayfair Bond Street King's Road Kensington Old Compton Street Soho Charing Cross Station Cannon Street Bridge Charing Cross Pier Southwark Bridge Houses of Parliament Blackfriars Bridge Thames Estuary Waterloo Bridge Nine Elms Constantine Bay Stonehenge Cornwall River Tyne St Saviour's Wharf Southwark Parsons Green Thames Barrier East End Holborn Notting Hill Putney Finsbury Park Mosque Hampstead Lido Cheapside The Embankment Charing Cross Station River Thames Hungerford/Charing Cross Bridge Vauxhall Bridge Battersea Bridge Bankside Power Station Westminster Pier Wapping Police Station Heathrow Airport Trinity Hall Cambridge River Cam King's Parade Cambridge Oxford The North Sea Lockerbie Hillsborough M1 Motorway Newcastle upon Tyne

 Camel Estuary Wales Scotland Canada New Zealand Australia St Lucia Bermuda Triangle China Tiananmen Square Russia The Berlin Wall Luxembourg Paris France

Marseilles Nice Mediterranean Sea Capri Turkey Hong Kong Miami Indian Ocean Mozambique Portugal The Gulf Peru Texas Kairouan Tunisia

Hollywood Cuba Rio de Janeiro Spain Barcelona Holland Italy Venice Denmark Copenhagen USA Iraq Kuwait Madeira

Famous Brands
Doc Martens Patek Philippe Rolex MacDonald's Champney's Prozac Britain's Next Model Abbott's Ale Fosters Lager Havanna Cigar Schweppes Mars Bar Milky Way Rayban's Golf GTI

Companies & Organizations

 KIO Torras Hostench Grupo Torras South Coast Shipping Tidal Cruises Sousales S.G. Warburg Marchioness Disaster Fund Thames TV The Independent Evening Standard

News of The World The Sun The Daily Mail The Times The New York Times BBC Channel Four Google Venice Film Festival The Notting Hill Carnival The Excelsior Hotel

Ready Mix Concrete Pannone Napier Baker & McKenzie Macfarlanes Kroll Finninvest Lombard Odier Banca Garriga Nogues Daimler Benz Peugeot British Petroleum Blackford Holdings

Diseases
AIDS Motor Neuron Disease PTSD

Movements & Religions

Portuguese Revolution Perestroika Thatcherism Big Bang Christianity Islam

Principle Protagonists
Javier de la Rosa Captain Douglas Henderson Coroner Paul Knapman

 Antonio de Vasconcellos Boneca de Vasconcellos Mrs. Garcia

Captain Stephen Faldo Captain George Williams Walid Moukarzel

Sheikh Fahad AlSabab Khaled Naser Hamoud Al-Sabah Fuad Khaled Jaffar

 The Marine Accident Investigation Board Crown Prosecution Service The Marchioness Action Group Court of Appeal The Supreme Court of Judicature The Centre for Corporate Accountability The Department of Public Prosecutions Westminster Morgue The Port of London Authority The Financial Services Authority KGB The Mafia The House of Lords