I sat down on the bed next to her and put off the light.
For a short moment, it seemed-then the telephone bell shrilled. It was Peace. Adele-come quickly! Thornton's on the air!'
She threw on some clothes and together we raced up to the wheelhouse. Peace had the radio, on. Adele pushed the hair. out of her eyes and under a shaded light decoded the complicated groups. CIC Seventh Fleet to all ships and aircraft x return to base x stand by for further orders daylight x
' Thornton's called off the search for tonight,' Peace exclaimed with satisfaction. It was a bonus of six hours. I made a quick calculation. '
Long enough for us to cover almost a third of the way to
Semittant
Peace remained without speaking, so that both Adele and I looked at him in surprise.
MKG'S message,' he said slowly. Now would be the time
– the air will be full of routine signals and the boys will be relaxing with the prospect of some sleep.' He pulled it from his pocket and read aloud:
' Request your personal and categorical affirmation that it is in order for me to continue with Little Bear mission in light of developments-MKG:
Group it up in Royal Navy code,' he told Adele. And then send it to the um-quick as hell. Try and send it at a moment when Thornton's fliers are making their landing approaches-the carriers will be using their DF equipment on them then.'
Adele took the paper and hesitated. There's no mention here of a return signal, or a fixed time for it.'
Peace's reaction astonished me. Send it!' he snarled. '
You're here to take orders-from me!'
Adele recoiled at his vehemence, glanced at me, and then sat down without speaking at the angled light. She coded the message and then listened on the u.s. Navy waveband. If
Williams had been there, he would have admired Adele's t r a n s m i t t i n g e v e n m o r e t h a n h e h a d d o n e b e f o r e. T h e Morse chattered off her deft fingers like machine-gun fire. She stopped, looked up at Peace, who seemed to watch her every movement, and then wrote down an incoming signal. '
The Seventh Fleet has picked up a series of radar contacts round Raphael.'
The fishing fleet,' answered Peace.
One very firm one among them,' she added in an impers o n a l v o i c e. M e t a l, a c o u p l e o f h u n d r e d t o n s, o f f S i r e n Island. Tyler thinks it may be important.'
Island steamer,' replied Peace.
The thought struck me. Does Tyler know about Bellatrix?' N o, ' r e p l i e d P e a c e. H o w c o u l d h e? B u t w h e n h e a n d Thornton meet and the name John Garland is mentioned as having sailed the yacht of the late Commander Peace from the Seychelles, they'll put two and two together-and Bellatrix will be their target.'
How far has the search ranged so far?' I asked.
Red Force-and we're principally concerned with Red doesn't seem to have got beyond a limited number of sorties over St Brandon itself,' answered Peace. ' In this weather it must be hell trying to identify anything.
Impossible visually, I should say.'
Adele did not join in the conversation, but she yawned and tried to keep her heavy eyes from closing.
With an odd warmth after his earlier attitude, Peace said to her, ' You go and get some more sleep, Adele. It looks as though things will be pretty quiet now until morning, seeing the search is off.'
She smiled her thanks as she went; to me her eyes said everything.
Peace switched off her angle-light, leaving the wheelhouse b l a c k e d o u t o n c e m o r e. H e c a m e a n d s t o o d b y m e a t t h e wheel, his face shadowed by the compass-light. I was about to take him to task about Adele when he said: ' Tyler's force will have to waste time during daylight by first following up the radar contacts they made tonight-maybe half a day. By that time we'll almost be up with Semittante. And almost out of range of carrier-based aircraft, assuming that the carrier itself stays in the vicinity of St Brandon.'
The thought hit me with the force of one of the seas against Bellatrix's hull. Geoffrey-Semittante! What if the signal has to report her position?'
H e w a s u n e a s y, a l m o s t a s u n e a s y a s h e h a d b e e n o v e r MKG's signal. Adele picked up a signal about just that while you were asleep-it's amongst that lot there. Safer not to put
the light on. I'll tell you: Thornton and the Chief of Naval Operations have had an exchange over the point. Thornton says that to signal her will scare her away. He believes that she is part of the kidnapping plot, that her skipper is one of the gang who kidnapped MKG. Thornton doesn't know yet that she's important beyond carrying an American classified weapon. Of course he doesn't know about the space-shot yet. So for the moment Thornton's view has prevailed and they're not signalling Semittante. For the moment, that is.'
I wonder how long that moment will last?'
Aye,' he reflected. Maybe only until Thornton talks personally to Tyler.'
But behind it all lay the one unanswerable questioin-why had the President not informed the Seventh Fleet? He knew Semittantes part in the Little Bear mission.
Hasn't Semittante sent out any routine signals?' I asked. No-why should she? An ad tramp like that is lazy probably listens to the weather reports every so often, that's all. From our area I've had cyclone warnings from the met. stations all round-St Brandon, Tromelin, Agalega-old
Chepe again-and Madagascar.'
I thought Adele was the radio operator,' I said.
These were en clair, anyway,' he replied. ' But I can manage the odd bit of Morse myself, you know. Not the highpowered American stuff, of course, but Royal Navy, yes.'
I gestured beyond the screen. It's getting worse.'
' It is getting worse,' he answered with satisfaction., The worse the better, so far as we are concerned. They've pulled the South-Africa-Australia jets into Mauritius on the strength of a POMAR report.'
Peace went on, ' If it were only a question of dodging short-range carrier-based aircraft, I'd rate our chances pretty high, since they'll be out of the picture once the cyclone reaches full strength. But you haven't heard this-the signal came through while you were asleep-the Americans are flying out a squadron of big w-5's from Greenland to the Seychelles to assist in the search for MKG. They're the planes for the long-range Atlantic patrols. At a guess, I'd say a VP-5 can stay in the air the best part of twenty hours and cover thousands of miles. And instruments-they have everything that opens and shuts.'
I concentrated on holding Bellatrix on course so that Peace should not sense the tumult of my thoughts. What he had just said confirmed my fears-the President himself believed that MKG had been 'kidnapped! Why, I questioned, had he allowed the massive air-sea search to proceed if he were satisfied in his own mind that MKG was safe? Why fly out the deadliest patrol bombers half-way across the world to look for someone he knew was proceeding according to a secret plan? Or had-I had almost rejected the thought as unworthy when I remembered Peace's bulldozing attitude towards the mission: that at all costs he would put SNAP into space and prove Little Bear.
Had Peace faked the messages to the President?
My mind went over each point in turn. No, they could not have been faked, I argued, because Adele herself had decoded the President's okay, the single-letter word Washington '. But-Williams had brought it through to the cabin. Could Williams be part of an elaborate hoax? I rejected the t h o u g h t. I m y s e l f h a d s e e n A d e l e s e n d o f f t h e V i c e – P r e sident's own signal; we were now awaiting a reply which could come through at any time. Strange-Peace had sent Adele off to bed…
I deliberately broke the silence to still my doubts. Not even vp-5s could operate in a cyclone.'
The radio crackled and Peace-cocked an ear. ' Our call sign!' he exclaimed.