“Very probably”
“I thought so. What do we do”
“Get your people up on deck. As soon as they’re in place I’m going to call Makayev and his crew up to get the missile ready for firing”
“Do you think they’ll cooperate” Kurshin gave him a hard stare.
“They’re navy, we’re KGB. They’ll cooperate” Grechko’s eyes narrowed.
“But I think we’ll need that lieutenant to launch the missile”
“Only to set up the firing circuitry” Kurshin replied. “Afterward he will be expendable. They all will be. Do I make myself clear, Ivan Akhminovich”
“Perfectly” Grechko said softly, and he picked up the phone to call his crew. Kurshin stepped to the forward windows and looked down at the crates strapped to the foredeck. The Stephos was an innocent ship on a mission of mercy. No one could tell otherwise without coming aboard. He raised his eyes to the sky. In the distance to the east he could see the contrail of a jet aircraft flying very high. Possibly an airliner, he thought. Possibly the Israeli Air Force. Possibly almost any kind of a jet. But not a spy plane. Those you never saw. He had given a lot of thought to McGarvey over the past days. But now, for some reason, he was getting an uncomfortable feeling that somehow the man was watching him.
Impossible, and yet the notion was there, at the back of his head. It was because of Ramstein, he supposed, that he was becoming jumpy. But McGarvey had managed the impossible then. How about now? He was a devil.
“Give them two minutes” Grechko said. Kurshin turned back to him. “Do they understand what is required of them”
“yes, Comrade Colonel. As a matter of fact I had already discussed this very possibility with them. They know what to do”
“Good.
Grechko crossed the room, opened the door, and stepped out onto the bridge deck. A minute later he waved. “They are in place now”
Kurshin picked up the telephone and hit the button for Makayev’s cabin.
It was answered on the first ring by the captain.
“Yes”
“Send Lieutenant Chobotov topside. I want him to ready the missile”
“So soon”
“Yes, now. The line was silent for a moment, but then Makayev was back.
“Yes, Comrade Colonel, we’ll be right up” Kurshin hung up the phone.
There was no mistaking Makayev’s tone, nor his use of the word-we’ll. It was to be a showdown, and now. Again Kurshin grinned in anticipation.
“They’re on the way up” he said out on the bridge deck. “All of them”
Grechko asked. “It would appear so. You cover us from here. But no matter what happens, Lieutenant Chobotov isn’t to be harmed”
“I understand” Kurshin reached the main deck just as Makayev and his crew showed up from below. They all carried sidearms. Grechko’s men had hidden themselves, which was just as well because Makayev’s people drew their weapons and spread out. “We’re taking over this ship” Makayev said. “And then what, Niki” Kurshin asked calmly. “We’re going to dump the missile, and then sail into Limassol on the south side of Cyprus where we’ll turn ourselves over to the authorities. “Why”
“What we have done is an act of war, Colonel. We have decided that we will not compound this insanity by firing a nuclear weapon on any target … military or civilian”
“Have you lost your nerve then” Kurshin asked, still grinning. Makayev ignored the question. He looked up at Grechko standing on the bridge deck. “Where is your crew” Grechko smiled. “Shall I call them”
“Yes. I I “Very well” Grechko said, and at that moment the other four KGB officers, all of them armed with AK74 assault rifles, appeared on deck Makayev’s men stepped back in surprise and shock. “Put your weapons down now” Kurshin ordered. Makayev was shaken, but he was a good man and he held his ground, his weapon pointed at Kurshin’s chest.
“I will kill you”
“And then you will die” Kurshin said. “And I think, Niki, that perhaps you love your life more than I do mine”
Still Makayev hesitated. “If you cooperate now, you have my word that nothing will be said about this incident. Everything will be as before”
After several long seconds, Makayev finally uncocked the hammer of his automatic and stuffed the weapon in his holster. “Do as he says” he told his crew. One by one they holstered their weapons. “A wise decision, Niki” Kurshin said. Makayev looked at the KGB crew who still held their weapons at the ready. “Tell them to put down their guns”
“First I would like Lieutenant Chobotov to ready the missile. I need your fullest cooperation”
” All right” Makayev said heavily. “Do it, Aleksei Sergeevich”
Chobotov hesitated for a beat, but then broke away from the others and went with Kurshin around to the foredeck where they ducked beneath the false crates.
“I want it armed and set to fire at midnight exactly” Kurshin told him.
“What if something goes wrong, Comrade Colonel? I mean what if we are delayed for some reason in raising the launching ramp”
“Nothing will go wrong; trust me, Lieutenant”
“Well, if these crates are not removed and the ramp isn’t raised I wouldn’t want to be within fifty kilometers of this ship” Chobotov said.
He took a small flashlight from his jumpsuit Pocket and handed it to Kurshin. “You will have to hold the light for me, sir”
“With pleasure” Kurshin said. “And believe me, you and your captain will get exactly what you deserve for this” And very soon, Kurshin thought.
Very soon.
It took the young lieutenant less than ten minutes to arm the Tomahawk’s firing circuitry and install the timer Onto the proper circuit board.
When he was finished, he replaced the access panel with its ten fasteners. “There” he said, turning around. Kurshin had taken out his gun and had screwed the silencer tube on the end of the barrel.
Chobotov opened his mouth to cry out when he realized what was about to happen, but Kurshin fired a single shot point-blank into his left eye, slamming him backward, his head bouncing off the deck. Reholstering his gun, Kurshin turned and calmly ducked back out from beneath the false crates and made his way back to the afterdeck where Makayev and the others still stood at gunpoint.
Makayev looked beyond Kurshin. “Where is Aleksei”
“Dead” Kurshin said. “Kill them” Makayev reached for his gun, but Grechko’s men opened fire, and Kurshin began to laugh.
Time was running out for all of them. It was nearly six in the evening and still they had come up with nothing concrete. As someone around the situation table had growled, the stretch of the Mediterranean they were searching-from the eastern end of Crete to the coasts of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria — encompassed more than two hundred thousand square miles of water. Heavily trafficked water. A special circuit had been set up linking the SOSUS center with the National Security Agency’s Ft. Meade satellite reconnaissance service, over which KHII photographs came in a steady stream. An SR-71 spy plane had been dispatched from its base at Prestwick, Scotland, downloading its first batch of photographs through a special satellite link. The second batch, taken two hours later, would show them relative movements when compared to the first, and were due to be transmitted at any minute.
Naval Intelligence units along with local CIA stations throughout Europe had enlisted the cooperation of Interpol in an effort to track down the leasing of any ships within the past few days to a week. Their reports were continuously added to the growing pile of data. But this was summer. The Mediterranean was a playground for boaters from nearly every country in the world. The CVN Nimitz and its task force continued to shadow the Russian fleet, of course, and the Phoenix and Baton Rouge continued to watch the approaches to the Black Sea on the off chance that they had been fooled into believing that the Indianapolis had actually gone down. It would be another full twenty-four hours before the ASR Pigeon was on station and they could send the submersible down for a firsthand look. But by then, it would be too late. Trotter had been on the encrypted telephone with General Murphy all through the late morning and afternoon. The Israelis had been fully assessed of the situation, and they had sent up the U-2 spy plane they had purchased from the US. Air Force some years back, and which had proved very effective for them. They had no capability of downlinking such photographs; instead, the U-2 had to be returned to its base, the film canisters unloaded, and the film processed and printed. The results of that first overflight were expected soon.