Geoffrey Jenkins - Hunter Killer

Then the radar operator's voice came over the loudspeaker. Contact now bears three-zero-zero true, range opening.'

Peace drew to his mouth a microphone on a flexible cable.

His orders were clipped and tight. His dark clothes merged into the shadows; he seemed disembodied.

' Shut the induction,' he ordered. His eyes rested imper61 sonally on me for a moment and then went round the Control

Centre.

All clear topside,' called the OOD.

' Open the vents.'

The petty officer's fingers played on the toggle switches of the ballast-control panel like an electric organ. I noticed Peace incline his body slightly as if by reflex as the 'water poured into the tanks. Adele looked at me, awed by the complexity of the intricate fighting machine. From that moment, too, I think she gained a new respect for Peace. His eyes were everywhere. Right full rudder, ahead full, four hundred feet smartly,' he ordered. ' Steady on course zeronine-zero. One planesman reached up and turned the handle of the engine-room annunciators-in my day we called them engineroom telegraphs-to ahead full '. A red pointer responded. Answers ahead full, sir.'

Another voice said,. ` Course steady on zero-nine-zero, sir.'

The sonar operator came through. Contact now bears twoseven-two degrees true.'

_ Peace nodded, satisfied. The Exec was looking across at him from his station. Okay, Number One?'

I grinned to myself at the familiar term-nowadays it is Exec.

The Exec replied, Four hundred feet, sir. Speed sixteen knots. Steady on zero-nine-zero.'

Take over, Number One, will you?'

Aye aye, sir'

How much water under her?'

The fathometer operator replied, without waiting for the direct question via the diving officer. Eighteen hundred and seventy-five fathoms, sir'

Eleven thousand feet! Certainly Devastation was not yet over the ancient landmass of Limuria. Peace gave a quick glance at the rigged-for-dive panel and nodded to Adele and me to follow him into the dark passageway. He strode quickly down to his cabin door and flung it open, not waiting for us. We stepped into a small, compact room, L-shaped, with a pull-down bunk littered with papers. There was also a small folding desk, a safe, steel locker, cocktail-bar type stools, a fold-up washbasin snugged into the wall and no fewer than three telephones and two intercoms. By the foot of the bunk in the steel wall were a gyro repeater, fathometer repeater and speed indicator. I saw that this section of the wall was, in fact, a door leading to a pint-sized shower 62 and toilet cubicle. Here indeed was luxury for a submariner! I found myself blinding in the cheerful white light reflecting off the eau-de-nil colour scheme, red floor, green shellbacked rubber matting and blue ceiling, pale as a Limuria dawn.

Pansy, isn't it?' said Peace abruptly, scrabbling among the papers on the bunk. Psycho boffins say it's good for morale, but give me battleship grey any time.'

As he spoke, Peace's eyes strayed to the gyro compass repeater. Mine followed. Only then did the significance of the new course he had given in the Control Centre strike me. Zero-nine-zero-a ninety-degree turn away from Bellatrix! We had turned away from the rendezvous at St Brandon.

I gestured at the compass. Geoffrey-what the devil! This submarine is heading away from its course to meet MKG. It's heading for Saya de Malha '

A glance at Adele was enough to show that she was equally puzzled.

The bleak, trouble-erupting look was in Peace's hard face. Yes,' he said curtly. I'm heading for Saya de Malha.'

' Why?' I demanded. I'd sailed with Peace long enough to respect his sea-foxiness, but his intended break-in into thousands of square miles of shoals, coral-heads, innumerable seadeeps and unmapped islets seemed madness. There was a pause for a moment. The only sound-in the tiny cabin was the distant hum of turbines. Adele made a tiny gesture of helplessness with one hand.

Then Peace said, Your intruder-he was back.'

The cottage?'

Peace nodded in grudging admiration. Yes. He got past the guard, which was pretty smart. But he hadn't reckoned with the DNI. Every room was wired with its own independent alarm-system working off a separate circuit. The CIA man craftily immobilized the first one, which worked off the mains. That in itself must have taken some doing. But he walked into the second like a fly into a spider's web.'

' Who was he?' asked Adele.

My one and only glimpse of him was sprinting across the lawn. Tall, well-built, plenty of muscle-'

That's him.'

' I kept out of the way,' added Peace. It was a hell of a temptation to go out and mix it with him, but in that case he would have got what he came for, a sight of me. I had to content myself with a long shot as he ran.'

Any luck?'

He shrugged. ' Maybe, maybe not. He stumbled, but it could have been a blind. But one thing it told him: for a house to be protected like that meant it had a big secret somewhere. The DNI and I decided to change the plan then and there. That's why I intercepted Bellatrix. I couldn't signal you because of your radio silence. Moreover, it might have given the show away.'

I jerked my head upwards. ' Identification numbers painted out.

That's the least of it,' he said.

And you're still going ahead with Little Bear?'

His determined look answered me. My first duty is to this mission. It means more to me even than it will mean in terms of balance of power between West and East. SNAP is mine; Little Bear is supreme power at sea for whoever has it.' No wonder he had jibbed when the DNI had pressed him to agree that mica's first duty was to the American nation!

Assume,' he went on slowly, that the CIA only suspected Devastation was on her way-what then? All the nuclear subs based in the Seychelles take the milk-run route through deep water to St Brandon. At any time experts could pinpoint Devastation down-range within A few miles. But-' he added grimly-4 not in the Saya de Malha.'

What about the rendezvous?' interrupted Adele, drawing closer to me.

I intend to keep the rendezvous,' he replied. Red

Indians used to cut branches and brush out their trail; I'm brushing out Devastation's trail, just in case. Once in the Saya de Malha, the tracking stations in the Seychelles and Chagos will never find this sub.'

He let the words fall dead, and then said sombrely, This is a top-secret mission and I intend it to remain so. I think I know a new nuclear highway through the drowned land of Limuria.'

I gave an involuntary shudder. On the map Saya de Malha. looks like a Disney elephant's head with a sawn-off trunk blowing bubble-gum. The bubble is the small northern sector. The head is the south. Between is a gap of fifteen to twenty miles-no one knows exactly-and through this Peace would have to dive. The depths were vague. But the overall picture was clear: as cruel a collection of shoals, as any sailor could hope to miss.

And after Saya de Malha?' I asked.

A deep dive between the Saya de Malha and the Nazareth Bank. Then St Brandon.'

I shook my head. Peace was laying his ship open to the gravest risk, making a 50-mile corkscrew through shoal waters which have a traditionally evil reputation among sailors rather than following a straight course to the rendezvous. I started to object, but he shrugged off my words and said to Adele, ' You'll take this cabin.' He opened the door which led into the shower, decorated with gay, flame-proof curtains. `

Toilet. Shower. John and I will shack down on the other side, in Bob Peters's cabin. We share the facilities. He'll have to hot-bunk somewhere.' He swept the coverlet from the bunk as he gathered up some papers. Looks like a damn' geisha's kimono,' he snapped.

There was a knock at the door and a rating handed Peace a signal. He read it through quickly and dismissed the man, who looked grey with fatigue. Adele glanced at me and said. `