‘Yes, yes, but, well, you’ll excuse me if I frown a bit you and Van Gelder are the two most important people on this ship.’
‘No, we’re not. If anything should happen to us personally and I don’t see what can happen, you are, in your spare time, so to speak, accustomed to commanding a battle fleet. I can hardly see that a mere frigate is going to inconvenience you to all that extent. And if anything should happen on a catastrophic scale, nobody’s going to be worrying too much about anything.’
Wickram said: ‘You are a cold-blooded so-and-so. Commander.’
Hawkins sighed. ‘Not cold blood, Dr Wickram. Cold logic, I’m afraid. And when and if you come back up, what then?’
Then we’re off to have a look at the Delos. Should be very interesting. Andropulos may have made a mistake, Admiral, in telling you that he was scared that his spare fuel tank might blow up. But then, he could have had no idea that we were going to have a look at the Delos. That’s why he’s locked up. I don’t want him to know we’ve got divers aboard and I especially don’t want him to see me taking off with divers in the general direction of the Delos. If we find that there was no spare tank, we shall have to keep an even closer eye on him. And, for good measure, on his dear friend Alexander and his captain, Aristotle. I can’t believe that that young seaman, Achmed or whatever his name is, or either of the two girls can have anything to do with this. I think they’re along for the purpose of camouflage, respectability, if you will. In any event we should be back long before the Kilcharran arrives.’ He turned to look at Denholm who had just arrived on the bridge. ‘Well, Jimmy, what drags you away from the fleshpots?’
‘If I may say so with some dignity, sir, I’m trying to set them an example. I’ve just had a thought, sir. If you will excuse me, Admiral?’
‘I think that any thought you might have could be well worth listening to, young man. Not Greek literature this time, I’ll be bound. This — ah — hobby of yours. Electronics, is it not?’
‘Well, yes, it is, sir.’ Denholm seemed faintly surprised. He looked at Talbot. ‘That atom bomb down there, the one that goes tick . .. tick . .. tick. The intention is, or the hope, anyway, to detach it from the other explosives?’
‘If it can be done.’
‘And then, sir?’
‘One thing at a time, Jimmy. That’s as far as my thinking has got so far.’
‘Would we try to de-activate it?’ Denholm looked at Wick-ram. ‘Do you think it could be de-activated, sir?’
‘I honestly don’t know, Lieutenant. I have powerful suspicions, but I just don’t know. I should have imagined that this lay more in your field than mine. Electronics, I mean. I know how to build those damned weapons but I know nothing about those fancy triggering devices.’
‘Neither do I. Not without knowing how they work. For that I’d have to see the blueprint, a diagrammatic layout. You said you had powerful suspicions. What suspicions, sir?’
‘I suspect that it can’t be de-activated. In fact, I’m certain the process is irreversible. The second suspicion is also a certainty. I’m damn sure that I’m not going to be the one to try.’
‘That makes two of us. So what other options are open to us?’
Benson said: ‘May a total ignoramus venture an opinion? Why don’t we take it to some safe place a hundred miles away and dump it at the bottom of the deep blue sea?’
‘A tempting thought, Professor,’ Denholm said, ‘but not a very practicable one. It is, of course, a hundred per cent certain that this triggering device is battery-powered. The latest generation of Nife cells can lie dormant for months, even years, and still spring smartly to attention when called on to do their duty. You can’t declare a whole area of the Mediterranean off-limits to all shipping for years to come.’
‘I prefaced my suggestion by saying that I was an ignoramus. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Another doubtlessly ludicrous suggestion. We take it to the self-same spot and detonate it.’
Denholm shook his head. ‘I’m afraid that still leaves us with a couple of problems. The first is, how are we going to get it there?’
‘We take it there.’
‘Yes. We take it there. Or we set out to take it there. Then somewhere en route the ticking stops. Then the triggering device cocks its ear and says, “Aha! What’s this I hear? Ship’s engines,” and detonates. There wouldn’t even be a second’s warning.’
‘Hadn’t thought of that. We could — I say this hopefully — tow it there.’
‘Our little friend is still listening and we don’t know and have no means of knowing how sensitive its hearing is. Engines, of course, would set it off. So would a generator. A derrick winch, even a coffee-grinder in the galley might provide all the impulse it requires.’
Talbot said: ‘You came all the way up to the bridge, Jimmy, just to spread sweetness and light, your own special brand of Job’s comfort?’
‘Not quite, sir. It’s just that a couple of ideas occurred to me, one of which will have occurred to you and one which you probably don’t know about. Getting the bomb to its destination would be easy enough. We use a sailing craft. Lots of them hereabouts. Aegean luggers.’
Talbot looked at Hawkins. ‘One can’t think of everything. I forgot to mention, sir, that in addition to being a student of ancient Greek language and literature Lieutenant Denholm is also a connoisseur of the small craft of the Aegean. Used to spend all his summers here — well, until we nabbed him, that is.’
‘I wouldn’t begin to know how to sail those luggers or caiques, in fact I couldn’t even sail a dinghy if you paid me. But I’ve studied them, yes. Most of them come from the island of Samos or Bodrum in Turkey. Before the war – the First World War, that is – they were all sailing craft. Nowadays, they’re nearly all engined, most of them with steadying sails. But there’s quite a few both with engines and a full set of sails. Those are the Trehandiri and Perama types and I know there are some in the Cyclades. One of those would be ideal for our purposes. Because they have shallow keels, a minimum draught and no ballast they are almost useless performers to windward but that wouldn’t matter in this case. The prevailing wind here is north-west and the open sea lies to the south-east.’
‘Useful information to have,’ Talbot said. ‘Very useful indeed. Um — you wouldn’t happen to know anyone with such a craft?’
‘As a matter of fact I do.’
‘Good God! You’re as useful as your information.’ Talbot broke off as Van Gelder entered the bridge. ‘Duty done, Number One?’
‘Yes, sir. Andropulos was a bit reluctant to go. So were Alexander and Aristotle. In fact, they point-blank refused to go. Infringement of their liberties as Greek civilians or some tosh to that effect. Demanded to know on whose orders. I said yours. Demanded to see you. I said in the morning. More outrage. I didn’t argue with them, just called up McKenzie and some of his merry men, who removed them forcibly. I told McKenzie not to post any guards, just lock the doors and pocket the keys. You’re going to hear from the Greek government about this, sir.’
‘Excellent. Wish I’d been there. And the girls?’
‘Sweet reason. No problem.’
‘Fine. Now, Jimmy, you said a couple of ideas had occurred to you. What was the second one?’
‘It’s about the second problem that the Professor raised. The detonation. We could, of course, try sympathetic detonation by dropping a depth charge on it but as we would be in the immediate vicinity at the time I don’t think that would be a very good idea.’
‘Neither do I. So?’
‘The Pentagon could have the answer. Despite feeble denials to the contrary, everyone knows that the Pentagon controls NASA – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA, in turn, is supposed to administer the Kennedy Space Center. “Supposed” is the operative word. They don’t. The centre is operated by EG & G, a major defence contractor. EG & G – Dr Wickram will know much more about this than I do — oversees such things as nuclear-weapons tests and the so-called Star Wars. More importantly, they are developing, or have developed, what they call the krytron, a remote-controlled electronic impulse trigger that can detonate nuclear weapons. A word from the Admiral in the ear of the Pentagon might work wonders.’
Hawkins cleared his throat. ‘This little titbit of information, Lieutenant, It will, of course, like your other titbits, be in the public domain?’