Desmond Bagley - Night Of Error

I lifted my eyebrows.

'Your crew's a tough mob, and I know they can fight if they have to – but will they? You say Ramirez has a crew of about thirty.'

I said, 'It depends on the kind of fighting. We might have cleaned Ramirez out of weapons, and we might not. If he comes up against us with any kind of armament we've had our chips. If it's a matter of hand-to-hand fighting, no matter how dirty, we've got a good chance.'

'At two to one odds?'

'I've seen them in action. Admittedly it was a surprise attack but it went off with about as much excitement as a tea party at the vicarage. Our lot are trained fighting men, most of them. Ramirez has waterfront scum.'

'I hope you're right. But I'd like to talk to our boys anyway. A man should know what he's fighting for.'

'They know what they're fighting for,' I said softly. 'They saw the hospital at Tanakabu.'

'True. But the labourer is worthy of his hire. They don't know the extent of what we're searching for and I'm going to tell them. There's no harm in mentioning a fat bonus at the end of all this – whether we dredge lucky or not.'

I said, 'They'll all be about when we put the dredge over the side. You could talk to them then.'

We had the winch made ready for dredging early the next day, and at ten o'clock Campbell had the whole crew gathered before him on deck. He stepped up onto the winch and sat easily on the control seat, looking down on the men.

'You know some of what this is all about,' he said to them. 'But not everything. So I'm going to tell you – officially. You know we've been dredging in a few places here and there, and I'm going to make it clear what we're looking for.'

He held up a nodule.

This is a manganese nodule and the sea bed is covered with them. This particular nodule is worthless, but the ones we're looking for are worth a hell of a lot of money.' He casually tossed the nodule over the side.

'Now, a gentleman called Ramirez is trying to stop us. I suppose you all know that – hence the funny things that have happened in the last few weeks. Now, I want you to get this straight. Ramirez is going after those nodules for the money -and so am I, make no mistake about that. The difference is that I think there's enough for all and I'm not greedy. I won't bother Ramirez if he bothers me none, but he's got a big tough crew and he seems to be spoiling for a fight.'

I had my own ideas about that statement. I was quite certain that Campbell didn't want Suarez-Navarro to have any part of the find, but perhaps on moral rather than on economic grounds.

'Now, I want you boys to know where you stand. Before you make any decisions I want you to know that whether we strike lucky or not, there's going to be a sizeable bonus at the end of this trip- you can call it danger money. If we do strike it rich, I'll be organizing a corporation to exploit the find, and I'll put five per cent of the stock aside to be divided among this crew. That may not seem much, but let me tell you it won't be peanuts. You may all end up millionaires.'

There was a babble of talk and a spate of handclapping. Geordie said, 'I think I can speak for all of us, Mr Campbell; that's a generous gesture that wasn't really necessary. We're with you all the way.'

There was a chorus of approval and Geordie held up his hand. 'There's just one more thing,' he said. 'I think Taffy Morgan there will give up his bonus if he can go on double rations for the rest of the voyage.'

A ripple of laughter swept the deck.

Taffy called out, 'I don't want even that, skipper. Just give me the bastard who fired that hospital!'

The laughter turned to an ugly growl, and I pitied Hadley if any of these men came across him.

Campbell held up his hand again for silence. 'That's settled then. If any of you want to know more about these nodules you'd better ask Mike; he's our expert. And now I think we'd better get on with the job before Sirena shows up.'

He stepped down from the winch and the work began.

On the first drop the dredge touched bottom at 13,000 feet and when we hauled it up there were plenty of nodules in it. The crew had all seen plenty of them before but this time they were more curious. Danny picked one up and said, These could be valuable?'

They could, and I hope they are. You'll be the first to know,' I said.

I took the first few samples down to the lab and began working. On deck I heard the crew securing the dredge and the bellowed orders of Geordie as Esmerelda got under way again. I hadn't been working long when Paula and Clare came in.

'We came to see if we could help,' said Clare. 'You'll have a lot of work on your hands.'

I rubbed my chin. Neither would be able to use the spectroscope without training, but for the rest they could be very useful. 'I hope you're good dishwashers,' I said, and waved at the glassware. This lot needs taking down and cleaning after every run.'

'I'll do that,' said Paula. She looked at my set-up. 'It looks like something out of one of those horror movies.'

'I'm not the mad scientist yet, although I might be if this whole thing turns out to be a bust. Clare, there's a hell of a lot of record keeping. You help your father with that kind of thing. Can you cope with this?'

'Sure. Just tell me what you want.'

I got cracking on the analysis. Working in a sailing ship heeled over under canvas wasn't anything I'd been trained for but it was surprising how much I'd learned, and I had rigged up some interesting systems to cope with the movement. We couldn't afford to stay hove-to while I assayed each time, and in fact we'd tried it and that motion was worse. I was checking some rough results when I felt her slacken off and presently the winch engine started again. I knew Geordie had taken up station for another dip over the side.

I said, 'Paula, can you start dismantling this set-up ready for cleaning, please? There'll be another load of nodules here soon.'

She got to work and I turned to help Clare with the records.

'There's the winch report which gives position and depth. There's the spectrograph report, together with the photographic negative list. That's the quantitative analysis, and there's a numbered half-nodule. All that lot must be filed together. This time I've written it out myself, but next time I'll call out the figures.'

I was pleased. This help on routine work made a lot of difference and I reckoned the work would be speeded up considerably. There was a long grind ahead – I didn't expect to hit the jackpot at the first dip, and I hadn't. The result of the first dredge was about average, just what the orthodox oceanographer would expect to find in a normal Pacific nodule.

Clare and I went on deck to get a breath of fresh air and were just in time to see the dredge go over the side. I watched the bubbles rising to the surface and then we strolled away and sat down on the foredeck and I offered her a cigarette. As we went past heads turned and Ian called from the winch, 'Any luck?'

I smiled and shook my head. 'Not yet, Ian, but it's early days.'

Clare said, 'Pop told me about the questions you asked Kane. Do you think he was telling any of the truth?'

'Not a chance. He was lying in his teeth.'

She said, 'You didn't expect him to admit to killing anyone, did you? Of course he would lie.'

That isn't what I meant, Clare. Curiously enough, I don't think he did kill anyone – not directly. I believed him when he said it was Hadley all the time. I don't think Kane has enough guts to kill anyone, but I could believe anything of Hadley. I think he's a psychopath, Kane implied that even Ramirez can't control him. It won't make any difference in the long run, of course – if we get them all Kane will be as guilty as any of them, and be punished accordingly.'

Then you think he was lying about something else.'