'Indeed it could.'
'One thing strikes me as odd: why is Tehran missing from the list?'
'True, true. The Iranians -- with the possible exception of the Afghans, are more desperate for arms than any other place around. But gun-runners don't specialize in blowing up planes in flight.'
'I don't know what we're talking about, sir. The Hampton Court maze has nothing on this lot. I have the feeling that it's going to take us quite some time to figure this out. Fortunately we have more immediate problems to occupy our minds.'
'Fortunately?' Hawkins lifted his eyes heavenwards. 'Did you say fortunately?'
'Yes, sir. Vincent?' This to Van Gelder. 'I should think Jenkins knows the requirements of the Vice-Admiral and his two friends by this time.'
'You are not joining us?' Benson said.
'Better not. We expect to be quite busy later on tonight.' He turned to Van Gelder .again. 'And give orders for our six shipwrecked mariners to return to their cabins. They are to remain there until further orders. Post guards to see that those instructions are obeyed.'
'I think I'd better go and do this myself, sir.'
'Fine. I'm all out of tact at the moment.'
Hawkins said: 'Do you think they'll take kindly to this - ah -- incarceration?'
'Incarceration? Let's call it protective custody. Fact is, I don't want them to see what's going on in the next few hours. I'll explain why in a moment.
'The Ministry of Defence had another item of information for us. About the bomber. It had been in touch with air control in Athens and had been instructed to alter course over the island of Amorgos - that's about forty miles north-east of here -- and proceed on a roughly north-north-west course. Two fighter planes -- US Air Force F15s -- went up to meet it and escort it in.'
'Did you see any such planes in the vicinity?'
'No, sir. Wouldn't have expected to. Rendezvous point was to be over the island of Euboea. The destination was not Athens but Thessalonika. I assume the Americans have, a missile base in that area. I wouldn't know.
'Admiral Blyth on the Apollo has also come through. We've had luck here -- two pieces of luck. A recovery ship en route to Piraeus has been diverted to Santorini. Diving crews, recovery gear, the lot. You'll know it, sir. The Kilcharran.'
'I know it. Auxiliary Fleet vessel. Nominally under my command. I say "nominally" because I also have the misfortune to know its captain. Lad called Montgomery. A very crusty Irishman with a low opinion of Royal Navy regulations. Not that that matters. He's brilliant at his job. Couldn't ask to have a better man around. Your other item of good news?'
'There's a plane en route to Santorini at this moment with a couple of divers and diving equipment for four aboard. Very experienced men, I'm told, a Chief Petty Officer and a Petty Officer. I've sent Sub-Lieutenant Cousteau ashore to pick them up. They should be here in half an hour or so.'
'Excellent, excellent. And when do you expect the Kilcharran?'
'About five in the morning, sir.'
'By Jove, things are looking up. You have something in mind?'
'I have. With your permission, sir.'
'Oh, do shut up.'
'Yes, sir. It will also answer your two questions - why Gelder and I are on the wagon and why the six survivors have been -- well, locked up out of harm's way. When Cousteau comes back with the divers and equipment, Van Gelder and I are going down with them to have a look at this plane. I'm pretty sure we won't be able to accomplish much. But we'll be able to assess the extent of the damage to the plane, with luck locate this ticking monster and with even great luck try to free it. I know in advance that we're not going to have that kind of luck but it's worth a try. You'd be the first to agree, sir, that in the circumstances, anything is worth a try.'
'Yes, yes, but, well, you'll excuse me if I frown a bit you and Van Gelder are the two most important people on this ship.'
'No, we're not. If anything should happen to us personally and I don't see what can happen, you are, in your spare time, so to speak, accustomed to commanding a battle fleet. I can hardly see that a mere frigate is going to inconvenience you to all that extent. And if anything should happen on a catastrophic scale, nobody's going to be worrying too much about anything.'
Wickram said: 'You are a cold-blooded so-and-so. Commander.'
Hawkins sighed. 'Not cold blood, Dr Wickram. Cold logic, I'm afraid. And when and if you come back up, what then?'
Then we're off to have a look at the Delos. Should be very interesting. Andropulos may have made a mistake, Admiral, in telling you that he was scared that his spare fuel tank might blow up. But then, he could have had no idea that we were going to have a look at the Delos. That's why he's locked up. I don't want him to know we've got divers aboard and I especially don't want him to see me taking off with divers in the general direction of the Delos. If we find that there was no spare tank, we shall have to keep an even closer eye on him. And, for good measure, on his dear friend Alexander and his captain, Aristotle. I can't believe that that young seaman, Achmed or whatever his name is, or either of the two girls can have anything to do with this. I think they're along for the purpose of camouflage, respectability, if you will. In any event we should be back long before the Kilcharran arrives.' He turned to look at Denholm who had just arrived on the bridge. 'Well, Jimmy, what drags you away from the fleshpots?'
'If I may say so with some dignity, sir, I'm trying to set them an example. I've just had a thought, sir. If you will excuse me, Admiral?'
'I think that any thought you might have could be well worth listening to, young man. Not Greek literature this time, I'll be bound. This -- ah -- hobby of yours. Electronics, is it not?'
