‘Indeed,’ the President said. ‘One can only hope that Commander Talbot proves to be even more resourceful.’
‘I have the uncomfortable feeling,’ Sir John said, ‘that at the present moment Talbot is in no position to prove anything.’
Chapter 10
On the hour of midnight, Eastern Mediterranean time, Commander Talbot was in no position to prove anything and, judging from his uncomfortable position on a sofa in the Angelina’s saloon, with his ankles lashed together and his hands bound behind his back, it didn’t seem that he would be in a position to prove anything for quite some time to come. Van Gelder, equally uncomfortable at the other end of the sofa, was in no better case. Aristotle, with a wholly unnecessary pistol held loosely across his knee, was seated very comfortably indeed in a large armchair facing the sofa. The three ladies were in smaller armchairs towards the after end of the saloon and didn’t look at all comfortable. They hadn’t exchanged a word for upwards of two hours. There didn’t seem to be much to talk about and all three, understandably enough, were preoccupied with their own thoughts.
Talbot said: ‘Tell Andropulos I want to speak to him.’
‘Do you now?’ Aristotle lowered the glass from which he had been sipping. ‘You are not in a position, Captain, to give orders to anyone.’
‘Would you kindly present my compliments to the captain and say I would like to talk to him.’
‘That is better.’ Aristotle rose, crossed to the short flight of steps leading up to the wheelhouse and said something in Greek. Andropulos appeared almost at once. He, too, was needlessly armed. There was a relaxed and confident, even cheerful, air about him.
‘When you were aboard my ship,’ Talbot said, ‘we catered for your every desire. Whatever you wanted, you had but to ask. J, wish I could say the same for Greek hospitality. Well, your version of it.’
‘I think I take your point. It can’t be easy for you to lie there and watch Aristotle steadily lowering the level in a bottle of retsina. You are thirsty?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s easily remedied.’
In very short order, Aristotle had their bonds quickly and skilfully re-arranged, with Talbot’s left wrist and Van Gelder’s right loosely but securely attached to each other. Their free hands now held a glass apiece.
‘I am becoming suspicious, Captain,’ Andropulos said. He neither looked nor sounded suspicious. ‘You seem totally unconcerned as to the immediate past and the immediate future. I find it very curious indeed.”
‘There’s nothing curious about it. It’s your behaviour that I find extraordinarily curious although I have to admit that that is based entirely on my complete ignorance of what is going on. I fail to understand why you, a very wealthy and, I assume, highly respected businessman, should suddenly decide to put yourself outside the bounds of law. I don’t have to tell you that, by hijacking the Angelina, you have done just that. I can’t even begin to understand why you should jeopardize your career, perhaps even risk a prison sentence, although I have no doubt that with the kind of money you must possess you wouldn’t have too much trouble in bending the law in your direction. Most of all, I don’t understand how you can possibly hope to get away with it. By six o’clock, possibly seven, tomorrow morning every ship and plane in NATO will be looking for you and you must know that it will take very little time to locate you.’
‘You have this famous Royal Navy signal, locate, engage and destroy. Locate, yes. Destroy, no.’ Andropulos was quite undisturbed. ‘Not with the kind of cargo and very select group of hostages I have on board. As for jeopardizing my career, well, I think the time comes in many people’s lives when they should abandon the old ways and strike out in a fresh direction. Don’t you, Captain?’
‘Not where I’m concerned. And perhaps, where you are concerned, it’s not a choice but a necessity. You appear to have taken a fresh step along the road to crime. It’s just possible – it’s difficult to imagine but it is possible – that many of your past steps have led along that same road and that your past is catching up with you. But that’s just empty speculation. I really don’t know and, to be honest, I no longer care. Could I have some more wine?’
‘What are you going to do with us?’ Irene Charial was trying to keep her voice steady but the undercurrent of strain was there. ‘What is going to happen to us?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, my dear. Nothing is going to happen to you. You heard me saying that to Commander Talbot when we came aboard. Unthinkable that you should come to any harm at my hands.’
