The QE2 Is Missing

“Even better,” Uzi said, stabbing his finger onto the map. “We turn in the one direction that no one would ever expect, a reciprocal of the course that brought the Queen to Acapulco. We head back the way we came — into the Pacific. And we shut down the radios at once. No reports, no cables, no contacts. Just one last coded message to your Mexican contact to make arrangements for communication later, as though the cable originated from another ship. As long as this storm keeps up no one will be able to find us. It will be as though the QE2 vanished from the face of the earth.”

“That won’t be too easy,” Hank said. “The weather satellites and American military satellites will easily spot a ship this big.”

“Not as long as this storm holds out,” Uzi was jubilant. “They can’t see through the muck up there and as long as all the radios and satellite navigation aids are turned off we will be invisible. And nothing is to be marked on the navigation charts, either. There must be no record of where we are and where we are going.”

“Now we are beginning to think,” Josep said, signalling to Concepcion. “Get up to the bridge. Esteban is on guard there. He is a sailor, a ship’s officer, he will know about the course thing. Have him make these course changes as we have said. Go!”

“Can you hold the ship for another twenty-four hours?” Uzi asked, the sudden excitement drained away.

“I don’t see why not. As the new crew members come on duty we make them prisoners and put the ones going off watch in with the Captain and the others. We can’t do this forever, but hopefully we can hold out for a day. The Chief Engineer Officer was getting suspicious that something wasn’t right, so the Captain sent for him and he is our prisoner, too, and issuing the right orders. Yes, we can hold out for a while yet.”

“What about the passengers?” Hank asked.

Josep laughed. “Not a clue. Most of them are too sick to care in any case.”

“All right, then,” Uzi said. “We have the matter of our course under control, and if we don’t make any slips we should be able to hold the ship until we rendezvous with the fishing boat. Which brings us back to the matter we were discussing when Hank came in.”

“I no longer care to talk about it.”

“You’re going to have to. You agreed there would be no unwarranted violence or killing. You gave Diaz your word.”

“I did. It has nothing to do with the situation.”

“It does. Unless you do something soon, the man will die and that will be deliberate murder.”

“What’s happening?” Hank broke in. It was Uzi who answered him.

“One of the ship’s crew was injured when the cashier’s office was captured. Shot. Unless he sees a doctor he’ll be dead. Josep doesn’t want to take him to a ship’s doctor. A gunshot wound would be too suspicious. He wants to wait until morning when we capture the Uruguayans. Then we can use their doctor. I want them taken now, without any more delay.”

“No. We will adhere to the schedule. We cannot risk a slipup.”

There was a rattle of a key in the lock and Diaz came in while they were talking. “Concepcion has taken my post on the bridge,” he said. “I have come to see what you are doing about the doctor for the injured man.”

“The plans are unchanged,” Josep said with grim determination. “They will not be altered for the sake of this fast shot who killed one of my people.”

“We made an agreement. There was to be no unnecessary bloodshed.”

“The situation has changed.”

“It has not. If you will not act I will get one of my men and we will take over the Uruguayan suite now. We must have that doctor.”

“You will risk everything for a stranger’s life?” Josep was puzzled, not angry. An attitude like this was beyond his comprehension.”

“Of course. I am a politician, and I hope an honest man. What I do I do to free my country from Stroessner and his thugs. If I lose my humanity doing it I am no better than they are.”

“He’s right,” Uzi said. “We need that doctor now.”

Grim faced, Josep looked back and forth between them. “Outvoted two to one. I assume you will no longer cooperate in this action if I don’t agree?”

“That’s correct,” Diaz said.

“Then we do it. But not the Germans. They will be too suspicious if we try to hit them during the night. They get guns in their guts for breakfast as we originally planned. You and I, Diaz, we do this together. First Admiral Marquez, then Stroessner. I’m looking forward to this. Uzi — stay here and man the phone. This should not take long.”

The alleyway was empty when they emerged from the room. It was just a few feet across to the other suite. Josep knocked on the door, then again. A muffled voice spoke from inside. He answered in Spanish.

“The doctor is needed, quickly. The German with the bullet hole, he has taken a turn for the worse.”

The lock turned and the door started to open. As soon as it did Josep hurled himself against it, striking with all his weight. Forcing it wide and hurling himself into the room.