“Wouldn’t it be simpler to send divers across to the ice? You must have scuba equipment aboard.”
“And we’ve a number of well-trained frogmen,” Timoshenko said. “But even the leeward sea is much too rough for them. These waves and currents would carry them away as quickly as if they leaped into a waterfall.”
“We certainly don’t want anyone put at too great a risk on our behalf. It wouldn’t make sense to lose some people to save others. From what you said, your captain sounds confident. So I guess we’re better off leaving all the worrying to you. Have you anything else to tell me?”
“That’s all for the moment,” Timoshenko said. “Stay by your radio. We’ll keep you informed of developments.”
Everyone except Harry and George had something to say about the call from the Ilya Pogodin’s communications officer—suggestions about preparations to be made for the rescue party, ideas about how they might be able to help the Russians scale the leeward wall—and everyone seemed determined to say it first, now, instantly. Their voices, echoes of their voices, and echoes of the echoes filled the ice cave.
Harry acted as a moderator and tried to keep them from jabbering on to no point.
When George Lin saw that their excitement had begun to abate and that they were growing quieter, he finally joined the group and faced Harry. He had something to say after all, and he had only been waiting until he was certain he would be heard. “What was a Russian submarine doing in this part of the world?”
“This part of the world?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m afraid I don’t, George.”
“It doesn’t belong here.”
“But these are international waters.”
“They’re a long way from Russia.”
“Not all that far, actually.”
Lin’s face was distorted by anger, and his voice was strained. “But how did they learn about us?”
“From monitoring radio reports, I suppose.”
“Exactly. Precisely,” Lin said, as if he had proved a point. He looked at Fischer and then at Claude, searching for a supporter. “Radio reports. Monitoring.” He turned to Roger Breskin. “And why would the Russians be monitoring communications in this part of the world?” When Breskin shrugged, Lin said, “I’ll tell you why. For the same reason this Lieutenant Timoshenko speaks English so well: The Pogodin is on a surveillance mission. It’s a goddamned spy ship, that’s what it is.”
“Most likely,” Claude agreed, “but that’s hardly a startling revelation, George. We may not like it much, but we all know how the world works.”
“Of course it’s a spy ship,” Fischer said. “If it had been a nuclear-missile sub, one of their doomsday boats, they wouldn’t even let us know they were in the area. They wouldn’t allow one of those to break security. We’re lucky it’s a spy ship, actually, something they’re willing to compromise.”
Lin was clearly baffled by their lack of outrage, but he was determined to make them see the situation with the same degree of alarm that he himself obviously felt. “Listen to me, think about this: It isn’t just a spy ship.” His voice rose on the last few words. His hands were at his sides, opening and closing repeatedly, almost spastically. “It’s carrying motorized rafts, for God’s sake, and the equipment to rig a breeches buoy to point on land. That means it puts spies ashore in other countries, saboteurs and maybe even assassins, probably puts them ashore in our own countries.”
“Assassins and saboteurs may be stretching it,” Fischer said.
“Not stretching it at all!” Lin responded ardently. His face was flushed, and his sense of urgency grew visibly by the moment, as if the greatest threat were not the deadly cold or the sixty time bombs buried in the ice, but the Russian who proposed to rescue them. “Assassins and saboteurs. I’m sure of it, positive. These communist bastards—“
“They aren’t communists any more,” Roger noted.
“Their new government’s riddled with the old criminals, the same old criminals, and when the moment’s right, they’ll be back. You’d better believe it. And they’re barbarians, they’re capable of anything. Anything.”
Pete Johnson rolled his eyes for Harry’s benefit. “Listen, George, I’m sure the U.S. does some of the same things. It’s a fact of life, standard international relations. The Russians aren’t the only people who spy on their neighbors.”