Santorini (22 page)

'Thank you, Richard. Bluntly and undiplomatically, Mr President, you have a duty not to speak out. There is nothing

whatsoever to be gained, and a very great deal to be lost. At best you will be hanging out a great deal of dirty washing in public and all to no avail, to no purpose: at worst, you will be providing invaluable ammunition for your enemies. Such open and, if I may say so, ill-advised confession will achieve at best an absolute zero and at worst a big black minus for you, the Pentagon and the citizens of America. The Pentagon, I am sure, is composed of honourable men. Sure, it may have its quota of the misguided, the incompetent, even the downright stupid: name me any large and powerful bureaucratic elite that has never had such a quota. All that matters, finally and basically, is that they are honourable men and I see no earthly justification for dragging the reputations œf honourable men through the dust because we have discovered two rotten apples at the bottom of the barrel.

'You yourself, Mr President, are in an even worse position. You have devoted a considerable deal of your presidential time to combating terrorism in every shape and form. How will it look to the world if it comes out that two senior members of your armed forces have been actively engaged in promoting terrorism for material gain? You may hardly know the two gentlemen concerned but they will, of course, be elevated to the status of highly trusted aides, and that's just looking on the bright side. On the dark side, you will not only be accused of harbouring men who are engaged in terrorism but of aiding, abetting and inciting them to new levels of terrorism. Can't you just see the headlines smeared across the front pages of the -tabloids and yellow press throughout the world? By the time they have finished with you, you will be remembered in history for one thing and one thing only, the ultimate byword for hypocrisy, the allegedly noble and high-principled president who ha$ spent his life in encouraging and promoting the one evil he had sworn to destroy. Throughout the countries of the world that dislike or fear America because of its power, authority and wealth and that, like it or not, means most countries  --  your reputation would lie in tatters. Because of your exceptionally high level of popularity in your own country you will survive but I hardly think that that consideration would affect you: what would and should affect you is that your campaign against terrorism would be irrevocably destroyed. No phoenix would arise from those particular ashes. As a world force for justice and decency you would be a spent man. To put it in the most undiplomatic terms, sir, to go ahead as you propose to do you'd have to be more than slightly off your rocker.'

The President stared into the middle distance for quite some time, then said in a voice that was almost plaintive: "Does anyone else think I'm off my rocker?'

'Nobody thinks you're off your rocker, Mr President,' the General said. 'Least of all, I would say, Sir John here. He is merely saying what our unfortunately absent Secretary of State would advocate if he were here. Both gentlemen are high on pragmatism and cold logic and low on unconsidered and precipitate action. Maybe I'm not the ideal person to be passing judgement on this issue. I would obviously be delighted if whatever reputation the Pentagon has survives intact, but I do feel most strongly that, before jumping off the top of the Empire State or whatever one should give some thought to the fatal and irrevocable consequences.'

'I can only nod emphatic agreement,' John Heiman, the Defence Secretary said. 'If I may mix up two metaphors  --  if I am mixing them  --  we have only two options. We can let sleeping dogs lie or let slip the dogs of war. Sleeping dogs never harmed anyone but the dogs of war are an unpredictable bunch. Instead of biting the enemy they may well turn, in this case almost certainly would turn, and savage us.'

The President looked at Hollison. 'Richard?'

'You're in the card-game of your life, Mr President. You've got only one trump and it's marked "Silence".'

'So it's four to one, is it?'

'No, Mr President,' Heiman said, 'it's not and you know it. It's five to zero.'

'I suppose, I suppose.' The President ran a weary hand across his face. 'And how do we propose to mount this massive display of silence, Sir John?'

'Sorry, Mr President, but not me. If I am asked for my opinions I am not, as you have seen, slow to give them. But I know the rules and one of them is that I cannot be a party to formulating the policy of a sovereign state. Decisions are for you and for what is, in effect, your war cabinet here.'

A messenger entered and handed a slip of paper to the president. 'Dispatch from the Ariadne, Mr President.'

