The three smoked in silence.
“What about the treasure, General?” Liu asked, dropping the spent butt to the deck and grinding it with his heel. “Will you try to recover it?”
“I hadn’t thought about it. I guess if it really is there, then in a month or a year we will find it for the Panamanians and turn it over to them as a gesture of goodwill. Learning about a billion dollars in gold, even if it’s already yours, is a powerful diplomatic tool.”
An officer approached and saluted General Yu. “With Captain Wong’s compliments. The cargo is aboard. He reports that the Englander Rose has cleared the Miraflores Locks and believes it might be heading toward us.”
“Damn. Tell the captain we can cast off in a moment. Wait, I’ll come to the bridge with you. Sergeant Huai, your sidearm, please. Give it to Mr. Liu.”
“Sir?”
“Your sidearm. The least we can do is let him do this honorably. But keep him covered just in case.” Yu grabbed a large briefcase from the first officer’s cabin and locked it to Liu’s wrist with a pair of handcuffs. “When it is done, take his body to his office, give some explanation to his staff and get your men out of Panama as quickly as possible.”
“I understand, sir.” The veteran eyed Liu then turned back to the general. “May I ask one thing?”
“What is it, man?” Yu snapped, irritated that Huai saw any ambiguities in his orders.
“When you mentioned the costs incurred in this operation, you didn’t mention the men I’ve lost.”
Something in the sergeant’s tone made the general pay more attention. “It’s a soldier’s duty to do as ordered, Sergeant. It is the price of war.”
“That’s what I thought, sir.”
General Yu turned to follow the first officer up to the bridge.
“The price of war,” Huai repeated and slid his pistol from its holster.
Lauren had moved next to Mercer and slipped her arm around his waist, snuggling her head against his shoulder to wait for the inevitable. The Frenchmen spoke quietly among themselves, offering prayers perhaps or recounting the bravery of how past Legionnaires had faced death. Harry smoked through another cigarette and guzzled the last of the Jack Daniel’s. Mercer refused his offer of a hit knowing his old friend would enjoy it more.
A nagging voice, tinny and remote, tickled Mercer’s hearing. He tried to ignore it, but it was insistent. The uncomfortable radio earpiece dangled down his chest on its slender wire. He realized that was the source of the voice and he pressed the speaker back in place. “Angel Two, this is Heaven. Over.”
He had forgotten the guided-missile destroyer. “Heaven, this is Angel Two. Go ahead. Over.”
“We’ve got a rescue helo in the air. ETA is seven minutes.”
With a shout Mercer repeated what he’d just heard. The laughs and cries returned even louder than before. “Roger that, Heaven. We’ll be standing by. Make sure the pilot knows he’ll only have two minutes to pick us up and get clear again.”
“I’ll make sure she knows,” the female comm officer replied, emphasizing the inbound pilot’s gender.
Foch got back on the radio with Rabidoux. “Helo extraction in seven minutes.”
“I’ve got even better news. Munz has almost got the bomb disarmed. Once into the timing device, there were no more booby traps. It’s a straightforward job from here on out.”
“How long?”
“A minute, maybe less. The wiring will be disabled before the water can cause a short. Tell Mercer to let the ship sink in deep water. If we can stay afloat long enough, sail her right under the Bridge of the Americas and let her go in the Bay of Panama.”
“Will do. Good job.”
“Munz almost has it.” Foch’s report was met by a stunned silence. “The timer. He almost has it deactivated. The ship’s not going to explode.”
“He’s sure?”
“Bomb disposal men aren’t known to boast when their butts are on the line.” Foch grinned. “He says that if the ship can make it to try to let her sink in deep water.”
“Never happen,” Harry said. “We’ll be lucky to make it out of the canal. I can’t tell how fast we’re shipping water, but I can’t see us getting more than another couple of miles out of her.”
“Okay,” said Mercer. “What’s out there in the next couple of miles?”
Lauren thought about it. “Balboa and the abandoned navy fueling depot at Rodman are on the right side of the canal. On the left is all Hatcherly facilities.”
As soon as she said it, Mercer, Harry, and she exchanged a look. “What about it, Harry?” Mercer asked.
He chuckled. “I can’t imagine a more fitting burial for this old girl than right up Liu Yousheng’s asset.”
Mercer waited for confirmation that Munz had succeeded before calling the USS McCampbell. Two minutes later, the German and his French partner ambled onto the bridge. Their uniforms were soaked from the flooding holds, but nothing could diminish their sense of accomplishment. “I don’t care where you two are on the promotion lists,” Foch gushed and kissed his men on both cheeks. “You’re each getting bumped a grade.”
“Angel Two to Heaven,” Mercer called after adding his congratulations.
“Go ahead, Angel.”
“Slight change of plans. The bomb’s been deactivated. We’re going to try to reach the Hatcherly container port. We can’t see it yet. Can you give me an idea of shipping around it?”
“One moment, Angel. Ah, are you sure about the bomb?”
“We’d be screaming for that chopper if we weren’t.”
“Roger, Angel. There’s only one ship at the facility at this time. It’s just now emerging from an enclosed dry dock.”
Mercer had a sneaking suspicion he knew what ship that was. “Heaven, any chance you can read its name?”
“We can read the magazine stuffed into the back pocket of a deckhand by her jackstaff. She’s the MV Korvald, registered in Liberia.”
“Korvald’s coming out of the dry dock,” Mercer told Harry.
He goosed the throttles a little farther “Say no more.” Harry looked up to speak to his ship. “Okay, baby, you hold together for old Captain Harry and he’ll give you a send-off befitting a dreadnought.”
“Are you going to ram the Korvald?” Rene asked.
“If the Rose’ll let me.” Harry smiled and patted the wheel.
“Are you insane? We’re loaded with thousands of tons of explosives and the Korvald’s carrying eight intercontinental ballistic missiles. You are going to kill us all and level five square kilometers.”
“Don’t worry, Rene.” Mercer interceded before Bruneseau completely lost it again. “Harry’s making another of his bad jokes. He’s not gonna hit her. What we’ll do is box her in and keep her from escaping. Those missiles are the perfect evidence against Liu Yousheng.”
The French spy seemed satisfied, but the scowl didn’t leave his face. It was clear that he would never trust Harry White.
Mercer moved close to his friend so Bruneseau couldn’t overhear. “You really weren’t planning on ramming the Korvald , were you?”
“Oh, I’m still planning on it.” Harry cackled. They were a half mile from the Hatcherly port. Against the backdrop of the storm, the tall Hyundai gantry cranes stood like colossal scaffolds. Behind them was a maze of shipping containers. Immediately next to the cranes was the dry dock. The tail of a ship was slowly backing from the cavernous entrance. “Take the wheel.”
“What?”
Harry stepped away from the ship’s controls. “I said take the wheel. We’ve got a couple minutes and I wasn’t kidding that I have to take a leak. Just keep her on course for the dry dock.”