The QE2 Is Missing

Josep slid his gun back into his belt and turned and walked to the window. He stood, hands behind his back, looking out at the heaving seas, the heavy rain coursing down the glass. For almost a minute he stood this way, wrapped in thought. It was obvious that this situation was a novel one, for he was not used to having others on his side, separate groups who intended to cooperate with the Tupamaros. For many years every man’s hand and every gun had been turned against them. He had to struggle to assimilate these totally new factors. When he turned back to the others his mind was made up.

“We will all work together now to take the diamonds and make prisoners of the others. The division will be as agreed. Anyone who does not help in this will be killed instantly. As to the arms ship, the Tupamaros need no feeble aid or indifferent cooperation. We will do the operation ourselves. Do I hear any disagreement?” He waited a moment, then nodded. “Good. Now to the urgent business at hand. I put it to you that we should attack at once, waste no more time. We know the name and location of the arms ship, so no more intelligence is needed on that score. All of the people we wish to capture — and the diamonds — are in the next suite. I suggest we hit them now and hit them hard.”

The other Tupamaros murmured in agreement, but Uzi shook his head.

“Hear me, before you make any rash decisions. You are wrong on two counts. It will be easier to first take the diamonds, and then go after the men if the variou? groups are separated. That way we can concentrate ou strength on the operations one after another. Also — don’t relish attacking a group of armed and desperate men through a single floor. Do you agree?”

Josep thought deeply — then nodded. “You are correct. I appreciate your skills as a military planner. What do you suggest?”

“Patience. Then divide and conquer. Final arrangements for the arms deal are being made in there right now. They obviously want to finalize their deal while they are all together. Perfect for us, since we can listen to everything they have to say. As soon as the arms ship is turned over to the purchasers, Chvosta will be given the diamonds. And will leave the suite. That is when we hit him with everything we have, a concentrated effort just to get the stones. That way we only have to deal with him and the girl, possibly the Dutchman. The Germans will be out of it. Are we in agreement so far?”

Uzi waited until both Josep and Diaz had nodded agreement before he went on.

“We have the diamonds and we put them in a safe place under guard. Even if they discover what has happened and want to get them back they have no way of knowing which staterooms we occupy. Then, with our flank safely held, we pick them up one by one since they will have separated by that time. First Stroessner, the easiest since we can time our attack by listening to events in the suite. Plus the fact that we have an inside man there. With Stroessner in our hands, the Admiral is next. His physician, Dr. Llusera, won’t bother us, so it will be just the Admiral and his aide we have to deal with. The Nazis come next…. ”

“No,” Josep interrupted. “We save them for last. Before we grab them we must take control of the ship. Our boat is about a day’s steaming ahead of the QE2. Or was when we started. Her speed is only half that of the QE2's. So we take this ship, send the message to rendezvous. Then seize the Germans. By that time we will be close enough to make contact. We take our prisoners and leave and that is the end of this operation.”

Uzi thought about it, then nodded agreement. “Yes, you’re right. That’s the way to do it. Do you have a plan to take the ship?”

“Look at this.” Josep spread a deck plan of the QE2 out on the desk and they bent over it. He tapped his finger on three areas ringed in red. “This is where we hit and where we hold. Take these and we have control of the ship. First, of course, the bridge, and at the same time the Captain’s quarters here, close by. As we hit them we hit hard here, the radio room on the Boat deck. That will essentially give us control of the ship, since all orders and commands must go through the bridge or the Captain and his officers. Once we have the officers on duty we’ll round up the others and take them to the Captain’s quarters.”

“There is one other target,” Uzi said, pointing. “The cashier’s office here on Two deck, just behind stairway G. There are cable and telegram facilities here and our intelligence seems to indicate that some of them are automatic and can bypass the radio room. You must be sure that this cannot be done.”

“We knew nothing of this!” Josep was put out; his information was incomplete. He turned to Concepcion. “You were in charge of intelligence on this project. What happened?”

She shrugged. “We did our best. I couldn’t do it myself and the people we sent did not dig deep enough.”

“That is no excuse…. “