“We found an empty holster,” Toan said, not meeting her eye.
Lenson tapped the screen. “Great. So he’s armed, too.… We’re checking bunks now. But it looks like both Noblos and Benyamin must be out there. Headed west. It’ll be rough, but they’re traveling with the prevailing seas; that’ll give them a smoother ride.”
She contemplated the screen, imagining it. In the dark. Amid the waves that were even now tilting the space they were in. “Where would they be going? What’s west of here?”
“China,” the captain said. He looked stern.
“Surely they can’t make it. It’s too far, isn’t it?”
“It’s a ways. Yeah. But small boats have made astonishing voyages. And there’s a sizable piece of the Chinese navy between us and the coast right now. They might get picked up. Especially… if they signal. Or use the radio in the boat.”
“Actually, it’s only a hundred miles,” Mills put in from behind them. “He doesn’t have to make the mainland. Just the Senkaku group. He could be there tomorrow.”
Aisha said, astonished, “You’re saying, he’s… deserting? Defecting?”
Lenson smiled grimly.
“And the petty officer?”
“I know him, but not well,” Lenson said. “He could just be a hostage. If Noblos found him there checking the engine, decided a mechanic would be good to have along, and forced him aboard at gunpoint. Or, yeah — they could be accomplices. I didn’t think of that angle. Since I didn’t know he was a suspect.”
He kept rubbing his face, so hard she wondered why there weren’t holes in his skin. Apparently that was how he kept himself awake. He still looked like Death. “Okay, and you want from me… what?”
Dan blinked. What was she asking? Oh, right. What he wanted her for… “I need some advice here. We’ve been ordered to retire.”
“You can’t go after him?”
“Coming alongside a small boat, in the dark, one that doesn’t want to be caught, isn’t easy. Not trying to maneuver ten thousand tons of cruiser. He’ll just skip out of the way. Plus, he’s armed. If I drop my visit and search team on him, he might not be the only one who gets hurt.”
Aisha looked away, feeling both guilty — it was her pistol out there — and angry. But then, they’d always known Noblos was smarter than the average criminal. “I should have anticipated this. Why should somebody with his ego wait around for trial, imprisonment, even a death sentence?”
“You really think he was facing death?”
“Rape, attempted murder, they’re capital crimes. And once we established jurisdiction, this would be a federal charge. Even a twenty-year sentence, for someone his age, would mean life in prison.”
Dan said, “Whereas if he defects, he’s a noted scientist. With a hell of a lot of valuable knowledge about our most advanced systems.”
“There you have it,” Aisha said. They stared at each other.
Dan turned back to the console operator. “Range to the RHIB.”
“Stand by… twelve thousand five hundred yards. Speed, ten knots. Course, two eight zero.”
Setting course for the Senkakus, all right.
Only a hundred miles away.
“Take with guns,” Dan said.
The petty officer hesitated. “Say again, Captain?”
“Designate to guns. Take with the after five-inch. Radar control. Is that sea return going to foul you up?”
“We’ve got a decent lock-on,” the petty officer said. “And with proximity-fuzed high explosive… I wouldn’t wait until the range opens much more, though. You’re going to lose him in this clutter. And fifteen thousand yards is pretty much max range.”
Dan grabbed the agent by the shoulder, felt her flinch away under his hand; but held on, and led her to the command desk. A weary Cheryl Staurulakis glanced down from the displays. “XO, Dr. Noblos is defecting in the boat. He stole the agent’s pistol. There’s one crewman with him. May be an accomplice. May be just a hostage. Backstop me?”
“We can’t let him go,” Staurulakis said. “He knows the whole fucking system! Aegis. ALIS. Block 4. ABM cuing. And how to disrupt them, too, I’ll bet.”
“Maneuver to recapture?”
The exec frowned. “He’s armed? In the dark? He’ll take people with him. May be blue-on-blue casualties, too.”
“We’re on the same page, then.” He looked to Ar-Rahim. “Agent?”
She shook her head. She couldn’t believe this. “You want my blessing? On a summary execution? I can’t give you that.”
“So we let him go over to the enemy? With everything he knows?”
She closed her eyes; said a short du’a asking for wisdom. “I’m not a judge. Or a jury. And neither are you, Captain. With all due respect.” She looked at the overhead. Black as the night outside. “I am bound to advise you… if you do what you seem to have in mind, I’ll have to prefer charges. Once we make port.”
“What charges?” the exec said. “Bearing in mind that this is wartime.”
“Murder, of course. Two counts. Wartime has nothing to do with it.”
“To prevent defection? Protect sensitive information?”
“Those would be extenuating arguments at the trial,” she admitted.
The exec said, “A warning shot, then.”
Dan nodded, suddenly relieved. Of course. “Good call, XO. Matt, take control. One round, ahead of the RHIB. And call on the boat channel. See if they have the radio on. Come back alongside, right now, or we take him down.”
“He’s not coming back,” Aisha said. “Not him. But I agree. Giving him the chance, that’s a sadaqah. A good deed.”
Dan blinked, taken aback by the interjection. But maybe she was right. “One round, high explosive, variable time, batteries released,” he said.
The jolt carried faintly back through the metal around them. Dan strolled through the ranks of bent backs, glowing screens, to the gun-control console. He got there in time for the petty officer to point to a bright patch that appeared in the clutter, ahead of the fleeing boat. It grew, then faded. “Splash.”
“Range?”
“To the boat, fourteen thousand two hundred yards. Splash, about two hundred yards ahead of it.”
“Good shooting. Think they saw it?”
“Saw it, heard it… yessir. But… starting to lose it. Too much sea return. And it looks like they’ve jettisoned their radar reflector.”
An encapsulated metal shape that let Savo track her boats more clearly at a distance. Yeah, Noblos would think of that. “Is he changing course? Coming back?”
“Wait one… no. Steady course. Speed may be picking up.”
Dan turned his head to the agent, beside him. She was making notes. He sucked cold air. Sweat trickled under his clothes. “I can’t let him go. Not with all he knows. I can’t hand the enemy that advantage. His crime’s really beside the point.”
“I can’t judge you,” Aisha said. She looked at her watch, noted the time. “But I’ll present the facts.”
“We have to leave station. Even getting back to Guam is going to be questionable.”
“You are the captain,” she said. “No one can really know what is right, in the end. Only Allah knows the whole. But He gives it to you to decide. You must do the best you can, and trust in God.”
Well, there it was. Nothing left he could say to that.
“Batteries released. Five rounds. Fire for effect,” he told the petty officer. Trying not to feel whatever his gut was urging: vengeance; righteousness; anger; even regret.
In the end, none of those could claim a place in his decisions. Only the rules of engagement and operational necessity. Those alone had to guide his actions, as coldly and rationally as if he himself were an autonomous computer, working through millions of lines of passionless code. That was the basis on which he would be judged. On earth, as in heaven? And what about Benyamin? Was he guilty at all, or just collateral damage?