^ Ask the bastard something, MacGowan reminded himself, make it sound like I believe him, for God's sake. He was beginning to feel the strain of being up all night and his face was lined with fatigue. He cleared his throat. 'We need to know what is going to happen to the hostages…'
^ LeCat sounded surprised, impatient. 'They come with us to the bus on Pier 31, of course…'
^ 'They will be released at the airport when we are safely aboard the plane. All except one man – he flies with us to Algiers.'
^ 'You will be told later.' LeCat sounded very impatient. 'Inform the airport at once…'
^ He went off the air before MacGowan could reply. The Governor looked round the room. In a desperate attempt to keep secret the fact that there was a nuclear device aboard the ship the action committee had been slimmed down to six men – MacGowan, Peretti, Karpis, Commissioner Bolan, Gen. Lepke and Stark, from the State Department. 'Don't let's underestimate our opponent,' the Governor warned. 'That LeCat is clever – if I didn't know about the nuclear device I might almost believe him, the way he keeps on checking details.'
^ 'He made no mention of the so-called ultimate demand,' Stark pointed out, 'And you didn't ask him about it…'
^ 'Deliberately. He's holding that back to keep us on a high wire.. Why should I jog his bloody elbow?'
^ The Apocalypse report was ready in two hours – a task which normally would have taken as many days – but as the men in the room below conferred more than one pair of eyes strayed to the window overlooking the Bay – because that was where it would come from when the nuclear device was detonated. The proximity concentrated their minds wonderfully. MacGowan went down to see them alone at noon.
^ 'Nothing as definite as I would like,' Reisel warned, 'but I assumed a crash analysis is better than a detailed report after…'
^ The thing has blown you to bits,'MacGowan completed for him. He knew it was bad the moment he entered the room; one look at the grave faces waiting for him told the Governor the worst. Or so he thought.
^ Reisel pointed to a map opened out on the table. 'That tells you better than I can – the circle…'
^ 'Oh, my God…' MacGowan recovered quickly. 'You mean it's going to take out nearly every city in the Bay area – Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo, Berkeley – even San Mateo?'
^ 'God, no!' Reisel sounded shocked. 'That's just the area of total annihilation from blast…'
^ MacGowan sat down in the chair vacated by Reisel and looked round at the fatalistic expressions of the men gathered at the table. He didn't like the atmosphere. 'And San Francisco?' he asked quietly.
^ 'Forget it – that's gone.' The man who replied was a gnome-like figure who sat opposite MacGowan, placidly puffing a pipe. MacGowan didn't like the look of him either: too detached and sure of himself.
^ MacGowan stared at Hooker who was watching him through rimless glasses as though he found politicians inexpressibly comic. The Governor had heard of Hooker, a scientist with a unique ^ ^ reputation, the only man who had warned Washington of the risk at the San Clemente nuclear power station just before the plant nearly ran wild.
^ 'This minority report of yours, Hooker,' he said. 'You disagree with the majority assessment? You feel they overstated their case?'
^ 'No. They've understated it – badly. I think the blast could easily destroy San Jose, which is many miles outside that circle…'
^ 'Radiation depends on the wind, of course. I estimate that if an average wind for this time of the year comes along – and the device detonates – half California could be at risk.'
^ 'Not yet…' Hooker was holding the floor, building up a head of steam. 'The geography of central California is well adapted to maximise the catastrophe. You see, we have a long valley – the San Joaquin – with population centres scattered along it to Bakersfield. With the wind in the right direction the radiation would be funnelled straight down the valley, so we have to start thinking of Fresno and Bakersfield…'
^ 'Raise your sights. It might well reach Los Angeles in lethal quantities. On the other hand, if the wind comes off the Pacific we can assume Reno is in trouble,' Hooker went on. 'I'd assume Salt Lake City would be safe…'
^ 'It had better be,' Hooker replied. 'I'm only guessing at the size of the device, but I could tell you more if I knew who had made it. The degree of competence is a crucial factor.'
