Гарри Гаррисон - The QE2 Is Missing

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Uzi said. “You have radar, don’t you? You can see it when it is miles away?”

“Yes, but____”

“No buts. Stay on this course. I will have the Captain verify this. Now, cause no more trouble, do you hear?”

Uzi drew the puzzled Josep out into the corridor. “This is our chance to finish this operation and come out of it all in one piece. What we must do is hold the ship for a few hours more.”

“Then?”

“Then we will be off Clipperton Island. We will have the fire alarms sounded again, and the abandon ship order given as well. We’ll have the Captain make an an nouncement to everyone. They must take to the boats. The ship must be abandoned.”

“Of course! We’ll unload them all on the island! Brilliant! The QE2 is completely computerized, practically automatic. Even with our few men we can sail this ship to our rendezvous. We’ll just leave the ship there, empty. Let them figure that one out. By the time they do we’ll be long gone. But what about the people on this island? They’ll have radios, they can report us____”

“No worry. I was talking to one of the officers when we passed the island on the way to Acapulco. Empty, uninhabited, nothing there except some birds. The lifeboats are well provisioned with food and water. The people won’t come to any harm…. “

“In here. Something bad is happening!”

It was one of the Tupamaro guards who came through the door from the Captain’s quarters and saw them. Josep took a deep breath and led the way.

Captain Rapley was on the phone, listening. “Yes, I’ll tell them,” he said, then hung up. He saw Josep coming through the door. “There has been a development you should know about. The First Engineer Officer has discovered that the ship has been seized by your people. He has taken over the engine room with all the ratings there and has sealed the door. He has delivered an ultimatum. You have just half an hour to return the ship to my command. If you do not, or you attempt to break into the engine room, he is closing down the engines and sabotaging them so they won’t run again without major repairs. I told him that this would endanger the ship and the lives of everyone iboard — but he was adamant.” The Captain looked at» s watch. “There are now approximately twenty-five ninutes left.”

“You fool!” Josep shouted, pulling his gun and pushing it close to the Captain’s face. “People are going to be hurt because of this man’s stupidity. Phone him back, instantly. Tell him that your life is in danger if he persists in this action.”

The Captain drew himself up, his expression grim. “I said that he was adamant. There is nothing more that I can do. I suggest you end this business at once. I’ll take that gun.”

“You have it,” Josep said, striking him across the neck with it, leaving a bloody welt. “You people never seem to learn. Get two of your men and come with me — move!”

They moved. There was no doubting the instant menace of the gun in that trembling hand. Shaking with rage, the finger ready on the trigger. He herded them before him to the deck below and into the burned-out suite. The passengers huddled there surged forward, shouting, when they saw the Captain. Josep fired twice into the wall next to them and they fell back screaming.

“You, Captain, and your men. I want you to pick up and carry these three bodies — unless you prefer me to bring your bodies instead. Put a blanket around the burned one so it doesn’t come apart. Now move!”

They did not want to, but they obeyed. The sailor carrying the charred body of de Laiglesia was trembling with horror — but he did as he was told. Captain Rapley staggered when the corpse of Admiral Marquez was draped over his shoulder, but he said nothing. Colonel Hartig, as fat in death as in life, could not be lifted and had to be dragged. Josep took one of the submachine guns and herded the laboring men before him to the lift that descended all of the way to the engine room, urging them on with the gun to the locked engine room door.

“Drop the bodies, here,” he said. “Then remain where you are. You, Captain, go to that phone over there. Call your officer in the engine room. Tell him you are out here with two of your men. Tell him about the bodies. Tell him to open the door and look for himself if he wants to. Assure him I won’t be here, that I’ll be a hundred meters back down the hall. That is the truth. Tell him to look at the bodies. Then I want you to tell him that I will kill you, your two other men here, and every single one of the ship’s company if he does not come out at once and cease this madness. That is the truth. Do you doubt it?”

“No,” the Captain said.

“Good. Tell him not to bother about what he has read about me in the papers. Tell him to open the door and look now at what I can do. I won’t shoot him. I don’t have to. Now do this.”

Josep turned on his heel and stalked back down the corridor and stopped when he reached the end. He leaned against the wall as he watched the Captain pick up the phone. The fools. He was so tired. His eyes were sore; every muscle hurt. He must take some pills to wake up, as soon as this crisis was over. Could they hold out for six hours more? Yes! They had to.

He saw the Captain put the phone down and turn to the door. After a moment it opened hesitantly and the Engineer Officer looked out. He talked to the Captain, then looked at the corpses — then up at Josep where he stood, gun ready. The man’s shoulders slumped and Josep knew that another crisis was past. But how many more would there be?

It held together — barely. With each calamity averted, the whole mad scheme still came closer and closer to disaster.

Passengers were beginning to discover what was going m. Not very many, and they were pushed into the gymnasium with the others and locked away. But each occasion like this demanded a diversion of manpower. If it hadn’t been for the storm, the takeover would never have stood a chance of succeeding. But most passengers stayed in their cabins or did not venture any further than the dining rooms. They were too ill or too uncomfortable to wonder why the cashier’s office was closed, the gymnasium locked, the Captain’s parties cancelled. They just prayed for the storm to stop and went back to bed.

The two ship’s doctors discovered at gunpoint what was going on. One guard was left in the hospital as they operated on the wounded cashier, did what they could to repair Sergeant Pradera’s shattered kneecaps, sewed up the wound in Concepcion’s neck, bandaged Klaus’s hands.

In every part of the ship desperate, exhausted men held ten, twenty times their number at bay with the menace of their guns. Most of the sailors knew what was happening now, but respected their orders to do nothing about it. What had happened in the engine room was common knowledge.

Two hours after he had been left alone, Hank got a message through to Diaz to come to his suite at once. Diaz did so, dropping exhausted onto the couch.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I’m tired of watching the baby. This bag of diamonds. My wife is still in the bedroom, getting hungry and letting me know about it, and the poor steward is still locked in the bathroom. What are you going to do about this?”

“I’ll get Josep down here. I don’t dare go near that bag if he isn’t here. I’ll use your phone.”

Busy as he was, the Tupamaro leader made the time when the diamonds were mentioned. He came in and dropped into a chair just as Diaz had. He listened in silence, then nodded when Hank said he wanted no more responsibility of looking after the bag and its precious contents.

“You are right,” Josep said. “It was a temporary expedient.” He took the key from his pocket and bent and unlocked the bag and looked inside.