‘As you said yourself not so long ago, sir, time is cm the wing. Questions, sir, and we’d better try to find some answers quickly. Why was Andropulos so restrained in his questioning about the bombers? Because – apart from that ticking time device — he already knew everything there was to know and saw no point in asking questions when he already held the answers.
‘Why did he express no surprise at Dr Wickram here just happening to be aboard at this critical juncture? Even the most innocent of people would have thought it the most extraordinary coincidence that Dr Wickram should be here at the moment when he was most needed and would have said so.
‘What’s going to pass through that crafty and calculating mind when he sees us hauling that atom bomb out of the fuselage — always providing we do, of course? And what are we going to do to satisfy his curiosity?’
‘I can answer your last two questions and explain my presence here,’ Wickram said. ‘I’ve had time to think although, to be honest, it didn’t require all that much thought. You heard that the plane,had hydrogen bombs aboard, you didn’t know what the degree of danger was so you called in the resident expert. That’s me. The resident expert informs you there is a high degree of danger. There’s no way to prevent
a slow but continuous degree of radioactive emanations from a hydrogen bomb, and there are fifteen of those aboard that plane. This radioactivity builds up inside the atom bomb, which is of an entirely different construction, until the critical stage is reached. Then it’s goodnight, all. All a question of mass, really.’
This really happens?’
‘How the hell should I know? I’ve just invented it. But it sounds scientific enough and more than vaguely plausible. Your average citizen has a zero knowledge level of nuclear weaponry. Who is going to dream of questioning the word of a world-famous nuclear physicist which, in case you’ve forgotten Commander Talbot’s words, is me.’
Talbot smiled. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it, Dr Wickram. Excellent. Next query. What are Andropulos’s code lists doing aboard the Ariadne?’
‘Well, to start with,’ Hawkins said, ‘you put them there. No need for massive restraint, Captain. You had something else in mind?’
‘Wrong question. Why did he leave them behind? He forgot? Not likely. Not something as important as that. Because he thought they’d never be found? Possible, but again not likely. Because he thought that if anyone found them then it would be unlikely that that person would recognize it as a code or try to decode it? Rather more likely, but I think the real reason is that he thought it would be too dangerous to bring them aboard the Ariadne, The very fact that that was the only item he chose to salvage from the wreck would have been significant and suspicious in itself. So he elected to leave them behind and recover them later by diving. He may always have had this possibility in his mind and if he did he wouldn’t have left them in a cardboard folder. So he chose a waterproof metal box.
‘Recovery of the box from the bottom of the sea would mean the presence or availability of a diving ship. Just a
hunch. I think that the Delos was sunk by accident and not by design. Probably Andropulos never visualized the need of a diving ship for that purpose. But a convenient diving ship would have been useful for other purposes, such as, dare I suggest, the recovery of nuclear weapons from” a sunken bomber. They — whoever they are — wouldn’t have brought it down anywhere in the Sea of Crete — that’s the area between the Peloponnese in the west, the Dodecanese in the east, the Cyclades in the north and Crete to the south — because by far the greater part of that area is between 1,500 and 7,000 feet – much too deep for recovery by diving. Maybe it was meant to bring it down where it was brought down. Maybe this hypothetical diving ship was meant to be where we inconveniently were.’
‘It’s a long shot,’ Hawkins said, ‘but no stone unturned, is that it? What you would like to know is whether there is any diving ship based in those parts or temporarily located or cruising by. Isn’t that it?’ Talbot nodded. ‘Finding out is no problem.’
‘Heraklion in Crete?’
‘Of course. The US Air Force base there is our main centre for electronic surveillance in those parts. They use AWACs and other high-flying radar planes to monitor Soviet, Libyan and other countries’ military movements. The Greek Air Force use their Phantoms and Mirages for the same purpose. I know the base commander rather well. An immediate signal. They’ll either find out in very short order or have the information already. A couple of hours should do it.’
‘I speak in no spirit of complaint,’ Captain Montgomery said to Talbot. His voice, in fact, held a marked note of complaint. ‘But I think we might have been spared this.’ He indicated a bank of heavy dark cloud approaching from the north-west. ‘The wind’s already Force 5 and we’re beginning to rock a
bit. Travel agents wouldn’t like this at all. This is supposed to be a golden summer’s day in the golden Aegean.’
‘Force 5 isn’t uncommon here in the afternoons, even at this time of year. Rain is most unusual but it looks as if we’re going to have quite a lot of the unusual in the very near future. Weather forecast is poor and the barometer unhappy.’ Talbot looked over the rail of the Kilcharran. ‘And this is what makes you unhappy.’
Montgomery’s ship was not, in fact, rocking at all. Headed directly north-west into the gentle three-foot swell, it was quite motionless, which couldn’t be said for the plane lashed alongside. Because of its much shorter length and the fact that it was nine-tenths submerged, it was reacting quite badly to the swell, pitching rather noticeably to and fro and snubbing alternately on the ropes that secured its nose and the remnants of its tail to the Kilcharran. Cutting the metal and maintaining balance was becoming increasingly difficult for the oxyacetylene team on top of the fuselage as the tops of the swells periodically washed over the area on which they were working. They had already reached the stage where they were spending more time looking after their own safety than using their torches.
‘Not so much unhappy as annoyed. Their rate of progress has been reduced to almost zero and God knows they were moving slowly enough even in good conditions — that fuselage and especially the transverse members are proving much tougher than expected. If things don’t improve – and looking at that weather coming at us I’m sure they won’t – I’m going to have to withdraw the cutters. They’re in no danger, of course, but the plane might very well be. We have no way of knowing how weakened the nose or tail may be and I don’t care to imagine what will happen if one of them comes off.’
‘So you’re going to float it astern on a single tow-rope?’
‘I don’t see, I have any option. I’ll build a cradle of ropes round the nose and wing of the plane, attach a single rope –
a heavy one, to act as a spring — to it and let it drift a cable length astern. Have to inform the Admiral first.’
‘No need. He never interferes with an expert. An unpleasant thought occurs, Captain. What happens if it breaks loose?’
‘Send a boat out – rowing, of course – to secure it with an anchor.’
‘And if that goes?’
‘We puncture the flotation bags and sink it. Can’t have it drifting all over the shop ready to blow the whole works whenever the first ship’s engines come within auditory range.’
‘And if it sinks where it is, we, of course, won’t be able to move from here.’
‘You can’t have everything.’
‘Agreed,’ Hawkins said. ‘Montgomery’s got no option. When is he starting?’
‘Any moment. Perhaps you might have a word with him. I said that there was no question but that you would agree, but I think he’d like your say-so.’
‘Of course,’ Hawkins said. ‘What’s your weather forecast?’ ‘Deteriorating. Any word from the Washington bank, the FBI or Heraklion?’
‘Nothing. Just a lot of unsolicited rubbish from diverse heads of states, presidents, premiers and so forth commiserating with us in one breath and asking us why we aren’t doing something about it in the second breath. One wonders how the news has been leaked.’
‘I don’t know, sir. What’s more, I really don’t care.’ ‘Nor I.’ He waved to some papers on his desk. ‘Want to read them? They don’t know that the tick … tick has stopped.’
‘I don’t want to read them.’