Алистер Маклин - Santorini

‘Hardly in the dreadful category yet, Mr Andropulos,’ Talbot said. ‘A problem, shall we say.’ He turned as Denholm, who had not joined them for lunch, entered the wardroom. ‘Lieutenant?’

‘Sorry to disturb you, sir. Lieutenant McCafferty’s apologies, but would you be kind enough to come to the engine-room.’

Once outside, Talbot said. ‘What’s the trouble in the engine-room, Jimmy?’

‘Nothing. This habit of deception grows on one. A message from the Pentagon, sir, and some interesting information turned up by Theodore.’

‘I thought he was resting.’

‘He elected not to, sir. Just as well, as I’m sure you’ll agree.’ He produced a slip of paper. ‘The Washington message.’

‘“Krytron device en route direct New York-Athens via Concorde.” My word, someone over there does carry some clout. I detect the hand of the President in this. Can’t you just see the outrage of a hundred-odd Europe-bound passengers when they find themselves being dumped on the tarmac of John F. Kennedy in favour of a teeny-weeny electrical device? Not that they’ll know why they have been dumped. It goes on: “Fullest cooperation British Airways, Spanish and Italian authorities.”’

‘Why Spain and Italy?’ Denholm said. ‘You don’t require permission to overfly friendly countries. Just Air Control notification, that’s all.’

‘Except, I imagine, when you’re going to upset their normal peace and quiet by a non-stop sonic boom. Message ends: “ETA your time 3 p.m.” Just over an hour. We’ll have to make arrangements to have a plane standing by in Athens airport. Let’s see what Theodore has for us. Something of significance, I’ll be bound.’

Theodore had, indeed, found something of significance, although its relevance was not immediately evident.

‘I’ve started on the third and last list, Captain,’ Theodore said, ‘and this is the sixth name I’ve come up with. George Skepertzis. Full Washington address. Under the address, as you see, it says Ref. KK, TT. Means nothing to me.’

‘Nor to me,’ Talbot said. ‘Anything to you, Lieutenant?’

‘It might. Skepertzis is a Greek name, that’s for sure. Could be a fellow-countryman of Andropulos. And if our friend has contacts in the Pentagon, you can lay odds that he wouldn’t be writing to them, using their names, care of the Pentagon. You’d expect Andropulos to use a buffer-man, a gobetween.’

‘I’d expect anything of that character. You’re probably right. So, a message to the bank asking if they have any accounts under those initials and one to the FBI to find out if there are any Air Force generals or admirals with those initials. A shot in the dark, of course, but it might find a target. In the remote event of their contemplating a sound night’s sleep, a personal message to the President, via the FBI, that the tick… tick… tick has stopped and that the atomic mine is armed. We’ll clear it with the Admiral first. Would you ask him to join us. Have Number One and Dr Wickram come along too. I suggest the bridge. I’m sure you’ll think up a suitable excuse on the way to the wardroom.’

‘I don’t have to think, sir. It’s second nature now.’

‘Fair enough.’ Hawkins laid down the three radio messages that Talbot had already drafted. ‘The Greek Ministry of Defence will have a plane standing by when the Concorde lands. If its estimated time of arrival is reasonably accurate we should have this krytron device in Santorini about three-thirty. Even allowing for the fact that your men will have to row to and from at least Cape Akrotiri we should have the device aboard by five p.m. There’s an even chance that the messages to the FBI and the Washington bank may produce some positive results. As to the news that the mine is armed, we shall await the Presidential reaction with interest. Send these at once. You have some other matters on your mind, Captain. Urgent, I take it?’

‘As you said yourself not so long ago, sir, time is on 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 worldfamous 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.’