Santorini

7

The heavy steel derrick projected upwards and outwards from the midships side of the Kilcharran at an angle of about thirty degrees off the vertical. From the winch at the foot of the derrick the hawser rose upwards through the pulley at the top of the derrick and then descended vertically into the sea. The lower end of the hawser was attached to a heavy metal ring which was distanced about twenty feet above the fuselage of the sunken plane: from the ring, two shorter cables, bar-taut, were attached to the two lifting slings that had been attached fore and aft to the nose and tail of the bomber.

The winch turned with what seemed to most watchers an agonizing and frustrating slowness. There was ample electrical power available to have revolved the drum several times as quickly but Captain Montgomery was in no hurry. Standing there by the winch, he exhibited about as much anxiety and tension as a man sitting with his eyes closed in a garden deckchair on a summer’s afternoon. Although it was difficult to visualize, it was possible that a sling could have loosened and slipped and Montgomery preferred not to think what might happen if the plane should slip and strike heavily against the bottom, so he just stood patiently there, personally guiding the winch’s control wheel while he listened with clamped earphones to the two divers who were accompanying the plane on its ten foot a minute ascent.

After about five minutes the grotesque shape of the plane – grotesque because of the missing left wing – could be dimly discerned through the now slightly wind-ruffled surface of the sea. Another three minutes and the lifting ring came clear of the water. Montgomery centred the winch wheel, applied the brake, went to the gunwale, looked over the rail and turned to the officer by his side.

‘Too close in. Fuselage is going to snag on the underside. Have to distance it a bit. More fenders fore and aft–’ the side of the Kilcharran was already festooned with rubberized fenders ‘–and lay out ropes to secure the nose and tail of the plane.’ He returned to the winch, eased forward on a lever and slowly lowered the derrick until it was projecting outwards from the ship’s side at an angle of forty degrees above the horizontal. The plane, which could now be clearly seen only twenty feet below the surface, moved sluggishly outwards from the ship’s side. Montgomery started up the winch again and soon the top of the plane’s fuselage broke the surface. He stopped the winch when the top eighteen inches was clear. The starboard wing was still beneath the surface. Montgomery turned to Admiral Hawkins.

‘So far, a simple and elementary exercise. With luck, the rest of it should be equally straightforward. We cut away the appropriate section on the top of the fuselage while attaching more flotation bags to the undersides of the fuselage and the wing and inflating those. Then we’ll lift a bit more until the fuselage is almost clear of the water and go inside.’ He lifted a ringing phone, thanked the caller and replaced the receiver. ‘Well, perhaps not quite so straightforward. It would appear that the timing device has stopped ticking.’

‘Has it now?’ Hawkins didn’t look particularly concerned and certainly not upset. ‘It could have happened at a better time and a better place. But it had to happen. So our friend is armed.’

‘Indeed. Still, no reason why we shouldn’t go ahead as planned.’

‘Especially as we have no option. Every person on both ships to be warned. No mechanical devices to be used: no banging or crashing, everyone on fairy tiptoes. They already know that, of course, but I imagine they’ll now redouble their caution.’

A gangway had been lowered down the ship’s side until one of its feet rested on the plane’s fuselage. Carrington and Grant descended and ran a tape-measure back along the top of the fuselage from the cockpit – the internal distance from the cockpit to the exact location of the bomb had already been measured – to the corresponding area above. This they mopped dry with engine-room waste and then proceeded to paint the outline of a black rectangle to guide the two men with the oxyacetylene cutters who were already standing by.

Hawkins said: ‘How long will this take?’

‘I can only guess,’ Montgomery said. ‘An hour, maybe a bit longer. We don’t know how thick the fuselage skin is or how tough it is. We don’t know how thick or tough the lateral reinforcing members are. What I do know is that we’re going to cut with the lowest possible flame that will do the job – even with that reduced power we’re going to generate a fair amount of heat in the air-space and water below. It goes without saying that no one has ever done this sort of thing before.’

‘Will your standing here, supervising operations – just looking on, rather – help things along? Resolve the unknown, I mean.’

‘Not a bit of it. Ah! Lunch?’

‘Whether we’re here or in the wardroom of the Ariadne, it’s not going to make all that difference if this lot goes up.’

‘True, true. A millisecond here, a millisecond there. The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast. In our case, lunch.’

