The QE2 Is Missing

“Midnight tonight. In a few hours. The ship will be quiet then and there will be two hours to secure things before the next watch comes on. As soon as they have control a message will be sent to the fishing boat for a rendezvous. They should be no more than eight hours away, maybe less. So they will have the night to burn into the safe and get the diamonds. By breakfast time the boat should be close by. Then they will take the prisoners, one group at a time, in the guise of the breakfast waiters.

“I suppose it can work.”

Uzi snorted and climbed to his feet, going to the bar himself. Hank had never seen him take a drink before. He sloshed a large measure of cognac into a glass and brought it back with him.

“It’s dangerous, almost suicidal. A dozen men to take over and control a ship this size? There are over twenty-six hundred people aboard, passengers and crew. Only one of them has to get wind of what is happening and spread the alarm — just one. Maybe a dozen men can capture the control centers of this ship — but can they hold them?”

“You tell me. Can they do it?”

Uzi thought for a moment — then grinned. “Well, they can certainly try. I remember when the British pulled out and there we were in Israel with invading Arabs coming in from all sides. It was close run, but we won.”

“If it happened once it can happen again. Will you be in on the action?”

“Please don’t ask. What you do not know can never be used as evidence; as a lawyer you can appreciate that.”

“Yes, I do. Thank you. Is there anything you want me to do?”

“Yes. Give me your key, find your wife and retire. If there are people coming and going out here do not take notice of it. If the phone rings let someone else answer it. Get a good night’s sleep.”

Hank laughed. “Indeed! I don’t know how easy that will be to do with piracy going on all round me.”

“That’s a bad word to use.”

“It’s the right word. Because that’s what these people are going to do. All right, it’s in a good cause, but it is still piracy.”

Uzi nodded soberly. “I agree and I wish it were possible some other way. There could be terrible repercussions. I have taken what precautions I can. I am travelling under a Paraguayan passport, a very good real one. So if things go wrong they will take me for just another one of the resistance people.”

“They can make you talk, though.”

“Very hard to talk if you are dead. If this goes wrong that is the only way I can protect our people.”

Hank drank in silence, not knowing what to say, knowing at the same time the Israeli was not being dramatic. Just telling the truth. What had started as an attempt to apprehend some Nazi war criminals had snowballed into a major crime that they were both inextricably involved with.

“Give them credit for nerve,” Uzi said. “Taking over the QE2 is an ambition that few men would consider.”

“Do we drink to their success?”

“I’m not sure. Better drink to the capture and trial of Dr. Wielgus and his associates.”

“Absolutely!” They drained their glasses and Hank stood and passed his room key over. “I’m going to play a little blackjack and retire. “It’s been a long day. I’m looking forward to the ship’s newspaper on my breakfast tray.”

22

“It’s hard to decide which is worse,” the Second Mate said. “The weather or the passengers.”

“Not for me to say, sir.” After nearly forty years at sea the helmsman still sounded as Cockney as the day he had boarded his first ship. “I never see them at all.”

“Lucky man. Occasionally there is a young one you can chat up over dinner, stare down the cleavage and all that in the classic shipboard romance manner. But usually they’re old, repulsive, boring and American.”

“Good lot, the Yanks. Sailed with them during the war. Yank destroyer pulled me out of the drink after a torpedoing.”

“Heaven preserve me! I cast no aspersions on our noble allies. In fact, they are probably the healthiest people in the world, for they seem to live forever and save their money, then go for a cruise on this ship.”

The wheel clicked three times as the helmsman brought the ship back on course. The heavy seas kept pounding against her starboard side and it took skill to steer a good course without overcorrecting. The helmsman was the best. He could feel the waves as they swept down upon the ship, and many times he turned into the large ones to keep her bow from dropping off. The waves roared in out of the darkness, burst into foam and vanished again. It was a job that he knew how to do. Though it would have been a lot easier if the twit of an officer would shut up. Bored, that’s all. Watch—

keeping these days, even in the middle of a gale like this, was mostly a matter of watching electronic readouts.