Briefly halting at this point to allow his shocked audience a moment to digest this, Bernard continued, this time with a hint of passion in his tone.
“Just think of it. Comrades. With one mighty blast, we’ll rid the earth of not only one of the deadliest armadas of nuclear submarines to ever sail the seas, but the Royal Family as well!”
“Good heavens, Bernard!” managed Dr. Blackwater, who shook his head in amazement.
Marie Barrett was shocked into speechlessness. Beside her, Sean’s brow narrowed in deep thought.
“I must admit, that’s an incredible plan, Bernard,” said Sean.
“And though it all sounds amazingly simple, I have two questions for you. How do you plan to sneak the device into Gare Loch, and just how does one go about detonating a bomb such as this one?
Surely there’s a protective lock on it of some type to keep it from going off either by accident or by unauthorized hands such as our own.”
“Sean’s got a good point there,” added the doctor.
“I believe the lock he’s talking about is called a PAL, or Permissive Action Link. Supposedly the only way for a nuclear bomb to be armed is by a special code relayed by the United States President in times of crisis.”
Bernard wasted no time with his reply.
“That may very well be. Doctor. But as Sean here so astutely observed, first we have to get the device into Gare Loch, which just so happens to be across the Firth of Clyde from Glasgow Harbor. If I remember correctly, isn’t that oceangoing tug that we recently purchased to assist us in our gun-running operations still being kept for us at the docks there?”
“That it is, Bernard,” answered the physician.
“As you know, I handled the transaction myself. The vessel is registered in my name, and it will be kept in Glasgow Harbor until a more suitable location is found for it.”
“Then can any of you think of a more suitable platform on which to bring the bomb into Gare Loch?”
offered Bernard with a sly grin.
“Since the tug still carries Scottish papers and is home-ported nearby, no one should question its presence in the Firth of Clyde on the day of the christening. And who could blame its skipper for wanting to get as close as possible to Falsane to see all the festivities? Surely other surface craft will have similar ideas, and the authorities will have then” hands full keeping all of them at a proper distance.
“Now, as to getting the bomb to explode once we get it there… since it’s obvious that we just can’t connect a fuse to the device and detonate it that way, we’re going to need the services of an expert. You all know about the new nuclear power station that the Republic is building outside of Dublin. Last year, when the ecologists were raising such a fuss about it, I re172 member hearing the project’s director speak regarding the nuclear industries safety record. The chap was bright and incredibly persuasive, and it was his dynamic personality more than anything else that helped save the project from certain defeat. I was so impressed that I did a little background check on him.
“His name’s Dr. John Maguire. He was originally born in Shannon, yet he was schooled almost exclusively in the States. He got his undergraduate degree at MIT and his doctorate in nuclear physics at Cal Tech.
After graduation, he went to work for the Sandia Corporation.
This company is one of the world’s major designers of nuclear weapons, and I was somewhat surprised at the time that the Americans would allow an Irish citizen to be employed in such a sensitive position.
Supposedly Maguire was disillusioned with the weapons business and took the position in Dublin as soon as it was offered to him.
“Though I doubt we can count on the good doctor merely to volunteer his services, I believe we’ll be able to convince him that it will be in his best interests to do so. They say he’s quite the family man, and practically lives for his wife and two young daughters. Now do you suppose he’d be willing to share the secret of the bomb in exchange for his dear family’s safety?”
“It sounds as if you have this entire operation pretty well thought out,” commented Sean.
“I still don’t like it,” offered Tyronne Blackwater.
“Nuclear weapons always have scared the death out of me. With the radiation and all, there are just too many unknown factors, and I say the risks outweigh the benefits.”
Disappointed with this response, Bernard turned his attention to the only female present.
“And what about you, Marie?”
The redhead hesitated a moment before offering her opinion.
“I must admit that it does sound tempting.
With the Royal Family out of the way and the submarine base obliterated, the Brits will be devastated. And then it will be the IRB that will be negotiating from a position of power.”
“I agree,” said Sean.
“Even if we don’t come right out and take responsibility for the blast, we merely have to follow it with our planned summer offensive. With all the new weapons at our disposal, we’ll attack every single British military installation in Northern Ireland.
Those poor Brits will be numbed by the loss of their beloved Royal Family, and I doubt they’ll be in much of a mood for fighting. In fact, I bet public sentiment will just say the hell with it, and Parliament will give in to our demands just to get us out of their hair.”
Bernard nodded.
“My sentiments exactly, Sean. This gift your father fished from the sea for us will soon enough take the fight out of them. That I can guarantee you. So if there’s no further discussion, I say let’s get on with it. Six days isn’t a hell of a lot of time to get an operation of this magnitude underway, and I’m going to need the full cooperation of each one of you to pull it off.
“Marie, I want you to take off for Dublin at once.
Find out all you can about Dr. John Maguire’s family life. I’ve got a feeling that some of the lads will soon be paying the good doctor a little visit.
“And you’re going to have to carry your weight also, Sean — wound or no wound. I’d like you to be responsible for intelligence on the Falsane naval installation.
We’re going to need to know its exact layout, and just where the Trident christening is going to take place. If you’ll just follow me over to the house, I’ll show you the charts of the area that I’ve already managed to lay my hands on.”
“Come on, 111 go with you,” offered Marie.
“Besides, I’d better get some food into that stomach of yours, Sean, or you’ll be of no use to us whatsoever.
Are you coming, Doctor?”
The physician heavily sighed.
“I’ll be joining you in a moment. You go ahead while I lock up the place.”
The three terrorists left the barn, leaving the owner of Cootehill House alone before the steel-encased, torpedo-like cylinder. With his eyes locked on the bomb, the weary physician mumbled softly to himself.
“Liam Lafferty, my friend, now I’m not so certain that what you pulled from the sea was such a blessing after all.”
Chapter Nine
It was on a cold, windy night that Captain Mikhail Borisov and the crew of his Sea Devil arrived back in Kronstadt. No sooner did the mini-sub dock inside the moon pool of its specially designed support ship than a crisply uniformed junior officer presented himself at the gangplank.
“Captain Borisov, let me be the first to welcome you home. If it’s convenient. Admiral Starobin would like you to be his guest at the Komsomol dining hall this evening.”