'I don't have to brace myself for this,' the President said. 'As far as dispatches from the Ariadne are concerned, I am permanently braced. Some day I'll get some good news from that ship.' He read the message. 'But not, of course, this time. "Atomic mine removed from cargo bay of bomber and safely transferred to sailing vessel Angelina." Excellent news as far as it goes, but then: "Unexpected 180 degree change in wind course makes sailing departure impossible. Anticipated delay three to six hours. Hydrogen weapons from plane's cargo bay being transferred to diving ship Kilcharran. Expect to complete transfer by nightfall." End of message. Well, where does that leave us?'

Sir John Travers said: 'It leaves you, Mr President, with a few hours' breathing space.'

'Meaning?'

'Masterly inactivity. Nothing that can be profitably done at the moment. I am merely thinking out loud.' He looked at the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 'Tell me, General, do those two gentlemen in the Pentagon know they are under suspicion? Correction. Do they know that you have proof of their treason?'

'No. And I agree with what you are about to say. No point

will be served by acquainting them with that fact at the present moment.'

'None. With the President's permission, I would like to retire and ponder the problems of state and international diplomacy. With the aid of a pillow.'

The President smiled one of his increasingly rare smiles.

'What a splendid suggestion. I also shall do exactly that. It's close on six now, gentlemen. May I suggest that we foregather again at ten-thirty a.m. ?'

At 2.30 that afternoon Van Gelder, message sheet in hand, joined Talbot on the bridge of the Ariadne.

'Radio from Heraklion, sir. Seems that a Phantom of the Greek Air Force located the diving ship Taormina less than ten minutes after taking off from base. It was just east of Avgo Island, which the chart tells me is about forty miles north-east of Heraklion. Very conveniently positioned to break through the Kasos Strait.'

'What direction was it headed?'

'No direction. Having no wish to raise any suspicion the Greek pilot didn't hang around but he reports that the Taormina was stopped in the water.'

'Lurking. Lurking, one wonders, for what. Speaking of lurking, what's Jimmy doing at the moment?'

'Last seen, he was lurking with two young ladies in the wardroom. No dereliction of duty, I assure you. The three A's have retired, to their cabins, presumably for the afternoon. The girls report a far from subtle change in their behaviour. They have stopped discussing the predicament they find themselves in, in fact they have stopped discussing anything. They appear unusually calm, relaxed and not very concerned about anything, which may mean that they have philosophically resigned themselves to whatever fate may hold in store or they may have made up their minds about some plan of

action, although what that could be I couldn't even begin to imagine.'

'What would your guess be, Vincent?'

'A plan of action. I know it's only the slenderest of clues but it's just possible that they may be resting up this afternoon because they don't expect to be doing much resting during the coming night.'

'I have the oddest feeling that we won't be doing much resting ourselves tonight.'

'Aha! The second sight, sir? Your non-existent Scottish blood clamouring for recognition.'

'When it clamours a bit more, I'll let you know. I just keep wondering about Jenkins's disappearance.' A phone rang and  Talbot picked it up. 'A message for the Admiral from the Pentagon? Bring it here.' Talbot hung up and gazed out through the for'ard screens of the bridge. The Angelina, to protect it from the buffeting of the four-foot-high waves generated by the now very brisk Euros wind from the southeast, had been moved to a position where it lay snugly in the still waters between the bows of the Ariadne and the stern of the Kilcharran.

'Speaking of the Pentagon, it's only an hour since we told them that we expected the unloading of the hydrogen missiles to be completed by nightfall. And what do we have? A Force 6 and the plane's fuselage streamed out a cable length to the north-west. Lord only knows when the unloading will be finished now. Do you think we should so inform them?'

'I should think not, sir. The President of the United States is a much older man than we are and the kind of cheery communications he has been receiving from the Ariadne of late can't be doing his heart any good.'

'I suppose you're right. Ah, thank you, Myers.'

'Bloody funny signal if you ask me, sir. Can't make head nor tail of it.'

'These things are sent to try us.' Talbot waited till Myers had left, then read out the signal.

'"Identity of cuckoos in the nest established. Irrefutable proof that they are linked to your generous benefactor friend. Sincerest congratulations to Admiral Hawkins and the officers of the Ariadne."'

