by Dan Latus
‘How would we get her from Ukraine to here?’
‘We might not have to. If Petrov is so important to the Russians, maybe they would bring her.’
‘And the battle plan?’
‘Give it back — after we’ve copied it.’
‘He’ll know.’
‘That doesn’t matter. As far as he’s concerned the main thing is for the Russians not to know he lost it in the first place. His standing with them will probably be more important to him than the document itself.’
‘He’ll still want to settle with me.’ Harry reflected for a moment. ‘Besides, I haven’t forgotten what happened in Slovakia. I want him to pay for that.’
I nodded, and then reminded him of the ugly truth.
‘We can still trade, but he doesn’t have to leave here alive.’
Harry’s face broke into a big smile. ‘That’s true,’ he conceded. ‘That’s very true.’
Chapter Forty-Three
That night, late on, Harry said we should go out.
‘What for?’ I asked, not unreasonably.
‘There’s something I want to show you.’
‘At night?’
‘Tonight, yes. I’ve just remembered something.’
‘It’s getting on for midnight,’ I pointed out.
‘That’s why we need to go now.’
I just shook my head. Yet another mystery. Why couldn’t he have just told me everything to begin with, instead of me having to piece it all together, bit by bit?
‘This had better be good, Harry.’
‘Oh, it is. I think you’ll agree.’
So off we went, out into the night.
‘Are we taking the truck?’
Harry shook his head and set off in the direction of the bay, heading away from the jetty and all the dereliction. There was starlight reflecting from the flat surface of the inlet, but it was pretty dark on land, and making our way across the rough ground wasn’t easy. After a couple of hundred yards, Harry stopped and sat down on a big driftwood log beside a clump of bushes close to the water’s edge.
‘Harry?’
‘We need to be quiet.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Won’t be long now.’
Mystified and a bit irritated, I sat down beside him.
‘Pretty dark,’ I said.
‘Uh huh.’
‘What are we doing here, Harry? What can we see that we couldn’t see in broad daylight?’
‘It has to be dark.’
I gave up questioning him and got up to stretch my legs. It was cool that night but not unpleasantly so. There was no wind at all, and no rain either. The scent from a clump of nearby cedars hung heavy on the air. Somewhere across the bay I could hear geese honking, disturbed by something. A predator, perhaps.
I turned round and looked across at the dilapidated buildings on the far side of the main jetty. No lights on anywhere over there. Even the trailers and huts way over by the transport depot were in darkness. The only light I could see anywhere on land was the dim glow from a small and solitary lamp at the end of the jetty. I wondered what had happened to its companion. There used to be two of them. Bulb gone? No money to replace it?
Harry got up to join me. We stood in silence for a while at the water’s edge, looking out across the bay. There was plenty of light out there now, more than ever, the kind of eerie twilight you can get over water at night.
Our eyes had adjusted, of course, but mostly it was because the thin cloud had been nudged aside by currents of air not discernible to us, exposing a hint of the glory of the heavens. My eyes were drawn skywards, and I gazed with awe at the marvellous celestial screen above our heads. Dark sky country. It had been worth coming if this was what I was meant to see.
‘They’re coming,’ Harry said suddenly. ‘I can hear them.’
I couldn’t.
‘Who’s coming?’
Harry was staring out across the bay. To me nothing had changed out there.
‘The geese,’ he added. ‘They heard it first.’
‘Heard what? For chrissake . . .’
He pointed dramatically across the bay. I looked where Harry was looking and saw what he was seeing. And I couldn’t believe my eyes.
‘Jesus, Harry! What the hell is it?’
But I didn’t really need him to tell me.
Chapter Forty-Four
The submarine — long, black and sleek, eased itself out of the depths like a giant whale intent on breathing air again at last. Sheets of water slid off its deck, creating a wash of white foam all around it. We watched, transfixed, as figures suddenly appeared on top of the vessel, moving urgently, lifting and tugging at hatches and covers.
I pulled out my phone and took a couple of quick photos, wincing at the flash.
‘Frank!’ Harry warned.
I pocketed the phone. He was right. Whatever was going on here, there was no point drawing attention to ourselves.
Approaching engine noise on the road into Coal Harbour brought my head swinging round.
‘We’d better pull back,’ Harry said sharply.
We withdrew into the shelter of a patch of woodland and watched as a van ran along the timber roadway on the jetty. Already a boat had set out from the jetty and was halfway to the waiting submarine. When the boat reached the submarine, we saw in the subdued light from the interior of the leviathan that large crates were being lowered into the boat. I counted seven, perhaps eight.
‘Any idea what’s in them?’ I asked.
Harry shook his head.
The transfer took only a few minutes. The boat turned and started its journey back to the shore. By then, the figures on the deck of the submarine had disappeared, as had the subdued light. Within moments, the monster was lowering itself in the water, soon to disappear again. Only a disturbance on the surface suggested it had ever been there, and that too was soon gone.
Harry and I stayed to the end, until the surface of the bay was flat again. We watched the boat land at the jetty. Men from the van joined those in the boat and began transferring the crates onto the jetty, and then into the van. Two men per crate, I noticed. Not too heavy, but heavy enough.
