Гарри Гаррисон - The QE2 Is Missing

“Pull it around the stern,” Esteban said to the Tupamaro sailor at the helm, untying the lines at the same time. He ran quickly back up the accommodation ladder and seconds later the lifeboat falls began to grind upwards, lifting the ladder back into its stowed position.

The launch moved swiftly with the slightest touch of power, around to the high stern of the liner. They waited there until Esteban appeared on the deck above, waved to them, then climbed to the rail and dived neatly into the sea below. As soon as he was aboard, they started towards the fishing boat that had heaved to and was waiting.

Uzi sat in the stern with the two sullen Germans, and watched disinterestedly as Josep bent and picked up the bag of diamonds and carried them forwards towards the bow, kicking the shivering Stroessner to one side as he went.

“Where are you going with that?” Diaz said, rising to follow. And in that instant everything changed.

All of the Tupamaros were in either the waist or the bow of the launch. Josep turned and his sub-machine gun was in his hands. The other Tupamaros had their weapons raised as well.

It had only taken a few moments. Diaz started to reach for his gun — and stopped. Even Concepcion, smiling coldly, had her gun pointed at him. He let his hand drop.

“Don’t try anything,” he told his two stunned Paraguayan companions. “Keep your hands in sight.”

“Very wise,” Josep said. “That goes for you as well, Uzi. Just stay neutral, this has nothing to do with you.”

“Then I assume it has something to do with me,” Diaz said, forcing the words through his tight-clamped teeth, realizing far too late that he should have expected some treachery from the Tupamaros.

“Perfectly correct. I want your guns. You won’t be harmed. But you might object at the division of these diamonds.”

“We share them fifty-fifty,” Diaz said.

“That was the original agreement. However, since then we have taken certain losses and have made expensive arrangements. I am changing the split slightly. We are taking it all!”

Josep smiled when he said this and the Tupamaros burst out laughing, thinking this tremendously funny. Uzi was not laughing.

“I thought you were a man of honor, Josep…. “

“Watch your mouth!” Josep said, angrily, raising his gun. “I do what must be done. Be happy that you are alive and have that grunting pig, Stroessner, as a hostage. Feel sorry for us, we lost our Admiral Marquez. The extra diamonds will make up for that loss.”

Diaz nodded. “I agree. You have had losses, you have had even higher expenses. Two thirds, one third, I will agree to that split.”

“I don’t care what you agree or what you want. But I shall be generous even though I do not have to be. I will spare you one of these bags of diamonds. A nice big one. That is if my revolutionary comrades agree?”

The Tupamaros laughed and waved, enjoying the joke. Josep dug the key from his pocket and unlocked the bag, throwing it open. And stopped, staring, paralyzed.

Then he grabbed it up and turned it over, dumping it out.

A rain of books and magazines fell to the deck.

They stood, all of them, unmoving at the sight, until Wielgus’s laughter cut through the silence. The nearest Paraguayan cuffed him until he was silent as well. Josep bent and picked up one of the books.

“Dorland’s Medical Encyclopaedia/’ he read. “Medical books, all of them, and doctors’ magazines.” He spun about and pointed to Concepcion. “You did it. You. Nobody else could. Alone in that room with the Sergeant. All the medical books were there. No one else could have gotten near this bag.”

“No!” she screamed. “I swear! I know nothing. How could I?”

“Well, the Sergeant with his legs in casts couldn’t have done this!” Josep shouted in wild fury. He grabbed the bag and poked inside it. “Cut open on the bottom. Then sewn up neatly. Beautiful stitches. A woman’s touch….”

“NO!”

Her screamed word was cut off by the blast of gunfire that tore into her, drove her over the gunwale of the boat into the sea and beneath the surface. Josep ran over and fired again at the corpse as it floated back out of sight and was gone. He spun about, gun quivering from side to side like a questioning dog’s nose, screeching now with madness.

“Who has them? One second to speak, then I fire. Diaz, you arranged it with her, a plot. Where are they? You’ll not win this way!”

“I didn’t, I swear!”

His words were drowned out by the burst of automatic fire and he shrank back instinctively. But the bullets were not aimed at him. But at General Stroessner.

The fat little man screamed like a girl, writhing as he rose, staring unbelievedly at the blood bursting from the bullet holes in his body.

“If Josep does not win, no one wins!” the Tupamaro shouted, saliva wet on his lips as he pushed the mortally wounded dictator out of the launch and into the sea. He raised his gun again, but it clicked on an empty chamber when he pulled the trigger.

As he struggled to release the clip and jam in a new one, Uzi stood and stepped forward.

“Search everyone, search this launch,” he said. “If the diamonds are aboard you will find them easily enough. But whether you do or not I have an offer for you. These Nazis are worth money to me. Don’t harm them. Deliver them alive to my people and we will pay you a hundred thousand dollars for Wielgus, fifty thousand for the other one. That is money you can have for your revolution even if you don’t find the diamonds.”

Uzi’s words calmed Josep, the thought of getting hard cash in exchange for the German prisoners certainly raised a new consideration. By reflex his trained fingers found the release and the empty clip clanged to the deck. He replaced it with another, scarcely aware of the action. “You could pay more than that,” he said.

“That will not be necessary,” Wielgus called out loudly, drawing their attention to him. “Those diamonds were in my trust. I have more where they came from. Release me, Josep, and you will have all the money you need. We will start with a million dollars. You would like a million dollars wouldn’t you…?”

“Be quiet!” Uzi ordered, clenching his fists and moving towards the Nazi. Josep waved him back to his seat with the barrel of his gun. Then smiled.

“Now the conversation is taking a more interesting turn. I am sorry, Uzi, but I think I will do business with the Doctor and his associates. With the diamonds gone, he is my only possible source of profit.”

“We had an agreement,” Uzi said. “The Germans are mine.”

“Not any more. The bullets in my gun make sure of that. I like the sound of their money.”

“Do you like the sound of their politics?” Diaz broke in, his voice cold as death. “I thought that we were fighting to get rid of this kind of vermin. Would you free them, align yourself with them?”

“Of course,” Josep said. “Politics make strange bed-mates. Uruguay will be liberated — that is all that matters.”

“But you have the means to do that. The agreements your government signed with these Nazis. That piece of paper will bring about world revulsion — and the revolution you so desperately desire. If you work with these Nazis you compromise everything you say that you stand for.”

“That is enough!” Josep swung up the gun. “We have had enough discussion. I have made my decision. I accept the German’s offer. He will supply the funds we need, the whereabouts of the other diamonds does not matter now. Anyone who as much as utters one word of protest now will taste some bullets. I mean that. Come over here, Doctor Wielgus, so we can free your hands.”

Wielgus stood and smiled at the silent men in the stern of the boat. “So the Jewish interests have lost in the end as they must always do. We will build our power again and the world will one day discover that the power of the Reich is not dead.”