Santorini (26 page)

'Yes.'

'Did you guess he would take three young ladies as hostages?'

'No. I make guesses and I take chances, but I would never have taken a chance like that. If I'd even dreamed of the

possibility, I'd have killed them there and then. On the Ariadne.'

'I made a mistake about you, Captain. You talk a lot about killing but I think you're a very kind man.'

'I wouldn't go as far as to say that.' Talbot smiled. 'You made a mistake?'

'Irene is a pretty fair judge of character, sir,' Van Gelder said. 'She had you down as a cruel and inhuman monster.'

'I said nothing of the kind! When you talked to my uncle on the Angelina you said you knew nothing about what was going on. That wasn't true, was it? You knew all along.'

'Well, it's as you say. I'm a pretty fair old guesser. I have to admit that I had a lot of help from Lieutenant-Commander Van Gelder and Lieutenant Denholm is no slouch at the guessing game either. I'm afraid you'll have to know about your uncle some time, and you may as well know now. It sounds an exaggeration, but it is not, to say that he's a criminal in the world class, if not in a class of his own, and a totally ruthless killer. He specializes in, organizes- and dominates international drug-smuggling and international terrorism. God only knows how many hundreds, more likely thousands, lie dead at his hands. We know, and know beyond any doubt, that he is as guilty as any man can be, but it might take months, even years, to amass the necessary proof. By that time, he would have disappeared. That's what he's doing now  --  disappearing. Even in the past couple of days he's been doing not too badly. He murdered the engineer, cook and steward on the Delos. They found out too much. What, we shall probably never know.'

'How on earth can you know this?' All the colour had left her face and her face registered pure shock. Not grief or horror, just shock. 'How on earth can you guess that, far less prove it?'

'Because Van Gelder and I went down to examine the hull on the bottom. He also blew up his own yacht in order to get aboard the Ariadne. You weren't to know this, of course. Neither, unfortunately for your uncle, did he. For good measure, he's also been responsible for the suicides of a very senior general and a very senior admiral, both Americans, in the past few hours. He doesn't know that, but if he did I'm sure it might cost him anything up to a minute's sleep.' He looked at McKenzie. 'Chief, this retsina is dreadful. Can you do no better than this for your long-suffering captain?'

'It is pretty awful, sir. I've tried it. All respects to Professor Wotherspoon, but I'm afraid Greek plonk is very much an acquired taste. There seems to be a bottle of scotch and one of gin in a locker in the wheelhouse. Don't know how it got there. Sergeant Brown appears to think that it's marked up in your Mess bill.'

'I'll court-martial you both later. Meantime, don't just hang around.'

'He's going to die, isn't he, sir?' Brown said. 'I'm sorry, miss, but if half of what the Captain says is true, then he's an inhuman man who doesn't belong in a human world. And I believe everything the Captain has said is true.'

'I know Jenkins was your best friend, Sergeant, and I cannot say how sorry I am. He will die and by his own hand. He is his own executioner.' Talbot turned to Eugenia. 'You heard him mention the words "Manhattan Project"?'

'Yes, I did. I didn't know what he meant.'

'Neither did we, at first. But we worked it out. Andropulos wasn't interested in the hydrogen bombs. There's no way you can use a hydrogen bomb as a terrorist weapon. It's too final, it would achieve nothing and no terrorist would dare admit the responsibility of using it. It would have been impossible for any terrorist to transport anyway. But he was interested in atomic mines and he knew there were three of those aboard this plane. His original plan, we think, was to dump those in the sea approaches to some of the world's greatest seaports, like San Francisco, New York, London or Rotterdam and let the respective countries know of it. He would inform those countries that he had the means to detonate those mines by means of a long-range, pre-set radio signal and that any attempt to locate, remove or neutralize them might or might not activate the mine and, of course, destroy the investigating vessel.

'It would have effectively paralysed all seaborne trade and passenger traffic in and out of those ports. It would also have had the additional holier-than-thou advantage that if any such atomic explosion did occur the fault would lie squarely at the door of the country responsible for the explosion and not at the door of the terrorists. The Manhattan Project mine would have been laid somewhere in the Ambrose Channel on the approaches to the Lower New York Bay. It was a brilliant scheme, typical of a brilliant but twisted mind. It had one drawback. It wouldn't have worked. Andropulos had no means of knowing that. But we did.'

'How in the world could you know that?' Wotherspoon said. 'I'll come to that. So, Andropulos gets his bomb. Perfect for his purposes, or so he thinks. But there was something else he didn't know. When the plane crashed it activated a timing mechanism inside the mine. When that mechanism ran out the mine was armed and ready to explode at the first sound of a ship's engines. Any kind of engine, in fact. That mine aboard the Angelina is armed. But Andropulos fell for that gobbledygook that Wickram fed him about its being temporarily unstable because of the radioactive emanations from the hydrogen bombs. It's permanently unstable and just waiting to go. Chief, you are being strangely remiss.'

'Sorry, sir.' McKenzie handed over a glass of scotch. 'You can hardly blame me, sir. A man doesn't often get a chance to listen to a story like this.'