^ 'I may be able to help you there,' MacGowan said slowly, 'even if it is a very long shot. Earlier this morning Karpis of the FBI phoned Paris for information on LeCat. He lit a fire under government circles over there, I gather. Half an hour ago he had a call from a Francois Messmer, a French counter-intelligence man. A couple of days ago, in some way, Messmer linked LeCat with a missing French nuclear physicist called Jean-Philippe Antoine…'
^ 'I know Antoine's work,' Hooker said. 'I met him once at an AEC meeting in Vienna. I thought he was dead. He was an ^ ^ innovator. If he designed the device we must be prepared for a very special kind of holocaust…'
^ At 1pm on Thursday January 23 MacGowan closed the Golden Gate bridge. At 1.30pm he closed the Bay bridge to Oakland. Half an hour later he shut down the BART – Bay Area Rapid Transport – subway. By two in the afternoon San Francisco, which stands on a peninsula, was isolated except for the roads going south through Palo Alto towards San Jos6 and along the coast.
^ The official reason for these unprecedented steps was that there were terrorists in the city connected with the men aboard the ^ Challenger. ^ To back up this explanation, all roads south had police road-blocks set up to check all traffic which might be transporting these fictitious men. For this measure, at least, there was unanimous approval from the Apocalypse men, including the maverick Hooker. 'When the device detonates,' Hooker said, 'both bridges will go, no doubt about it. And if it happened when they were carrying rush-hour traffic…'
^ They also agreed that the five other Bay bridges would be knocked out by the enormous shock-wave from the detonation. 'The blast will destroy all communications,' Hooker stated. 'Whatever is left of the Bay area after it happens will be isolated from the rest of the country…'
^ They had, these grim, spectacled men, MacGowan noted, begun talking about the catastrophe as a near- future inevitable event. This change had taken place after Karpis had referred to the French report on LeCat, a remark he made soon after yet another debate on whether the tanker should be stormed by a detachment of Marines.
^ 'I can't back that,' Karpis said. 'This Paris report says LeCat is, I quote, expert in the remote control of explosives, that is, detonation by radio signals, unquote. My guess is that at this moment LeCat is on the bridge of that ship with some kind of radio mechanism that can flash a signal to the nuclear device. If I'm right, he only has to press a button and…'
^ So far, by restricting the knowledge to only a few people, MacGowan had managed to keep secret the terrifying news about ^ ^ the nuclear device. He knew that, sooner or later, this news must leak out. If it reached LeCat, whom they assumed was listening to radio bulletins, it might just cause him to detonate the device at once; it depended on the degree of his fanaticism, a completely unknown quantity. If it reached the city, God knew what would happen.
^ MacGowan, a very tough man physically and mentally, was slowly being worn down by the massive weight of his responsibility, although outwardly he showed no signs of this. There was constant debate about whether or not to try and storm the ship, and each time MacGowan vetoed any such suggestion.'We already have a team aboard – even if they are still pinned down somewhere in the for'ard area. If fog comes tonight, they'll have their chance…'
^ There was constant debate about whether to start a mass-evacuation of the city. The Apocalypse men were again unanimous in their decision that people should start moving out at once. 'Do that,' MacGowan pointed out, 'and it will be screamer news in the radio bulletins, which LeCat must be checking on. He'll know then that we know – about what he has on board. He might press that button…'
^ More disturbing news had come in about LeCat's character. Winter had earlier told the action committee that the Frenchman had once lived in both Canada and the United States and a massive enquiry had been set in train. About the time MacGowan closed the Bay bridge a report came in from Quebec. A woman believed she had once rented a room to the terrorist; if it was the same man he had frequently expressed bitter anti-American views. Both decisions were postponed – about storming the vessel, about evacuating the city. At three in the afternoon LeCat came back on the ship-to-shore and made his ultimate demand.
^ Conditions inside the carpenter's store on the fo'c'sle of the ^ Challenger ^ were not good. The three men had now been confined below deck for fourteen hours, with only vitamin pills and a diminishing supply of water from one water-bottle to sustain ^ ^ them. They had foreseen that they might be there for several hours, but not for