Lunch, while hardly festive, was by no means the doom-laden affair it could have been in view of the fact that most of the people at the table were well aware that they were sitting on top of a timebomb that had now ceased to tick. Conversation flowed freely but in no way resembled the compulsive nervous chatter of those conscious of being under stress. Professor Wotherspoon spoke freely and often on any subject that arose, not through garrulity but because he was a born conversationalist who loved discussion and the free exchange of ideas. Andropulos, too, was far from silent, although he appeared to have only one idea in mind, and that was the mystery of the bomber that had just been raised from the depths. He had not been invited aboard the Kilcharran but had seen well enough from the Ariadne what had been going on. He appeared to be deeply and understandably interested in what had happened and was going to happen to the bomber but was clever enough not to ask any penetrating questions or say a word that he knew anything whatever about what was going on. Across the table Talbot caught the eye of Admiral Hawkins who nodded almost imperceptibly. It was clear that they couldn’t keep him completely and totally in the dark.

‘Up to now, Mr Andropulos,’ Talbot said, ‘we have not told you everything we know. We have not been remiss and no apology for our silence is necessary. Our sole concern, I can assure you, was not to cause unnecessary alarm and apprehension, especially to your two young ladies. But a man like you must have a keen interest in international affairs, and you are, after all, a Greek and member of NATO and have a right to know.’ No one could have guessed from Talbot’s openness and relaxed tone that he considered Andropulos to have a keen interest in international crime, that he didn’t give a damn about either Greece or NATO and had a right to know only what he, Talbot, chose to tell him.

‘The plane was an American bomber and was carrying a lethal cargo, among them hydrogen and atomic bombs, almost certainly for a NATO missile base somewhere in Greece.’ Andropulos’s expression, at first stunned, rapidly changed to grim-faced understanding. ‘We can only guess at what caused the crash. It could have been an engine explosion. On the other hand it could have been carrying a variety of weapons, and one of them – obviously of the non-nuclear variety – may have malfunctioned. We don’t know, we have no means of telling and probably, almost certainly, we will never know. The crew, of course, died.’

Andropulos shook his head. The clear, innocent eyes were deeply tinged with sadness. ‘Dear God, what a tragedy, what a tragedy.’ He paused and considered. ‘But there are terrorists in this world.’ He spoke of terrorists as if they were alien beings from an alien planet. ‘I know this sounds unthinkable, but could this have been a case of sabotage?’

‘Impossible. This plane flew from a top secret Air Force base where security would have been absolute. Carelessness there may have been but the idea of the deliberate implantation of any explosive device passes belief. It can only be classified as an act of God.’

‘I wish I shared your trust in our fellow-man.’ Andropulos shook his head again. ‘There are no depths which some inhuman monsters would not plumb. But if you say it was physically impossible, then I accept that, and gladly, for I would not care to be counted as a member of a human race that could proceed to such unspeakable lengths. What’s past is past, I suppose, but there’s also a future. What happens next, Commander?’

‘Before we decide on that we’ll have to wait until we get inside the plane. I understand that impacts and explosions such as those nuclear weapons have experienced can have – what shall we say? – a very disturbing effect on their delicate firing control systems.’

‘You – or some member of your crew – have the expertise to pass judgement on such matters?’

‘Neither I nor my crew know anything about such matters. But seated only two chairs away from you is a man who does. Dr Wickram – I will not spare his blushes – is a world-famous nuclear physicist who specializes in nuclear weaponry. We are fortunate indeed to have him aboard.’

‘My word, that is convenient.’ Andropulos leaned forward and half-bowed to Wickram. ‘I was, of course, unaware that you were an expert on those matters. I hope you can help resolve this dreadful dilemma.’

‘Hardly in the dreadful category yet, Mr Andropulos,’ Talbot said. ‘A problem, shall we say.’ He turned as Denholm, who had not joined them for lunch, entered the wardroom. ‘Lieutenant?’

‘Sorry to disturb you, sir. Lieutenant McCafferty’s apologies, but would you be kind enough to come to the engine-room.’

Once outside, Talbot said. ‘What’s the trouble in the engine-room, Jimmy?’

‘Nothing. This habit of deception grows on one. A message from the Pentagon, sir, and some interesting information turned up by Theodore.’

‘I thought he was resting.’

‘He elected not to, sir. Just as well, as I’m sure you’ll agree.’ He produced a slip of paper. ‘The Washington message.’