'Recognition at last,' Van Gelder said.

'You are the last to arrive, Sir John,' the President said. 'I have to advise you that we have already made up our minds what to do.'

'A very difficult decision, I assume, Mr President. Probably the most difficult you have ever been called upon to make.'

'It has been. Now that the decision is made and is irrevocable, you can no longer be accused of meddling with the affairs of a sovereign state. What would you have done, Sir John?'

'Perfectly straightforward. Exactly what you have done. No one is to be informed except two people and those two people are to be informed that the President has suspended them indefinitely from duty, pending the investigation of allegations and statements that have been laid against them.'

'Well, damn your eyes, Sir John.' The President spoke without heat. 'Instead of sleeping all the time I spent a couple of hours wrestling with my conscience to arrive at the same conclusion.'

'It was inevitable, sir. You had no option. And I would point out that it's easy enough for us to arrive at decisions. You, and only you, can give the executive order.'

'I will not insult your intelligence by asking if you are aware what this executive order means.'

'I am perfectly aware of what it means. Now that my opinion is no longer called for I have no hesitation in saying that I would have done exactly the same thing. It is a death

sentence and it can be no consolation at all that you will not be called upon to carry out, or to order to be carried out, the execution of that death sentence.'

Chapter 9

'Manhattan Project?' Admiral Hawkins said. 'What on earth does she mean by "Manhattan Project"?'

'I don't know, sir,' Denholm said. 'Eugenia doesn't know either. She just caught the words as she walked into the wardroom. Only Andropulos, Alexander and Aristotle were there. The phrase was repeated twice and she thought it odd enough  --  I think it's very odd, too  --  to pass it on to me. When they became aware of her presence the subject was switched. She said that whatever the nature of the subject was they seemed to find it rather amusing.'

Talbot said: 'Even Alexander was amused?'

'Humour, sir, is not Alexander's forte. Nobody's seen him smile since he came aboard the Ariadne, I would doubt if anyone has ever seen him smile. Besides, it was Alexander who was discussing the subject. Maybe he doesn't laugh at his own jokes.'

'I know you know something about those things, Denholm,' Hawkins said. 'Doesn't it suggest anything to you?'

'Zero, sir. The immediate and obvious - far too obvious -connection is the atom bomb. The Manhattan Project, of course, was that immensely long, immensely complicated and immensely expensive project that led to the invention of the atom bomb. "Manhattan" was only a code word. The actual research was carried out in New Mexico and Nevada or thereabouts. I'm sorry, sir, but the significance, the relevance of the phrase in our present situation, quite escapes me.'

'At least I've got company,' Hawkins said. He picked up two slips of paper from his table in the admiral's cabin. Those two messages have come in since last we saw you. In this case, I don't think their significance will escape you.'

'Ah! This one from the White House itself. "Two of your philanthropist's beneficiaries are no longer with us. Beneficiary A has been involved in a fatal automobile accident."' Denholm looked up from the paper. 'Has he now? For Beneficiary A I take it we can read either Admiral X or General Y. Did he fall, did he jump or was he pushed?' He looked at the paper again. 'And I see that Beneficiary B has just disappeared. Again I assume that Beneficiary B was either X or Y. How very inconvenient for them, how very convenient for us.' Denholm looked from Hawkins to Talbot. 'From the very restrained wording I take it that this news is not to be broadcast from the house-tops.'

'I shouldn't have thought so,' Hawkins said. 'We have already arranged for the coded original to be destroyed.'

'I take it then, sir, that speculation about their abrupt departure is pointless.'

'Indeed. Not only pointless but needless. They have fallen upon their swords. One does not wish to sound cynical nor stand in condemnation but it's probably the only faintly honourable thing they have done for a long time. The second signal, Denholm?'

'The one from Heraklion. Interesting, sir. It seems that the Taormina's last port of call, was Tobruk. Furthermore, although it's registered in Panama, it appears to be permanently based in Tobruk. It's more than interesting, it's intriguing, especially considering that that well-known philanthropist sitting in our wardroom seeps to have considerable business interests in Tripoli. It's most damnably frustrating, sir.'