‘Where are you taking us?’
‘I’m not taking you anywhere. Oh dear, that does sound ominous. To what will probably be my lifelong regret, I shall be parting company with you. Dear, dear, that doesn’t sound much better. Within a very short time I shall be transferring you aboard the Ariadne’s launch and bidding you farewell.’
‘And the two officers here? Do you shoot them or just tie their hands up again and throw them overboard?’
‘I must protest, Irene,’ Van Gelder said. ‘Don’t go around putting ideas into the man’s head.’
‘I had looked for more intelligence from my niece,’ Andropulos said. ‘If it had been my intention to dispose of them, I should have done so immediately we came aboard.’
‘What’s to stop them from coming after you? You know they can call for help.’
‘The Lord help us,’ Van Gelder said. ‘One shudders to think of the minimal levels of university entrance these days.’
‘I’m afraid I have to agree with both Van Gelder and your uncle,’ Talbot said. ‘You are naive.’ He cocked his fingers, pistol fashion. ‘Poof! Exit engine. Poof! Exit radio.’
Andropulos smiled. ‘As you say, a double poof should do it nicely.’
Denholm looked out at the light flickering from the north. ‘What does the Angelina say, Myers?’
‘”Stop two miles south-east of us and cut engines.” How shall I answer, sir?’
‘We don’t have any option. “Wilco.”‘ He waited until Myers had triggered the reply, then said: ‘What’s the latest news about the Taormina?’ The Ariadne had been monitoring the radio traffic between the Angelina and the Taormina for almost three hours and had the position of the Taormina — and themselves – pinpointed to within a few hundred yards.
‘Just ten miles north of Avgo Island and moving, pretty slowly, north.’
‘Proceeding, in what one might say in happier circumstances, with admirable caution.’ The Ariadne had picked up Andropulos’s warning to the Taormina of the danger of their coming together too soon. ‘How long before they make contact?’
‘Three hours, give or take. A bit longer, I should think, if the Angelina stops off alongside for a bit.’
‘Do you think,’ Wotherspoon said, ‘that they might have in mind to sink us, Lieutenant?’
‘I would be grateful, Professor, if you didn’t even think of such things.’
Under the watchful eyes of three men with three guns McKenzie and Brown took and secured the ropes of the Angelina as it came alongside. First aboard was Andropulos himself, followed by Angelina Wotherspoon, who immediately seemed bent on strangling the Professor, then the two girls, Talbot and Van Gelder with their hands still bound behind their backs and finally Alexander and Aristotle, the last carrying a bag.
‘We will not stay long,’ Andropulos said. ‘One or two small things to attend to first, then we shall be on our way.’
‘May one ask what is in that bag?’ Wotherspoon said. ‘A delayed action bomb?’
‘Mankind has so little trust in one another these days,’ Andropulos said. He shook the bag gently and a slight tinkling noise resulted. ‘To while away the time while you await rescue. Commander Talbot’s idea, really. After all, it’s your liquor, Wotherspoon. This, I take it, is the radio.’
‘Do me a last favour,’ Talbot said. ‘A favour to all of Us. Don’t blow it apart with a bullet. Just tap it gently with the butt of your revolver. Similarly with the engine. It requires very little effort to destroy the distributor and the plugs.’ He nodded towards the armed mine lying in its cradle. ‘I’m not at all sure how our friend here would react to the explosive crack of a pistol shot.’
‘A well taken point,’ Andropulos said. ‘We just don’t know how temperamental that mine is.’ He reversed his grip on the pistol, levered open the face-plate of the radio and swept the butt across the transistors. It took him scarcely more time to attend to the engine. He next turned his attention to the signalling lamp, smashed it thoroughly and turned to Myers. ‘Is there a spare?’
Myers swore at him softly, and Andropulos raised his gun. Talbot said: ‘Don’t be a fool, Myers. Give it to him.’