“You’re not going to give us any trouble mate, are you?” Rod whispered with feeling, a cloud of rusty silt swirled in the water.
“Leave that bloody thing alone,” the other diver growled.
“Good thinking,” Big J echoed from the surface.
Rod pulled back his hand as if the torpedo had been red-hot.
“OK, OK,” he responded, accepting the rebuke.
They spent the next few minutes assessing the situation, then started carefully collecting the random ingots and passing them out to the recovery basket. It took two shifts to remove the rest of the gold, having taken the precaution to place reinforcing supports under the torpedo. As the last bar was passed through the hatch, Rod called up to Big J
“That’s the lot in here ‘J’, which I can tell you is just as well because that fish has just slipped a bit on the rack. I’m going to have to fix an extra support.”
“OK, do that, then get the hell out of there. We’ll finish this shift early.”
Rod sent the others out to the “bell” before setting about fixing some extra supports to the crumbling torpedo racks. He was only able to affect a very crude additional truss before he left the submarine and joined the others. They were all in a buoyant mood as they rode the bell to the surface and transferred to the pressure vessel.
Big J, however, was still worried about their safety. The torpedo, in spite of the additional supports, looked precarious; the shells in the other compartment were little better. He decided to call everyone together. Once again they all squeezed into the hold alongside the pressure vessel.
“What’s the total so far Greg?” Big J asked.
“Looks like around seven tons,” he grinned happily.
“That’s more than I thought; what’s that worth?” Big J asked.
“Let’s see, at around ten million dollars per ton…” He looked pleased with himself. “Say seventy million dollars give or take a few cents!”
They all laughed and cheered.
“And we haven’t looked into the aft section yet!” Hal exclaimed through the pressure vessel’s microphone.
The other divers in there with him jockeyed to speak.
“Don’t worry ‘J’, we’ll sort the rest of it out, eh boys?” Rod shouted over the others.
Big J raised his hand, begging for a chance to speak.
“Well you know me boys, always the cautious one. I’m sure if there’s any more down there, you’re the boys who can get it up. But I wonder if it’s worth the risk. He raised his hand to stop the enthusiastic replies. “Now just listen to me for a moment please. Alex advises me that we have another problem. So perhaps we better listen to him before we make any decisions. Alex.” Big J waved him to the front of the tightly packed group.
“Right — no need to beat about the bush,” Alex started seriously. “There are at least two groups of nasties lining up to muscle in on our dive. These people are heavily armed and dangerous.” He paused. “Now you may notice that Cookie isn’t here.” Actually no one had. “Well unfortunately he has betrayed our position and passed the details of our find to these other people.”
“Why would he do that?” an incredulous voice asked from the inside pressure vessel.
“The oldest reason in the world. The promise of personal riches.”
“Are you absolutely certain he did it?” another voice asked.
“Sadly yes. His mobile calls were monitored by our security friends. When I approached him he admitted it.” Alex was silent for a moment. “It’s a familiar story I’m afraid. You must understand that the people we are almost certainly going to have to contend with attach no value to human life. They corrupt people with promises to fulfil their wildest dreams. Cookie sadly, must have realised the truth and could not live with the fact that he had betrayed you all.” He shook his head. “I found him dead in his bunk half an hour ago he — must have swallowed some kind of poison.”
There was a shocked gasp from listeners.
“Poor old Cookie,” someone muttered.
“What a bloody shame,” another added.
Alex raised his voice. “So that, gentlemen, is the enemy and they have set their sights on your gold!” He paused. “I would expect that with the failure of Cookie’s regular report they will presume he has been rumbled. I feel certain that will force them to make their move.” He paused. “That being the case, we must review our status. OK?” No one interrupted. “So let’s see, we have eight divers in saturation and twelve other people on board including Marion. They,” he indicated seawards with his thumb, “have at least twenty armed men and a mixed bag of at least twelve others on their dive boat. So that’s the bad news. The good news is that we have our own defence team. We are armed with a good selection of surprises waiting for anyone with ambitions on your property!” Alex pointed to Dick and the three other men. “The odds do not appear to be too good but remember, we know their plan and they don’t know about our extra muscle.” Once more he gestured towards the three new members of the team. “However I am suggesting to you all that you consider that this is the prudent moment to cut your losses and leave now with the gold you have on board!”
“What’s the alternative?” Rod asked from the pressure vessel.
Alex looked stern. “The alternative is a running battle with at least twenty fanatical men from the same terrorist group we upset by dumping their shipment of arms, and a second front from a Japanese crime family called Golden Lilly who are already hovering around near Corregidor with another eighteen or twenty men on board waiting to take over our operation.” He looked at Rod, peering through the little circle of pressure glass. “As I said, we have some good weapons and some excellent men but numerically they have a big advantage.” He turned to the others. “The choice is yours gentlemen?” He stepped back.
Big J raised his hand.
“Alex, do you have a handle on how much time we have?”
“It’s only a guess but not more than twenty-four hours.”
“Then I’d like to make a suggestion,” Big J continued, his audience strangely silent and expectant. “First we get the next shift onto the wreck and check out the aft section. Whatever we find there we bring up as quickly as possible. We could get one team down there now; it’s about one hour earlier than usual and the current may be a bit too strong!” He looked into the pressure window. “Do you fancy a try?” The OK sign greeted him. “Once we know if there’s anything worth fighting over, we will be able to send down the second team and make one big effort to raise everything possible, before the tide turns; — then we quit” He looked around. “Is that OK with everyone?”
“Sounds good to me,” John enthused. “Rod let’s get your boys into the bell!”
“Too bloody right mate,” Rod exclaimed.
Alex knew they would want to check the rest of the hull, they would never have been able to resist it, so while the divers and support crew busied themselves with the bell He called his newly formed security team together.
“OK, so now we must make plans to defend ourselves.”
Alex spent half an hour detailing his plan to his three-man defence force and the rest of the surface crew before returning to La Vielle with Greg.
The dive bell shuddered from the effects of he current, which was still running at about two knots, as it worked its way down the anchored cable to the wreck. The internal air pressure kept the water at bay as John opened the exit hatch in the floor.
“Well here goes.” He called into his helmet and lowered himself into the water. His legs were immediately gripped by the current and slammed against the side if the hatch.
“Christ the current’s still very strong,” he cursed.
Undeterred, he dropped through the hatch and trailed like a hooked fish attached by his supplementary safety line.