Talbot sampled his drink. 'It is to be hoped that you will never hear another like it again.'

'So what's going to happen?' Wotherspoon asked.

'One of two things could happen. He could try to transfer the mine to the Taormina, the sound of whose engines would blow them all to a better world. Well, in the case of Andropulos and his friends, we would hope a much worse world. The crew of the Taormina may be a relatively innocent bunch. Or he could elect to sail it to Tobruk, his final destination. Don't forget, he would think it perfectly safe to do so because, as far as he knows, the world would still think that he has five hostages aboard. At the sound of the first ship's or industrial engine in Tobruk, the mine is activated. How many guiltless people dead? Ten thousand? A minimum estimate. Lieutenant Denholm, I grow tired of my own voice. You are alleged to be the Ariadne's electronics officer. Would you show them this device and explain its purpose.'

'It's called the krytron,' Denholm said. 'Looks like a small and rather old-fashioned portable radio, doesn't it? This is what the Captain meant when he said that if Andropulos knew of the existence of this instrument he wouldn't have gone to all the vast trouble of obtaining an atomic mine. By carrying out a very few simple actions - it is in fact an extraordinarily complex mechanism and I know practically nothing about it  --  you can send an electronic impulse on a selected wave-length and detonate an atomic bomb. If Andropulos were to have laid this mine in the Ambrose Channel it could have been destroyed from almost any given distance without a ship or a plane going anywhere near it.'

Wotherspoon said: 'Is one allowed to ask how you so conveniently came by this lethal instrument?'

'We sent to America for it. It arrived yesterday.'

'That implies two things. You had prior knowledge of the existence of this device and you've known for quite some time about exactly what Andropulos was up to. Did anyone else know?'

'The Captain disapproves of his officers gossiping.'

Wotherspoon turned to Talbot. 'You're going to blow up the Angelina, My Angelina!'

'Well, yes. I dare say there will be some form of compensation.'

'What compensation?'

'How should I know? I'm not sufficiently senior to make any offers. I'll have to ask the Admiral.'

'Does it have to be done this way?' Irene said. 'You do have a radio. Couldn't you just tell him to drop the bomb over the side and then have him picked up later?'

'Apart from the fact that he wouldn't believe me, I wouldn't do it anyway. I have told you that obtaining proof against him might take months, even years. I suggest that you and Eugenia ask your respective fathers about him. You will find that they will totally agree with what I am about to do, and that is not to let a mad dog run loose in the world.'

Van Gelder said: 'This is what you meant by saying, not once but many times, that Andropulos would never come to trial?'

'He has been tried.'

At 2..30 a.m. Talbot called up the Ariadne and was through to the Admiral immediately.

'It's two-thirty, sir. Has the Kilcharran brought all the hydrogen missiles aboard?'

'It has.'

'So we go. Two small points, sir. Professor Wotherspoon seems somewhat peeved by the imminent - ah - demise of the Angelina.'

Tell him it's all in a good cause.'

'Yes, sir. Do you think the Ministry of Defence could run to a replacement?'

'Guaranteed.'

'He also mentioned something about gold-plated taps in his bathroom.'

'Good God! The other small point? A mercifully small point, one trusts.'

'A bagatelle, sir. How do you view the suggestion that, after all their harrowing experiences, the crew of the Ariadne deserves some leave?'

'Precisely the same thought had occurred to me. A week, I think. Where do you suggest?'

'Piraeus, sir. I thought it would be rather a nice gesture to take the two girls back home. It would also be an excellent centre for Professor Wotherspoon and his lady to start looking round for gold-plated taps. We will call again in five minutes.'

Talbot replaced the telephone and said to McKenzie and Brown: 'A couple of sweeps out, if you please, and have the bows lined up to the south-east. Well, Professor, what do you think of the Admiral's generous offer?'

'I'm staggered.'

'So you might well be, as the Admiralty was under no obligation whatsoever to replace it. You must be well aware that Andropulos intended to sink it anyway. Lieutenant Denholm, pass me the krytron.'

'It's my job, sir. You can't have forgotten that I'm your electronics officer.'

'It's also your job to call to mind the rules and regulations about seniority,' Van Gelder said. 'Pass it to me.'

Talbot reached out and took the krytron, already connected to a battery, from Denholm. 'Neither of you. When we get to Piraeus, I think that those two young ladies will feel under a moral obligation to show you around the University precincts and indulge in other such-like cultural activities. I don't think, somehow, that they would feel entirely comfortable in the presence of whoever pressed this button.'

Talbot cracked both orange domes with the hammer, rotated the switches through 180 degrees and pressed the button.

'"Commander Talbot has elected to destroy and has destroyed the Angelina by detonating the atomic mine. He had my one hundred per cent encouragement and support. Andropulos and his two friends were aboard the Angelina,"'

The President shook his head in disbelief and laid the message down. 'This Commander Talbot. A totally ruthless and highly resourceful man.'

'Not ruthless, sir,' Sir John said. 'A kind and thoughtful man. If he were ruthless, he could have permitted the destruction of a ship or a city. But resourceful? Yes, I rather think he is.'