The winch turned with what seemed to most watchers an agonizing and frustrating slowness. There was ample electrical power available to have revolved the drum several times as quickly but Captain Montgomery was in no hurry. Standing there by the winch, he exhibited about as much anxiety and tension as a man sitting with his eyes closed in a garden deckchair on a summer’s afternoon. Although it was difficult to visualize, it was possible that a sling could have loosened and slipped and Montgomery preferred not to think what might happen if the plane should slip and strike heavily against the bottom, so he just stood patiently there, personally guiding the winch’s control wheel while he listened with clamped earphones to the two divers who were accompanying the plane on its ten foot a minute ascent.
After about five minutes the grotesque shape of the plane – grotesque because of the missing left wing – could be dimly discerned through the now slightly wind-ruffled surface of the sea. Another three minutes and the lifting ring came clear of the water. Montgomery centred the winch wheel, applied the brake, went to the gunwale, looked over the rail and turned to the officer by his side.
‘Too close in. Fuselage is going to snag on the underside. Have to distance it a bit. More fenders fore and aft — ‘ the side of the Kilcharran was already festooned with rubberized fenders ‘- and lay out ropes to secure the nose and tail of the plane.’ He returned to the winch, eased forward on a lever and slowly lowered the derrick until it was projecting outwards from the ship’s side at an angle of forty degrees above the horizontal. The plane, which could now be clearly seen only twenty feet below the surface, moved sluggishly outwards from the ship’s side. Montgomery started up the winch again and soon the top of the plane’s fuselage broke the surface. He stopped the winch when the top eighteen inches was clear. The starboard wing was still beneath the surface. Montgomery turned to Admiral Hawkins.
‘So far, a simple and elementary exercise. With luck, the rest of it should be equally straightforward. We cut away the appropriate section on the top of the fuselage while attaching more flotation bags to the undersides of the fuselage and the wing and inflating those. Then we’ll lift a bit more until the fuselage is almost clear of the water and go inside.’ He lifted a ringing phone, thanked the caller and replaced the receiver. ‘Well, perhaps not quite so straightforward. It would appear that the timing device has stopped ticking.’
‘Has it now?’ Hawkins didn’t look particularly concerned and certainly not upset. ‘It could have happened at a better time and a better place. But it had to happen. So our friend is armed.’
‘Indeed. Still, no reason why we shouldn’t go ahead as planned.’
‘Especially as we have no option. Every person on both ships to be warned. No mechanical devices to be used: no banging or crashing, everyone on fairy tiptoes. They already know that, of course, but I imagine they’ll now redouble their caution.’
A gangway had been lowered down the ship’s side until one of its feet rested on the plane’s fuselage. Carrington and Grant descended and ran a tape-measure back along the top of the fuselage from the cockpit — the internal distance from the cockpit to the exact location of the bomb had already been measured — to the corresponding area above. This they mopped dry with engine-room waste and then proceeded to paint the outline of a black rectangle to guide the two men with the oxyacetylene cutters who were already standing by.
Hawkins said: ‘How long will this take?’
‘I can only guess,’ Montgomery said. ‘An hour, maybe a bit longer. We don’t know how thick the fuselage skin is or how tough it is. We don’t know how thick or tough the lateral reinforcing members are. What I do know is that we’re going to cut with the lowest possible flame that will do the job — even with that reduced power we’re going to generate a fair amount of heat in the air-space and water below. It goes without saying that no one has ever done this sort of thing before.’
‘Will your standing here, supervising operations — just looking on, rather — help things along? Resolve the unknown, I mean.’
‘Not a bit of it. Ah! Lunch?’
‘Whether we’re here or in the wardroom of the Ariadne, it’s not going to make all that difference if this lot goes up.’
‘True, true. A millisecond here, a millisecond there. The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast. In our case, lunch.’
Lunch, while hardly festive, was by no means the doom-laden affair it could have been in view of the fact that most of the
people at table were well aware that they were sitting on top of a time-bomb that had now ceased to tick. Conversation flowed freely but in no way resembled the compulsive nervous chatter of those conscious of being under stress. Professor Wotherspoon spoke freely and often on any subject that arose, not through garrulity but because he was a born conversationalist who loved discussion and the free exchange of ideas. Andropulos, too, was far from silent, although he appeared to have only one idea in mind, and that was the mystery of the bomber that had just been raised from the depths. He had not been invited aboard the Kilcharran but had seen well enough from the Ariadne what had been going on. He appeared to be deeply and understandably interested in what had happened and was going to happen to the bomber but was clever enough not to ask any penetrating questions or say a word that he knew anything whatever about what was going on. Across the table Talbot caught the eye of Admiral Hawkins who nodded almost imperceptibly. It was clear that they couldn’t keep him completely and totally in the dark.
‘Up to now, Mr Andropulos,’ Talbot said, ‘we have not told you everything we know. We have not been remiss and no apology for our silence is necessary. Our sole concern, I can assure you, was not to cause unnecessary alarm and apprehension, especially to your two young ladies. But a man like you must have a keen interest in international affairs, and you are, after all, a Greek and member of NATO and have a right to know.’ No one could have guessed from Talbot’s openness and relaxed tone that he considered Andropulos to have a keen interest in international crime, that he didn’t give a damn about either Greece or NATO and had a right to know only what he, Talbot, chose to tell him.
‘The plane Was an American bomber and was carrying a lethal cargo, among them hydrogen and atomic bombs, almost certainly for a NATO missile base somewhere in
Greece.’ Andropulos’s expression, at first stunned, rapidly changed to grim-faced understanding. ‘We can only guess at what caused the crash. It could have been an engine explosion. On the other hand it could have been carrying a variety of weapons, and one of them – obviously of the non-nuclear variety — may have malfunctioned. We don’t know, we have no means of telling and probably, almost certainly, we will never know. The crew, of course, died.’
Andropulos shook his head. The clear, innocent eyes were deeply tinged with sadness. ‘Dear God, what a tragedy, what a tragedy.’ He paused and considered. ‘But there are terrorists in this world.’ He spoke of terrorists as if they were alien beings from an alien planet. ‘I know this sounds unthinkable, but could this have been a case of sabotage?’
‘Impossible. This plane flew from a top secret Air Force base where security would have been absolute. Carelessness there may have been but the idea of the deliberate implantation of any explosive device passes belief. It can only be classified as an act of God.’
‘I wish I shared your trust in our fellow-man.’ Andropulos shook his head again. ‘There are no depths which some inhuman monsters would not plumb. But if you say it was physically impossible, then I accept that, and gladly, for I would not care to be counted as a member of a human race ú that could proceed to such unspeakable lengths. What’s past is past, I suppose, but there’s also a future. What happens next, Commander?’
‘Before we decide on that we’ll have to wait until we get inside the plane. I understand that impacts and explosions such as those nuclear weapons have experienced can have -what shall we say? — a very disturbing effect on their delicate firing control systems.’
‘You — or some member of your crew — have the expertise to pass judgement on such matters?’
‘Neither I nor my crew know anything about such matters.
Defence will have a plane standing by when the Concorde lands. If its estimated time of arrival is reasonably accurate we should have this krytron device in Santorini about three-thirty. Even allowing for the fact that your men will have to row to and from at least Cape Akrotiri we should have the device aboard by five p.m. There’s an even chance that the messages to the FBI and the Washington bank may produce some positive results. As to the news that the mine is armed, we shall await the Presidential reaction with interest. Send these at once. You have some other matters on your mind, Captain. Urgent, I take it?’