‘“Krytron device en route direct New York-Athens via Concorde.” My word, someone over there does carry some clout. I detect the hand of the President in this. Can’t you just see the outrage of a hundred-odd Europe-bound passengers when they find themselves being dumped on the tarmac of John F. Kennedy in favour of a teeny-weeny electrical device? Not that they’ll know why they have been dumped. It goes on: “Fullest cooperation British Airways, Spanish and Italian authorities.”’

‘Why Spain and Italy?’ Denholm said. ‘You don’t require permission to overfly friendly countries. Just Air Control notification, that’s all.’

‘Except, I imagine, when you’re going to upset their normal peace and quiet by a non-stop sonic boom. Message ends: “ETA your time 3 p.m.” Just over an hour. We’ll have to make arrangements to have a plane standing by in Athens airport. Let’s see what Theodore has for us. Something of significance, I’ll be bound.’

Theodore had, indeed, found something of significance, although its relevance was not immediately evident.

‘I’ve started on the third and last list, Captain,’ Theodore said, ‘and this is the sixth name I’ve come up with. George Skepertzis. Full Washington address. Under the address, as you see, it says Ref. KK, TT. Means nothing to me.’

‘Nor to me,’ Talbot said. ‘Anything to you, Lieutenant?’

‘It might. Skepertzis is a Greek name, that’s for sure. Could be a fellow-countryman of Andropulos. And if our friend has contacts in the Pentagon, you can lay odds that he wouldn’t be writing to them, using their names, care of the Pentagon. You’d expect Andropulos to use a buffer-man, a gobetween.’

‘I’d expect anything of that character. You’re probably right. So, a message to the bank asking if they have any accounts under those initials and one to the FBI to find out if there are any Air Force generals or admirals with those initials. A shot in the dark, of course, but it might find a target. In the remote event of their contemplating a sound night’s sleep, a personal message to the President, via the FBI, that the tick… tick… tick has stopped and that the atomic mine is armed. We’ll clear it with the Admiral first. Would you ask him to join us. Have Number One and Dr Wickram come along too. I suggest the bridge. I’m sure you’ll think up a suitable excuse on the way to the wardroom.’

‘I don’t have to think, sir. It’s second nature now.’

‘Fair enough.’ Hawkins laid down the three radio messages that Talbot had already drafted. ‘The Greek Ministry of Defence will have a plane standing by when the Concorde lands. If its estimated time of arrival is reasonably accurate we should have this krytron device in Santorini about three-thirty. Even allowing for the fact that your men will have to row to and from at least Cape Akrotiri we should have the device aboard by five p.m. There’s an even chance that the messages to the FBI and the Washington bank may produce some positive results. As to the news that the mine is armed, we shall await the Presidential reaction with interest. Send these at once. You have some other matters on your mind, Captain. Urgent, I take it?’

‘As you said yourself not so long ago, sir, time is on the wing. Questions, sir, and we’d better try to find some answers quickly. Why was Andropulos so restrained in his questioning about the bombers? Because – apart from that ticking time device – he already knew everything there was to know and saw no point in asking questions when he already held the answers.

‘Why did he express no surprise at Dr Wickram here just happening to be aboard at this critical juncture? Even the most innocent of people would have thought it the most extraordinary coincidence that Dr Wickram should be here at the moment when he was most needed and would have said so.

‘What’s going to pass through that crafty and calculating mind when he sees us hauling that atom bomb out of the fuselage – always providing we do, of course? And what are we going to do to satisfy his curiosity?’

‘I can answer your last two questions and explain my presence here,’ Wickram said. ‘I’ve had time to think although, to be honest, it didn’t require all that much thought. You heard that the plane had hydrogen bombs aboard, you didn’t know what the degree of danger was so you called in the resident expert. That’s me. The resident expert informs you there is a high degree of danger. There’s no way to prevent a slow but continuous degree of radioactive emanations from a hydrogen bomb, and there are fifteen of those aboard that plane. This radioactivity builds up inside the atom bomb, which is of an entirely different construction, until the critical stage is reached. Then it’s goodnight, all. All a question of mass, really.’

‘This really happens?’

‘How the hell should I know? I’ve just invented it. But it sounds scientific enough and more than vaguely plausible. Your average citizen has a zero knowledge level of nuclear weaponry. Who is going to dream of questioning the word of a worldfamous nuclear physicist which, in case you’ve forgotten Commander Talbot’s words, is me.’

