Trotter had explained on the drive up from Naples. “You were never there, Kirk, so no matter what happens there will be no retaliations against our people” Trotter had dropped him off at a small hotel in the Aventine District and had gone ahead to the embassy where he made a few phone calls, gathered up the files he needed, and returned in the early afternoon. McGarvey was tired. He had managed to get a couple hours of rest, but he kept hearing Lorraine Abbott’s pleas that he not go ahead with his assignment. She was an idealist, and worse, she did not have all the facts. Nor would she ever. “It’s a big nasty world out there” someone had told him once.
“The fact of the matter is, no one really cares whether you live or die.
It’s up to you to make a difference” But he cared, and he expected Lorraine did too. He didn’t know, however, if they made a difference or not. Just now he felt as if he were squandering what little time was left to them. If Kurshin had the submarine he would act quickly. By bottling up the Bosporus, the Navy had told the Russians they were suspected. The situation would not last much longer. They were all sitting on a powder keg, and the fuse was short.
From his third-floor window, McGarvey watched Trotter come down the street. He stopped to admire something in a shop window, turned as if he was about to change his mind, then turned again and came directly across the street and entered the hotel.
McGarvey didn’t move for a long minute. Traffic was normal below; the pedestrians passing did not seem out of the ordinary. By the time Trotter was at the door, he figured his old friend had come away clean, and he went to let him in.
“The Indianapolis has disappeared again” Trotter said, coming into the small room. He laid his briefcase on the narrow bed as McGarvey closed and locked the door. ““They should have been within range of the Crete SOSUS by now”
“I know. I just got off the phone with Admiral Delugio. He flew out from Gaeta to set up a field command post. He wants some answers and damned fast”
“Can’t say as I blame him” McGarvey said. “)“at about Nikandrov? What did you bring for me”
“Good news and bad news,’, Trotter said. “It took some doing to come up with what we needed without tipping my hand. Jesse Lipton-chief of the CIA’s Rome station’knows that something big is in the wind, so I had to sidestep him. The skipper of the Lorrel-E went public with his salvage claim. The press somehow found out that the Navy had sent out one of its submarine rescue ships and they’ve put two and two together. Lipton asked me point- blank if I was involved in the mess.
I had to lie to him”
“It’s better that he doesn’t know” McGarvey said. “What’s the good news”
“That’s not all the bad, yet, Kirk. You’re going to have to sit tight here until after dark. Perhaps as late as midnight, maybe even longer”
“We might not have the time”
“Nothing we can do about it. The Navy is watching the region. The Indianapolis has to be sitting on the bottom somewhere between the Malta Channel and Crete”
“That’s a lot of water, John. And if I remember my geography the Mediterranean drops to fourteen thousand feet in some spots. The Indianapolis can’t go that deep, can she”
“The Los Angeles-class submarines, from what I’m told, have a service depth of around fifteen hundred feet. Beyond two thousand or twenty-five hundred feet her hull would implode from the pressure”
“So if she’s on the bottom somewhere, it’s near land”
“There’s a lot of coastline between Malta and Crete. But the Navy is looking”
“In the meantime what about Nikandrov”
“That’s the rest of the bad news” Trotter said. “He’s holed up at the Soviet Embassy. His normal routine keeps him there usually until around six in the evening when he takes a car to his home in Magliana-a suburb about five miles south of the city”
“He can’t be lured out into the open sooner” McGarvey asked. “Not without alerting Lipton that we’re up to something. And if Nikandrov is indeed involved in this mess, he’ll be keeping a close watch over his shoulder. The good news is that he’s sent his wife and two children away for a holiday to Switzerland. And once he gets to his house he usually stays there”
“Alone”
“He has a bodyguard” Trotter said. He opened his brief case and took out a file that contained Maps of the suburb a well as a dozen or more photographs showing a house that appeared to be located in the middle of a big park, as wel as shots of Nikandtov himself, and another much larger man with thick eyebrows and dark penetrating eyes. “Andre Nikovich Zalenin. He’s Special Service 11 muscle” McGarvey stared at Zalenin’s photograph. He looked like(a tough sonofabitch. He would be highly trained and highly motivated, not only to protect the physical safety of Nikan. drov, but to make sure his charge did not himself go astray, If need be, his orders would include killing Nikandrov rather than allowing him to fall into enemy hands. “The Nikandrovs apparently settle down very early fol Russians. Normally around ten or eleven in the evening. He’,@ up around five in the morning, and back at the embassy no later than six-thirty”
“A hard worker”
“Yes” Trotter said. “I figure the best time for you to gel in there would be around midnight, or even a little later. My car is parked two blocks from here. there are some things in the trunk for you.
I’ll take a cab back to the embassy”
“What about afterward” McGarvey asked. “Depending on what you find, or what the Navy might turn up in the meantime, we’ll see”
“How about Baranov” Trotter gave him a hard stare. “it looks as if the president will give the green light. Murphy seems to think he’s on the verge because of this Indianapolis thing. But we blew some very good resources getting you out of East Berlin. There’s a better than even chance that they’ll be expecting you. if you go back across, you could be walking into a trap”
“If I have the green light, John, I’m going ahead with it.
In the meantime I want You to pull Lorraine out of West Berlin”
Trotter shook his head. “I can’t, Kirk”
“Why” McGarvey shot back. “I’ve been told hands off”
Again there was something wrong with Trotter’s answer, something McGarvey couldn’t put his finger on-or didn’t want to. “Have we got people watching the hotel”
“Around the clock” Trotter said. “What about Lev Potok, and the Israelis” A fleeting look of relief crossed Troner’s features. “That’s up to Murphy. He’s taken it to the president. They’re going to have to decide what they’re going to tell the Mossad”
“If it’s Kurshin aboard that sub, and we both know it is, he won’t be making for the Black Sea. His target has always been En Gedi. The Israelis have to be warned”
“It’s out of my hands, Kirk. Murphy knows the situation and so does the president. It’s up to them, not us”
“What about you in the meantime” McGarvey asked. “You’re going to have to get out of Italy, immediately. I’ll be working out something”
“Where do we meet when it’s over”
“Here. If the light is on in the window, it’s safe. Otherwise we’ll meet in the Piazza San Pietro”
“In front of the Vatican”
“Right” Trotter said. “Watch yourself”
The odor that had begun to permeate the Indianapolis had gotten to all of them. No one had eaten very much, nor had they slept. Makayev had Ordered the boat’s heating systerm turned low, but it hadn’t helped. At sunset their sonarman, Lieutenant Rama, reported that activity on the surface had dropped off sharply An hour later nothing moved above. Everyone else had gravitated forward to the control center.
The orders Kurshin had given them had only taken them this far. They all wanted off the submarine now. Kurshin hit the comms button. “Lieutenant Rama”
“Sonar, aye”
“Still quiet above”
“Yes, Comrade Colonel”
