The lift sank down and I climbed wearily to the ground. Through the open doors of the hangar I could see the scientists and some of the sailors sitting and lying about the shore, an armed guard walking up and down about fifty yards from them.
‘Giving the condemned boys their last few hours of sunshine, eh?’ I asked Hewell.
‘Yeah. Everything buttoned up?’
‘All fixed.’ I nodded towards the group. ‘Mind if I join them? I could do with some fresh air and sunshine myself.’
‘You wouldn’t be thinking of starting something?’
‘What the hell could I start?’ I demanded wearily. ‘Do I look fit to start anything?’
‘It’s God’s truth you don’t,’ he admitted. ‘You can go. You two’ – this to Hargreaves and Williams – ‘the boss wants to compare your notes.’
I made my own way down to the shore. Some of the Chinese were manhandling the metal casing for the rocket on to a couple of bogies, with about a dozen sailors helping them under gunpoint. Fleck was just tying up at the end of the pier, his schooner looked even more filthy than I had remembered it. On the sands, Captain Griffiths was sitting some little way apart from the others. I lay on the sand not six feet away from him, face down in the sand, my head pillowed on my right forearm. I felt awful.
Griffiths was the first to speak.
‘Well, Bentall, I suppose you’ve just wired up the other rocket for them?’ He wouldn’t win many friends talking to people in that tone of voice.
‘Yes, Captain Griffiths. I’ve wired it up. I’ve booby-trapped it so that the first man to open the door of the Dark Crusader will blow the rocket out of existence. That’s why I did so good a job on the other rocket, this is now the only one left. They were also going to shoot you and every other sailor on the base through the back of the head and torture Miss Hopeman. I was too late to stop them from getting at Miss Hopeman.’
There was a long pause. I wondered if he had managed to understand my slurred speech, then he said quietly: ‘I’m so damnably sorry, my boy. I’ll never forgive myself.’
‘Put a couple of your own men on watch.’ I said. ‘Tell them to warn us if LeClerc or Hewell or any of the guards approach. Then you just sit there, staring out at sea. Speak to me as little as possible. No one will see me speaking in this position.’
Five minutes later I’d finished telling Griffiths exactly what LeClerc had told me he planned to do after they had the Dark Crusader in production. When I was finished he was quiet for almost a minute.
‘Well?’ I asked.
‘Fantastic,’ he murmured. ‘It’s utterly unbelievable!’
Isn’t it? It’s fantastic. But is it feasible, Captain Griffiths?’
‘It’s feasible,’ he said heavily. ‘Dear God, it’s feasible.’
‘That’s what I thought. So you think booby-trapping this rocket – well, it’s justifiable, you think?’
‘How do you mean, Bentall?’
‘When they get the Dark Crusader to wherever it’s going.’ I said, still talking to the sand, ‘they’re not going to take it out to any remote launching field. They’re going to take it to some factory, almost certainly in some heavily populated industrial area, to strip it down for examination. If this solid fuel goes up with the T.N.T. I don’t like to think how many hundreds of people, mainly innocent people, will get killed.’
‘I don’t like to think how many millions would be killed in a nuclear war.’ Griffiths said quietly. ‘The question of justification doesn’t enter into it. The only question is – will the batteries powering the suicide circuit last?’
‘Nickel cadmium nife cells. They’re good for six months, maybe even a year. Look, Captain Griffiths, I’m not telling you all this just to put you in the picture or to hear myself talking. It hurts me even to open my mouth. I’m telling you because I want you to tell it all to Captain Fleck. He should be coming ashore any minute now.’
‘Captain Fleck! That damned renegade?’
‘Keep your voice down, for heaven’s sake. Tell me, Captain, do you know what’s going to happen to you and me and all your men when our friend LeClerc departs?’
‘I don’t have to tell you.’
‘Fleck’s our only hope.’
‘You’re out of your mind, man!’
‘Listen carefully, Captain. Fleck’s a crook, a scoundrel and an accomplished rogue, but he’s no megalomaniac monster. Fleck would do anything for money – except one thing. He wouldn’t kill. He’s not the type, he’s told me so and I believe him. Fleck’s our only hope.’
