States Coast Guard. The Ramsland had secret compartments below decks but the Coast Guard knew all about those secret compartments. They held no less than thirty tons of marijuana, another smuggling record. The proceeds from the sale of those drugs were, of course, intended to fund IRA terrorist activities.'
'We became quite interested in the drugs-terrorist connection,' Talbot said, 'and made some discreet enquiries. At least five other drug-terrorist connections had been discovered and broken up. It is believed that considerably more connections have not been discovered and so not broken up. Why should Andropulos be an exception to what appears to be a fairly well established rule?'
'A suitably chastened admiral sits before you,' Hawkins said. 'We live, we learn. You two should join Denholm and offer your services to MI5. Ah, the man himself.'
Denholm entered the cabin with Theodore, who handed over to Talbot some papers he had with him. Talbot looked at them and handed them over to Hawkins.
'Well, well, well,' Hawkins said. 'What an interesting coincidence or, in view of what I've just been learning, perhaps not all that much of a coincidence. Fifteen of the towns that Greek Intelligence asterisked — if that's the word — on their list. Only, in this case — my, my, my! — they give names and addresses. Isn't that splendid? Captain, a thought has occurred to me. There's one of those towns marked with an asterisk that you omitted to mention. Washington, DC. Does that come under D for drugs or T for terrorism?'
'Neither. B for bribery. Are you about through this list, Theodore?'
'Two-thirds, I would say.'
'And that will be the end of it?'
'No, Captain. There's still a last list.'
'It would be gratifying if it held some more revelations, but perhaps that would be too much to hope for. How long have you been up and around, Theodore?'
'Three o'clock this morning. Three-thirty. I'm not sure, I was a bit fuzzy. If I had known what would be required of me this morning I wouldn't have gone to that birthday celebration last night.'
'And it's now noon, or thereabouts. Seven hours of beating your brains out when you weren't feeling all that hot to begin with. You must be exhausted. But I would appreciate it if you could at least finish this present list off. After that, Jimmy, I suggest that Theodore has a drink, snack and snooze in that order.' The two men left. 'If you agree, Admiral, I suggest that Vincent contacts Greek Intelligence after Theodore has finished that list and furnishes them with a list of the towns together with the appropriate names and addresses. Could help.'
'And what do you imagine Greek Intelligence can do?'
'Very little, I imagine. But they can forward the list, with utmost urgency, to Interpol. Admittedly, Interpol's writ doesn't run worldwide — they would have zero clout in places, say, like Tripoli, Tehran or Beirut — and they are an information gathering and dispensing agency not an executive unit, and they know more about bad people than any other group in the world. And ask them if they suspect ? suspect, not have proof- that Andropulos is engaged in drug-running.'
'Shall be done, sir. Sign it 'Admiral Hawkins'?'
'Naturally.'
Hawkins shook his head. 'Admiral Hawkins here, Admiral Hawkins there, it seems he's signing his name everywhere. Or, rather somebody's signing it for him. I shall have to look to my cheque-books.'
Chapter 7
I The heavy steel derrick projected upwards and outwards from | the midships side of the Kilcharran at an angle of about thirty degrees off the vertical. From the winch at the foot of the derrick the hawser rose upwards through the pulley at the top of the derrick and then descended vertically into the sea. The lower end of the hawser was attached to a heavy metal ring which was distanced about twenty feet above the fuselage of the sunken plane: from the ring, two shorter cables, bar-taut, were attached to the two lifting slings that had been attached fore and aft to the nose and tail of the bomber.
The winch turned with what seemed to most watchers an agonizing and frustrating slowness. There was ample electrical power available to have revolved the drum several times as quickly but Captain Montgomery was in no hurry. Standing there by the winch, he exhibited about as much anxiety and tension as a man sitting with his eyes closed in a garden deckchair on a summer's afternoon. Although it was difficult to visualize, it was possible that a sling could have loosened and slipped and Montgomery preferred not to think what might happen if the plane should slip and strike heavily against the bottom, so he just stood patiently there, personally guiding the winch's control wheel while he listened with clamped earphones to the two divers who were accompanying the plane on its ten foot a minute ascent.
After about five minutes the grotesque shape of the plane — grotesque because of the missing left wing — could be dimly discerned through the now slightly wind-ruffled surface of the sea. Another three minutes and the lifting ring came clear of the water. Montgomery centred the winch wheel, applied the brake, went to the gunwale, looked over the rail and turned to the officer by his side.
'Too close in. Fuselage is going to snag on the underside. Have to distance it a bit. More fenders fore and aft ? ' the side of the Kilcharran was already festooned with rubberized fenders '- and lay out ropes to secure the nose and tail of the plane.' He returned to the winch, eased forward on a lever and slowly lowered the derrick until it was projecting outwards from the ship's side at an angle of forty degrees above the horizontal. The plane, which could now be clearly seen only twenty feet below the surface, moved sluggishly outwards from the ship's side. Montgomery started up the winch again and soon the top of the plane's fuselage broke the surface. He stopped the winch when the top eighteen inches was clear. The starboard wing was still beneath the surface. Montgomery turned to Admiral Hawkins.
'So far, a simple and elementary exercise. With luck, the rest of it should be equally straightforward. We cut away the appropriate section on the top of the fuselage while attaching more flotation bags to the undersides of the fuselage and the wing and inflating those. Then we'll lift a bit more until the fuselage is almost clear of the water and go inside.' He lifted a ringing phone, thanked the caller and replaced the receiver. 'Well, perhaps not quite so straightforward. It would appear that the timing device has stopped ticking.'
'Has it now?' Hawkins didn't look particularly concerned and certainly not upset. 'It could have happened at a better time and a better place. But it had to happen. So our friend is armed.'
'Indeed. Still, no reason why we shouldn't go ahead as planned.'
'Especially as we have no option. Every person on both ships to be warned. No mechanical devices to be used: no banging or crashing, everyone on fairy tiptoes. They already know that, of course, but I imagine they'll now redouble their caution.'
A gangway had been lowered down the ship's side until one of its feet rested on the plane's fuselage. Carrington and Grant descended and ran a tape-measure back along the top of the fuselage from the cockpit ? the internal distance from the cockpit to the exact location of the bomb had already been measured ? to the corresponding area above. This they mopped dry with engine-room waste and then proceeded to paint the outline of a black rectangle to guide the two men with the oxyacetylene cutters who were already standing by.
Hawkins said: 'How long will this take?'
'I can only guess,' Montgomery said. 'An hour, maybe a bit longer. We don't know how thick the fuselage skin is or how tough it is. We don't know how thick or tough the lateral reinforcing members are. What I do know is that we're going to cut with the lowest possible flame that will do the job ? even with that reduced power we're going to generate a fair amount of heat in the air-space and water below. It goes without saying that no one has ever done this sort of thing before.'
'Will your standing here, supervising operations ? just looking on, rather ? help things along? Resolve the unknown, I mean.'
'Not a bit of it. Ah! Lunch?'
'Whether we're here or in the wardroom of the Ariadne, it's not going to make all that difference if this lot goes up.'
'True, true. A millisecond here, a millisecond there. The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast. In our case, lunch.'
