The other two girls had gone below to get some sleep. They would take the watches through the night, leaving Heido and Carter to rest.
Below, in the main cabin, Heido brought out his charts of the Soviet coastal waters. Much of the detail and information had been drawn in by hand from direct observation, though there were good satellite-developed charts available.
Heido said he had been boarded by the Russians before. They had paid very close attention to his charts. Had he the satellite charts aboard, they would have known he was more than a simple fisherman.
He had been working these waters with his daughters for several years, and his skin was still intact. He had developed a strong intuition about the Russians, and Carter knew that he could do no better than to trust the man's judgment.
"Svetlaya," Heido said, stabbing a blunt finger on the chart.
According to Carter's information, the town was a primitive Siberian settlement that became all but cut off from the rest of the world during the harsh winters.
The submarine base itself was eight miles north up the coast from the town. And the nearest other towns were Amgu, fifty miles to the south, and Samarga, about the same distance to the north.
Heido's chart, however, showed a fishing village between Svetlaya and the naval installation.
"Sovetskaya-Senyev," Heido said.
"That's where I want to go," Carter replied.
Six
The late dawn broke dark and cold over the large seas a hundred miles off the Soviet coast. Heido had already been up for an hour when Carter got dressed and went topside to the wheelhouse. Suiko, the second eldest daughter, was at the helm while her father scanned the seas through a pair of binoculars.
"Good morning, Carter-san," Suiko said.
"Good morning."
Heido lowered his binoculars and looked over. "Your stomach and head are all right this morning?"
Carter was one of those few people who never seemed to get seasick. Only once, when he was aboard the space shuttle in free fall, had he felt a slight nausea. This morning he felt fit and rested. Even the pain in his chest from his cracked ribs had eased to a tolerable level.
"I'm fine," he said. "Any signs of the Russians?"
"No," Heido said. "There were lights earlier to the north, but I believe they were another Japanese fishing boat." He looked out the windows. "We may have some difficulty, however, Carter-san."
"Yes?" Carter asked, looking out at the choppy seas and the whitecaps."
"My daughters say in the night they have heard a great deal of Russian radio traffic. There may be some sort of a naval exercise today. If that is so, we will not get close to any part of the coast."
Carter glanced up at the powerful communications radio in its rack above the pilot's position. It was silent.
"They have maintained radio silence since six this morning," Suiko said.
"It is always so when they conduct their maneuvers," Heido added.
Again Carter stared out across the sea. It was possible, he told himself, that the Russians had not fallen for his ruse in Tokyo. It was very possible that they knew about the construction of the special computer chip carrying case, and had realized that someone might be trying for the chip at Svetlaya. If that were so, the morning's naval exercise was designed to stop any such attempt.
The Russians were efficient and ruthless, Carter thought. The downing of the Korean jet with all of its passengers not so very far from where they now were proved that. The Russians certainly would not hesitate to sink their boat and let all hands go down with her.
The next question in Carter's mind was whether or not he wanted to submit Heido and his three daughters to such a risk.
"What troubles you, Carter-san?" Heido asked.
"This naval operation may mean that they know or suspect I am here."
Heido looked at him for a long time. "This thing that you wish to steal from them… it is that important?"
"Yes, it is," Carter said.
"If they board us, and if they find the suitcase, they will surely know what it is you are after?"
Carter nodded.
"But to throw the suitcase overboard would make your mission impossible, yes?"
Again Carter nodded.
"A difficult decision, Carter-san," Heido said thoughtfully. He looked at his eldest daughter for a long moment, then looked out to sea. "But it is your decision. We will do whatever you wish, for at times they are a government without a conscience."
Carter knew Heido was thinking about his wife and son. The Killmaster realized it had to be very difficult for the old man to live so close to the Russians without being able to do anything to them.
Carter turned and went back to the main cabin where he took out Heido's charts of the Soviet coast and studied them again.
There had to be another way, he told himself. One in which there would be no risk for civilians such as Heido and his daughters. They were so close now, though — less than a hundred miles from the sub pens. And yet it might just as well have been a million miles with the Russian navy out there running its exercise.
He lit a cigarette as he tried to think of an alternative plan. In his career he had been on a number of seemingly impossible missions — operations in which the odds of his success were so slim they were barely worth considering.
Perhaps, he told himself, this was the one mission that was impossible, the one mission in which there were absolutely no odds in favor of his success. If that were the case, he would be throwing away not only his own life in an attempt, he would be forfeiting the lives of everyone helping hint.
He went to the carrying case and opened it. It was densely packed with batteries and electronic equipment. Only a very small slot behind a spring-loaded glass door was empty, ready to receive the submarine's computer chip.
At what cost? he asked himself. If the operation were a success, the cost would be acceptable. If he failed, the cost would be far too great.
Again he looked over at the charts spread out on the table. There had to be another way.
Mioshi appeared at the door. "Carter-san — the Russians are here!" she said urgently.
Carter spun around. "Have they boarded us?"
"Not yet. But they are less than fifty meters off our port side."
"We are simple fisherman," Carter snapped in perfect Japanese. "You may tell your father it is time for us to return home."
Mioshi bowed deeply, turned, and hurried back up to the wheelhouse. Carter grabbed the carrying case and ran topside on the starboard side with it.
The seas were very rough. He could hear the powerful diesels of the Russian ship even over the wind. Making sure the carrying case latches were open, he tossed it overboard. A wave caught the case, held it high for a moment, and then it tumbled end over end into the trough and sank.
Carter climbed up to the wheelhouse just as Heido was throttling back to slow them down. The Russian gunboat was just off their port bow. The Soviet captain's voice was blaring over the radio, first in Russian and then in very poor Japanese, ordering them to identify themselves. Heido had the microphone.
"Tell them a thousand pardons, but we thought we were still in international waters," Carter said.
Heido keyed the mike and repeated Carter's message in rapid-fire Japanese.
The radio was silent for a moment.
"Tell them who we are," Carter said.
Heido identified himself, again in rapid Japanese. Carter could just see the Soviet captain and his translator trying to understand the messages.
"Stand by for a boarding party," the Russian radioed.
Carter shook his head.
"Begging your pardon, sir, but we cannot allow that, since we are clearly in international waters," Heido radioed.