now, so that should bring some help in a couple of hours. On the other hand, we're cut off from the mainland, and who knows how much help will arrive? My guess is that it might take some time before the scale of the problem becomes known and adequate reinforcements are thrown in. We may have to hold until morning or even later.'
'Not a long time for a siege,' said Henssen.
'Long enough when modern weaponry is involved,' said Fitzduane. 'But let's save conjecture till later. First of all, I want to review our preparations.' He turned to the Bear. The Swiss detective's formal training and his personal interest in weaponry made him the natural choice as armorer.
'We've improved our small-arms position,' said the Bear, 'thanks to the weapons taken from the frogmen and from DrakerCollege. In fact, unless we arm some of the students, we have more weapons than people to use them. Starting with automatic weapons, as of now, we have the four SA-80 rifles, one M-16, one AK-47, five Ingrams, and three Uzis – that's fourteen in all. In conventional rifles, we have Murrough's. 303 Lee-Enfield and two. 303 deer rifles I found in the armory.
'Moving on to shotguns, we have one Remington pump action – that's the shotgun Hugo brought back from Switzerland – one Browning automatic shotgun, and six double-barrel shotguns.' He turned to Fitzduane. 'Including a pair of Purdeys, I see,' he added, referring to the famous English sporting guns, each individually tailored and costing about as much as a suburban house.
'It's a long story,' said Fitzduane, 'which will keep.'
'That makes a total of eight shotguns,' continued the Bear, 'although only the Remington and the Browning are of much military use. The next category is handguns. We have seven – four nine-millimeter Brownings, one nine millimeter Mauser broom handle, a U.S. Army. 45 Colt service automatic, and a rather old. 45 Webley. Ammunition: moderately healthy if everyone maintains fire discipline and uses either single shot or short bursts; not so good if we all operate on full automatic. In numbers, we have about three thousand rounds of 5.56-millimeter ammunition left, about fifteen hundred of nine-millimeter, over a thousand rounds of assorted shotgun ammunition, and less than two full clips for the AK-47. In terms of other firepower, we have a regular arsenal of antique weapons, including half a dozen muskets, two crossbows in full working order, and Christian's longbow.'
'My longbow is not an antique,' objected de Guevain.
'Whatever,' said the Bear. 'The point is that we have a large collection of weapons of limited military value in modern terms, but some of which could prove useful. I've distributed them around the castle to be grabbed in emergencies. The muskets, incidentally, are loaded, so be careful.'
'I assume you'll be using a crossbow, Heini,' said de Guevain.
'The Swiss national weapon wasn't the crossbow, as it happens, but the pike or halberd.'
'Let's get back to other firepower,' said Fitzduane.
'Well,' continued the Bear, 'here we have the Hawk forty-millimeter grenade launcher and about thirty grenades of different types. We have a box of conventional hand grenades. We have some C-4 explosives and Claymores we took off the frogmen's raft, and we have some home brew made with weed killer and sugar and diesel oil and other trimmings. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of gasoline, since the castle vehicles run on diesel, but we've siphoned a few gallons from the Volvo to make Molotov cocktails.' He looked at Fitzduane. 'I used the poteen to make up for the gas shortage. I'm afraid I made quite a dent in your reserve stock.'
'My whiskey.' Fitzduane paled. 'You've taken my whiskey and mixed it with gasoline?'
'Hard to tell the difference sometimes,' muttered Henssen.
'What about the cannon?' asked de Guevain. 'Are we going to give them a try?' He was referring to the two small eighteenth-century cannon that normally stood in the bawn.
'We'll see,' said the Bear. 'There is only a small stock of black powder, which I'm keeping for the muskets. That means using our weed killer explosive for the cannon – with trial and error being the only way of working out the right load. I can't say I'd like to be the gunner during those tests.'
'They'd be ideal for covering the gate,' said de Guevain. 'We can load them with nails and broken glass and the like to get a shrapnel effect.'
'Let's do it,' urged Fitzduane. 'We'll try a few test shots at one of the outhouses to get the loading right – and use a long fuse.'
'And watch out for the recoil,' said Henssen, 'or your toes will be flattened – or worse.'
'This fellow obviously knows what he's talking about,' said the Bear. 'And I thought you only knew about computers. Consider yourself volunteered.'
Henssen raised his eyes to the ceiling. 'Why did I open my big mouth?'
'Good question, said de Guevain.
The review continued, covering the placing of the Claymores, distribution of the hand-held radios, food, medical backup, blackening of faces, duty rosters, and the host of matters, major and minor, essential to consider if the castle was to be defended properly.
'Is there any way we haven’t thought of so far that we can send for help?' said Harry Noble. The ambassador's face was pale and strained, the shock of his son's death etched on his features. For the moment the heavy work load was keeping him sane. Fitzduane didn't like to think about the private torments the man would face in the future. To have killed your own son; it was a nightmare. The Hangman had much to answer for.
'Fair point,' said Fitzduane. 'The question is how. We're completely surrounded and now their ship-'
'The Sabine,' said the Bear.
'The Sabine,' continued Fitzduane, 'is blocking the seaward route.' The ship, now that the focus of the Hangman's attention had switched to Fitzduane's castle, had left the point and was less than half a mile offshore from the castle.
There was silence for a few moments. The fact was that sooner or later the Rangers should realize that something was wrong and send help. In contrast, no one present had any illusions about the dangers of trying to break through the Hangman's cordon, let alone getting off the island.
'Something else to think about,' said Fitzduane. 'We don't want to let the Hangman get hold of a hostage.'
Harry Noble nodded. 'That's something I hadn't considered. Perhaps we should wait it out.'
Fitzduane looked around. From everyone's eyes he could tell there was general agreement to wait, so they moved on to discuss the students. Some were still in shock at what had happened, but a number, refreshed after eating and intrigued by the preparations they had witnessed while filling sandbags and doing other manual work, wanted to join the active defenders. They were now bunked down behind locked doors in a storeroom off the tunnel. They hadn't gone willingly. The protests had been vigorous and had died down only when Fitzduane explained the problem: After the business of the Sacrificers, who could be trusted?
'I don't know about keeping them all locked up,' said Andreas. 'I appreciate the problem, but I think we're going to have to arm a few of them. We need the manpower. The perimeter is too big to hold for long with what we've got.'
There was some agreement with this view. The defenders were stretched thin, and things would get worse after dusk.
'They're not kids,' said Judith. 'Many of them are about my age.'
The Bear smiled.
'Look,' continued the Israeli girl, 'they know the security problem. Why not let them pick some volunteers? They ought to be able to pick some people who can be trusted – unless you think they've all been suborned.'
Fitzduane shook his head. 'No, we probably don't' have a security problem with the students anymore, but even so I'm reluctant to pout them on the firing line. Let's compromise. Let's put them to work picking some volunteers, but let's not use them unless we really have to.'
'Makes sense,' said the Bear.
Fitzduane looked at Andreas and Judith.
'Fair enough,' Andreas agreed.
'Judgment of Solomon,' said Judith.
'Let's get on to considering what we're up against,' continued Fitzduane, 'and the options open to the Hangman.'
He looked at Noble, who had been given the job of coordinating everything they knew, including the string of reports from those on watch. The ambassador, de Guevain, and Henssen had then put themselves in the