Talbot smiled, ‘I wouldn’t dream of it, Dr Wickram. Excellent. Next query. What are Andropulos’s code lists doing aboard the Ariadne?’

‘Well, to start with,’ Hawkins said, ‘you put them there. No need for massive restraint, Captain. You had something else in mind?’

‘Wrong question. Why did he leave them behind? He forgot? Not likely. Not something as important as that. Because he thought they’d never be found? Possible, but again not likely. Because he thought that if anyone found them then it would be unlikely that that person would recognize it as a code or try to decode it? Rather more likely, but I think the real reason is that he thought it would be too dangerous to bring them aboard the Ariadne. The very fact that that was the only item he chose to salvage from the wreck would have been significant and suspicious in itself. So he elected to leave them behind and recover them later by diving. He may always have had this possibility in his mind and if he did he wouldn’t have left them in a cardboard folder. So he chose a waterproof metal box.

‘Recovery of the box from the bottom of the sea would mean the presence or availability of a diving ship. Just a hunch. I think that the Delos was sunk by accident and not by design. Probably Andropulos never visualized the need of a diving ship for that purpose. But a convenient diving ship would have been useful for other purposes, such as, dare I suggest, the recovery of nuclear weapons from a sunken bomber. They – whoever they are – wouldn’t have brought it down anywhere in the Sea of Crete – that’s the area between the Peloponnese in the west, the Dodecanese in the east, the Cyclades in the north and Crete to the south – because by far the greater part of that area is between 1,500 and 7,000 feet – much too deep for recovery by diving. Maybe it was meant to bring it down where it was brought down. Maybe this hypothetical diving ship was meant to be where we inconveniently were.’

‘It’s a long shot,’ Hawkins said, ‘but no stone unturned, is that it? What you would like to know is whether there is any diving ship based in those parts or temporarily located or cruising by. Isn’t that it?’ Talbot nodded. ‘Finding out is no problem.’

‘Heraklion in Crete?’

‘Of course. The US Air Force base there is our main centre for electronic surveillance in those parts. They use AWACs and other high-flying radar planes to monitor Soviet, Libyan and other countries’ military movements. The Greek Air Force use their Phantoms and Mirages for the same purpose. I know the base commander rather well. An immediate signal. They’ll either find out in very short order or have the information already. A couple of hours should do it.’

‘I speak in no spirit of complaint,’ Captain Montgomery said to Talbot. His voice, in fact, held a marked note of complaint. ‘But I think we might have been spared this.’ He indicated a bank of heavy dark cloud approaching from the northwest. ‘The wind’s already Force 5 and we’re beginning to rock a bit. Travel agents wouldn’t like this at all. This is supposed to be a golden summer’s day in the golden Aegean.’

‘Force 5 isn’t uncommon here in the afternoons, even at this time of year. Rain is most unusual but it looks as if we’re going to have quite a lot of the unusual in the very near future. Weather forecast is poor and the barometer unhappy.’ Talbot looked over the rail of the Kilcharran. ‘And this is what makes you unhappy.’

Montgomery’s ship was not, in fact, rocking at all. Headed directly north-west into the gentle three-foot swell, it was quite motionless, which couldn’t be said for the plane lashed alongside. Because of its much shorter length and the fact that it was nine-tenths submerged, it was reacting quite badly to the swell, pitching rather noticeably to and fro and snubbing alternately on the ropes that secured its nose and the remnants of its tail to the Kilcharran. Cutting the metal and maintaining balance was becoming increasingly difficult for the oxyacetylene team on top of the fuselage as the tops of the swells periodically washed over the area on which they were working. They had already reached the stage where they were spending more time looking after their own safety than using their torches.

‘Not so much unhappy as annoyed. Their rate of progress has been reduced to almost zero and God knows they were moving slowly enough even in good conditions – that fuselage and especially the transverse members are proving much tougher than expected. If things don’t improve – and looking at that weather coming at us I’m sure they won’t – I’m going to have to withdraw the cutters. They’re in no danger, of course, but the plane might very well be. We have no way of knowing how weakened the nose or tail may be and I don’t care to imagine what will happen if one of them comes off.’

‘So you’re going to float it astern on a single tow-rope?’

‘I don’t see I have any option. I’ll build a cradle of ropes round the nose and wing of the plane, attach a single rope – a heavy one, to act as a spring – to it and let it drift a cable length astern. Have to inform the Admiral first.’

