I switched Bellatrix's helm over to the Sperry auto and kept the telegraphs at full ahead. The sub kept pace effortlessly. Three figures appeared on the black bridge, minute by comparison with the rest of the structure. I focused my glasses on them. An officer picked up a microphone from its waterproof housing and looked across the stretch of sea between the two craft. The closeness of the metallic voice of the loud-hailer took me by surprise. It brought Adele and Trevor-Davis to the wheelhouse at a run.
`Bellatrix! Keep course and heave to! Understood?'
It was an English voice at least.
I clicked on Bellatrix's own loud-hailer.
' Who are you?'
The other voice came back, imperative. Do you understand?'
Trevor-Davis said quietly. Devastation class. Look at the flared bow.
Yes,' I replied. Understood'
Adele stood next to me. John, this isn't part of the plan
Trevor-Davis said reflectively, The plan's only two or three days old, too.'
The metallic voice from across the water said, Bellatrix! Is that Mr. Garland?'
Yes.'
Captain's compliments. We are sending a boat for you and-' there was the slightest pause-' Mam'zelle Adele.'
What was Peace up to, I asked myself angrily. The DNI had ordered him explicitly to take Devastation to St Brandon and here he was hundreds of miles out of his way. Had Peace, after I had sailed, prevailed on the DNI to change plans again, in the light of the CIA'S snoopings? I had kept rigid radio silence in Bellatrix, as the DNI had instructed, and had cut down the use of the electrics to the minimum.
I used the engine-room voicepipe. Mac-there's a big sub alongside-numbers painted out. I think it must be Devasta- tion. Stop, will you?'
There was something suspiciously like a chuckle at the other end. I would never forget the moment when I told Mac that Peace was still alive. It had been worth all the glory of Limuria. Mac's allegiance to Peace, right or wrong, had never known any bounds, and since setting out in the knowledge that his beloved skipper was indeed still alive he had been less dour than I had ever known him.
Commander Peace requests that you and the lady bring some clothes. Give you ten minutes.'
I shrugged at Adele. No point in arguing-O. K?' O.K.
– but what about me?'
What about you?'
A woman aboard a nuclear submarine!'
Trevor-Davis smiled slightly. These new subs have every creature comfort, Mam'zelle Adexle: hot baths, washing machines, the lot.'
She still seemed very uneasy. John, I thought Commander
Peace would have stuck to orders..
Her tension communicated itself to me. She was putting into words what I had felt from the moment the long shape had surfaced. Mac joined us before I could reply.
' What the bluidy hell is the skipper playing at?' he grumbled good-naturedly. I thought..
The sub circled Bellatrix, which was now stopped.
Bellatrix!' came the loud-hailer. Captain Trevor-Davis to assume command. MacFadden to remain. You are to steer a course of one-six-zero true, repeat, one-six-zero true. Bellatrix will proceed on that course at twelve knots-repeat twelve knots-until again intercepted. Is that clear?'
I turned questioningly to Trevor-Davis. He nodded.
Not to worry,' I said. There's no land in any direction for six hundred miles. I marked our position on the chart not an hour ago.'
No other ships,' he asked laconically.
This is a prohibited area-missile range, don't forget'
Adele said, I'll get my things together.'
Slacks,' I replied. Don't try to be glamorous aboard a submarine. Pants are woman's best friend for the modest negotiation of ladders, hatches, and watertight bulkheads.'
She smiled, but she was worried. Thanks.'
Bellatrix!' called the sub. Have you briefed Captain Trevor-Davis and your engineer? Any problems?'
Briefing complete,' I replied. What about the weather?'
Seems good enough,' came the curt reply. Nothing exciting from Chagos.'
In the Chagos Archipelago south of Ceylon the Limuria Squadron maintained a big weather station. Chagos is where cyclones are born. This was the cyclone season in the Sea of Limuria.
Adele was waiting in the wheelhouse when I returned with my hastily-packed case. Trevor-Davis was as economical as ever with his words when I said goodbye. I resisted the temptation to call the anonymous sub's name on the loudhailer in the traditional manner of the sea. Ready! Standing by for your boat.'
As we watched a topside handling party debouched on to the sub's casing deck. A rubber dinghy pulled clear of her side. I noticed that Devastation lay deep and air hissed round the hull like a hippo surfacing.
I helped Adele to the dinghy as it came alongside and willing hands assisted her. The gunner's mate in charge looked up at me and winked from a dead-pan face. We pulled across to Devastation. A rating waited on her deck for us. Round his waist he wore a monkey-tail' safety-belt with a chain and traveller running on rails along the deck. Here indeed was a far cry from the days when submarines risked their lives unprotected on the casing in foul weather!
The Officer-of-the-Deck-the ood-looked down from his high perch. He sang out. ' Control-Bridge here-blow forward grow for one second.'
Air burped and the deck lifted-a Raleigh-like space-age courtesy 'which kept Adele's plimsolled feet dry as she held out her 'hand to the monkey-tail rating. The gunner's mate lifted her under the arms and snicked a quick-release safetybelt about her. I could imagine the way this story would be told in the mess.
Follow the tramrails, miss,' he grinned. Can't go wrong. First stage fare, fourpence. Mind the step.'
Our arrival crowded the tiny bridge. Its lack of instruments surprised me-merely a 7 Mc set to communicate with the Control Centre in the sub's heart, a gyro repeater, a loudhailer mike, collision and diving alarms and rudder-angle indicator, all heavily waterproofed. Behind, the radar, radio mast and twin periscopes were snugged down alongside an upward-seeing television-camera ' eye '. Control-Bridge Bellatrix range three hundred yards, and steady.' The OOD listened. Aye aye, sir. Stand by to dive.' He leaned over the bridge handrail. ' At the double – boat party below.' He glanced round the horizon and pressed the diving alarm. Clear the bridge! Clear the bridge!' The two look-outs stood back and raced past below as the raucous sound came up-here at least was something familiar from my submarine days-the old-fashioned ahooga ' of the alarm klaxon.
I gripped Adele's arm and ducked through the hatch. The OOD followed, snapping it shut with a length of steel cable. ; 0
The quartermaster flattened himself to allow us to edge by. Then he spun a wheel and secured the hatch.
The compartment into which we emerged was shadowed, unreal. Infra-red light muted the faces of the eight or so men who stood about in the glow of the luminous instruments. My eyes automatically went to the nerve-centre-the periscope stand. Caught by the strange light, drops of water from a faulty packing gland seeped down the barrel. Peace stood there, his mouth tight, his whole being alert. A black sweater and matching Dacron trousers gave him the same sort of swaggering, deadly look as the great U-boat aces; it was a silhouette I would remember all my life.
The tight compactness of the Control Centre was a newold world for me-the intricacy of valves, cables, lights and electronics. Two planesmen sat in deep red leather chairs before what might have been an aircraft's instrument panel, their hands gripping half-wheel joystick columns to dive and steer the sub. Behind them was the diving officer, one arm draped carelessly over the sail planesman's chair. The soft red glow of the compass repeater lit their faces. Its red merged into the green fluorescence of the radar a few feet away. On the ballast-control panel glowed a series of straight little red bars-submariners call it the Christmas tree. The red bars indicated, I was to learn, a ' straight board ' which meant that all the openings in the sub's hull were closed. Beyond the diving-stand to starboard was the sonar-room and aft the radio-room, abutting on to the navigator's chart desk, the inertial guidance system, the fathometers and the television ' eye .