I waited for comment, but there was none, so I went on: ‘He’ll be coming ashore any moment now. Speak to him. Shout and wave your arms and curse him for the damned renegade you say he is, the way you would be expected to do, nobody will pay any attention except LeClerc and Hewell and all they’ll do is laugh, they’ll think it highly amusing. Tell him what I’ve told you. Tell him he hasn’t long to live, that LeClerc will leave no one behind to talk. You’ll find that LeClerc has spun him some cock-and-bull yarn about what he intended to do here. One thing you can be certain of is LeClerc never told him of the rocket or what he intended to do with the rocket, he would never have dared with Fleck and his crew calling so often at Suva and other Fijian harbours where one careless word in a bar would have ruined everything. Do you think LeClerc would have told him the truth, Captain?’
‘He wouldn’t. You’re right, he couldn’t have afforded to.’
‘Has Fleck seen the rockets before?’
‘Of course not. Hangar doors were always closed when he called and he was allowed to speak only to the officers and the petty officers who supervised the unloading of the boat. He knew, of course, that it was something big, the Neckar was often anchored in the lagoon here.’
‘So. But he’ll see the Dark Crusader now, he can’t help seeing it from where he’s berthed at the end of the pier. He’ll have every justification for asking LeClerc questions about it and I’m much mistaken if LeClerc will be reluctant to talk about it. It’s the dream of his life and he knows that Fleck won’t live to talk about it. Fleck might even then still have some doubts left as to what’s in store for him, so just that he can understand exactly what kind of man he’s dealing with, tell him to go – no, better tell him to send Henry, his mate, he himself better not be seen to be missing to see what LeClerc really is capable of.’ I told Griffiths exactly how to find the spot where Hewell and his men had broken through the hillside, told him where to find the cave with all the dead men. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if there are two more dead men there now, Fijian boys. And ask him to find out if the radio in LeClerc’s cabin is still there. After Henry comes back Fleck will have no more doubts.’
Griffiths said nothing. I only hoped I’d convinced him, if I had I couldn’t leave it in better hands, he was a wily old bird and sharp as they came. By and by I heard a movement as he got to his feet. I peered out of the corner of one eye and saw him walking slowly away. I twisted round till I saw the pier. Fleck and Henry, dressed in their best off-whites, were just leaving the schooner. I closed my eyes. Incredibly, I went to sleep. Or perhaps not so incredibly, I was exhausted beyond belief, the aches in my head and face and shoulder and body merging into one vast gulf of pain. I slept.
When I woke up I’d yet another ache to add to my list. Someone was kicking me in the lower ribs and he wasn’t trying to tickle me either. I twisted my head. LeClerc. Too late in the day for LeClerc to learn the more rudimentary rules of courtesy. Blinking against the sun, I turned round till I was propped up on my good elbow, then blinked again as something soft struck me in the face and fell on my chest. I looked down. A hank of cord – window cord – neatly rolled up and tied.
‘We thought you might like to have it back, Bentall. We’ve no further use for it.’ No fury in that face, not the vindictive anger I would have expected, but something approaching satisfaction. He looked at me consideringly. ‘Tell me, Bentall, did you really think that I’d overlook
so obvious a possibility, the possibility – to me the certainty, rather – that you wouldn’t hesitate to jinx the second Crusader when you knew there would be no further danger to yourself? You sadly underrate me, which is why you find yourself where you are now.’
‘You weren’t as smart as all that.’ I said slowly. I felt sick. ‘I don’t think you did suspect. What I did overlook was the certainty that you would take Hargreaves and Williams apart and threaten to kill their wives if they didn’t tell you everything that happened. Separate huts and the usual menaces if their stories didn’t tally exactly. Maybe I do underestimate you. So now you take me away somewhere quietly and shoot me. I don’t really think I’ll mind.’
‘Nobody’s going to shoot you, Bentall. Nobody’s going to shoot anybody. We’re leaving tomorrow and I can promise that when we do we will leave you all alive.’
‘Of course,’ I sneered. ‘How many years’ practice does it take, LeClerc, to get that ring of conviction into your voice when you tell your damned lies?’