‘No need. He never interferes with an expert. An unpleasant thought occurs, Captain. What happens if it breaks loose?’

‘Send a boat out – rowing, of course – to secure it with an anchor.’

‘And if that goes?’

‘We puncture the flotation bags and sink it. Can’t have it drifting all over the shop ready to blow the whole works whenever the first ship’s engines come within auditory range.’

‘And if it sinks where it is, we, of course, won’t be able to move from here.’

‘You can’t have everything.’

‘Agreed,’ Hawkins said. ‘Montgomery’s got no option. When is he starting?’

‘Any moment. Perhaps you might have a word with him. I said that there was no question but that you would agree, but I think he’d like your say-so.’

‘Of course,’ Hawkins said. ‘What’s your weather forecast?’

‘Deteriorating. Any word from the Washington bank, the FBI or Heraklion?’

‘Nothing. Just a lot of unsolicited rubbish from diverse heads of states, presidents, premiers and so forth commiserating with us in one breath and asking us why we aren’t doing something about it in the second breath. One wonders how the news has been leaked.’

‘I don’t know, sir. What’s more, I really don’t care.’

‘Nor I.’ He waved to some papers on his desk. ‘Want to read them? They don’t know that the tick… tick has stopped.’

‘I don’t want to read them.’

‘I didn’t think you would. What’s next for you, John?’

‘I didn’t have much sleep last night. It’s quite possible I may lack some tonight. Now’s the time. Nothing I can do.’

‘An excellent idea. Same for me when I come back from the Kilcharran.’

When Talbot emerged from his day cabin and passed through to the bridge shortly after six o’clock in the evening it should still have been broad daylight, but so low was the level of light in the sky that it could well have been late twilight. He found Van Gelder and Denholm waiting for him.

‘In this weather,’ Talbot said, ‘I could almost say “Well, watchmen, what of the night?” Everything running smoothly and under control while Drake was in his hammock?’

‘We have not been idle,’ Van Gelder said. ‘Neither has Captain Montgomery. He’s got the bomber strung out about a cable length to the south-east. Riding quite badly – it’s either a Force 6 or 7 out there – but it seems to be holding together. He’s got a searchlight – well, a six-inch signalling lamp – on it, either to check that it doesn’t break away or to discourage the disaffected from snaffling it, although why there should be anyone around, or daft enough, to try that I can’t imagine. I’d advise against going out on the wing to have a look, sir. You might get washed away.’ Van Gelder’s advice was superfluous. The rain falling from the black and leaden skies was of the torrential or tropical downpour variety, the heavy warm drops rebounding six inches from the deck.

‘I take your point.’ He looked at the brown metal box lying on the deck. ‘What’s that?’

‘Voilà!’ Denholm seized the handle let into the top and swept off the cover with all the panache of a stage magician unveiling his latest impossible trick. ‘The pièce de résistance.’ What was presumably the control panel on the top of the box was singularly unimpressive and old-fashioned, reminiscent of a pre-war radio, with two calibrated dials, some knobs, a press-button and two orange hemispherical glass domes let into the surface.

‘The krytron, I assume,’ Talbot said.

‘No less. Three cheers for presidents. This particular one has been as good as his word.’

‘Excellent. Really excellent. Let’s only hope we get the chance to use it under, let us say, optimal circumstances.’

‘“Optimal” is the word,’ Denholm said. ‘Very simple device – as far as operating it is concerned, that is. Inside, it’s probably fiendishly complicated. This particular model – there may be others – runs off a twenty-four volt battery.’ He placed his fore-finger on a button. ‘I depress this – and hey presto!’

‘If you’re trying to make me nervous, Jimmy, you’re succeeding. Take your finger off that damned button.’

Denholm depressed it several times. ‘No battery. We supply that. No problem. And under those two orange domes are two switches that have to be rotated through 180 degrees. Specially designed, you see, for careless clowns like me. As an added precaution, you can’t unscrew those domes. One sharp tap with a light metal object, the instructions say, and they disintegrate. Again, I should imagine, designed with people like me in mind, in case we remove the tops and start twiddling the switches around. Designed, if you follow me, to be a one-off operation. The only time those switches will ever be exposed is immediately before the firing button is depressed.’

‘When are you going to attach the battery?’