'Well, yes, it is, sir.' Denholm seemed faintly surprised. He looked at Talbot. 'That atom bomb down there, the one that goes tick . .. tick . .. tick. The intention is, or the hope, anyway, to detach it from the other explosives?'
'If it can be done.'
'And then, sir?'
'One thing at a time, Jimmy. That's as far as my thinking has got so far.'
'Would we try to de-activate it?' Denholm looked at Wick-ram. 'Do you think it could be de-activated, sir?'
'I honestly don't know, Lieutenant. I have powerful suspicions, but I just don't know. I should have imagined that this lay more in your field than mine. Electronics, I mean. I know how to build those damned weapons but I know nothing about those fancy triggering devices.'
'Neither do I. Not without knowing how they work. For that I'd have to see the blueprint, a diagrammatic layout. You said you had powerful suspicions. What suspicions, sir?'
'I suspect that it can't be de-activated. In fact, I'm certain the process is irreversible. The second suspicion is also a certainty. I'm damn sure that I'm not going to be the one to try.'
'That makes two of us. So what other options are open to us?'
Benson said: 'May a total ignoramus venture an opinion? Why don't we take it to some safe place a hundred miles away and dump it at the bottom of the deep blue sea?'
'A tempting thought, Professor,' Denholm said, 'but not a very practicable one. It is, of course, a hundred per cent certain that this triggering device is battery-powered. The latest generation of Nife cells can lie dormant for months, even years, and still spring smartly to attention when called on to do their duty. You can't declare a whole area of the Mediterranean off-limits to all shipping for years to come.'
'I prefaced my suggestion by saying that I was an ignoramus. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Another doubtlessly ludicrous suggestion. We take it to the self-same spot and detonate it.'
Denholm shook his head. 'I'm afraid that still leaves us with a couple of problems. The first is, how are we going to get it there?'
'We take it there.'
'Yes. We take it there. Or we set out to take it there. Then somewhere en route the ticking stops. Then the triggering device cocks its ear and says, "Aha! What's this I hear? Ship's engines," and detonates. There wouldn't even be a
second's warning.'
'Hadn't thought of that. We could -- I say this hopefully -- tow it there.'
'Our little friend is still listening and we don't know and have no means of knowing how sensitive its hearing is. Engines, of course, would set it off. So would a generator. A derrick winch, even a coffee-grinder in the galley might provide all the impulse it requires.'
Talbot said: 'You came all the way up to the bridge, Jimmy, just to spread sweetness and light, your own special brand of Job's comfort?'
'Not quite, sir. It's just that a couple of ideas occurred to me, one of which will have occurred to you and one which you probably don't know about. Getting the bomb to its destination would be easy enough. We use a sailing craft. Lots of them hereabouts. Aegean luggers.'
Talbot looked at Hawkins. 'One can't think of everything. I forgot to mention, sir, that in addition to being a student of ancient Greek language and literature Lieutenant Denholm is also a connoisseur of the small craft of the Aegean. Used to spend all his summers here -- well, until we nabbed him, that is.'
'I wouldn't begin to know how to sail those luggers or caiques, in fact I couldn't even sail a dinghy if you paid me. But I've studied them, yes. Most of them come from the island of Samos or Bodrum in Turkey. Before the war - the First World War, that is - they were all sailing craft. Nowadays, they're nearly all engined, most of them with steadying sails. But there's quite a few both with engines and a full set of sails. Those are the Trehandiri and Perama types and I know there are some in the Cyclades. One of those would be ideal for our purposes. Because they have shallow keels, a minimum draught and no ballast they are almost useless performers to windward but that wouldn't matter in this case. The prevailing wind here is north-west and the open sea lies to the south-east.'
'Useful information to have,' Talbot said. 'Very useful indeed. Um -- you wouldn't happen to know anyone with such a craft?'
'As a matter of fact I do.'
'Good God! You're as useful as your information.' Talbot broke off as Van Gelder entered the bridge. 'Duty done, Number One?'
'Yes, sir. Andropulos was a bit reluctant to go. So were Alexander and Aristotle. In fact, they point-blank refused to go. Infringement of their liberties as Greek civilians or some tosh to that effect. Demanded to know on whose orders. I said yours. Demanded to see you. I said in the morning. More outrage. I didn't argue with them, just called up McKenzie and some of his merry men, who removed them forcibly. I told McKenzie not to post any guards, just lock the doors and pocket the keys. You're going to hear from the Greek government about this, sir.'
'Excellent. Wish I'd been there. And the girls?'
'Sweet reason. No problem.'
'Fine. Now, Jimmy, you said a couple of ideas had occurred to you. What was the second one?'
'It's about the second problem that the Professor raised. The detonation. We could, of course, try sympathetic detonation by dropping a depth charge on it but as we would be in the immediate vicinity at the time I don't think that would be a very good idea.'
'Neither do I. So?'
