Colin Forbes - Year of the Golden Ape

' Grisby outlined the plan he had decided on before he came aboard. Some kind of immovable boobytrap had been foreseen by Grisby – after he read the report on LeCat's technical expertise which Karpis had obtained from Paris. If the device couldn't be moved the ship must be moved – as far out into the Pacific as they could make it. Every effort would then be made to ensure the device exploded underwater- so the tanker had to be sunk quickly. The only way was dangerous but MacGowan and Gen. Lepke had agreed it was worth trying – anything to try and minimise the radiation hazard to San Francisco and other communities. Grisby was going to lace the hull of the ship with jet-axe explosive charges of enormous power; he was going to try and blow the ship apart so the front section of the tanker – which contained the device -would sink first and fast.

^ "The charges will be set off by time mechanisms – timed to detonate after we've been lifted off. I brought in with us on the chopper enough explosive to blow up the Presidio. The trouble is,' Grisby explained with a humourless smile, 'the charges could just detonate the device – but since that's coming anyway, we figure we have nothing to lose…'

^ He left Cassidy to join his team who were already setting about their grisly task. Bronson, a tough-minded forty-year-old from San Diego, who had come aboard to take command of the ship, had changed his mind after talking to Mackay. 'He's haggard, tired, keyed up,' he informed MacGowan over the ship-to-shore, 'but he's still twice as capable as I am of taking out his own ship. And he'll get more out of the crew. I'm staying aboard – strictly as a passenger, courtesy Captain Mackay…"

^ The mainland was still blacked out when the ^ Challenger ^ began moving. In the late evening radio and TV stations all over the States were reporting on the massive blackout which extended from Yuba City in the north to Santa Barbara in the south, from San Francisco to the Nevada border. It was exceptional, the scale of the blackout, but by now the States was becoming used to ^ ^ power failures. This was simply a very big one, and the news of the nuclear device had not yet leaked.

^ The ^ Challenger ^ moved through the fog and the darkness, building up speed. And this too, as Grisby had pointed out, was a risk which was not calculable. It was unlikely, but not impossible, that the mounting vibrations of the engines might trigger off the device. Mackay's reply was that he would move through Golden Gate at maximum possible speed. Inside the steel tomb where the device lay, LeCat's clock mechanism was moving down towards zero.

^ They were heading through the night for Golden Gate bridge, which was still closed to traffic, and this was MacGowan's next nightmare as the ship began to move away from the city, the most scenic and beautiful city in America which Sheikh Gamal Tafak had chosen for devastation. As he waited in his office, lit by an emergency generator, MacGowan knew that it was highly possible the device would detonate as the tanker was passing under the great bridge. He was now waiting for radio reports from the American operator, Petersen, who had accompanied Bronson and replaced Kinnaird. The ship was within two minutes' sailing time of the bridge.

^ The siren sounded every two minutes, one prolonged blast which carried faintly through the fog. Before she had left, Mackay had spoken over the Tannoy, giving any member of the crew who wished to, permission to leave in the helicopter. No one had boarded the machine. Mackay's final comment before he switched off was characteristic. 'It's your funeral…' The fog thinned enough for them to see the huge span overhead as they came up to the bridge. 'And this,' Bronson thought to himself, 'would be just the moment for the device to detonate…' He stood two paces behind Mackay with his moist hands in his pockets.

^ Winter stood close to the bridge window between Sullivan and Bennett, whose head was bandaged; the first officer was still dazed from the blow he had received after he had rushed to the ship-to-shore when Wrigley was murdered. Winter was trying to locate the choppers. The ^ Challenger ^ sailed out of the Bay alone, but not alone in the air. A small fleet of American helicopters, ready to take off the crew, was escorting the ship, flying far too ^ ^ close to her in Mackay's opinion. If something happened now they would be liquidised. ^ Challenger ^ went under the bridge, headed down the channel.

^ Winter, always restless, always wanting to see for himself, started moving round the ship. It was a very strange atmosphere because the crew were unusually silent, attending to their duties. They glanced at him curiously – Mackay had told them briefly over the Tannoy what Winter had done – but he didn't think it was his presence which was keeping them so quiet. To every man on board on that last trip the engine beat sounded louder than it ever had before, as though it were pounding the hull only a few hundred feet away where there was a steel tomb containing a single object.

^ Mackay left it too late. Appalled that his ship, carrying this obscene thing, might be responsible for hideous casualties on the mainland, he insisted on taking her well out at speed. He took her ten miles out, close to the twenty-fathom line, before he gave the order to abandon ship. Petersen, the American radio operator, in constant touch with the helicopters, signalled them. There was a nervous, controlled rush to get down off the bridge, up out of the engine-room. Mackay remained on the bridge – with Winter. 'Join them Mr Winter,' he said stiffly. 'I shall be coming…'

^ 'Since I am responsible for this,' Winter replied coldly, 'we shall leave the bridge together. I am in no hurry.'

^ The crew assembled at the emergency landing point on the port side of the main deck – the normal landing point was too close to the empty wing tank. A Sikorsky was coming down through thin fog with a roar, its rotor whizz a blur above the fuselage. Bennett checked his watch. 'How long have we got?' he asked Grisby, the bomb squad leader. 'Less time than I care to think about…'

^ The Sikorsky landed, bumped on the deck, a crewman opened the door, the waiting men piled aboard. Bennett counted them again with Cassidy and Sullivan, and the counts checked. They were waiting now only for Mackay and Winter who were expected any moment. The first jet-axe charge detonated prematurely -close to the bridge.

^ ^ ^ behind the breakwater on the starboard side. The thunder of the explosion was deafening, like an express train passing over the ship. The deck opened, a huge round jagged hole, and from the hole a stream of oil jetted upwards, curving through the fog in a shallow arc. The blast went away from the helicopter, but the machine shuddered. Inside it the men froze with fear; they thought the nuclear device had detonated.

^ On the bridge Mackay took the shock of the blast. It lifted him, threw him against the binnacle, and he stood up shakily with blood dripping from his forehead. He looked dazed, not sure what had happened. Winter, who had just missed the blast although he had stood not three feet from the captain, grabbed Mackay and took him off the bridge. He had to man-handle the half-conscious master down a companionway, using a fireman's lift, and when he reached the main deck everyone was aboard the Sikorsky. Bennett started to climb out of the machine. 'Get back inside the bloody machine! I've got him,' Winter yelled. He moved along the deck unsteadily.

^ Everything was confused. The fog was lifting, lifted perhaps by the detonation of the first charge. There was a stench of oil, oil lying on the deck, oil hissing weirdly as it poured out of the ruptured tank. Despite the explosion the choppers were still buzzing round overhead, searching for survivors. Cassidy was shouting, some warning about the oil lying on the deck. The pilot was shouting behind his controls, anxious to lift off. Winter heard nothing above the hammering beat of the rotors, the hissing of the escaping oil. He reached the machine.