The man shook his head vigorously, gestured with the muzzle of his weapon.
'Were you hatched from an egg?' Jake asked and looked at the other man. 'Did you have a mother, a sister, a girlfriend? Are you thugs or divers?'
The second man said something to the first in French, then said to Jake in English, 'Put on bandages.'
Jake removed the first aid kit from its brackets, sat beside Zelda, and opened it. Tommy Carmellini was holding her head in his lap. They were half under the table in the little space, so they were hard to see from the doorways, where the guards stood.
Jake started on the wound that was bleeding the worst. He used tape to close the cut, then slapped a bandage over the wound and taped it in place.
'Who did this?' he whispered.
'Heydrich.'
When he got to the wound in her neck — Heydrich had sliced alongside her jugular vein — Jake whispered, 'He thinks he knows where the satellite is. Did you tell him?'
Her eyes focused on him. He saw her eyebrows move.
'I'm Grafton. Rear Admiral Grafton.'
The tie around his wrists impeded his efforts. The man who had put it on pulled it too tight, so his fingers were swelling. He turned her head so that he could see the neck wound better. There was disinfectant in the kit; he squirted some on the wound, then taped it shut.
'They didn't kill Zip Vance,' he said. 'He's in the hospital.'
It was then, with her head turned so that the guards at the doors could not see her face, that she said, 'It isn't where he thinks.'
'Where then?'
He could barely hear her answer. 'I told him and he didn't believe me. Cape Barbas. Ten miles out.'
'Does Peter Kerr know where it is?'
'I don't think so.'
'You there!' the first guard said loudly. 'Stop talking!'
They heard the metallic clang as the minisub lowered itself onto the hull, then the solid thunks of the hydraulic locks going home. Both guards looked behind them, along the passageways. They hadn't been aboard long enough to become familiar with the sounds.
Jake used that moment to whisper to Carmellini, 'Up my sleeve.' Tommy reached and in one smooth motion had the knife in his hand, hidden by his arm. He waited, and soon Jake moved his hands out of sight of the guards.
Carmellini sliced the tie that bound the admiral's wrists, then passed him the knife.
Another minute passed, then another. They heard someone coming along the passageway. Sure enough, both guards craned to see who it was. Grafton sliced the tie from Carmellini's wrists and passed him the knife.
Heydrich appeared in the doorway. 'Where are the others?' Jake asked.
'I ask the questions,' Heydrich said, unwilling to give the prisoners any leverage. He nodded toward Zelda Hudson. 'Is she still alive?'
'No thanks to you. I thought we ought to keep her breathing, just in case. Wouldn't want you and your pals to face a murder charge, would we?'
The guards both looked queasy. It was evident that they hadn't known murder was on the agenda when they volunteered.
'Keep them quiet and seated,' Heydrich said to his colleagues and climbed the ladder toward the control room.
After a half minute or so, Jake asked conversationally, 'What's the sentence in France these days for slicing up a woman? Do they still do the guillotine thing?'
'Not anymore,' Toad said. 'The French are pretty civilized. They did away with capital punishment, even though they eat slimy stuff.' 'Quiet!' snarled the first guard. He took a half step into the room, threatened Toad and Jake with the weapon he held.
Carmellini jerked an ankle out from under him. As he did, Toad grabbed for the weapon.
They would all have been dead if the second guard had leveled his Uzi and pulled the trigger, but he didn't. He ran forward toward the crew's berthing.
'The gun,' Jake said and grabbed for it. 'Use the E-grenades. What's the fuse delay?' 'Three minutes.'
While Toad was cutting the others loose, Carmellini removed two E-grenades from his socks, pulled the pins, and twisted the caps half a turn, starting the timers. He handed one of the things to Jake and kept one for himself.
With the Uzi at the ready, Jake Grafton started for the ladder to the control room. That's when he heard the thock of the hydraulic locks releasing the minisub.
He looked. The top of the ladder well seemed to be behind the plotting table. Jake eased his head up, crawled half out, and looked down the aisleway in front of the sonar consoles. He saw several pairs of feet.
'What is going on?' There was panic in that voice. 'Someone stole the minisub.' Heydrich's voice. 'See it on the sonar? We'll make a turn and run over the bastards.'
Jake felt the floor tilt as Heydrich cranked the rudder and helm over. Without being told, Jake knew it was Heydrich at the controls. He weighed the E-grenade in his hand. A minute so far?
He scrambled on up the ladder, staying low, behind the plotting table. He turned, mouthed a request to Carmellini: 'More grenades.' Tommy passed up three. All had the pins removed. Jake aimed the Uzi at the port-side sonar consoles, triggered a burst. The reports were deafening, followed by the sounds of glass showering over everything. Grafton threw an E-grenade the length of the room, then another and another.
The admiral could hear someone sobbing — it was Eck — as he pulled another E-grenade from his sock and armed it, then flipped it down the starboard aisle.
He was peering around the starboard side of the plotting table when someone grabbed him around the neck. He could feel a hand on his neck, squeezing like a vise, while another hand and arm forced his head around. From above.
Heydrich had come over the consoles and plotting table. He was on the table now, reaching down, trying to twist Jake's head from his shoulders with his right hand and arm while he choked him with his left.
Somehow Jake dropped the Uzi. Forgot he had it as the pain became unbearable.
As suddenly as it began, the pressure was released. Jake looked up. Toad Tarkington had come up the ladderway and slashed Heydrich across the face. Cut him to the bone. Cut out an eye. Blood sprayed everywhere.
Heydrich rolled off the table screaming. He was on the floor, trying to get his pistol out of its holster in the cramped space, when the first E-grenade went off with a metallic boom and an unpleasant jolt of energy.
The lights went out. The darkness was absolutely total. A pistol flashed. Heydrich fired a shot! He stopped screaming, struggling instead to get air in and out.
More grenades went off. Jake scrambled into the port aisle as Heydrich triggered more shots. A bullet hit something and ricocheted madly, a series of whacks.
The bastard thinks he's blind, Jake thought. He's shooting at everything.
He waited.
And was rewarded with more jolts of energy as the rest of the electromagnetic grenades exploded.
He heard Heydrich running forward, bouncing off things.
Jake stood and triggered an Uzi burst. In the hammering strobe of the muzzle flashes, he saw Heydrich disappear through the forward door to the control room. And missed him.
'Don't shoot. For God's sake, don't shoot!' That was Eck.
Boldt was somewhere forward, sobbing.
Jake slipped up the port aisle. Two men were on the floor — he could hear them. The darkness was total. Not a single form or shape could he discern.
The silence was deafening. Even the screws had stopped.
'Okay, Sonny. Get up here and save our sorry asses.'
He went forward, feeling his way.
