Алистер Маклин - Seawitch

‘We know that a Russian missile craft and a Russian-built Cuban submarine are closing in on the Seawitch. We also know that a Venezuelan destroyer is doing the same. What you don’t know is that counter-measures are being taken. My information – and the source is impeccable – is that Lord Worth was today closeted with Belton, the Secretary of State, in Washington. My further information is that Belton was only partially convinced of Lord Worth’s statement of suspicion. He was, unfortunately, wholly convinced when the news came through of Cronkite’s irresponsible folly in kidnapping Lord Worth’s two daughters. As a result a United States cruiser and a destroyer, both armed with the most sophisticated weaponry, have moved out into the Gulf of Mexico. An American nuclear submarine is already patrolling those waters. Another American vessel is already shadowing your destroyer, Mr Patinos: your destroyer, with its vastly inferior detecting equipment, is wholly unaware of this. Additionally, at a Louisiana air-base, a squadron of supersonic fighter-bombers is on instant alert.

‘The Americans are no longer in any mood to play around. My information is that they are prepared for a showdown and are prepared for the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation which John Kennedy had with Khrushchev over Cuba. The Russians, clearly, would never risk a local nuclear confrontation where the home territory advantages are so overwhelmingly American. Neither side would dream of mounting a preemptive strike over the issue of a few pennies on a barrel of oil. But if the hot line between Washington and Moscow begins to burn, national prestige will make it difficult for either side to back down until they arrive at a face-saving formula which could take quite some time and would, much worse, generate overwhelming world-wide publicity. This would inevitably involve us. So I would advise you, Mr Borosoff and Mr Patinos, to call off your dogs of war before that hot line starts burning. That way, and only by that way, can we survive with our good names left unbesmirched. I blame neither of you gentlemen. You may have given the nod to Cronkite but you did not reckon on the possibility that Cronkite would carry matters to such ridiculous lengths. Please, please believe me that the Americans will not hesitate to blast your ships out of the water.’

Oil ministers do not become oil ministers because they are mentally retarded. Patinos smiled a smile of wry resignation. ‘I do not relish the thought of personal ruin. Nor do I relish the thought of becoming a scapegoat for my government.’ He looked across at Borosoff. ‘We call off the dogs of war?’

Borosoff nodded ‘Back to their kennels, and no alas. I wish to return to my Russia and this will give me great standing for they will not have to lose face in the world.’

Mr A leaned back in his chair. His relief was manifest. ‘Well that would seem to cover that.’

‘It covers most of it,’ Benson said. ‘But not all. Another very unpleasant and potentially terrifying crime occurred this afternoon. I heard of it only an hour ago, and it will be the hottest topic in the nation tonight. I only hope to God that although we were in no way responsible for it, we won’t be implicated in it. A place called the “Netley Rowan Armoury” was broken into this afternoon. It’s supposed to be just another armoury insofar as the public is concerned and so, mainly, it is. But it’s also a TNW armoury: “TNW” mean “tactical nuclear weapons”. Two of them were stolen in the break-in, and appear to have vanished without trace.’

‘God above!’ The expression and tone of the man from Honduras accurately reflected the shocked feelings of all around the table. ‘Cronkite?’

‘My life on it. No proof, naturally, but who the hell else?’

Corral said: ‘No disrespect to Mr Borosoff here, but couldn’t the Russians, say, have been seeking a prototype?’

Benson looked as weary as his voice sounded. ‘The Russian already have God knows how many of those things. It’s public knowledge that they have thousands of them deployed along the border between the Warsaw Pact countries and Nato, many of them, it is suspected, more sophisticated than ours. The Russians need our TNWs the way they need bows and arrows.’ Borosoff, despite the anxiety he shared with the others, permitted himself the ghost of a smile of complacency. ‘Cronkite. The man’s running wild.’

Mr A said: ‘You think he’s so totally crazed as to use a nuclear device against the Seawitch?’

‘I do not profess to understand the workings of an obviously diseased mind,’ Benson said. ‘He’s capable of anything.’

Patinos said: ‘What’s this weapon like?’

‘I don’t know. I phoned the Pentagon, a very senior official there, but even although he’s an old friend of mine he refused to release highly classified information. All I know is that it can be used as a land-based time-bomb – I suppose that includes the sea as well – or as an aircraft bomb. We can forget the second use. It can only be used in a limited number of supersonic fighter-bombers, which will already, I suppose, be under the heaviest security guard ever, which would strike me as a superfluous precaution as there is no chance that Cronkite, even with his obviously wide range of contacts, could know anyone who could fly one of those planes.’

‘So what happens?’

‘I think we’d better consult an astrologer on that one. All I know is that Cronkite has gone stark raving mad.’

Cronkite, aboard the Georgia , would have thought the same of them. He had a job to do and he was doing it to the best of his ability. Had he known of the possible withdrawal of the warships that had sailed from Cuba and Venezuela he would not have been overduly concerned. He had had some vague idea that they might have been useful to him as a cover and a smokescreen. Cronkite’s vendetta against Lord Worth was a highly personal and extremely vindictive one, and he wanted no one other than himself to administer the coup de grâce. Retribution exacted through the medium of other hands would not do at all.

Meantime, he was well content. He was convinced that the Seawitch was in his hands. Come the dawn it would be doubly in his hands. He knew of their defences and radar. The Starlight , under Easton, was waiting until full darkness before it moved in for the initial attack, and as rain had been falling steadily for some time now and the lowering sky blotted out the quarter-moon, it promised to be as nearly dark as it ever becomes at sea – it never becomes wholly so as it does on land.

A message was brought to him from the radio office. Cronkite glanced at it briefly, picked up the phone to the helipad and reached the pilot in his shelter. ‘Ready to go, Wilson?’

‘Whenever you say, Mr Cronkite.’

‘Then now,’ Cronkite made a rheostat switch, and a dull glow of light outlined the helipad, little enough to be sure but enough to let Wilson make a clean take-off. The helicopter made a half-circle, switched on its landing lights and made a smooth landing on the calm waters less than a hundred yards from the stationary Georgia.

Cronkite called the radar room. ‘You have him on the screen?’

‘Yes, sir. He’s making an instrument approach on our radar.’

‘Let me know when he’s about three miles out.’

Less than a minute later the operator gave him the word. Cronkite turned the rheostat to full, and the helipad became brilliantly illuminated.

A minute later a helicopter, landing lights on, appeared from the north through the driving rain. Just over another minute later it touched down as delicately as a moth, an understandable precaution by the pilot in view of the cargo he was carrying. The fuelling hoses were connected immediately. The door opened and three men descended – the alleged Colonel Farquharson, Lieutenant-Colonel Dewings and Major Breckley who had been responsible for the Netley Rowan Armoury break-in. They helped unload two large, double-handed and obviously very heavy suitcases. Cronkite, with suitable admonitions as to delicacy in handling, showed crew members where to stow the cases in shelter.