He poured himself a stiff measure of the liquor, drank it down, and poured himself another. “But you ‘want me in place forty-eight hours before the hit, John” he said. “We have an apartment and even a car for you”
“Why such a long time? A lot can go wrong “We’re going to disavow you should anything go wrong. That comes from the top “
“We’ve already gone through that. Kurshin’s identification will prove to them, if I’m caught, that I was working alone. He’s beat me twice, this is a vendetta. But why do you want me in place so early”
“We don’t have approval for the operation yet, Kirk. It’s as simple and as complicated as that” McGarvey turned around. “Murphy hasn’t gone to the president yet? Or are we going to isolate the White House”
“He’s gone to the president, but he hasn’t given us the green light”
“Then we wait until then “You’re to be in place … fully in place first. He wants your situation to be completely stabilized before he gives his go-ahead”
“I don’t know”
“Yes you do. John, talk to me” Trotter shook his head. “I can think of only one reason for doing it this way. You suspect a traitor in the CIA.
Christ, it can’t be happening again. Not after all that we’ve gone through”
“He may have been there all along. We don’t know”
“At this point only the president, Murphy, and you know why I’m going in so early. But everyone else knows that I’m going in”
“You don’t have to do this … “No safety valves for getting me back across if everything blows up. I understand this. But what about afterward”
“If you get out clean, you’ll be taken care of. It’s all I can promise you”
“How will the green light be transmitted to me”
“Radio Berlin The special request show. We’ve prepared a key phrase”
“Baranov will be expecting me”
“Probably. But he won’t know where or when the attack will come”
McGarvey thought about it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, the risks versus the benefits. He nodded. “When do I leave”
“You have a noon flight to West Berlin. You’ll take a cab across.
Makayev was driving the Indianapolis hard to the southwest toward the Strait of Sicily and the Malta Channel which would put them in the eastern Mediterranean at speeds near forty knots the submarine was noisy. But as Makayev explained, their first obligation was to get as far away from the hijack site as possible in the shortest time. Sixth Fleet Headquarters obviously knows something is wrong.
We’ve seen that from the messages they sent. They will already have instituted the first elements of their search “But they will not find anything” Kurshin replied. “On the contrary, Comrade Colonel, they will of course find the Zenzero and the auxiliary boat that we used”
“That ship is probably at the bottom of the sea by now “No matter, they will find it. But all of that will take time They cannot believe that their submarine and crew of more than a hundred twenty men has been hijacked” Dr. Velikanov had been pressed into service as cook. He had brewed some tea and made sandwiches, and was bringing them forward. He stopped short and nearly dropped the tray he was carrying at the mention of the crew. His reaction was not lost on any of them in the control room. “There was no other way, Doctor” Makayev said gently from where he stood with Fedorenko at the chart table. “They were kids, most of them”
“I know, but that is past”
“When you live close to the grave, you can’t weep for everyone”
Velikanov said, quoting an old peasant proverb. “Is that what you are saying to me, Nikolai Gerasimovich”
“Where are they, what have you done with them”
“They are mostly in their bunks” Kurshin said from where he still sat at the helm. Velikanov put the tray down. “We will come very near to Sicily. Let’s surface and take rubber rafts ashore. We can go home, leave this boat for the Americans to find”
“That’s not possible”
“You are the skipper of this vessel, Niki. Please. They were just boys.
This could start the nuclear holocaust.”
“I am not the president to give this order, Doctor”
“No” Velikanov said sharply, his voice rising. “Nor did the president give such an order. It was the KGB. You know this”
“Yes it was” Kurshin said. This was the trouble he had been expecting.
He’d hoped it wouldn’t come so soon. “It’s Baranov. He’s insane. He’ll kill us all”
“Relieve me at this wheel” Kurshin snapped. Makayev hesitated a moment, his gaze switching from Velikanov to Kurshin. “Now” Kurshin insisted.
Makayev nodded for Fedorenko to take over. He took the starboard wheel.
“I have the helm” he said softly. Kurshin got up. “How much longer before we’re in position”
“Twenty-five hours, perhaps a little longer” Makayev replied. Velikanov was shaking with rage and fear. Spittle ran down the side of his chin.
“You will confine yourself to the galley for the duration, Doctor”
Kurshin told him. “When we return home, no mention will be made of your outburst. You have my promise”
“Fuck your mother” Velikanov shrieked, and he leapt forward to the trim tank controls, which would change the submarine’s buoyancy and bring her to the surface. Kurshin pulled out his pistol and fired a single shot, the noise impossibly loud in the confines of the boat, striking Velikanov in the face just below the left eye. His head snapped back, and he was thrown violently to the deck, instantly dead. Makayev had instinctively stepped back, his right hand going to the pistol in his tunic. Kurshin switched his aim to the captain. “We’re going to calm down now” he said in a reasonable voice. Lieutenant Rama, their sonarman, had rushed to the control center hatch, his pistol in hand, a grim look on his face as he surveyed the scene. “Put your gun down, Lieutenant, and get back to your post” Kurshin said. The young man was wracked with indecision. “The doctor was out of control” Kurshin explained. “I don’t want to kill your captain”
“Then you would never get to the surface, Comrade Colonel” Rama replied.
“Better to die here like this, then” Kurshin said softly. “We have our orders, which I intend carrying out so long as I am alive”
Makayev had withdrawn his hand from his tunic. “Put your gun down, Aleksandr Ivanovich. The colonel is correct. The doctor could have killed us all. There was no other way. Rama stepped back a pace and lowered his pistol.
Kurshin lowered his automatic and holstered it. “Have you detected anything on the surface” he asked. “A few ships, mostly small freighters” Rama replied. “Any other submarines”
“No. I I “Good” Kurshin said. He turned to Makayev. “I would like to talk to you and your missile man in the wardroom” Makayev nodded. “Take care of the doctor for me, would you, Aleksandr. “Yes, sir” The captain hit the comms switch. “Aleksei, are you ready up there”
“Just about, Captain” Lieutenant Chobotov said. “I’ve isolated the Tomahawk’s firing circuits. I managed to get one of them on the transfer rack, but I’m going to need help getting her loaded into one of the tubes”
“Good” Makayev said. “Come back to the officers’ wardroom and we will discuss it”
“Aye, Skipper”
The four-engine turboprop-powered ASW (Antisubmarine Warfare) aircraft came in low, at under fifteen hundred feet, over the Indianapolis’s last known position. They had finally been given the go-ahead by Sixth Fleet Headquarters to come off her position-keeping station. Something was definitely wrong, and all the brass were definitely uptight. Lieutenant Lawrence Weaver had throttled well back so they were doing significantly less than two hundred knots, giving the ship’s sophisticated electronic sensing equipment plenty of time to do its job. In addition to the ASQ-1 14 computer which instantly analyzed data from the aircraft’s radar systems, she also carried infrared sensors and magnetic anomaly detectors that were able to detect a mass of ferrous metal well beneath the
