Hawkins was silent for quite some time, then said: ‘How are you going to pin on a couple of posthumous VCs or whatever when you’re circling the earth in a vaporized orbit?’ ‘One problem at a time. We can’t let the girl go.’ ‘Good God, no. I’ll never forgive myself. I never even started to think. I wonder — ‘
‘Wonder me no wonders, sir. We don’t have room for three heroes aboard the Angelina. Someone has to take the Ariadne home again, remember? Well, that’s the Angelina. Now, the Kilcharran. I’ve just been talking to Captain Montgomery. He’s just given a couple of experimental tugs on the lifting slings and he reckons the bomber, with the help of the flotation bags, of course, is nearing a state of neutral buoyancy. Twenty minutes, half an hour at the most, and he’s going to start to haul away. You won’t want to miss that, sir.’
‘No, indeed. What did Walter de la Mare say – look your last on all things lovely every hour? This may be the last thing I’ll ever see?’ ‘I rather hope it doesn’t come to that, sir. Apart from the lugger and the recovery of the bomber, we have to wait for three other things. The reaction to the message we sent to the President via our embassy in Washington, which might take quite some time, for even the most co-operative of banks, and banks almost by definition are secretive and detest the very thought of co-operation, are going to be very reluctant to disclose any information about their important clients, because important clients don’t like that sort of thing. Admittedly, Air Force Generals and Admirals are unlikely to be very important financially, but they are from the point of view of prestige and power and would, I should think, carry a disproportionate amount of clout. I do hope we haven’t upset too many people over there. Then, and this I should expect very soon, there should be a reply from Greek Intelligence to our query asking for the complete list of places where Andropulos has conducted business, any kind of business, over the past few years. Then, of course, we await the arrival of this krytron device from America.’
‘Which may arrive any old time. I mean, we have no idea, have we? Do the Americans have supersonic planes?’
‘Sure they have. But fighters only. And their nearest refuelling point would be the Azores and I’m quite certain no fighter could fly the close on two thousand miles they’d have to travel to get there. Question of fuel capacity. Besides, it’s not absolutely essential that we get this device before leaving with the bomb — always assuming, of course, that we do leave. We could always dump the bomb, drop a marker, warn all shipping to keep clear, wait for the krytron to arrive, return there and detonate the bomb.’
‘Much more satisfactory if it could all be done in one fell swoop.’ Hawkins thought for a moment, then smiled. ‘What’s the time in Washington?’
‘Four a.m., I think.’
‘Excellent, excellent. A short message. Ask them how it’s being transported and what’s the expected time of arrival.
Give ’em something to do.’ Talbot lifted a phone and dictated the message.
‘Haven’t seen your second-in-command lately,’ Hawkins said. ‘I understood he was prising secrets loose from Andropulos’s niece?’
‘Vincent normally carries out his duties with efficiency and dispatch. When the duties involve Irene Charial, it seems to take a little longer.’
‘Not so many years ago it would have taken me a little longer myself. Ah!’ Van Gelder had appeared in the doorway. ‘Just discussing you, young man. A difficult and protracted interview, I take it?’
‘One treads delicately, sir. But she told me everything she knew.’ He looked reproachfully at Talbot. ‘I detect a trace of scepticism in your expression, sir. Unwarranted, I assure you. I believe her, I trust her and I was not bewitched by her green eyes, owing to the fact that I was on duty at the time.’
‘Less than admirable though they may be, Vincent, devious-ness and low cunning have their place in the scheme of things.’
‘It wasn’t like that at all. I told her that you had sent me to try to trap her into making unwary and unguarded statements and unwittingly to betray herself. After that, we got along famously.’
Talbot smiled. ‘Just another way of being devious. What does she know?’
‘Nothing. I guarantee you’d come to the same conclusion, sir. She doesn’t know her uncle, except superficially. She doesn’t trust him. She thinks he’s a highly suspicious character. She thinks Alexander is a highly suspicious character, although that wouldn’t require any great acumen on anyone’s part. She knows nothing about his businesses. She’s never travelled with him. Her father, whom she obviously dotes on and has the highest respect for, thinks he’s a highly suspicious character – he and Andropulos haven’t spoken for years. She’s convinced that her father knows a great deal about her uncle and his businesses, but Dad refuses to discuss any aspect of the matter.’
