several dolphins who came in regularly for conversational practice and a game of checkers had mentioned passing an atoll far to the south (location uncertain but apparently within a hundred kilometers of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago) which was ringed with small floating things, made of metal and plastic, spaced every kilometer or so around the atoll at about a sixty kilometer radius. They were apparently connected by wire to the island, and made no sound at all according to the dolphin, who had been asked to go back and find out more. He seemed curious about it; he'd mentioned the subject hoping Dr. Kaja, the marine biologist who operated the research station and who had filed the report, could tell him what they were.
He'd asked a couple other dolphins he'd met on the way back; they'd noticed the things and supposed they were listening devices, but they didn't particularly care.
'The island would have to be between seven and eight degrees south,' said Illya, studying the wall map and tilting his head to read- the angled lettering.
'Listening devices?' said Joan.
'Sonar and radar and other detection systems mostly emit loud signals which tell the whole world somebody's there,' Napoleon explained. 'The same reason to use photomultipliers to see in the dark instead of an infrared searchlight.'
'And floating like that they can listen in the air and underwater,' Illya added. 'They will be very difficult to sneak up on.'
'While you're on your way up here,' Mr. Waverly said, 'I filed a revised request with NASA specifying high- resolution mapping shots of the appropriate quadrangle. This request is being processed at the moment. Apparently, Mrs. – ah – Solo, that twin-jet had a somewhat higher cruising speed than your travelling companion knew.'
'Oh, I learned long ago never to trust anything a Thrush tells me.
The deskside telephone chimed and Waverly answered it. 'Yes? Ah. Very good… Oh. Oh? Have you compared -' His eyebrows knitted as he bent full attention on the telephone and his audience sat silent and staring. 'I see. Yes, that is in itself informative. Can we arrange to have that particular set of co-ordinates photographed again as soon as possible? I see. Yes, by all means use my name if necessary to get it done. Thank you.'
He hung up and drummed his fingers for a moment. 'One frame is missing from the series, replaced by a re- coded duplicate of another frame of vacant sea. Apparently that one negative has been tampered with in the master files.'
He cleared his throat and looked sharply at Joan, 'Are you still as anxious to rush into the jaws of death?'
'Absolutely,' said Joan, gripping Napoleon's hand and smiling up at him. 'I wouldn't miss it for the world.'
'You think the missing negative is proof enough, then?' said Illya.
'I believe its absence is most eloquent, Mr. Kuryakin. We will not rush into action before spying out the terrain, but we might do well to transfer our central operation, quietly, to Makasar pending an interview with Dr. Kaja and his trained fish. Mr. Solo, what do you feel about taking your wife on such a business trip?'
'Frankly, sir, I wouldn't want to leave her behind. I think I'd be afraid something would happen to her before I got back. Even under the circumstances, I'd feel better if she was with me.'
Waverly nodded. 'Very well. Her knowledge of the terrain will be useful, especially if we are unable to get that satellite picture. It will require repositioning one over the Gulf of Tonkin, and may take some time.' He. fumbled his pipe and rolled leather pouch out of a side pocket and dipped a pungent bowlful which he tamped with stained thumb and forefinger. 'I presume you can be ready to leave for Indonesia tomorrow evening. The sooner we get there, the sooner we will be acclimatized. This week we can spare three days – next week we will need all our faculties at optimum pitch.'
'Next week?'
'Thrush Island knows we've been tapping the Ultimate Computer – the remote destruct command directed at our illicit terminal demonstrates that. Beyond a doubt they are racing to replace their lost hardware and renew the offensive.
If I knew absolutely that this unnamed island was the Thrush base we seek, I would order an attack on it at once. But pending verification by a NASA photograph – or positive identification by a qualified dolphin – I plan to be ready to move against them.'
'Next week?'
'I confidently expect so.'
'Then,' said Illya, 'Southward, Ho!'
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
An U.N.C.L.E. jet carried them from Djakarta to the small field at Makasar in just under two hours. From 40,000 feet the ocean was a featureless cloud – streaked sheet in shades of greens and blues varying with the depth except where odd-shaped lumps of greenish-black broke the surface, jungle-tipped peaks rising from the vast sunken plain beneath the shallow Java Sea. At last they saw ahead a jagged spine of mountains jutting from the sea, mist-shrouded and kar; a bony peninsula springing from a body of land which was only a shadow on the edge of the world to their left and fading towards the horizon to their right. Before the sea on the far side had vanished behind the mountains, they started their long descent towards a city which lay at the foot of a lush valley on the near coast.
Fifteen minutes later the door swung down and became a short set of steps leading to a red-cinder paved airstrip and stifling heat. Napoleon's light summer suit, comparatively comfortable in a New York heat wave, seemed suddenly bulkier and oppressive as he ducked slightly through the hatch and the interior air-conditioning vanished behind him.
A two-storey tower and a row of white buildings made up the airport facility. In the main waiting room, next to customs, they were greeted tentatively by a young woman in pink.
'U.N.C.L.E.?' she said as they entered.
'Yes,' said Mr. Waverly.
'My name is Merah Diambu – I'm Dr. Kaja'sassistant. Ladju came in this morning and they've been working over charts all day. He's just full of information. He's been back to the island, and he's checked with several locals apparently.'
'Fascinating. Does he talk to strangers?'
'He's never had the opportunity, but I shouldn't doubt it. Come on, I have a car outside. Unless you're waiting for luggage?'
'No,' said Napoleon. 'That's coming separately, since we don't know how long we'll be staying. Do you really talk to fish?'
'Of course not. No cold-blooded animal has intelligence capable of speech. Dolphins are as mammalian as people – and possibly more intelligent. We couldn't learn to talk to them, but some of them are learning to talk to us. You must be Napoleon Solo.'
They exchanged information on the short drive south to a small group of buildings around the foot of a short low pier facing the declining sun, and Merah recited the names correctly to Dr. Larry Kaja, who squatted beside a wide shallow pool in which eight lazily moving feet of sleek power reclined on a bed of dark sand near a two-way hydrophone. Dr. Kaja was young, squarefaced, bearded and tanned. 'Can he hear us?' asked Joan.
'Probably. Can you hear them?' Dr. Kaja addressed his microphone.
'You've got the initial L pretty good, but you lost the first one right after the plosive.'