When the loading was complete, the work crew split up and disappeared, some in the van and some in a car from the jetty. Then both vehicles drove swiftly away. The whole operation had been completed very efficiently in about twenty minutes from start to finish. It hadn’t been a one-off. I was pretty sure of that. The people involved had done this before.
We returned to the house in a sombre mood and sat down to discuss what we had just seen. I didn’t know about Harry, but I was in a state of shock.
‘What do you know about submarines, Harry?’
‘Zilch,’ he replied succinctly. ‘You?’
‘Not much more. Enough to know that the one we’ve just seen was diesel-electric, rather than nuclear, and that’s about it.’
Harry nodded. ‘Amazingly quiet, for an old-type sub.’
‘And I’m amazed it got here at all, so far from the ocean. What do you think is going on?’
‘No idea. It’s a regular occurrence, though. The first time I saw it was purely by chance, one night when I couldn’t sleep and was outside getting a breath of fresh air.’
‘No markings on it,’ I pointed out, ‘but I assume it’s a Canadian vessel. It has to be, doesn’t it? Doing something secret?’
Harry just shrugged.
There wasn’t much more to be said. What else could it be but a Canadian submarine? A Japanese sub left over from World War II?
Anyway, it had been a fascinating distraction, but we had plenty to think about without speculating about submarines in the night. All the same, we had been given a tantalising glimpse of something out of the ordinary. It felt like a privilege to have seen it.
Chapter Forty-Five
First thing the next morning I studied a marine chart of the Quatsino Sound that was pinned up on the wall in the corridor. I was curious about the journey a submarine wo
uld have had to make to reach Coal Harbour, and how difficult it would have been.
As the crow flies, the distance between Coal Harbour and Cape Parkins — effectively the outermost bit of land in Quatsino Sound — was roughly about forty-five miles. That seemed to me to be an extraordinarily long way for a submarine to travel inland, up a fjord, from the ocean.
The route was not a simple one to navigate either, especially if the aim were to stay submerged and unnoticed. A host of rocks and islands littered the way, and the depth of the water varied enormously. Not so bad for a fishing boat sailing openly, but difficult, tortuous even, for a submerged submarine.
But why was there any need for a Canadian vessel to remain hidden? And for its unloading procedure to be so swift, so secretive?
Then again, was it a Canadian vessel?
That thought made me wonder why Harry didn’t seem more concerned. He was treating it like a mere curiosity for spectators, the clandestine visits on a par with the nocturnal migration of geese. It was puzzling, particularly for a spy.
I leaned closer to the chart to study the route the sub must have taken, focusing on the variable water depth. Coming in from the ocean, the depth was generally between 70 and 150 metres until you reached the rocks and islands just inside the mouth of Quatsino Sound. The Gillam Islands were well above sea level, but I didn’t like the look of South Danger Rock and Robson Rock, which seemed scarcely to break the surface. As with an iceberg, the parts you couldn’t see would be the big concern for a skipper.
After that, the depth was as much as 200 metres all the way through Koskimo Bay, and on past the Koskimo Islands. Nothing to worry about there.
Plenty of deep water — 100 to 160 metres — as you went on past Brockton Island and Drake Island. Then it became only 33 to 53 metres around Lindgren Point. A skipper would need to be careful.
After that, the route approached the Quatsino Narrows, a pinch point not much more than 300 yards wide and mostly with a depth of between 30 and 40 metres. I winced as I saw that at the narrowest point the depth was only 9 metres. Tight, really tight.
From memory, the draught of a diesel-electric sub was much less than that of a big nuclear vessel. Something like 5 or 6 metres, as opposed to 10 or 12. Such a boat could get through the Narrows, just, but not while submerged, and not at low water either. Even at high water, the sail would probably be well clear of the surface. So, the passage would have to be at night, if the sub was to stay out of sight the whole way. Still, it could be done, and last night — as on other occasions — it had been done.
Past the Narrows, the route was across Rupert Inlet, where the depth was back to 160 metres, and then into the little bay where Coal Harbour itself stood. The water was plenty deep there, too, until close to the beach.
I straightened up and stood back, wondering what to make of it. The chart had given me much to ponder, but I’d seen enough for now. It was time to get something to eat.
After breakfast, Harry and I settled down to another of our seemingly interminable discussions about what we should do about the problems facing us. By now, I was coming round to the view that we needed outside help if we were to achieve anything.
‘We need to involve whatsername — that woman from Canadian Intelligence. Greta Campbell, wasn’t it?’
Harry was shaking his head even before I had finished my sentence. ‘No way!’
‘I know you don’t like her, but we need her support. We can’t do everything ourselves. We haven’t got the capability.’
‘I’m not risking Johanne’s life.’
‘It needn’t come to that. Think about it, Harry.’
‘I already have. Anyway, what difference would involving Greta Campbell make?’
I told him what I was thinking, which was enough to shut him up for a few minutes.
‘It might not work,’ he said eventually.
‘I agree. It might not. But what else have we got? We can’t just hope to stay ahead of Petrov for evermore. We have to take the fight to him.’
