you check out the preparations to put a line aboard the tanker? David
turned to leave the bridge, but Nicholas stopped him. 'By the time we
get there, we will have the kind of wind you have only dreamed about in
your worst nightmares - just keep that in mind. 'Telex, screeched the
Trog. Golden Dawn is replying to our offer. Nicholas strode across to
the radio room, and read the first few lines of message as it printed
out.
OFFER CONTRACT OF DAILY HIRE FOR TOWAGE THIS VESSEL FROM PRESENT
POSITION TO GALVESTON ROADS The bastard/ Nicholas snarled. He's playing
his fancy games with me, in the teeth of a hurricane and with my boy
aboard. Furiously he punched his fist into the palm of his other hand.
Right! he snapped. We'll play just as rough! Get me the Director of
the U.S. Coast Guard at the Fort Lauderdale Headquarters - get him on
the emergency coastguard frequency and I will talk to him in clear. The
Trog's face lit with malicious glee and he made the contact, Colonel
Ramsden/ Nicholas said. This is the Master of Warlock. I'm the only
salvage vessel that can reach Golden Dawn before passage of Lorna, and
I'm probably the only tug on the eastern seaboard of America with 22,000
horsepower. Unless the Golden Dawn's Master accepts Lloyd's Open Form
within the next sixty minutes, I shall be obliged to see to the safety
of my vessel and crew by running for the nearest anchorage - and you're
going to have a million tons of highly toxic crude oil drifting out of
control into your territorial waters, in hurricane conditions. The
Coast Guard Director had a deep measured voice, and the calm tones of a
man upon whom the mantle of authority was a familiar garment.
Stand by, Warlock, I am going to contact Golden Dawn direct on Channel
16. Nicholas signalled the Trog to turn up the volume on Channel 16 and
they listened to Rarnsden speaking directly to Duncan Alexander.
In the event your vessel enters United States territorial waters without
control or without an attendant tug capable of exerting that control, I
shall be obliged under the powers vested in me to seize your vessel and
take such steps to prevent pollution of our waters as I see fit. I have
to warn you that those steps may include destruction of your cargo. Ten
minutes later the Trog copied a telex from Duncan Alexander personal to
Nicholas Berg accepting Lloyd's Open Form and requesting him to exercise
all dispatch in taking Golden Dawn in tow.
I estimate we will be drifting over the 100-fathom line and entering
U.S. territorial waters within two hours, the message ended.
While Nicholas read it, standing out on the protected wing of Warlock's
bridge, the wind suddenly fluttered the paper in his hand and flattened
his cotton shirt against his chest. He looked up quickly and saw the
wind was backing violently into the east, and beginning to claw the tops
of the Gulf Stream swells. The setting sun was bleeding copiously
across the high veils of cirrus cloud which now covered the sky from
horizon to horizon.
There was nothing more that Nicholas could do now.
Warlock was running as hard as she could, and all her crew were quietly
going about their preparations to pass a wire and take on tow. All he
could do was wait, but that was always the hardest part.
Darkness came swiftly but with the last of the light, Nicholas could
