Meanwhile, he took a large chart of the Falkland Islands and stuck the point of his compass into the hill behind Port Sussex. From there he described a thirty-mile radius that ran way out to sea and took in all the little near-deserted harbors down the west coast of East Falkland, Kelp Harbor, Egg Harbor, Cygnet, Port King, Wharton, and Findlay.
'They're in there somewhere,' said Pablo the Conqueror. 'They're either in the hills or, more likely, on the coast. But we
CHAPTER TWELVE
At 1400 Major Pablo Barry ordered all aircraft out of the Pebble Island area and back to base, three helicopters to Goose Green, the rest to Mount Pleasant.
At 1500 a military aircraft bearing General Eduardo Kampf, and the C-in-C Fleet, Admiral Oscar Moreno, landed at Mount Pleasant for a high-emergency meeting with the commanders on the ground.
Major Barry spent a couple of hours debriefing them about the devastating events of the past twenty-four hours. And at 1700 they convened in an Army situation room, inside the old Mount Pleasant Airfield passenger terminal, to formulate a plan.
Each one of them was in agreement, the key to discovering the secret enemy was to round up the rustlers, and grill them, metaphorically, of course, before executing them all for the murder of four Argentine military personnel, several days after hostilities with Great Britain had formally ceased.
General Kampf was certain any SAS group would make for the coast, in order to seize their only possible chance of escape. The occupied fortress island of East Falkland had much in common with Alcatraz. It was surrounded by wide, dangerous waters, with no other way out.
'To remain here would mean certain capture,' said the General. 'These men are well trained and likely to be ruthless. I suggest they now have one aim in this life, and that's to beg, borrow, or steal a boat. They have no other option, and even that might not work.'
'I agree,' said Admiral Moreno. 'If we want to find them, we have to comb the shore by land and air. It will require a lot of troops, but we have a lot of troops. And we have as many helicopters as it takes.'
He glanced at his watch, and said quietly, 'It's heading for 1800 and growing dark. We must prepare to launch this manhunt at first light tomorrow. Therefore we should start to get organized right now, gas up the aircraft, establish pilot and aircrew schedules. That way we can go to work as soon as it's light over the airfields.'
If solutions were becoming simple in the front line of the Argentinian military, back in Buenos Aires they were becoming highly complex. The President of Argentina, in company with his principal ministers, had received this afternoon a somewhat perplexing note from the United States Ambassador Ryan Holland.
It came directly from the White House, and it was signed by the President himself, even though the letter itself had been crafted by the delicate hand of Admiral Arnold Morgan.
It read:
Dear Mr. President, Needless to say, we in Washington have been deeply saddened to hear of your recent losses of aircraft and warships on the Falkland Islands mainland. These were most unexpected attacks, and apparently without either reason or an obvious culprit. You will by now have received our electronic communique, with regard to reaching a satisfactory agreement with both Great Britain and the U.S. oil companies over the future of the new Malvinas. Perhaps you may feel inclined to furnish us with a reply, with a view to opening negotiations with all interested parties. The United States would be more than happy to both broker and host such talks. Yours Sincerely, Paul Bedford, President, United States of America.
The Argentine President at first read the letter with equanimity, but as he did so, he was aware of a certain sense of foreboding. The letter contained only three paragraphs, and the third was an expression of goodwill.
The first two were enormously more important, and they each seemed, at first sight, unrelated to the other…(1) Sorry about your mysterious losses of fighter aircraft and warships, (2) Perhaps you would now like to talk about an amicable solution.
His Defense Minister, the trusted veteran Vice-Admiral Horacio Aguardo, asked to read the communique from Washington once more. And he took several seconds to make a comment afterward. But he said, very firmly, 'Two things,
'Are you telling me the United States of America was responsible for the atrocities on the Malvinas?'
'Sir, I cannot say that. But that letter suggests the perpetrators of these military strikes against us may somehow answer to the United States.'
'As indeed, we ultimately will do, if we are not very careful.'
'Sir, I thought we were all agreed before we went into this conflict with Great Britain, it would be a straight fight between us and our very weakened opponents. With just a little help from our friends in the frozen north. We did not anticipate any U.S. involvement.'
'And until now, we were right,' replied the President. 'And even now we cannot be sure they had anything to do with the actual attacks at Pebble Island and Mare Harbor.'
'Nonetheless, there is an undercurrent in that letter from the U.S. President,' said Admiral Aguardo. 'You don't read it, you feel it. Because it is telling us if we don't come forward and toe the line, as laid down by the White House, something else will happen and we will not like it.'
'I know. I know. The feeling is hiding between every line of the letter.'
'Remind us, sir. What did that other communique from Washington suggest?'
'Well, the first one delivered ten days ago made it clear the USA did not approve of our military action, and when the time was right, Washington would step in on behalf of ExxonMobil.'
'Yes, of course,' said Dr. Carlos Montero, the Minister for Industry and Mining. 'But was there any indication of Washington's solution to the problem?'
'Absolutely,' replied the President. 'The President of the United States proposes that Argentina and Great Britain enter into a joint governing and handover period of two years. After that, with proper institutions put into operation, the Malvinas become a solely owned sovereign territory of the Republic of Argentina.
'At that point we wave good-bye to our friends from Great Britain, and Spanish becomes the official language of the islands, which will be ruled from Buenos Aires.'
'And the oil?'
'As a part of the agreement, that will immediately be handed back to ExxonMobil and British Petroleum, on a fifty-year contract between them and the Argentine government. The Americans will negotiate us a very fair royalty deal long into the future.'
'And how about for the next two years?'
'We will share that royalty with the government of Great Britain, sixty-six percent for us, thirty-three percent for them. They did, after all, manage the exploration and licensing for many years.'
Admiral Aguardo nodded gravely. 'And how about our friends in the Kremlin?' he said.
'Well, they will understand the sudden intervention of the Americans has rather changed the game,' replied the President. 'I've had a private word with the U.S. Ambassador, Ryan Holland, and he thinks the Russians will be happy to fade away, once they know we do not own the oil free and clear.'
'Yes, they probably won't want to raise their heads above the parapet,' said the Admiral. 'After all, the entire exercise cost them no more than a couple of plane fares and two torpedoes, I believe.'
'Perhaps,' said the President, 'but I don't much like being manhandled into a corner by the Americans. And quite frankly I do not think we should jump just because Uncle Sam has growled. And he's done that pretty quietly.'
