He looked me over. He was patently exasperated.
“Brother Thomas, can you swim?”
“Yes.”
‘Em glad to hear that. A lot of commercial fishermen can’t. Do you know how to use scuba gear?”
‘~es.”
“Do you know what a limpet mine is?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me? I want to be sure you know.”
“It’s a mine that sticks to what it is going to blow up. It can be magnetic, or covered with stickom. It can have a timer or be blown up by a transmitter.”
‘~Very good! You’ve worked around explosive charges?”
Enough to be careful.”
“Suppose I gave you the task of fastening a limpet mine to the hull of one of those new tankers which carry frozen liquefied gas. How would you go about it?”
I recalled what he had said about the boat purchase. It was enough of a clue. ‘In the area where the tanker is, I’d get hold of a commercial fishing boat, small. One-man operation, with an inboard or outboard. I’d dress right for the climate and the place. I’d fish the area, catch fish, sell the catch. [d keep track of the winds and tides, and when everything was right, I’d have a breakdown and get carried up against the hull of the ship, maybe forward where the flare would hide me from the weather decks. Maybe if I had a little electric outboard let down through the hull, and concealed somehow, I could count on drifting to exactly where I would have to be. The breakdown should be about dusk. I’d place the mine, arm it, then get my breakdown fixed and get out of there.”
“Suppose you were stopped and searched by a harbor patrol?”
“I could explain the electric outboard. The limpet would have to look like something else.”
The Green Ripper
“Such as?”
I shrugged. “Maybe a mushroom anchor, threaded so you could unscrew the shank.”
I could see that he liked that. “I believe I was right in deciding we can find a use for you, Brother McGraw.”
“Not blowing up a ship. I won’t do that.”
‘whether or not you will do it or won’t do it is not the point at issue right now. It would be a con- siderable time in the future. Things can be worked out, I’m sure.”
And I could certainly guess how they’d be worked out. I had been wrong about Nicky. But this was a certainty. The little limpet mine would have a trigger and a timing device and there would be careful instruction on how to set it. But the act of placing it against metal would activate it. I wasn’t one of the true believers. I was expendable.
‘A don’t hold with killing people that never did anything to me. That’s terrorism.”
“Terrorism? Beware of tag words. General Sherman was a terrorist. The Continental Congress was a terrorist society. How about Pancho Villa, air strikes on cities, the torpedoing of ocean liners? Beware of semantics.”
I played dumb. What do you mean? I’ve got nothing against the Jews.”
“Semantics, Brother, not Semitics. The study of words. In World War Two, the Londoners worshiped their heroic young men who risked heavy
167
Jolm D. MacDonald flak to drop bombs on Germany and despised the degenerate fiends in human form who flew over, risking heavy flak, to drop bombs on English cities. Begin calls Arafat a terrorist Begin led a squad which blew up a British hotel, killing scores of people, when he was a young so-called terrorist.”
A light rain began to fall, steeply slanted by the increasing wind. Persival got up. “Well go into all this, Brother Thomas, after you have a chance to hear Sister Elena Marie and think about the message she brings us. Incidentally, you will have been moved by now into one of the travel trailers. T-Six. The green-and-white one. You’ll be much more comfortable.”
“Is it okay to ask if I can have my money back now?”
‘No. It isn’t acceptable to ask at this time.”
‘Jo you know when I can ask, Mr. Persival?”
“You will be told. livery effort is being made to locate your daughter. I want you to know that. While you are here, records are being searched.”