‘As an added precaution – this is my precaution – only immediately before use. These are positive and negative connections. We use spring-loaded crocodile clips. Two seconds to attach the clips. Three seconds to crack the domes and align the switches. One second to press the button. Nothing could be simpler. Only one other trifling requirement, sir – that we have that atom bomb, on its own and a long, long way from anywhere and us at a very prudent distance when we detonate it.’

‘You ask for very little, Jimmy.’ Talbot looked out at the driving rain and the dark and now whitecapped seas. ‘We may have to wait a little – an hour or two as an optimistic guess, all night as a pessimistic one, before we can even begin to move. Anything else?’

‘I repeat, we have not been idle,’ Van Gelder said. ‘We’ve heard from the Heraklion Air Base. There is – or was – a diving vessel in the near vicinity, if you can call the western tip of Crete the near vicinity.’

‘Is – or was?’

‘Was. It was anchored off Souda Bay for a couple of days and apparently took off about one a.m. this morning. As you know, Souda Bay is a very hush-hush Greek naval base, and the area is very protected, very restricted. Foreign vessels, even harmless cruising yachts, are definitely not welcomed. Souda Bay naturally took an interest in this lad. It’s their business to be suspicious, especially at a time when NATO are operating in the area.’

‘What did they find out?’

‘Precious little. It was called the Taormina and registered in Panama.’

‘A Sicilian name? No significance. Panama – a convenience registry, some of the most successful ocean-going crooks in the world are registered there. Anyway, you don’t have to be an artist to change both names in very short order – all you require is a couple of pots of paint and a set of stencils. Where had it come from?’

‘They didn’t know. As it had anchored off-shore it didn’t have to register with either the customs or the port authorities. But they did know that it took off in a roughly north-easterly direction which, just coincidentally, is the course it would have taken if it were heading for Santorini. And as Souda Bay is just under a hundred miles from here, even a slow ship could have been in this area well before the bomber came down. So your hunch could have been right, sir. Only problem is, we’ve seen no sign of him.’

‘Could have been a coincidence. Could have been that the Delos warned him off. Did Heraklion say anything about going to have a look for this ship?’

‘No. Jimmy and I discussed the idea but we didn’t think it important enough to disturb you when you were – ah – resting lightly. And the Admiral.’

‘Probably unimportant. We should have a go. Normally, that is. Where does Heraklion lie from here? About due south?’

‘Near enough.’

‘A couple of planes, one carrying out a sweep to the north, the other to the east, should locate this lad, if he is in the area, in half an hour, probably less. Part of an urgent NATO exercise, you understand. But conditions aren’t normal. A waste of time in near zero visibility. An option we’ll keep in mind for better weather. Anything else?’

‘Yes. We’ve heard from both the Washington bank and the FBI. Mixed results, you might say. Under the initials of KK, the bank says it has a certain Kyriakos Katzanevakis.’

‘Promising. You could hardly get anything more Grecian than that.’

‘Under TT, they have a Thomas Thompson. You can’t have anything more Anglo-Saxon than that. The FBI say there are no high-ranking officers in the Pentagon – by which I take it they mean admirals and Air Force generals or, at the outside, vice-admirals and lieutenant-generals – with those initials.’

‘On the face of it, disappointing, but it may equally well be just another step in the laundering cover-up, another step to distance themselves from their paymaster. The FBI hasn’t been in touch with the bank? Of course not. We didn’t even mention the bank to them. Remiss of us. No, remiss of me. The bank must have addresses for Messrs KK and TT, and although those will almost certainly turn out to be accommodation addresses they may lead to something else. And another omission, again my fault entirely. We didn’t let the FBI have the name and address of this George Skepertzis. We’ll do that now. There’s an outside chance that the FBI may be able to link Skepertzis, KK and TT together. And what was the presidential reaction to the stopping of the tick… tick…?’

‘He appears to be beyond any further reaction.’

Montgomery sipped his drink, gazed gloomily through his cabin window, winced and looked away.

‘The weather has deteriorated in the past half-hour, Commander Talbot.’

‘It couldn’t possibly be any worse than it was half an hour ago.’

‘I’m an expert on such matters.’ Montgomery sighed. ‘Makes me quite homesick for the Mountains of Mourne. We get a lot of rainfall in the Mountains of Mourne. Do you see this lot clearing up in the near future?’

‘Not this side of midnight.’

