"First of all, what do you know about that Egyptian gunboat that disappeared from Hampton Roads about two weeks ago?"
"Nothin' except what we've heard on the radio," said Fatso. "I think she was sighted passing through Gib four or five days ago."
"Well, I met a sailor yesterday who told me his name was Adams and he belonged on this ship. He said you guys had intercepted this Egyptian gunboat, put an Israeli crew on board, and she was now on her way to Haifa."
"Well, that's a hell of a yarn, all right," said Fatso. "All I can say is this guy took you for a hell of a sleigh ride. He musta been drunk."
"Of course, even if the story is true," said Smythe, "you would probably have orders from Sixth Fleet to deny it."
"Well, you can talk to anybody you want to in my crew about it. You can check with personnel on the Alamo and find out we got no Adams on board. I think some young sailor just got himself a skinful and decided to tell you a good story," said Fatso.
"I'd like to talk to some of the other sailors in your crew," said Smythe.
"Okay," said Fatso. "If you don't believe me, Mr. Smith, talk to as many of them as you like. But if you believe all the wild tales they tell you you'll be in trouble."
Smythe talked to all the rest of the crew but got nothing about the Egyptian out of them. They all claimed that all they knew about it was what they had heard on the radio. They all claimed they had never heard of Adams and looked blank when he mentioned the Russian defector. He checked with the personnel office of the Alamo and found they had no one by the name of Adams aboard. He made inquiries along the waterfront and at the OOD's office of the amphib base. No one knew anything about any Egyptian gunboat.
Smythe went back to his office and made out a voucher for fifty dollars entertainment expenses to send in on his next expense account. Then he got busy trying to sniff out other exclusive stories of global interest for his magazine.
The day after the Egyptian sailed from Naples, naval HQ, Tel Aviv, got a secret dispatch from their underground HQ Naples giving them the dope on what was happening. The Israeli Navy had been in bad odor since the Liberty incident, so this was manna from heaven for them. They sent out three gunboats to meet the Egyptian just north of Cyprus and escort her in to Haifa, and their public-relations people pulled out all the stops on the story.
The night before she arrived, Jerusalem announced that the Israeli Navy had intercepted, boarded, and captured the ship off the Libyan coast and was bringing her in by a round-about route from the north. This, of course, was front-page stuff all over the world because by this time the whereabouts of the missing Egyptian was the number-one mystery in the world press. A large delegation of press, radio, and TV assembled in Haifa to meet her.
Her arrival in Haifa was a triumph. All ships in the harbor were full dressed and the city was bedecked with flags. A huge crowd assembled on the waterfront and bands played while the mayor and high local officials gathered on the dock to greet the conquering heroes as the ship tied up. There was a parade up the main drag and out to the airport, where they were loaded into a whirlybird and whisked up to Jerusalem for the biggest celebration since the six-day war.
When Goldberg and his crew came back from Jerusalem they threw a big party at the underground HQ for Fatso and his boys.
"Boy, they really rolled out the red carpet for us in Jerusalem," said Goldberg. "The kind of a welcome you guys give the astronauts."
"Did you see Benny there?" asked Fatso.
"Yeah. We saw him, and told him the whole story. He said to tell you guys you may have prevented a world war from breaking out because our Navy had ships off Benghazi to intercept that craft. And if it had come to a showdown, there was going to be shooting between them and the Russians."
"That's too bad," said Fatso. "I'm beginning to think you guys might even take the Russians . . . What did you do with that gangway watch that we knocked out and left aboard?"
''Oh, he came over to our side," said Goldberg. "He's in the Israeli Army now."
A few days later C in C Southern Europe and Com Sixth Fleet were seated in the officers club having a drink.
"Well," said the C in C, pointing to the latest issue of Time lying on the table with a feature story about the Egyptian gunboat in it, "there was a grain of truth in that Time man's story after all."
"Ummm," said Com Sixth Fleet.
"The Israeli Navy did quite a job snatching that ship without us ever knowing about it."
"Ummm," observed Com Sixth Fleet.
"Actually, I'm glad we had nothing whatever to do with it," said the C in C. "If we had found her for them and told them where she was, it could have stirred up a hell of a hassle with Nasser and the Russians."
"Ummm," said Com Sixth Fleet. "I'm glad it turned out the way it did."
~Finis~
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