“I still don’t see anything. We’re on the east side of the freighter. Are you sure you’re visible from my angle?”
“I assure you that I am.”
“And you’re completely surfaced?”
“Indeed.”
“Forget it, Pierre. I’m not in the mood for games. I just want to get on board and relieve you.”
“Jake?” Andrew asked.
“Hold on, Pierre,” Jake said.
He looked at the priest.
“What?”
“If you trust your friend’s wisdom, trust that there’s a reason for his game.”
“That doesn’t mean I need to let him make me look like a fool.”
“A trusted friend wouldn’t make you look like a fool, unless he had a reason. You may want to be patient and entertain his request.”
Jake sighed to calm himself.
“Fine. What would you like me to do, Pierre?”
“Let’s try a different test. See if you can guess the loaded tonnage of the freighter.”
While scanning the optics across the vessel’s length, Jake made his best calculations.
“It doesn’t look too heavy. Freeboard looks high for its length. I don’t see that many containers. I don’t know. Eighteen thousand tons?”
“Good guess,” Renard said. “How about the beam length?”
“Fourteen to fifteen meters. It looks like about a meter on either side of the containers, and the containers are normally twelve meters.”
“Good. And how about the overall length?”
Jake scanned the containers that, except for the bridge, covered the vessel from bow to stern.
“A hundred meters.”
“That’s an excellent guess,” Renard said. “Would you care to join me on its bridge?”
“What?”
Jake whipped the lenses towards the bow and stopped at the vessel’s superstructure. The white light from the bridge backlit a human form. As the silhouette’s arm waved, Jake surveyed the room’s floor and noticed it was void of equipment.
Pointing at the pilot, he grabbed the Taiwanese officer’s arm.
“Have him circle the freighter.”
The officer translated, and the helicopter rose and then dipped towards the vessel’s stern. As Jake digested the ruse, the lack of detail became evident.
“You don’t have an anchor,” he said.
“That would have been too difficult to fake,” Renard said.
“I’m passing the stern. I see that you gave the fake ship a name. The ‘Marie Lucille.’”
“Named after my wife.”
The helicopter’s spotlight moved up the stern.
“What flag is that? Panama?”
“Yes,” Renard said. “Hiding in plain sight requires a flag of convenience. Your manifest, bill of lading, and all documents will reflect your registration in Panama.”
“What cargo from where to where?”
“Transistors from Kaohsiung, Taiwan to Berdyansk, Ukraine.”
“Your wake tells me that your propellers are too deep for the ship you’re trying to imitate.”
“Perceptive. There’s no faking that.”
“You don’t have any lights on your supposed deck.”
“It’s best to keep the ship dark, and I wasn’t going to risk running the additional electrical wires.”
“What about your running lights?”
“Waterproof, battery powered. They’ll last for months.”
“Can I turn them off?”
“Yes, wirelessly from the bridge.”
“Are the Goliath’s radar elements usable?”
“They’re flush with the camouflage and are fully functional.”
The helicopter flew up the vessel’s starboard side.
“I see the Specter’s radio mast.”
“All the Specter’s masts can be raised through a gap in the covering. That’s your way of communicating with the outside world.”
“How do you power the bridge?”
“I run a cord from the Specter.”
“Holy cow. I see it now. You’ve got the fake bridge resting around the fairwater planes.”
“Most of the weight of the bridge is transferred to the top of the tower. To fit through the tunnel, I could leave no margin there. So access to the bridge is from a ladder behind the conning tower.”
The aircraft rounded the bow.
“I think I’m looking at your most amazing work now,” Jake said. “The bow looks real, but I know it’s not resting on anything.”
“The material’s light weight places minimal rotational stress on the Goliath, even with long scaffolding arms. The greatest stress is longitudinal as the bow pushes through the water, and that’s transferred to each hull of the Goliath through pole arms.”
Pressing the optics into the chest of the Taiwanese officer, Jake absorbed the dark shape of the cargo vessel with his naked eyes. He accepted the simple brilliance of his mentor’s plan.
“You were right, Father Andrew.”
“About what?”
“My friend making me look like a fool for a reason.”
“I’m not following you.”
“Pierre toyed with me to give me the confidence in the camouflage. Thanks to his game, I have no doubts.”
CHAPTER 6
Jake banged his ankle against the top of the bridge.
“Damn it!”
The pendulum his body formed with the helicopter swung him over the apex of the faux-ship’s exoskeleton. Dragging his throbbing limb over metal, he slowed himself. He pulled the release that freed him from the harness and landed.
Twisting, he reached for a strap and then waved his free arm to signal for extra cable slack. After yanking the harness to his side, he knelt, pressed his chest to the bridge’s roof, and then banged on a window below.
Renard’s muffled voice commanded him.
“Port side! Port side!”
He crawled to the edge of the roof and looked down. His mentor passed through a door and presented his rotor-whipped silver-haired head under the aircraft’s spotlight. The Frenchman craned his neck to welcome Jake with familiar steel blue eyes.
Responding to Renard’s inviting wave, he dangled his boots over the edge, slid his rump forward, and fell to the deck. He landed with a thud and a whispered a curse for the agitation of his ankle.
As he steadied himself and stood, he felt Renard’s hands clasp his shoulders. The Frenchman followed rapid air kisses beside his cheeks with a yelled command.
“Your harness!”
He extended the webbing and watched his mentor wiggle his way into it.
“That’s it?” Jake asked. “Hello and good-bye?”
“I would wish you luck, but it’s pointless because there’s no doubt that you’re still charmed.”
Renard waved his arm and ascended into the night.
Alone as the rotor wash subsided, Jake walked through the doorway, and the priest’s lean frame appeared ghastly in front of the compartment’s overhead lighting.
“I knew he’d want to get off this thing fast,” Jake said. “That’s why I sent you down first.”
“He didn’t seem surprised at my presence.”
“I’m sure his Taiwanese buddies warned him.”
Jake rapped his knuckle against a window and scanned his surroundings. The Specter’s conning tower dominated the space, which struck him with its emptiness.
“There’s practically nothing up here,” he said.
“He showed me the binoculars and a bridge-to-bridge radio,” Andrew said. “He also explained that communications with the crew are managed with this laptop computer. He told me to remind you to bring them down with us so that they don’t get wet if we have to submerge.”
As Jake walked towards the starboard side, he saw that the fairwater planes blocked his path. He changed direction and traveled behind the conning tower.