‘And that would be an optimistic estimate, I’m thinking. By the time we haul this damn bomber back alongside, cut away the hole in the fuselage, hoist it out of the water and extract that bomb, it’ll be dawn. At least. Might possibly be well into the forenoon. You’ll understand if I turn down your kind offer to join you for dinner. An early snack for me, then bed. Might have to get up any time during the night. I’ll have a couple of boys on the poop all night, watching the plane and with orders to wake me as soon as they think the weather has moderated enough for us to start hauling it in.’

Dr Wickram said: ‘How’s that for a brief résumé of the speech I shall so reluctantly make at the table tonight? Not too much, I would have thought, and not too little?’

‘Perfect. Perhaps the tone a thought more doom-laden?’

‘A half octave deeper, you think? Odd, isn’t it, how easily this mendacity comes to one?’

‘Aboard the Ariadne, it’s become positively endemic. Very catching.’

‘I’ve just had a word with Eugenia,’ Denholm said. ‘I thought you ought to know.’

‘That you’ve been neglecting your duty? Not lurking, I mean.’

‘A man gets tired of lurking. I meant what she had to say.’

‘You spoke to her privately, I take it?’

‘Yes, sir. In her cabin. Number One’s cabin, that is to say.’

‘You surprise me, Jimmy.’

‘If I may say so, sir, with some dignity, we had been discussing matters on a purely intellectual level. Very bright girl. Going for a double first at University. Language and literature, Greek ancient and modern.’

‘Ah! Deep calling unto deep.’

‘I wouldn’t call it that, because I spoke only in English. I was under the impression that she was convinced that I didn’t speak a word of Greek.’

‘She’s no longer convinced? A close observer, the young lady? Perhaps you registered a flicker of expression when something was said in Greek when you should have registered nothing. I suspect you were trapped in your innocent youth by some fiendish feminine wile.’

‘How would you react, sir, if you were told that a scorpion was crawling up your shoe?’

Talbot smiled. ‘She spoke in Greek, of course. You immediately carried out a hurried check to locate this loathsome monster. Anybody would have fallen for it. You have not suffered too much chagrin and mortification, I hope?’

‘Not really, sir. She’s too nice. And too worried. Wanted to confide in me.’

‘Alas, the days when lovely young ladies wanted to confide in me appear to be over.’

‘I think she’s a little scared of you, sir. So is Irene. She wanted to talk about Andropulos. Girl talk, of course, and I suppose there’s no one else really on the ship they can talk to. That’s not quite fair, I suppose, they’re clearly very close friends. Seems that Irene repeated to her, more or less verbatim, the conversation she had with Number One this morning and told her she’d told Vincent everything she knew about her Uncle Adam. It would appear that Eugenia knows something about Uncle Adam that his niece doesn’t know. May I have a drink, sir? I’ve been awash since dawn in tonic and lemon.’

‘Help yourself. Revelations, is that it?’

‘I don’t know how you’d classify it, sir, but I know you’ll find it very interesting. Eugenia’s father has quite a lot in common with Irene’s father – apparently they’re good friends – they’re both wealthy businessmen, they both know Andropulos and both think he’s a crook. Well, nothing new in that so far. We all think he’s a crook. But Eugenia’s father, unlike Irene’s, is willing to talk freely and at length about Andropulos and Eugenia hasn’t talked about it to Irene, because she doesn’t wish to hurt her feelings.’ Denholm sampled his drink and sighed in satisfaction. ‘It would seem that Adamantios Spyros Andropulos has a pathological hatred of Americans. Who would suspect such a charming, courteous, urbane and civilized gentleman to have a pathological hatred of anyone?’

‘I would. Well, we all know he’s intelligent so he had to have a reason.’

‘He had. Two. His son and only nephew. Apparently, he doted on them. Eugenia quite believes this, because she says that Andropulos is unquestionably fond of Irene and herself, a feeling, I’m glad to say, that they don’t reciprocate.’

‘What about his son and nephew?’

‘Disappeared in most mysterious circumstances. Never to be seen again. Andropulos is convinced that they were done in by the American CIA.’

‘The CIA has a reputation, justified or not, for eliminating people they regard as undesirables. But they usually have a reason, again whether that is justifiable or not. Does Eugenia’s old man know the reason?’

‘Yes. He says – and he’s convinced of this – that the two young men were heroin peddlers.’

