to stay here.” Pope wrapped the loose end of his line around a stanchion and secured it with a half hitch. “If he’s lying to me, he’ll ride this boat to the bottom.”
Marcel Hurtubise heard the words and concentrated on the man’s tone. From a lifetime of closely reading human behavior, he thought he had taken the measure of Victor Pope. But now was not the time for discourse. The Frenchman emitted a realistic gagging, choking sound.
It was not imitation.
81
“Everybody back?” Langevin had not made a head count, and as chief investigator he felt responsible for the operation at this point.
“Everybody but one,” Pope said.
Langevin looked around. At that moment
“Vic, are you really going to let that Frenchman go down if the ship sinks?”
Pope almost grinned. “Well, let’s just say I want him to think so.”
“My God,” the scientist exclaimed. “If there is another charge hidden someplace, the ship could sink pretty fast. I mean, it’s not very big.”
Langevin lowered his voice. “Look,” he began. “My area is physics, but I know one or two things about explosives. If Hurtubise is hog-tied, he can’t detonate any hidden charges if even he wanted to. So what’s the point?”
“My point is, Doctor, that he could’ve set a timer. And I don’t think it would’ve been for very long because he wouldn’t want us looking in the hold. If we get some contraband yellow cake, that can be used against him.”
Langevin lowered his gaze to the deck, obviously pondering the SEAL’s logic. “Okay, that makes sense. But how much longer will you wait?”
Pope looked at his watch. “It’s now been about fifty minutes. I’m going to let him wait an hour-plus and then I’ll go back.”
“Well, okay. But I sure would like to get to that hold before something…”
A low, rumbling
“That’s it!” Pope exclaimed. Ignoring Langevin, he called over the side. “Jeff! Fire up the Zodiac! Get me over there right now!”
The old freighter was settling by the stern when Pope scrambled up the accommodation ladder. He dashed down to the galley and found Hurtubise still bound hand and foot.
“Ah, Commander,” the Frenchman exclaimed.
Pope barely resisted the urge to put a boot in the man’s face. “I ought to let you sink!”
“But you will not. Just as I knew you wouldn’t.” The smug tone in Hurtubise’s voice told Pope the story.
The American leaned down, produced his knife, and held it to Hurtubise’s nose. Pope wondered if the mercenary had heard of Captain Zikri’s acquaintance with that same piece of tempered steel. The blade made no obvious impression on the phlegmatic saboteur, so Pope cut the flex cuff on the Frenchman’s feet. Hurtubise was hauled upright and shoved toward the exit.
Descending the boarding ladder was awkward with his hands bound behind his back, but Hurtubise wasted little time getting off the doomed ship. As the Zodiac motored away, he looked back. The bow was well clear of the water now, the hull beginning to list to port. “I fear that Captain Zikri will be disappointed in me,” he said. The crooked smile on his face was more than Pope could abide. He erased the superior grin with a right hook that laid the offender prone in the rubber craft.
“Watch your mouth,” Pope said.
90
A day out of Casablanca, the SSI team held a meeting to discuss options. There had been time on the way north to “interview” the former passengers and crew of M/V
Bernard Langevin scanned the interrogation reports and shook his head. “This Hurtubise is a crafty SOB, I’ll say that for him. He left two fairly small charges for us to find and put the big ones where we wouldn’t see them unless we inspected the hull. And there wasn’t time for that.”
“But why’d he bother to scuttle the ship?” Malten asked. “He still knew he’d get caught.”
“Well, yes, but there’s more to it,” Langevin replied. “Basically, no evidence, no crime. Look, we know the ship had yellow cake aboard. But even if we had some of it, who’s to say where it was headed?”
Pope was incredulous. “My God, Bernie, we
“Sure we do. But how would we prove it? The cargo manifest didn’t list it, of course, and the ports of call included three countries
“How’s that?”
“Well, look at it legally,” Langevin replied. “Basically, we committed piracy. That’s right: we seized a ship conducting rightful passage through international waters. We had no formal standing with any government— especially the United States — and that’s how Washington wants it. So it’s a standoff. Neither side can complain without drawing unwelcome attention on itself.”
“Well I’ll be dipped.” Pope turned to Cohen. “Alex, what do you make of all this?”
The Israeli agent shrugged eloquently. “Near as I can tell, Bernie’s right. But the main thing is that we prevented the yellow cake from reaching Iran.”
“I still don’t understand one thing,” Pfizer said. “Why didn’t they rig the ship for scuttling before? I mean, if they intended to surrender anyway, why go through all the trouble? They lost people they didn’t have to.”
“Good question,” Langevin replied. “From what I got from their captain, he didn’t know about it. My guess is that he wouldn’t have allowed Hurtubise to prepare for scuttling. From his view, getting boarded and having the cargo confiscated was preferable to losing the ship, even with insurance coverage. Looks like Hurtubise just pretended to go along with the program until he saw how things shook out.”
Pope asked, “So what happens to Hurtubise and his mercs?”
“That’s beyond me. But I’m somewhere between a cynic and a skeptic regarding international legal matters. After all, neither the U.S., French, Libyan, or Iranian governments want this thing publicized.” He wanted to add,
Phil Green was still mulling over the death of Don Pace. “Excuse me, sir, but these bastards killed two of our guys. And where’s the Chad Government in all this? After all, their contractor was smuggling yellow cake, and killed some troopies in Chad.”
Bernard Langevin, with wider knowledge of the world than Phil Green, tried to recall a time when he shared the younger man’s sense of justice. He could not.
“I guess this isn’t the first time that two PMCs have shot at each other, and I don’t suppose it’ll be the last.” Gathering his thoughts, Langevin added, “The Chadian government has lots of people. Believe me, it doesn’t care about a few casualties. Not even those that SSI trained.”
Green regarded the scientist with a level gaze, equal to equal. “Don’t make it right, sir.”
