‘Return to Firefly, Chief.’ He pitched his voice so that it was loud enough for Aritsu to hear the instructions. ‘I’ll call you up when I’m ready to be taken off.’
The sampan went astern, swung its nose to starboard, and circled away from the destroyer. Hamilton watched it run clear and then started up the accommodation ladder to the deck. He saluted the Rising Sun ensign dangling lifelessly from its jack staff with punctilious regard to etiquette, as he came over the side and turned to Aritsu.
‘Lieutenant Hamilton, Commanding Officer of His Majesty’s submarine Rapier.’ He saluted again. ‘May I present my compliments to the Captain.’
Not to be outdone in the politeness of the occasion, Aritsu bowed and made a strange clicking sound with his mouth. ‘It is an honor to have you aboard, Lieutenant Hamilton,’ he acknowledged affably. ‘May I offer you a drink in the wardroom?’
‘Thank you, Commander. But I wish to see Lieutenant Commander Ottershaw first. After that I am sure we will both be pleased to enjoy your hospitality.’
Aritsu bowed. ‘Lieutenant Commander Ottershaw is already waiting for you in the wardroom.’ He smiled with satisfaction at scoring the first point. ‘You seem to be under an unfortunate misapprehension. He is not a prisoner. Like yourself, he is an honored and welcome guest.’
Hamilton wasn’t too sure how to take the commander’s statement. There was an underlying sharpness in the words that suggested that he was also now a prisoner, and he began to rue his bravado in sending Firefly’s sampan back to the gunboat. Swallowing his doubts, however, he smiled appreciatively and followed the Japanese officer down the narrow steel corridor to Suma’s tiny wardroom. The armed sentry guarding the entrance gave the lie to Aritsu’s assurance, but Hamilton ignored his presence and passed straight through the door without invitation.
‘Good God, Nick! Where the hell did you spring from?’ Harry Ottershaw certainly looked comfortable enough. The furnishings of the wardroom were sparse and austere, but he was ensconced in the only armchair with a large glass of Scotch standing on the table at his elbow.
‘You must forgive me for being an inattentive host, gentlemen,’ Aritsu smiled politely. ‘But if you will excuse me, I must have a few words with the Officer-of-the-Watch. I will rejoin you in a few moments. In the meantime, Lieutenant, please help yourself to what you want.’
The door closed and Hamilton restrained an impulse to check the handle to see if they had been locked inside. He knew he must maintain his outward show of self-confidence and it would be fatal to give any hint of nervousness. Moving to the sideboard he picked up a likely looking bottle and poured himself a large glass of malt whisky.
‘I managed to sneak Rapier into the bay without being spotted,’ he explained to the gunboat captain. He glanced through the open scuttle and beckoned Ottershaw over.
Firefly was lying broad-side on the destroyer, just over a mile away on the western side of the bay and the bows of the submarine were just visible abaft her stern. Ottershaw nodded.
‘Very neat,’ he conceded. ‘But I don’t see what good it’s going to do. You can’t torpedo a Japanese destroyer in broad daylight and get away with it.’
Hamilton shrugged. ‘Let’s hope it won’t come to that. But I most certainly intend to if the worse comes to the worse. And Aritsu knows I will.’
‘You’re forgetting one thing,’ Ottershaw retorted sharply. ‘I happen to be the Senior Naval Officer present. You therefore take your orders from me. And I have no intention of allowing you to cause a major diplomatic incident merely for the sake of maintaining appearances. We’ll sort this matter out by negotiation. And if that fails we’ll have to rely on the authorities in Hong Kong getting us off the hook.’
Hamilton said nothing. Ottershaw might be SNO but if Rapier fired her torpedoes neither of them were likely to survive the resulting explosion. In which case seniority wouldn’t matter a damn!
Ottershaw closed the glass scuttle and returned to his armchair. ‘We’ve got to play for time. It looks as though there’s a nasty storm brewing and Aritsu’s bloody twitchy. Don’t ask me why, but that’s how it seems to me. In my opinion he’ll bluff it out as long as he dares, but I’m certain he intends to up-anchor and steam clear of the bay before the storm hits us.’
The steel door behind Hamilton’s back opened and before he could reply Aritsu returned to the wardroom. He looked completely at ease and was smiling to himself as if enjoying a secret joke.
‘I meant to congratulate you on the way you handled the submarine, Lieutenant,’ he said ingratiatingly. ‘My lookouts had no idea you had passed under the boom until you surfaced behind the gunboat. They will be suitably punished, of course, for their inefficiency.’
‘I hope they were not too inefficient to note the position in which Rapier has been moored,’ Hamilton stressed pointedly.
Aritsu looked at him impassively. He was quite willing to acknowledge the lieutenant’s skill in seamanship, but he was not prepared to accept that he had been outsmarted.
‘A little unfriendly, I thought, Lieutenant. After all Suma has her guns trained fore and aft and is in no way menacing the gunboat.’ He spread his hands. Firefly is free to leave whenever she wishes.’
‘Without her Captain?’
‘I see no reason why not, Lieutenant. He is, as you can see for yourself, an honored guest. He will come to no harm.’ Aritsu smiled expansively to reveal his over-large teeth. ‘We were in fact, just considering the terms of a suitable apology when you arrived. The matter would have been concluded within a few more minutes.’
‘Is this correct, sir?’ Hamilton asked Ottershaw.
‘Well, more or less, I suppose,’ Firefly’s captain agreed. ‘Of course I don’t accept that an apology is called for, but if Commander Aritsu insists and provided Hong Kong agrees, it would seem the simplest solution.’
‘You will be pleased to know that Hong Kong has already authorized an apology,’ Aritsu said smoothly. He took the folded signal clip from his pocket and handed it to Ottershaw. ‘The signal was apparently received about fifteen minutes ago◦– my wireless operator passed it to me when I went up to the bridge.’ He smiled. ‘So there now seems no impediment to clearing the matter up.’
Hamilton who had been listening to the exchange, walked back to the scuttle, pulled it open, and sniffed the air.
‘Except for the typhoon,’ he said casually.
‘What typhoon?’ Aritsu asked with unexpected sharpness.
‘It’s probably nothing worth worrying about,’ Hamilton shrugged. ‘Our Met officer is always getting his facts mixed up. Everyone knows it’s not the season for typhoons.’ Aritsu was not so easily put off. He suddenly seemed ill at ease. Walking to the barometer hanging on the bulkhead he tapped it with his finger. The mercury dropped a full inch and Hamilton could see tiny beads of sweat glistening on the Commander’s forehead. The expression on his face, however, remained as impassive as ever as he turned away from the glass.
‘A bad storm perhaps, Lieutenant,’ he agreed. ‘But surely not a typhoon? I have received no weather warnings from Combined Fleet HQ.’
‘There was a freak wireless blackout a couple of hours ago,’ Hamilton told him with seeming innocence. ‘An electrical storm or something. My radio operator picked up a Japanese Navy transmission, but it was practically unreadable. Perhaps that is why you have heard nothing.’ Aritsu strode to the opened scuttle and stared out at the glowering mauve-grey sky. He made no comment, but Hamilton could see him gnawing at the knuckle of his right hand with his splayed front teeth. So Ottershaw had been right. It was a situation that might prove to be worth exploiting and he decided to play on his fears.