“What now?”
Gorov wiped his goggles with the back of one ice-crusted glove. He studied the cliff through the binoculars. At last he said, “Tell Timoshenko to put through a call to the Edgeway group.”
“Yes, sir. What should he say to them?”
“Find out where their cave is located. If it’s near the leeward side… Well, this might not be necessary, but if it is near the leeward side, they ought to move out of there altogether, right now.”
“Move?” Zhukov said.
“I’m going to see if I can create a landing shaft if I torpedo the base of the cliff.”
“The rest of you go ahead,” Harry insisted. “I’ve got to let Gunvald know what’s happening here. As soon as I’ve talked to him, I’ll bring out the radio.”
“But surely Larsson’s been monitoring every conversation you’ve had with the Russians,” Franz said.
Harry nodded. “Probably. But if he hasn’t been, he has a right to know about this.”
“You’ve only got a few minutes,” Rita said worriedly. She reached for his hand, as if she might pull him out of the cave with her, whether he wanted to go or not. But then she seemed to sense that he had another and better reason for calling Gunvald, a reason that he preferred to conceal from the others. Their eyes met, and understanding passed between them. She said, “A few minutes. You remember that. Don’t you start chatting with him about old girlfriends.”
Harry smiled. “I never had any.”
“Just young ones, right?”
Claude said, “Harry, I really think it’s foolish to—“
“Don’t worry. I promise I’ll be out of here long before the shooting starts. Now the rest of you get moving. Go, go.”
The ice cave was neither along the leeward flank of the berg nor near the midpoint of its length, where the Russian radioman had said the torpedo would strike. Nevertheless, they had unanimously decided to retreat to the snowmobiles. The concussion from the torpedo would pass through the berg from one end to the other. And the hundreds of interlocking slabs of ice that formed the ceiling of the cave might succumb to the vibrations.
As soon as he was along, Harry knelt in front of the radio and called Larsson.
“I read you, Harry.” Gunvald’s voice was distant, faint, and overlaid with static.
Harry said, “Have you been listening in to my conversation with the Russians?”
“What I could hear of them. This storm is beginning to generate a hell of a lot of interference, and you’re drifting farther away from me by the minute.”
“At least you’ve got a general idea of the situation here,” Harry said. “I haven’t time to chat about that. I’m calling to ask you to do something important for me. Something you may find morally repugnant.”
As succinctly as he could, Harry told Gunvald Larsson about the attempt to kill Brian Dougherty and then quickly explained what he wanted done. Although shocked by the attack on Brian, the Swede appreciated the need for haste and didn’t waste time asking for more details. “What you want me ot do isn’t especially pleasant,” he agreed. “But under the circumstances it—“
Static blotted out the rest of the sentence.
Harry cursed, glanced at the entrance of the cave, turned to the microphone again, and said, “Better repeat that. I didn’t read you.”
Through crackling atmospherics: “…said under the circumstances…seems necessary.”
“You’ll do it, will you?”
“Yes. At once.”
“How long will you need?”
“If I’m to be thorough …” Gunvald faded out. Then in again: “…if I can expect that what I’m searching for will be hidden…half an hour.”
“Good enough. But hurry. Do it.”
As Harry put down the microphone, Pete Johnson entered the cave. “Man, are you suicidal? Maybe I was wrong about you being a natural-born hero. Maybe you’re just a natural-born masochist. Let’s get the hell out of here before the roof falls in.”
Unplugging the microphone and handing it to Pete, Harry said, “That wouldn’t faze me. I’m a Bostonian, remember. Let the roof fall in. I couldn’t care less.”
“Maybe you aren’t a masochist, either. Maybe you’re just flat-out crazy.”
Picking up the radio by the thick, crisscrossing leather straps atop the case, Harry said, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midnight sun.”