‘You’ll see tomorrow.’
‘Always tomorrow. And how do you propose to keep forty of us under control until then?’ I hoped his mind worked as mine did, or I’d probably wasted my time in sending Griffiths to Fleck.
‘You gave us the idea yourself, Bentall. The blockhouse. You said it would make a fine dungeon. Escape proof. Besides, I want all my men for the job of crating the Crusader tonight and I don’t need guards for anyone inside the blockhouse.’ He looked at Hewell and smiled. ‘Incidentally, Bentall, I believe there is no love lost between yourself and Captain Griffiths. He was saying some pretty hard things about you for fusing up that first rocket.’
I said nothing. I waited for it.
‘You’ll be pleased to hear he’s met with a little trouble. Nothing serious. I gather he took it into his head to berate Captain Fleck – as one Englishman to another – for his treasonable activities. Fleck, one gathers, took exception to Griffiths taking exception. In age, height and weight the two master mariners were pretty evenly matched and if Captain Griffiths was a bit fitter Fleck knew more dirty tricks. It was a fight to see. Had to stop it eventually. Distracting my men.’
‘I hope they beat each other to death.’ I growled. LeClerc smiled, and walked away with Hewell. The world was going well for them.
It wasn’t for me. The booby-trap sprung, Griffiths and Fleck at blows, the last hope gone, Marie finished with me, LeClerc winning all along the line and a bullet in the head for Bentall any hour now. I felt sick and weak and exhausted and beaten. Maybe it was time to give up. I rolled over on my face again, saw Griffiths approaching. He sat where he had been sitting before. His shirt was dirty and torn, his forehead grazed and a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.
‘Congratulations.’ I said bitterly.
They are in order,’ he said calmly. ‘Fleck believes me. It wasn’t difficult to convince him. He was on the other side of the island this morning and found a dead man – or what was left of him – a Fijian, I think, floating out near the reef. He thought it was sharks. He doesn’t now. His mate has gone to investigate.’
‘But – but the fight?’
‘LeClerc came out of the hangar. He was watching us closely, much too closely. It was the only way to kill suspicion.’ I looked up and he was smiling. ‘We managed to exchange quite a bit of information as we were rolling around.’
‘Captain Griffiths.’ I said, ‘you deserve a battleship for this.’
The sun sank down towards the sea. Two Chinese brought us some food, mostly tinned, and beer. I saw another couple take some across to the blockhouse where the seven women were still held, probably as additional security against our making trouble. Lieutenant Brookman fixed my arm again and he didn’t seem too happy with its condition. All afternoon the Chinese and about half the sailors, closely supervised by Hewell, were dismantling two gantries and setting them up on either side of the railway track in preparation for lifting the Crusader into its metal crate, which was already in position on a pair of bogies. And all the time I wondered about Marie in her loneliness, whether she was asleep or awake, how she felt, whether she thought about me, whether her despair was half as deep as mine.
Shortly before sunset Fleck and Henry came strolling along the sands from the other side of the pier. They stopped directly opposite me, Fleck with his legs spread and arms akimbo. Griffiths shook his fist at him, there would be no doubt in any watcher’s mind that another violent argument, verbal or otherwise, was about to begin. I rolled over on my right elbow, the most natural thing in the world if one heard two people arguing over one’s head. Fleck’s brown hard face was set and grim.
‘Henry found them all right.’ His voice was husky with anger. ‘Eleven. Dead. The rotten lying murderous devil.’ He swore bitterly and went on: ‘God knows I play rough, but not that rough. He told me they were prisoners, that I was to find them by accident tomorrow and take them back to Fiji.’
I said: ‘Do you think there’s going to be any tomorrow for you, Fleck? Don’t you see the armed sentry on the pier waiting to see you don’t make a break for it with your ship? Don’t you see you’ll have to go the same way as the rest. He can’t leave anyone behind who’ll talk.’
‘I know. But I’m all right, tonight anyway, I can sleep on my schooner tonight, a coaster from Fiji by the name of Grasshopper, and manned by the most murderous crew of Asiatics in the Pacific is coming here at dawn. I’ve got to pilot them through the reefs.’ For all his anger, Fleck was playing his part well, gesticulating violently with every second word.
