"Yes."
"Who?"
"There were Chinese characters on the dish antenna. I saw them clearly."
Captain Petti sat forward at that. "The Chinese? Communist Chinese?"
"I don't know who else, Captain," Carter said. "It's not likely they'd have a base on the island. We'd have known about it by now. It was a dish antenna. I'm sure the signals are sent to the island by satellite."
"What are you suggesting we do about it, Carter?" the captain asked.
"I want to go over there this morning, take a party inland, and dismantle the antenna and the receiving equipment at the amphitheater."
Captain Petti nodded. He turned to Governor Rondine, who was looking just a little smug. "It's French territory, Governor. Do we have your permission to operate such a mission, or should we go through diplomatic channels?"
"You have my permission. Captain. In fact I will join you there. I will come over by helicopter as an observer. If there is, as Mr. Carter suggests, Chinese equipment on Natu Faui, I want to know about it, and I want it destroyed. A formal complaint will be lodged at the U.N. as well, I assure you."
"Fine, "Captain Petti said, standing. "Then we can get underway within… two hours, shall we say?"
The governor had gotten to his feet. "We will watch for you, Captain." he said. "When you pull out we will head over to the island."
"Very good, Governor," the captain said, and he detailed one of his people to show the governor off the boat.
MacPherson came back. "I have your dry clothing, sir," he said to Carter and handed over a pair of jeans.
When he was gone Carter got up and motioned for the door to be closed as he unbuttoned his soggy shirt.
"We have an extremely serious situation on our hands here, gentlemen," Carter said, pulling off his shirt. He unstrapped his stiletto and his Luger, and laid the weapons on the table.
"What's the actual situation over there, Carter?" the captain asked.
"What I told Rondine was essentially correct, as far as it went, but not only is there Chinese equipment on that island, there is a Communist base. A submarine pen."
"Jesus," one of the officers swore.
"We're going to have to get some kind of authorization even to be here," the captain said. "We can't mess with a possible confrontation."
"Send a radio signal out of here, and they'll know that I discovered their base. But there'll be a confrontation in any event. One of their subs left the pen late last night."
"It's out, on the loose? Nearby?"
"Presumably," Carter said.
"Damn," Petti said, running his fingers through his gray hair. He looked up at Carter. "You'd better start at the beginning, Mr. Carter, and give me every bit of it, and then tell me what you want us to do. I'll have to decide whether or not this vessel can handle it."
One of the officers got up, went to a sideboard, and brought back a bottle of bourbon. He poured a measure of it into his coffee, then passed the bottle around.
Carter went over everything that had happened to him from the moment he had arrived on Hiva Faui until he was picked up by the crewmen with the inflatable.
When he was finished, the officers were all silent for a long time. Captain Petti finally spoke up.
"I'd like to ask if you're absolutely sure of your facts. But it's your business to be sure. And besides, you can't mistake a pair of Red Chinese subs in an island cavern."
"No," Carter said, drying off and then getting dressed. "I need some oil and a rag."
One of the officers went out to get the things. Carter sat down and began taking apart Wilhelmina. The Luger had been in salt water for a long time.
"You evidently have a plan in mind," Captain Petti said.
Carter nodded.
"I almost hate to ask what it is," the captain said. "But before we get started I want you to understand that my orders do not include compromising this boat. If and when it comes to a standoff between us and the Chinese subs, I will have to have further authority. If I can't get it, we will have to get out of here. They are not our waters."
"By the time that occurs, we will have done what was needed."
Carter had finished cleaning his weapons, and Captain Petti was busy getting his boat and crew ready for the operation on Natu Faui, when Justin Owen and Bob Tieggs showed up on the dock.
The first officer, Lt. Ashcroft, was just going up to talk to them when Carter came out of the wardroom. He went up with the man.
They were both shocked to see Carter, and they hurried across to him.
"Christ, they said you were probably dead," Tieggs said, pounding Carter on the back.
"Fenster was killed."
"That's what the governor told us," Owen said. "But we thought you had gone down too. They were going to send someone over this morning as soon as the weather calmed down."
"The bastards sabotaged our other chopper," Tieggs said bitterly. "Otherwise I would have been over there and back by now."
Owen had turned to the first officer. "I'd like to speak with the captain."
"Captain Petti sends his regrets, sir, but we are making ready to sail, and he is extremely busy."
"Don't worry about it," Carter said. "We're going to take care of the problem."
"I'd like to come along," Tieggs said.
"I'm sorry, sir, but that won't be possible," Lt. Ashcroft said before Carter could speak.
"Goddamnit, Nick, I want to come along!" Tieggs insisted.
"It's not your job. Bob," Carter said gently. "But there is something else you can do for me."
"Goddamnit…"
Carter led Tieggs away, well out of earshot of the other two men. "Now listen to me. Bob. We're going over there this morning to take care of it. It's not something you can do, nor is it something you could help with. But the governor is involved in this up to his ears. I think there's a very good chance he's working for the Chinese Communists."
"The Chinese Com…?"
"That's right. His wife may be working for them as well."
Tieggs did not want to believe it.
"She was with me over there. But I think she's back here. The governor and some of his people are going to fly over to the island this morning. While they 're gone, I want you to snoop around. See if his wife is still here."
"I don't understand any of this," Tieggs said. "But I'll do as you say, Nick."
"But be careful, Bob," Carter said. "These people are not fooling around."
Twelve
It was close to eleven in the morning by the time the Starfish slipped her dock lines and moved out toward the breakwater protecting the Hiva Faui harbor. The wind had calmed considerably, although the sky was still heavily overcast, and occasionally it would rain very hard for a few minutes, cutting visibility to near zero.
Nick Carter had gone over, in great detail, exactly what he wanted to do. Captain Petti agreed in principle, with one caution.
"We're going to be watching for the other sub," he said.
"I understand," Carter said, looking up from the sketch of the sub pen he had drawn.
They were gathered in the situation room just below the bridge in the conning tower. They were on red operational lights. Everyone looked like a Halloween ghoul.
"If they show up, or if the sub you say was unloading in the pen comes out, we're bugging out. We'll have to stand by until we can get some definitive orders one way or the other."
"I understand that too, Captain," Carter said. "Just get me there. Ill do the rest."
Carter's plan had been a simple one. They would approach the island from the sub pen side. Carter, wearing scuba gear, would slip out of the Starfish from an underwater hatch. With him he would carry enough explosives to destroy the sub inside the pen and hopefully the cavern itself. Meanwhile, the Starfish would proceed to the far side of the island where a shore party would go inland to seek out and destroy the dish antenna and the projection equipment in the amphitheater. Carter had pinpointed both sites on a chart.