Up on deck, the firing had stopped as Big J and his crew brought the situation under control. Believing that all the armed men had been neutralised, they relaxed. However, unknown to them, one had slipped out of sight in the mayhem. Suddenly the thin-faced Japanese leader, followed by his liberator, stepped out onto the deck; the Japanese was holding Marion by the hair, a pistol held to her temple.
“Everybody back!” he ordered.
Oscar reacted, taking a step forward. Alex pushed an arm in front of him holding him back.
“Steady my friend,” Alex cautioned with understanding. “Leave this to me.”
The thin-faced Japanese was standing by the side deck rail and unsure what to do when suddenly the submersible’s bright yellow hull appeared at the surface, almost alongside where they were standing. The hatch opened and a pale face cautiously peered out.
The Japanese threw Marion to one side and vaulted over the side to land half in the water almost on top of the submersible’s pilot.
Oscar rushed forward to comfort Marion.
On the submersible the thin-faced Japanese shouted, “Back inside!” to the terrified man and scrambled with surprising agility into the open hatch and dropped inside, clamping it shut behind him.
“What’s happening?” the stunned pilot asked in near hysterics.
“Just dive anywhere for the moment!” the Japanese commanded the frightened man as he slumped behind the controls.
The submersible slipped silently beneath the surface. It had all happened so quickly that everyone on deck had only been able to watch in stunned silence.
The lone terrorist looked over the side in amazement as he realised that his master had abandoned him.
“The game’s up so drop the gun.” It was Alex pointing his own .38 at the man’s chest.
The man paused and looked uncertainly about the deck.
“Put it down slowly,” Alex commanded quietly.
The man shrugged his shoulders and made to place the weapon on the deck, but at the very last moment, he rolled, bringing up the pistol ready to fire. But Alex had anticipated the move and quite deliberately fired into the crouched form. The man’s pistol clattered to the deck as he collapsed grabbing at his stomach.
Big J stepped forward and picked up the discarded pistol, tossing it with disgust over the side.
“We don’t need any more surprises,” he growled and moved to the side.
Alex, ignoring the wounded man, stood looking at the empty sea. “Amen to that,” he answered.
“I don’t think he’ll get far in that!” Big J shrugged his shoulders. “More importantly we’ve got some wounded men to sort out.”
“I’m afraid so,” Alex agreed. “It looks as though a couple of our boys may not be going to make it.” Alex said sadly, turning his attention back to the scene on deck. “I’ll let John know that everything’s under control again.”
The bodies of the captain, the engineer and Franco Ebola still lay where they had fallen. Alex stepped up to the microphone attached to the decompression chamber.
“OK boys everything is under control now.” He briefly described the action and finished with the Japanese’s astonishing escape.
“I don’t know what range your ignition transmitter has but as a matter of interest I slapped number six mine on that submersible’s belly!” John replied casually.
“That could be interesting — why don’t we find out?” Alex beamed as he extracted the little transmitter and switched the selector to the number six and pressed the green button. The red indicator flashed twice and stopped.
There was a two-second pause before the sea about one hundred and fifty metres from the ship erupted in a giant waterspout.
Small pieces of debris appeared on the surface as the turbulence subsided but there was no sign of the submersible itself or its passengers.
“Shame — those beauties cost a fortune.” Big J stood looking at the boiling water with a disapproving expression on his face.
It took the crew a couple of hours to gather all the wounded and make them as comfortable as possible. The dead gunmen they weighted with chain and dropped over the side.
Big J stood at the side of the ship as the bodies vanished.
“I don’t know who your God is but if you have one, I truly hope he welcomes you,” he whispered solemnly.
Then he read from the Bible as the bodies of the captain and engineer were also committed to the deep. When he’d finished, he closed his Bible and turned to the crew.
“Now gentlemen and lady,” he nodded towards Marion. “When I agreed to this hare-brained scheme, I harboured this reoccurring nightmare that it would end much as it has.” He waved his hand at the empty sea. “However, having got this far we…I believe that have to finish it. So we will haul the anchor. We won’t try to pull up the last chunk of gold, because I want to get our wounded to hospital in Manila ASAP. Then we travel to Singapore, where I am assured by Oscar and Greg,” he gestured towards the two men, “that we will be able to sell the gold legitimately and then, folks, go straight home!” He looked challengingly at his audience. “Any arguments?”
There was an unfamiliar silence from his audience.
“Good,” Big J raised his voice a little, “then we sail immediately!”
The anchor chain clattered through the hawse pipes. The cable still lashed to the last lump of gold in the submarines hole was cut and fell to the seabed. The two vessels, with the dive boat in tow, gathered speed and headed to Manila. Dick had gone ahead with two of the more seriously wounded men.
The two ships had travelled about ten miles when Big J called everybody’s attention. Speaking over the tug’s Tannoy he announced, “Just thought you ought to know the navigation equipment on the Japs’ dive boat was destroyed in the explosion. I removed the location of the wreck from the GPS and chart plotters on here and on La Vielle. So now only the sharks know where the gold is!” He paused. “And for my money they can keep the bloody stuff!”
Alex, standing next to Big J as he’d delivered his message commented, said,
“Very good words Big J — and this bunch have plenty of reason to share your view.” He settled into the navigator’s chair. “But I’ll warrant, that out there,” he waved his hand at the vast ocean panorama, “there’ll be someone prepared to maim and kill for it!”
“I suppose,” Big J reasoned. “Anyway that’s what keeps you in a job eh?” he smiled.
Alex nodded in mock agreement, despondent at having been unintentionally reminded that he was returning to London to be made redundant. He sat in silence for some time as he mulled over the situation in his mind. It was hard to come to terms with the inevitable fact that SONIC was to be merged with MI6, and he and the Boss were being put out to pasture. Well at least the Syndicate has finally been defeated, he told himself with some satisfaction. He remained deep in thought for a while — then suddenly he looked across at his new friend.
“You’re right J — there’s always going to be plenty of baddies out there to keep me in work!”
He settled back, closed his eyes and tussled with his thoughts. Yes, he said to himself having made up his mind, I’ll go into the private security business with Hans. His eyes remained closed but his brain raced around his plan for the future. There were indeed plenty of baddies for them to duel with.
Greg was in command of La Vielle and listened to Big J’s speech on the VHF. Casually he punched the Waypoint button on the navigator. The screen was empty; there were no stored positions in the memory.
“The cunning old fox,” he said aloud to Oscar standing next to him.