He thought about it for about twenty seconds. Then he said, ‘Call her. You deal with her. I’m going out.’
First, though, I called Giles Henderson. With Harry out of the way, it was an ideal opportunity.
When I began to explain the situation in detail, Henderson cut me off. ‘I do understand Stone’s predicament,’ he said. ‘There is no need for further explanation. What I hoped to hear from you was how we might get around it and reach a conclusion satisfactory to all sides.’
It could be a bit disconcerting, but I did like the way he had of cutting to the chase and clarifying things. Whatever else he might be, he was a very intelligent man. I admired that about him.
‘Well, I can’t promise anything,’ I told him, ‘but I may have a solution.’
‘What do you need from me?’
I was taken aback. This trust and immediate support was way beyond what I had expected.
Harry had said that as well as the Estonia battle plan, he had also managed to lift a copy of a Russian plan for a cyber attack on Western Europe. What I wanted from Henderson was a NATO response plan.
I wasn’t really sure what we could do with it, but that didn’t matter. I just felt we needed something extra up our sleeve, because sooner or later there would have to be negotiations if we were to get Johanne back. Having something Petrov didn’t know about might just give us an edge, especially if he could use it to placate Moscow.
A long pause followed my request. I held my breath, fearing I was asking too much.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he said brusquely. ‘Leave it with me. In the meantime, do go ahead with what you have suggested.’
I ended the call and allowed myself a sigh of relief, and of appreciation. Then I got on with it and called Ms Campbell.
Chapter Forty-Six
She arrived in a big truck, sending up clouds of gravel and dirt again. Alone, this time, though, I noted, as she got out of the vehicle. No uniforms. No back-up. Something must have changed.
I turned to the resident member of the Awkward Brigade.
‘Remember, Harry — be nice. OK?’
‘Just get on with it,’ he growled.
I went to hold the front door open for our visitor and watched her march briskly up the crumbling path.
‘Hi, Frank!’ she called.
‘Officer Campbell.’
‘Greta will do, if we’re going to be friends.’
‘Greta, then,’ I said, amused and surprisingly glad to see her. ‘Welcome back!’
I showed her into the kitchen, where Harry had put on his social face and was already making coffee.
‘I figured we’d need it,’ he explained, ‘so I’ve put the good stuff on. None of that instant rubbish this time.’
I relaxed, satisfied that Harry was going to live up to his end of the bargain. I needed that. Fighting on one front at a time was quite enough for me.
‘So, you boys have decided you need me after all?’ Greta announced, looking expectantly from one to the other of us.
I chuckled. ‘The truth is, yes, we do. Also, you do need to know what’s going on and when you first came here, we didn’t feel at liberty to tell you.’
‘I have all the security clearances you could possibly need, Mr Doy.’
‘Frank, please.’
‘And I’m Harry,’ my partner in crime offered.
‘Frank, Harry, so — what gives?’
Harry waved to me, so I began to make our pitch.
‘Greta, we’re in the midst of a very complicated situation here. I’ll do my best to explain things as clearly as I can.’
‘I’m OK with complicated, Frank. Don’t worry about that.’
I smiled and got going.
‘Harry here, as you probably know, is an undercover British intelligence officer on secondment to NATO. He’s been working in eastern Ukraine for the past several years on matters vital to the Western alliance, as well as to Ukraine itself. Recently, he got h
old of important information concerning Russian plans to emulate what they have been doing in Ukraine in Estonia, one of the Baltic republics. To cut a long story short, he had to leave Eastern Europe fast. Some of his colleagues had been assassinated, and Harry himself was being pursued by hostile agents, intent on recovering the information he had taken and murdering him in revenge. He was worn out, exhausted mentally and physically, but he managed to escape.
‘He came here, where for some years, he and his partner have had a private refuge, a holiday home that no one back in Europe knew about. His intention was to recuperate and wait here for his partner to join him, before reporting back to his boss in London.’
‘Why not go straight to London and report immediately?’ Greta asked, not unreasonably.
‘Because it had become clear to both Harry and his boss — Giles Henderson, by the way — that security back there had been compromised. There had been a leak, and agents had died as a result. Harry resolved not to return to London or hand over the information he carried until that leak had been found and fixed.’
Greta Campbell nodded. ‘Makes sense.’
‘I think so too,’ I said. ‘Unfortunately, somehow — probably the leak again — the bad guys discovered that he was on Vancouver Island and have been searching for him. We believe the men who attacked us in the motel a couple of nights ago had been assigned to kill Harry and recover the information he has.’
‘So, the pair of you got lucky?’
‘We did. They wouldn’t have known I’d been sent here to watch Harry’s back. They probably thought three of them would be enough against one man.’
‘But not against two.’ Greta nodded. ‘You did well, both of you. But I’m bound to say we should have been advised and involved. We could have had several hundred officers — regular troops even — here to protect Harry.’
I shrugged. ‘The secrets world doesn’t work like that, though, does it?’
‘No, not usually,’ she admitted with a sigh. ‘If only . . . Anything else you want to tell me?’
Why not? I thought. She might as well hear it from us.