The water reached their waists, swirling higher and faster.
“Gonna be a tough swim!” Cahil shouted.
“We’ll wait till the hatch fills! The current will lose some speed. There should be an air pocket below the hole.”
“Should be?”
“Will be!”
Tanner felt the fear swell in his chest. He quashed it. The water reached his chin, the cold like a vise around his chest. He raised himself onto his toes. With a final swoosh of escaping air, the hatch disappeared beneath the foam.
Tanner nodded to Cahil, then took a breath and dove.
Inside the machinery room they found a jumble of inverted catwalks and ladders. Above their heads, the gash in the hull was open. Tanner could see murky daylight. They headed for the nearest ladder and started up.
Three feet below the hole, they broke into an air pocket. Outside, Tanner could see the face of the cliff. Waves and spume broke against it and rushed into the hole. He stretched his arm, caught the edge, and pulled. “Gimme a shove,” he yelled. Cahil hunched his shoulders and Tanner pushed off. He pulled himself out, rolled onto the hull, grabbed Cahil’s hand, and lifted him up.
Toshogu lay prone on her starboard side, her decks perpendicular to the water. Behind them, the stern rolled and crashed against the cliff face. With a deafening grating of steel on gravel, the bow began sliding off the beach.
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” Cahil yelled.
Tanner followed his outstretched finger. His heart filled his throat.
Jutting over the edge of the cliff was the helicopter’s tail rotor. The rope, taut as a piano wire, ran from the strut to the ship’s railing where they’d tied it off.
Toshugu rolled again. The helicopter skidded toward the edge.
Tanner pointed to the cliff face. “Think you can make that ledge?”
“Yep.”
“Do it. I’m going for the rope.”
“Wait, Briggs—”
“If we lose the helo, we’ll die out here.”
Tanner took off running, arms outstretched for balance as he sprinted along the hull. He slipped, fell hard, scrambled for a grip. He pulled himself up and kept going. Behind him, he heard a muffled explosion. Scuttling charge, he thought absently. He kept his eyes fixed on the rope; it trembled with the strain. The helicopter lurched closer to the edge.
“Jump, Briggs!” Cahil called. “She’s going over!”
Ten feet from the rope, Tanner leapt. Even as his feet left the hull, he felt it sliding away beneath him. He caught the line in both hands, pulled his dive knife from its sheath, and sliced the rope below his knees.
Then he was swinging, the wind rushing around him. The cliff face loomed before him. With a teeth-rattling jolt, he hit the rock and bounced off. He reached out, found a handhold, and pulled himself to a ledge.
He caught his breath and looked over his shoulder.
Toshugu was gone. Only her port railing was still visible above the waves, and as Tanner watched, transfixed, that, too, slipped beneath the waves and disappeared in a cloud of bubbles.
“Briggs! You there?”
He leaned out and saw Cahil perched on the ledge, grinning like a maniac. Alive! Tanner felt it, too. “I’m here! You okay?”
“Yeah, but all things being equal, I’d rather be back at the Starlight!”
33
Thirteen sleepless hours later, a taxi dropped them back at the Royal Palms Hotel. There was a message waiting for Tanner. He handed it to Cahil.
“Wonder what the good inspector Ieyasu wants,” Bear said.
“I’ll call and arrange a meeting.”
Cahil yawned. “Make it a couple hours, huh?”
Before leaving to meet Ieyasu, Tanner called Holystone to check in, the first time since discovering Toshogu. Oaken listened while Tanner told the story.
“Good God. So are you thawed out?” Oaken asked.
“I am, but the tips of Bear’s toes are still blue.”
Cahil said, “Better that than my—”
“I get the picture,” said Oaken. “So bottom line is we have a scuttled ship with a murdered crew. Is she reachable?”
“I doubt it,” said Tanner. “She probably stayed afloat long enough to get washed out past the shelf. We’re talking about some deep water.”
“How deep?”
“Five, maybe six thousand feet.”
“Then no salvage operation. My guess is Leland is going to call this the end of the road. We’ve got nothing else solid to follow. Unless…”
“What?”
“I’m working on something. Can you lay low for a day or so? That’ll give me a chance to finish this; if it pans out, we might have something.”
Tanner almost asked why Oaken was going to such trouble, but he knew the answer. Oaken loved a mystery as much as anyone, though his detecting was more the armchair variety. “Thanks, Oaks.”
“You bet. I’ll get back to you.”
Ieyasu stood near the tide line, tossing stones into the surf. Tanner introduced Cahil. “And you are a tourist as well?” Ieyasu asked.
Cahil smiled. “What can I say? I’ve heard good things about your country.”
“My country would be better without people like Hiromasa Takagi.”
“Agreed.”
Tanner led them to a log, and they sat down. “Inspector, it’s time for some truth between us. You know we’re not tourists, and you know Ohira and Sumiko were more than just employees of Takagi Industries.”
“Yes.”
“The U.S. government believes Takagi Industries is involved in illegal arms dealing. Ohira had been trying to help us put a stop to it.”
Again Ieyasu simply nodded, saying nothing.
“Takagi’s involved, that much we know. What we don’t know is, with whom and how. My question to you is, will you continue to help us? Can we trust you?”
Tanner felt naive asking such a question, but the success of espionage ops often came down to the solidity of personal relationships. In a word, trust.
Ieyasu was silent for a minute. “I’ve seen too much to think the world is black and white, and that good and evil obey national borders. I am a patriot, but I am not a fool. So, the answer to your question is, yes, you can trust me. Tell me what you need.”
Tanner briefly outlined Ohira’s interest in Toshogu and their subsequent search for her. He opened his laptop, called up the file into which they had downloaded the digital photos from Alaska, and turned the computer toward Ieyasu.
“There were eleven bodies. This one we know; he’s an engineer who disappeared a few days before Toshogu sailed. According to the records, she sailed with seven crew and a representative from Skulafjord. That’s nine, leaving two unaccounted for… these two here, we believe. I’m hoping you can use some of your contacts to identify them.”
“That is not necessary,” said Ieyasu. “I know these men.”
“From where?”
“In the CIB we had a list similar to your FBI’s Most Wanted. Both of these men are still on that list. They are Rengo Sekigun, Japanese Red Army. Both are wanted in connection to the subway gas attacks. Back then, I was certain they had served as go-betweens for Takagi. Until now, no one had seen them for over eight months. How were they killed?”
Tanner told him.
“Oh, my. Your theory about Takagi is more plausible now. The JRA has strong links to Mideast groups; these two men were well-traveled: Lebanon, Syria, Iran.”
They talked for a few more minutes before Ieyasu stood up. “One more thing I thought you would like to know: Ms. Fujika’s funeral is tomorrow in Totsukawa. As I understand it, Hiromasa Takagi will be attending.” Ieyasu shrugged. “Whatever it is worth.”