‘Well, well. Ties in all too well with what we have been increasingly suspecting. There are times, Jimmy, when I regard the CIA as being a much maligned lot.’

The atmosphere at the dinner table that night was noticeably, but not markedly, less relaxed than it had been at lunch-time. Conversation flowed rather less freely than it had then, and three men in particular, Hawkins, Talbot and Van Gelder, seemed more given than usual to brief and introspective silences, occasionally gazing at some object or objects that lay beyond a distant horizon. There was nothing that one could put a finger on and the insensitive would quite have failed to recognize that there was anything amiss. Andropulos proved that he was not one of those.

‘I do not wish to pry, gentlemen, and I may be quite wrong, I frequently am, but do I not detect a certain aura of uneasiness, even of tension at the table tonight?’ His smile was as open and ingenuous as his words had been frank and candid. ‘Or is it my imagination? You are surprised, perhaps, Commander Talbot?’

‘No, not really.’ The only thing that surprised Talbot was that Andropulos had taken so long in getting around to it. ‘You are very perceptive, Mr Andropulos. I’m rather disappointed, I must say. I thought – or hoped – that our concern was better concealed than that.’

‘Concern, Captain?’

‘To a slight degree only. No real anxiety yet. No reason in the world why you shouldn’t know as much as we do.’ As Dr Wickram had said, Talbot reflected, mendacity required little practice to become second nature: there was every reason in the world why Andropulos should not know as much as he did. ‘You know, of course, that the bad weather has forced us to suspend operations on the bomber?’

‘I have seen that it is riding several hundred metres astern of us. Operations? What operations, Captain. You are trying to recover those wicked weapons?’

‘Just one of them. An atom bomb.’

‘Why only one?’

‘Dr Wickram? Would you kindly explain?’

‘Certainly. Well, as far as I can. What we have here is a situation of considerable complexity and doubt, because we are dealing largely with the unknown. You will be aware that a nuclear explosion occurs when a critical mass of uranium or plutonium is reached. Now, there’s no way to prevent a slow but continuous degree of radioactive emanations from a hydrogen bomb, and there are fifteen of them aboard that plane. This radioactivity builds up inside the atom bomb, which is of an entirely different construction, until the critical mass of the atom bomb is reached. Then the atom bomb goes poof! Unfortunately, because of something we call sympathetic detonation, the hydrogen bombs also go poof! I will not dwell on what will happen to us.

‘Normally, because of this well-known danger, hydrogen bombs and atom bombs are never stored together, not, at least, for any period of time. Twenty-four hours is regarded as a safe period and a plane, as in this instance, can easily make a long-distance flight with them together, at the end of which, of course, they would immediately be stored separately. What happens after twenty-four hours, we simply don’t know although some of us – I am one – believe that the situation deteriorates very rapidly thereafter.

‘Incidentally, that’s why I have asked the Captain to stop all engines and generators. It is an established fact that acoustical vibrations hasten the onset of the critical period.’

Wickram’s deep, solemn and authoritative voice carried absolute conviction. Had he not known, Talbot thought, that Dr Wickram was talking scientific malarkey he, for one, would have believed every word he said.

‘So you will readily appreciate that it is of the utmost urgency that we remove that atom bomb from the plane as soon as possible and then take it away – by sail, of course, that’s why the Angelina is alongside, the critical mass will decay only very slowly – to some distant spot. Some very distant spot. There we will deposit it gently on the ocean floor.’

‘How will you do that?’ Andropulos said. ‘Deposit it gently, I mean. The ocean could be thousands of feet deep at the spot. Wouldn’t the bomb accelerate all the way down?’

Wickram smiled tolerantly. ‘I have discussed the matter with Captain Montgomery of the Kilcharran.’ He had not, in fact, discussed the matter with anybody. ‘We attach a flotation bag to the bomb, inflate it until it achieves a very slight negative buoyancy and then it will float down like a feather to the ocean floor.’

‘And then?’

‘And then nothing.’ If Wickram were having visions of a passenger cruise liner passing over an armed atomic mine, he kept his visions to himself. ‘It will decay and corrode slowly over the years, perhaps even over the centuries. May give rise to a few digestive upsets for some passing fish. I don’t know. What I do know is that if we don’t get rid of that damned beast with all dispatch we’re going to suffer more than a few digestive problems. Better that some of us – those concerned with the recovery of the bomb – have a sleepless night than that we all sleep forever.’