“Yes.”
“Which is exactly what Ambassador Shiro is coming here in a few minutes to ask me about. What do I tell him?”
“That two economic advisers to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan were murdered by a person or persons unknown, and for unknown reasons. And that in a wholly separate incident, an unknown Occidental, possibly an American, was involved in an altercation in the Imperial Palace’s Outer Gardens in which one or more Japanese nationals were killed.”
“He’ll know that’s a lie.”
“Yes, Mr. President, he’ll almost certainly know that.”
“You’re suggesting that I stonewall it.”
“I don’t think we have any other choice, Mr. President. Otherwise we definitely would be letting the cat out of the bag as you say.” Murphy leaned forward to emphasize his point. “Involve the Japanese and we will be barred from continuing our investigation on their soil.”
“A predecessor of mine ended up with egg on his face when he tried to deny that we were sending U-2 spy planes over the Soviet Union.”
“Yes, sir, there are risks.”
“In this case we’re talking about spying on a friendly country.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And if, as it has been suggested this morning, the Japanese are confused, and they are trying to save face by using this incident as a catalyst, the financial implications could be enormous.”
“It couldn’t come at a worse time,” Peale, the president’s economic adviser, suggested.
“You can say that again, Maxwell,” the President agreed. “I’m going to have to offer the man something. Some concession, some promise, something. Anything.”
“Stall him,” Murphy said.
“Why?” the President asked sharply.
“If we can offer the Japanese government the villain, especially a Japanese villain, with the promise that we’ll keep it quiet, they’ll find a way to save face. I can guarantee it.”
“What are you talking about?” Cronin demanded, but the President held off his secretary of state.
“Just a minute, John.”
“We may be on the verge of a breakthrough in Europe,” Murphy said.
“McGarvey?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have we found his wife and daughter? Are their kidnappers in custody?”
“Not yet,” Murphy said. “But we were correct in our assumption that the kidnapping was carried out to lure McGarvey from Japan, which of course clinches the connection between the Japanese and the STASI.”
Murphy quickly told them everything that had happened in France, including the obscure clue of the necklace and blackened diamond that McGarvey’s daughter had evidently left for him in the chalet outside of Grenoble.
“What does it mean?” Milligan asked.
“We’re not quite sure… or I should say we weren’t quite sure until McGarvey made his move. If he’s heading where we think he’s heading then we’ll have it.”
“Go on,” the President said.
“As of a few hours ago he was in Athens, which surprised us because earlier in the day he’d spoken with my deputy director of operations on the telephone from Paris.
When he was asked what his next move would be, he said he was going to wait there.
Sooner or later the kidnappers would make contact with him, he said. And he did check into the Hotel Inter-Continental, but he slipped out almost immediately and flew from Orly to Greece.”
“How do we know this?” Milligan asked.
“You may recall, the French found a sophisticated communications device used by the terrorists at Orly. The SDECE handed it over to us, and one of my Paris Station people gave it to McGarvey. The idea was for him to use it to intercept the kidnappers’ transmissions, if and when he got close to them. But we modified the device, adding what’s called an EPIRB… an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. It’s a National Security Agency-designed version of a civilian device. It transmits a continuous signal that’s picked up by our satellites from which we can pinpoint his location to within a couple of yards or less.”
“He’s in Athens, you say?” the President asked. “What does that tell you?”
“He was in Athens, Mr. President. But he didn’t stay long. He went south to Piraeus, which is Athens’ seaport, from where he evidently hired a boat.”
“Where’s he going?”
“It took my people all morning to come up with the answer,” Murphy said. “McGarvey is heading to the Greek island of Santorini.”
“Yes,” Cronin said, seeing it before the others. “Santorini, the island most Greeks think was part of the lost city-state of Atlantis.”
“I don’t understand,” the President admitted.
“Neither did I,” Murphy said. “But my people tell me that Santorini was also famous for its black diamonds.”
“Clever,” the President said after a moment. “And you say that McGarvey figured this out on his own?”
Murphy nodded. “Nobody ever denied that the man was bright.”
“His daughter too, evidently,” the President said. “What can we do for him? Assuming that the kidnappers are holed up somewhere on or near Santorini. It’s a big island, filled with tourists this time of the year, I would imagine.”
“The advantage might be ours for once. If we’re reading our signals right, the kidnappers may not be on the island yet.”
“Explain.”
“The Italian customs people reported that a Swiss medevac ambulance crossed their border last night above Torino. It was carrying two cancer patients, identified as Yugoslavian nationals. Women. The ambulance was found abandoned near theAvaterfront in Venice this morning.”
“They’re going by sea the rest of the way.”
“Only one ship sailed from the port of Venice this morning, and she was the Greek freighter Thaxos,
a vessel we’ve long suspected was used by the STASI for contract work.”
“It could be them.”
“Yes, sir. We have a satellite shot several hours old showing the Thaxos entering the Mediterranean past Brindisi. I’d like to intercept them before they land on Santorini.”
“How?” the President asked.
“The Sixth Fleet is nearby. I’d like authorization to use a unit of SEALS to board the Thaxos, without warning, under the assumption that McGarvey’s ex-wife and daughter are aboard, held by Spranger and his people.
“That’s piracy,” Cronin blurted.
The President ignored him. “There’ll be casualties.”
“Yes, sir. Almost certainly.”
The President thought about it for a moment or two. “What about McGarvey?”
“He’ll be on the island a few hours ahead of time. If something should go wrong, he’d act as backup.”
“Unknowingly.”
Murphy nodded. “Yes, sir. For the time being I would leave him out of the operation.”
“Not very fair.”
“No, sir. But I believe that we have very high odds of success if we act now. Any move against Spranger once he got to the island could complicate our relations with the Greek government.”
“Do it,” the President said. “But keep me informed, General.”
“Will do, Mr. President. What about the Japanese?”
“I’ll stall Ambassador Shiro this afternoon, but I’m going to have to have some results.
And damned soon.”
Chapter 46
The weather system that had moved in over western Europe was sinking unexpectedly to the southeast, and U.S. Navy meteorologists were predicting thickly overcast skies and rain by midnight over the entire Aegean Sea.
Moving silently, almost as if phantoms in the deepening twilight, the CVN Nimitz and her abbreviated task force were on station fifty nautical miles south-southwest of the island of Crete. They had spent the better part of the past eight months sailing back and forth just off the coast of Lebanon, showing the American flag during the latest round of fighting in the ongoing civil war there. It was time to be rotated home and they’d been steaming for Gib when they’d been given their temporary mission orders.