‘Sounds as if we could do with Dad aboard right now,’ Hawkins said. ‘I have the feeling we could learn some very interesting things from him.’
‘I’m sure we could, sir. One odd thing – she’s convinced that her uncle is genuinely fond of her.’
Hawkins smiled. ‘I think it would be rather difficult not to be fond of the young lady. However, I would point out in the passing, and apropos of nothing, that mass murderers have been known to dote on tiny tots.’
‘I hardly think he’s a mass murderer, sir.’
‘And she’s certainly not a tiny tot.’ He looked speculatively at Talbot. ‘A passing thought, John?’
‘Yes.’ Talbot looked out through the window for an unseeing moment, then back at Hawkins. ‘How do we know he’s not a mass murderer?’
The speculation was still in Hawkins’s eyes. ‘You don’t normally make remarks like that. Not without good reason. You have something in mind?’
‘I think I have. But it’s so far back in my mind that I can’t reach it. It’ll come.’ He turned as Denholm entered the cabin. ‘I seem to recall having asked you this question before. What drags you away from the fleshpots?’
‘Duty, sir.’
‘You will have noticed, Admiral,’ Talbot said, ‘how devoted the Ariadne’s officers are to their duty. I thought, Jimmy, that you were supposed to be lurking and eavesdropping?’
‘I have lurked, sir. And eavesdropped. I have also been plying Mr Andropulos and his friends with strong drink.’
‘At this time of the morning?’ Hawkins said.
‘Captain’s orders, sir. I hope, Captain, that the Admiralty are going to take care of my bar bill.’
‘Prodigious?’
‘Not as prodigious as their thirsts. They have relaxed a bit.
They have apparently agreed that I’m simple-minded. They are quite certain I don’t know a word of Greek but even so they’re still very cautious. Much given to allusions and cryptic references, all made, for good measure, in a Macedonian dialect.’
‘Which you learnt at your mother’s knee?’
‘A bit later than that. But I’m at home in it. I don’t know whether you will consider this good news or bad, sir, but Andropulos knows there are hydrogen bombs aboard that bomber. He even knows there are fifteen of them.’
There was a fairly lengthy silence while the other three men in the cabin considered the implications of Denholm’s words, then Hawkins said: ‘Good news and bad news. Good news for us, bad news for Andropulos. Well done, my boy. Very well done.’
‘I echo that, sir,’ Talbot said. ‘Lieutenant Denholm is miscast as either a classicist or electronics officer. MI 5 should have him. There is no way that Andropulos could have learnt aboard the Ariadne of the existence of those bombs. So he knew before. Proof, if that were needed, of our near-certain conviction that Andropulos has penetrated the Pentagon.’
‘I would point out, sir,’ Denholm said, ‘that the words hydrogen bombs weren’t actually used. Also, it’s only my word against theirs.’
‘That’s irrelevant and this is no court of law. There will be no confrontation. All that matters is that we know and they don’t know that we do.’
‘My usefulness is over? Or do I continue to lurk?’
‘Lurk, of course. The three A’s must be making some contingency plans. We know now why they wanted aboard the Ariadne. What we don’t know is what they intend to do now that they are here. Resume your wassailing.’
‘Wassailing?’ Denholm sounded bitter. ‘I have an arrangement with Jenkins whereby I consume copious quantities of tonic water, lemon and ice. Ghastly.’ He turned to go but Talbot stopped him as a seaman entered and handed over a sheet of paper.
‘You might as well hear what’s in this.’ He studied the paper briefly. ‘This is in reply to a request we made of Greek Intelligence for as exhaustive a list as they could supply of all places where Andropulos is known either to do business or have contacts. No names, no addresses, just towns. Forty or fifty of them. My, my. This list wasn’t compiled on the spur of the moment. Greek Intelligence must have been taking a more than passing interest in the activities of our friend Andropulos over a long period, years I would think. I wonder why. About half of those places are marked by asterisks. Again I wonder why. Was that for their own information or is it intended to suggest something to us?’