He put the phone down and turned to Evans. 'That's the best I can do. I presume you didn't come on board without making some provision against my detaining you here?'
'Correct. VHP contact.' He patted the sagging pocket of his camouflage jacket. 'If I don't report in on the hour…' He gave a little shrug. 'But don't worry, I'll be on to them in a minute. Meantime, you want to know how we hand the woman back. Since you've got Steele here, and she's his wife, it better be to him.'
They discussed it between themselves, no reference to me and Soo treated as though she was some sort of parcel that was proving difficult to deliver. In the end it was agreed that Evans and I should be landed on Bloody Island to await the frigate's departure. As soon as it was out past the island of Lazareto, Evans would radio his base contact and Soo would be delivered to me in exchange for Evans. 'I'll have the Sergeant of Marines issue you with a gun,' Gareth said to me. 'You'll have to sign for it, of course, and somehow it will have to be returned.' He turned back to Evans. 'I take it you're not armed.'
Evans laughed. 'Not much point, one man against a whole ship's company.'
Gareth nodded and dabbed a number on the intercom system. 'Have Sergeant Simmonds report to my cabin and tell the First Lieutenant I want a word with him.' He went to the curtain and pulled it back. 'Escort Mr Evans to the head of the ladder,' he told Davison. 'He'll be sending his boat back to Cala Llonga. And have our own launch stand by to take both these gentlemen across to Bloody Island.
After that have it brought on board and stowed.' He turned to Evans. 'Whilst you're out in the open I suggest you take the opportunity to report in to your base that you're okay.'
Evans stood there for a moment, frowning, his eyes fixed on Gareth who had already turned back at the sound of a voice calling him over the intercom. It was Mault and he told him, 'I want the ship closed up ready for sea, Number One. We'll be getting under way as soon as MEO can give us the necessary power.'
'We've received new orders, have we?' Mault's voice was a mixture of curiosity and doubt.
'You've just received myorders, Number One, so get on with it.' There was a crisp finality in the way he said it that even the thickest-skinned could not fail to understand. 'We'll be out of here by 22.15 at the latest.' He switched off before his second-in-command could ask any more awkward questions and turned back to Evans. 'When you report in, tell your people to bring Mrs Steele down to Cala Llonga ready to take her out to Bloody Island. I don't know how far away she is, but I'd like her down on the beach there before we sail.'
Evans nodded. 'No problem. We'll have her waiting for you there. Then you can see her and identify her through your glasses. Okay?' And he added, There's some countries I been in where death is a way of life, as you might say. So don't fool around with me, either of you, see.' He turned on his heel then and left the cabin just as Sergeant Simmonds arrived.
Gareth told him to take me down to the armoury and issue me with whatever weapon he thought most suitable for holding a dangerous man hostage for half an hour or so. He was quite close to me when he said that and he gripped hold of my arm. 'Don't let him jump you. Just keep your distance and the gun on him the whole time.' His ringers were digging into me, his hand trembling. God help me, I thought, he was scared of the man. 'fust keep your distance/ he said again. 'All the time you're alone with him on the island. Particularly at the moment of exchange. If it gets to that, if they actually bring her out to the island, then he'll have those two thugs of his to back him up, so don't let your eyes stray. He'll be waiting for that, the moment when Soo moves towards you.' And he added, 'Both of you held as hostage would complicate things.'
His hand relaxed his grip on my arm. He turned and picked up his cap. 'I'm going up to the bridge now. When you're armed, you can join Pat at the gangway. By then the launch will be waiting to run you over to the island. And remember — watch him, every moment.'
CHAPTER TWO
'Zulu One Zero, this is Zulu One. Come in, Zulu One Zero. Over… Yes, I've been put ashore as agreed on the island. You can bring the woman down as soon as the frigate starts to fetch its anchor… Yes, of course they did. It's the husband. That fellow Steele… Sure he's got a gun, one of those Stirling sub-machine pistols, but I don't know how good he is with it…' He glanced across at me, his teeth gleaming in the light of my torch. 'That's right, wait till you see the frigate's stern light disappear beyond Lazareto, then put her in the speedboat. You can come out for me soon as the Colonel reports he is locked on. Okay?.. Good. Out.'
He turned to me, his teeth still showing white in that strange smile of his. 'Relax, for Chris'sake. Another half-hour and with any luck you'll have your wife back and I'll be gone.' He slipped the radiophone back into the pocket of his jacket and came down from the ruined wall on which he had been standing. I backed away, watching him, and he laughed as he came towards me. 'Think I'm going to jump you? No way. I've seen the silverware in that room of yours above the chandlery.' He walked right past me, out into the open where he had a clear view of the frigate. The launch was just going alongside and at the same moment all the upper-deck lights that gave the outline of the ship such a fairy look went suddenly out.
He walked past the dig, out to the northern end of the hospital's long seaward-facing block. From there the frigate was no more than three cables away and we could hear the voices of the men on the fo'c's'le as they waited for the order to weigh anchor. Evans lit a cigarette, his features picked out in the flare of the match. 'Suppose Gareth boy takes his tin can out and you don't get your wife back — what then, eh?' He blew out a stream of smoke, watching me.
I didn't say anything. The man was built like a tank, all hard bone and muscle. How many shots would it take to kill him? I had never fired a machine pistol before and I tried to remember what I'd been told. Was it high they fired, or low?
'Well?' He was grinning at me, but his eyes were cold and calculating in the torchlight, as though he were trying to make up his mind whether I was capable of shooting him down in cold blood.
A searchlight stabbed out from somewhere by the radio mast on the high point of La Mola, the beam blinding me. He could have rushed me then, but he had turned his head away and was staring out towards the frigate, now a black shape in silhouette. The clank of the anchor cable sounded loud in the stillness as they shortened in. The clanking stopped and in the searchlight's brilliant beam I could see the chain itself hanging straight up and down from the bows. Shortly after that the hum of machinery told us they had got one of the two turbines going again.
'Any minute now,' I said, my voice sounding strained. I only said it to relieve the tension.
Evan's was still staring intently at the ship and I heard him mutter, 'It's against all his training..' He swung round on me. 'You reck'n he'll take her out, or is he up to something?' He started towards me. 'If you and he…'
I told him to stay where he was, my finger back on the trigger. 'Don't make me fire this thing.'
I don't think he heard me, for he had turned and was staring out again across the dark water. 'Like I said, it's against all his training. And if he thinks he's going to lie off the entrance till you've got your wife back — '
'You've been over all that,' I said. 'Once those guns can be brought to bear…'
'The guns — yes.' He nodded. 'A direct hit and he'd be blown out of the water.' He shook his head, standing very still. 'To throw it all away for that woman.' He glanced round at me, the teeth showing white again. 'No offence, but Christ! I don't understand.'