‘What’s the coaster for?’ I asked.
‘Surely it’s obvious?’ It was Griffiths who replied. ‘A big vessel couldn’t approach the pier, there’s only ten feet or so of water, and though they could load the rocket on to Fleck’s after deck he hasn’t anything in the crane line big enough to trans-ship it to a submarine. I’ll bet this coaster has a jumbo derrick, eh, Fleck?’
‘Yes, it has. Submarine? What – ?’
‘It can wait.’ I interrupted. ‘Did Henry find the radio?’
‘No.’ Henry himself replied, lugubrious as ever. ‘They’ve blasted down the roof at the other end of the tunnel and sealed it off.’
And tomorrow, I thought, they’ll shove us all inside this end of the tunnel and seal that off. Maybe LeClerc hadn’t been lying when he said he wouldn’t shoot us, starvation wasn’t as quick as shooting but it was just as effective.
‘Well, Fleck.’ I said, ‘how do you like it? You’ve got a daughter in the University of California in Santa Barbara, right next to one of the biggest inter-continental ballistic missile bases in the world, the Vanderberry Air Force Base, a number one target for a hydrogen bomb. The Asiatics sweeping down on your adopted country of Australia. All those dead men – ’
‘For God’s sake, shut up!’ he snarled. His fists were tightly clenched and fear and desperation and anger fought in his face. ‘What do you want me to do?’
I told him what I wanted him to do.
The sun touched the rim of the sea, the guards came for us and we were marched away to the blockhouse. As we went in I looked back and saw the floodlight going up outside the hangar. LeClerc and his men would be working all through the night. Let them work. If Fleck came through, there was an even chance the Dark Crusader would never reach its destination.
If Fleck came through.
CHAPTER 12
Saturday 3 a.m.–8 a.m.
I awoke in the darkness of the night. I’d been asleep four hours, maybe six, I didn’t know, all I knew was that I didn’t feel any better for it: the heat in that sealed ante-chamber of the blockhouse was oppressive, the air was stuffy and foul and the mattress-making companies had little to fear from the manufacturers of concrete.
I sat up stiffly and because the only thing I had left me were my few remaining shreds of pride I didn’t shout out at the top of my voice when I inadvertently put some weight on my left hand. It was near as a toucher, tho
ugh. I leaned my good shoulder against the wall and someone stirred beside me.
‘You awake, Bentall?’ It was Captain Griffiths.
‘Uh-huh. What’s the time?’
‘Just after three o’clock in the morning.’
‘Three o’clock!’ Captain Fleck had promised to make it by midnight at the latest. ‘Three o’clock. Why didn’t you wake me, Captain?’
‘Why?’
Why, indeed. Just so that I could go round the bend with worry, that was why. If there was one thing certain it was that there was nothing I or anyone else could do about getting out of that place. For thirty minutes after we’d been locked in Griffiths, Brookman and myself had searched with matches for one weak spot in either the walls or the door of that ante-chamber, a hopelessly optimistic undertaking when you considered that those walls had been built of reinforced concrete, designed to withstand the sudden and violent impact of many tons of air pressure. But we had had to do it. We had found what we expected, nothing.
‘No sound, no movement outside?’ I asked.
‘Nothing, just nothing at all.’
‘Well,’ I said bitterly, ‘it would have been a pity to spoil the fine record I’ve set up.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that every damned thing I’ve touched on this damned job has gone completely wrong. When it comes to sheer consistency, Bentall’s your man. Too much to hope for a change at this late hour.’ I shook my head in the dark. ‘Three hours overdue. At least three hours. He’s either tried and been caught or they’ve locked him up as a precaution. Not that it matters now.’
‘I think there’s still a chance,’ Griffiths said. ‘Every fifteen minutes or so one of my men has stood on another’s shoulders and looked through the ventilation grille. Can’t see anything of interest, of course, just the hill on one side and the sea on the other. The point is that there has been brilliant moonlight nearly all night. Make it impossible for Fleck to get away unobserved from his ship. He might get the chance yet.’
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