Алистер Маклин - Seawitch

‘No sooner said than done. God, you look awful. Destroys my faith in myself as a doctor.’

They went outside. Cronkite’s helicopter was indeed just touching down. Cronkite himself was the first out, followed by Mulhooney, the three bogus officers who had stolen the nuclear weapons, the commandeered pilot and lastly Easton. Easton was the unknown quantity. Mitchell did not appreciate it at the time but Easton’s Starlight had been so badly damaged by the depth-charge that it was no longer serviceable. Less than four miles away what appeared to be a coastguard cutter was heading straight for the Seawitch. It required no guessing to realize that this was the missing Hammond , the infamous Questar , the present Georgia.

Dr Greenshaw approached Gregson. ‘Mind if I have a look at the little you’ve left of those quarters? Maybe there’s someone still alive in there: more likely there’s someone who requires a little kindly euthanasia.’

Gregson pointed to an iron door. ‘I’m more interested in who’s in there. Spicer–’ this to one of his men ‘–a bazooka shot at that lock.’

‘That’s hardly necessary,’ Greenshaw said mildly. ‘A knock from me is all that is required. That’s Commander Larsen, the boss of the oil rig. He’s no enemy of yours. He just sleeps here because he likes his privacy.’ Dr Greenshaw knocked. ‘Commander Larsen. It’s okay. It’s me, Greenshaw. Come on out. If you don’t their are some people who are going to blast your door down and you with it. Come on, man. I’m not saying this under duress.’

There was the turning of a heavy key and Larsen emerged He looked dazed, almost shell-shocked, as well he might. He said: ‘What the hell goes on?’

‘You’ve been taken over, friend,’ Gregson said. Larsen was dressed, Greenshaw was pleased to note, in a voluminous lumber-jacket, zipped around the waist. ‘Search him.’ They searched and round nothing.

‘Where’s Scoffield?’ Larsen said.

Greenshaw said: ‘In the other quarters. He should be okay.’

‘Palermo?’

‘Dead and all his men. At least I think so. I’m just going to have a look-see.’ Stooping his shoulders to look more nearly eighty than his seventy years, Dr Greenshaw shambled along the shattered corridor, but he could have saved himself the trouble of acting. Gregson had just met Cronkite outside the doorway and the two men were talking in animated and clearly self-congratulatory terms.

After the first few steps Greenshaw realized that there could be nobody left alive in that charnel-house. Those who were dead were very dead indeed, most of them destroyed beyond recognition, either by machine-gun fire, shattered by bazookas or shrivelled by the flame throwers. But he did find the primary reason for his visit there – a box of hand-grenades in prime condition and a couple of Schmeisser sub-automatics, fully loaded. A few of the grenades he stuffed into the bottom of his medical bag. He peered out of one of the shattered windows at the back and found the area below in deep shadow. He carefully lowered some grenades to the platform and laid the two Schmeissers beside them. Then he made his way outside again.

It was apparent that Cronkite and Lord Worth had already met, although the meeting could not have been a normal one. Lord Worth was lying apparently senseless on his back, blood flowing from smashed lips and apparently broken nose, while both cheek were badly bruised. Marina was bending over him dabbing at his wounds with a flimsy handkerchief. Cronkite, his face unmarked but his knuckles bleeding, had apparently for the moment at least, lost interest in Lord Worth, no doubt waiting until Lord Worth had regained full consciousness before starting in on him again.

Lord Worth whispered between smashed lips: ‘Sorry, my darling, sorry, my beloved. My fault and all my fault. The end of the road.’

‘Yes.’ Her voice was as low as his own, but strangely there were no tears in her eyes. ‘But not for us. Not while Michael is alive.’

Lord Worth looked at Michael through rapidly closing eyes. ‘What can a cripple like that do?’

She said with low but utter conviction: ‘He’ll kill Cronkite and all his evil friends.’

He tried to smile but his smashed lips wouldn’t let him. ‘I thought you hated killing.’

‘Not vermin. Not people who do things like this to my dad.’

Mitchell spoke quietly to Dr Greenshaw, then both men approached Cronkite and Gregson, who broke off what appeared to be either a discussion or an argument. Dr Greenshaw said: ‘I’m afraid you’ve done your damn murderous work all too well, Gregson. There’s not a soul in there even recognizable as a human being.’

Cronkite said: ‘Who’s he?’

‘A doctor.’

Cronkite looked at Mitchell, who was looking worse by the minute. ‘And this?’

‘A scientist. Shot by mistake.’

‘He’s in great pain,’ Greenshaw said. ‘I’ve no X-ray equipment but I suspect the arm’s broken just below the shoulder.’

Cronkite was almost jovial, the joviality of a man now almost detached from reality. ‘An hour from now he won’t be feeling a thing.’

Greenshaw said wearily: ‘I don’t know what you mean. I just want to take him to the sick-bay and give him a pain-killing injection.’

‘Certainly. I’d like everyone to be fully prepared for what’s about to happen to him.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘Later, later.’

Greenshaw and the unsteady Mitchell moved off. They reached the sick-bay, passed inside, went through the opposite side and made their unobserved way to the radio room. Greenshaw stood guard just inside the door while Mitchell, ignoring the bound operator, went straight to the transceiver. He raised the Roamer inside twenty seconds,

‘Captain Conde, please.’

‘Speaking.’

‘Next circuit out to the oil tank get round behind it then head south at full speed. The Seawitch has been taken over but I’m certain there’s nobody here who can operate the anti-aircraft guns. Stop at twenty miles and issue a general warning to all ships and aircraft not to approach within twenty miles of the Seawitch. You have its co-ordinates?’

‘Yes. But why–’

‘Because there’s going to be a mighty big bang. Christ’s sake, don’t argue.’

‘Don’t argue about what?’ a voice behind Mitchell said.

Mitchell turned round slowly. The man behind the pistol was smiling a smile that somehow lacked a genuine warmth. Greenshaw had been pushed to one side and the gun moved in a slow arc covering them both. ‘I’ve a feeling that Gregson would like to see you both.’

Mitchell rose, turned, half-staggered and clutched his left forearm inside the sling. Greenshaw said sharply: ‘God’s sake, man, can’t you see he’s ill?’

The man glanced at Greenshaw for a second but a second was all that Mitchell would ever require. The bullet from the silenced .38 took him through the heart. Mitchell peered through the doorway. There was a fair degree of shadow there, no one in sight and the edge of the platform not more than twenty feet away. A few seconds later the dead man vanished over the edge. Mitchell and Greenshaw returned to the main body of the company via the sick-bay. Cronkite and Gregson were still deep in discussion. Larsen stood some distance apart, apparently in a state of profound dejection. Greenshaw approached him and said quietly: ‘How do you feel?’

‘How would you feel if you knew they intended to kill us all?’

‘You’ll feel better by and by. Round the back of the building, when you get the chance, you’ll find some hand-grenades which should rest comfortably inside that lumber-jacket of yours. You’ll also find two loaded Schmeissers. I have a few grenades in my medical bag here. And Mitchell has his silenced .38 inside his sling.’