'The Pentagon could have the answer. Despite feeble denials to the contrary, everyone knows that the Pentagon controls NASA - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA, in turn, is supposed to administer the Kennedy Space Center. "Supposed" is the operative word. They don't. The centre is operated by EG & G, a major defence contractor. EG & G - Dr Wickram will know much more about this than I do -- oversees such things as nuclear-weapons tests and the so-called Star Wars. More importantly, they are developing, or have developed, what they call the krytron, a remote-controlled electronic impulse trigger that can detonate nuclear weapons. A word from the Admiral in the ear of the Pentagon might work wonders.'
Hawkins cleared his throat. 'This little titbit of information, Lieutenant, It will, of course, like your other titbits, be in the public domain?'
'It is, sir.'
'You astonish me. Most interesting, most. Could be a big part of the answer to our problem, don't you agree, Commander?' Talbot nodded. 'I think we should act immediately on this one. Ah! The very man himself.'
Myers had just entered, carrying a piece of paper which he handed to Talbot. 'Reply to your latest query to the Pentagon, sir.'
'Thank you. No, don't go. We'll have another message to send them in a minute.' Talbot handed the paper to Hawkins.
'"Security at bomber base",' Hawkins read, '"believed to be 99.9% effective. But cards on the table. However unlikely, there may be one chance in ten thousand that security has been penetrated. This could have been that one chance". Well, isn't that nice. Absolutely useless piece of information, of course.'
'"Plane carried fifteen H-bombs of fifteen megatons each and three atom bombs, all three equipped with timing devices". Well, that's just fine. So now we have three of those ticking monsters to contend with.'
'With any luck, just one,' Talbot said. 'Sonar picks up only one. Extremely unlikely that all three would be ticking in perfect unison. Point's academic, anyway. One or a hundred, the big boys would still go up.'
'Identified by size, they say,' Hawkins went on. 'Sixty inches by six. Pretty small for an atom bomb, I would have thought. 4000 kilotons. That's a lot, Dr Wickram?'
'By today's standards, peanuts. Less than half the size of the Hiroshima bomb. If the bomb is the dimensions they say, then it's very large for such a small explosive value.'
'It goes on to say that they're designated for marine use. I suppose that's a fancy way of saying that they are mines. So your guess was right, Dr Wickram.'
'Also explains the size of the bomb. Quite a bit of space will be taken up by the timing mechanism and, of course, it will have to be weighted to give it negative buoyancy.'
The real sting comes in the tail,' Hawkins said. '"When the ticking stops the timing clock has run out and the firing mechanism is activated and ready to be triggered by mechanical stimulation", by which I take it they mean ship's engines. So it looks as if you were right about that one, Van Gelder. Then, by way of cheerful farewell, they say that enquiries so far confirm that the timing mechanism, once in operation, cannot be neutralized and appears to be irreversible.'
The last words were met with silence. No one had any comment to make for the excellent reason that everyone had already been convinced of the fact.
'A message to the Pentagon, Myers. "Urgently require to know state of development of the EG & G krytron" -- that's k-r-y-t-r-o-n, isn't it, Lieutenant? -- "nuclear detonation device."' Talbot paused. 'Add: "If operating model exists essential dispatch immediately with instructions." That do, Admiral?' Hawkins nodded. 'Sign it Admiral Hawkins.'
'We must be giving them quite some headaches in the Pentagon,' Hawkins said in some satisfaction. 'This should call for still more aspirin.'
'Aspirins are not enough,' Van Gelder said. 'Sleepless nights are what are called for.'
'You have something in mind, Van Gelder?'
'Yes, sir. They can have no idea of the really horrendous potential of the situation here in Santorini - the combination of all those megatons of hydrogen bombs, thermal plumes and volcanoes and earthquakes along the tectonic plate boundaries and the possibly cataclysmic results. If Professor Benson here were to make a very brief précis of the lecture he gave us in the wardroom this evening it might give them something more to think about.'
'You have an evil mind, Van Gelder. What a perfectly splendid suggestion. Uneasy will lie the heads along the Potomac this night. What do you think, Professor?'
'It will be a pleasure.'
When Sub-Lieutenant Cousteau, together with the two divers and their equipment, returned from Santoriai, they found the Ariadne in virtual darkness. With the thought of the malevolent listening bug on the sea-floor dominating every other in his mind, Talbot had sought Lieutenant Denholm's advice on the question of noise suppression: Denholm had not been half-hearted in his recommendations, with the result that the use of all mechanical devices on the ship, from generators to electr
ic shavers, had been banned. Only essential lighting, radar, sonar and radio were functioning normally: all these could function equally well, as they had been designed to do, on battery power. The sonar watch on the ticking device in the crashed bomber was now continuous.
The two divers, Chief Petty Officer Carrington and Petty Officer Grant, were curiously alike, both aged about thirty, of medium height and compact build: both were much given to smiling, a cheerfulness that in no way detracted from their almost daunting aura of competence. They were with Talbot and Van Gelder in the wardroom.
'That's all I know about the situation down there,' Talbot said, 'and heaven knows it's little enough. I just want to know those three things - the extent of the damage, the location of this ticking noise and to see if it's possible to remove this atom bomb or whatever, which I'm convinced in advance is impossible. You are aware of the dangers and you are aware that I cannot order you to do this. How does the prospect appeal, Chief?"
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