He looked at Malik. “Why the subterfuge?” he whispered, ignoring Malik’s earlier warning. “Why are we leaving like thieves in the night?”
Malik’s look of surprise was not apparent in the darkness.
“Thieves in the night?” he repeated. Then he pointed towards the aft end of the Taliba as a smile spread across his face. “Look.”
Marsh followed his direction. The Taliba was beginning to turn away from the freighter. Just aft he could see another ship. It was about the same size as the Taliba. He could not see the superstructure too clearly, but she appeared to have moved up in the shadow of the cargo ship. She was coming alongside the freighter.
And then it came to him: Khan had pulled a switch! The ship behind them had taken up position exactly where the Taliba had been anchored. Marsh realised then that Khan was deliberately trying to confuse any observer on the Cuban shore. And it would be dawn at the earliest before the switch was noticed. By then the third bomb would be in place and Khan would have won. Marsh felt a spill of fear trickle through his veins and he wanted to vomit.
He turned to Malik and let out a burst of uncontrollable anger at him.
“You evil bastards,” he snarled. “If you think I’m going to plant your fucking bomb, you’re badly mistaken.” He turned swiftly and went to walk away from Malik, but before he could take two steps, Malik had him by the neck and almost twisted his head from his shoulders.
“The woman still has a chance, Marsh,” Malik whispered angrily in his ear. “But if you refuse to take Challenger down, I will kill her, I promise.” He gave Marsh’s neck a painful twist. “Do you hear me Marsh?”
“Yes, I hear you. Now let me go,” he pleaded.
“But do you understand? If you do not cooperate, your woman will die in front of you.”
Marsh knew Malik was the kind of man who carried out his promises and this would be no exception. He had no choice, as weak as he felt and as abysmal as he felt, Helen’s life was of paramount importance to him.
“Yes Malik, I understand. I will take Challenger down,” he assured him. “Now let me go.”
As Malik let him go, he noticed that the freighter was turning too. And then he understood that the two ships, the freighter and the Taliba would sail alongside each other to avoid detection from radar. And he understood the cunning and the sheer bravado of the man they were up against.
The two ships sailed together for three hours until they eventually separated. Within minutes the freighter was lost in the darkness and the Taliba was alone. The task of keeping the two ships separated in the badly deteriorating weather had called for a high class of seamanship, and Marsh knew that Captain de Leon possessed that in spades. That was the reason Khan hired men of that calibre.
The wind had freshened to twenty knots, normally too high to launch the submersible. This added to Marsh’s fears but was small beer compared to the fear he had for his own life. He knew that the high wind speed would not stop Khan from launching the Challenger, but it could seriously jeopardise recovery. At the rate the wind was freshening, it could reach moderate to gale force by the time the dive was over.
And the devil of it was he knew they were sailing into the edge of a hurricane.
Working in almost total darkness was dangerous and stressful, particularly when the load going into the submersible was a nuclear bomb. Marsh found it difficult to maintain a level conversation with Batista and Zienkovitch; their responses often seemed careful and guarded. He had expected to see Khan but the man did not even venture down to oversee the loading operation. In fact, everyone was on edge.
The one, bright moment during the lengthy night was Helen’s appearance. She told Marsh that she had insisted on seeing him. Had he not seen her before the dive, it would have added to the inexplicable feeling of being a condemned man.
With barely minutes to go before he was due to shut himself in Challenger’s cockpit, Helen put her arms around him and drew him in close.
“I love you, Marsh” she whispered. “Remember; to have faith and hope is to survive.”
He held her tight for a moment, and then kissed her passionately on her lips. They were soft and yielding; like tender pillows to cushion his anxiety.
“I love you too, Helen.”
He pulled away and looked over at Malik who, as ever, was never far away. He walked over to him and stood in such a way that Helen would not be able to see his face. Summoning as much strength and appeal in his voice as he could, he spoke to Malik through gritted teeth.
“Don’t let anything happen to her, Malik. Make me that promise.”
Malik nodded slowly. “You have my word.”
Satisfied, Marsh turned away and climbed into the cockpit of the Challenger.
The young signals officer hovered beside James Starling; afraid to deliver the message that he was sure would bring down the world of Hades on his vulnerable, young shoulders. The admiral was sitting in an upright chair in the base commander’s office. He was talking earnestly to Francesini and was unaware of the young signals officer.
The young man coughed. “Excuse me sir.”
Starling stopped talking to Francesini and looked up at the officer. “Yes, what is it?”
“I’m afraid we’ve lost the Taliba.”
Starling said nothing for a few seconds. His expression darkened. “What did you say?”
“It’s the Taliba, sir; I’m afraid we’ve lost her.”
“Lost her?” Starling sprang to his feet. His chair toppled over behind him and crashed to the floor. Francesini couldn’t believe it. The might of the American security services had lost the Taliba again. He bent down and picked up the fallen chair.
“Lost her? What the hell do you mean?” Starling asked angrily.
“Simply that, sir,” the signals officer replied nervously. “Our observers have reported that the Taliba slipped out under the cover of darkness.”
“Well dammit, man,” Starling bellowed. “We knew she would. That’s why we’ve been watching her.”
“Yessir,” the young man agreed meekly. “But it would appear that the Taliba managed to leave a decoy ship in her place. That’s why the disappearance wasn’t noticed until first light this morning.”
Starling continued to stare at the young officer. “What about the F16s we have on patrol?”
“We contacted Homestead Base, sir. There are no reports of any changes to the situation. They were not aware of the Taliba’s disappearance until we advised them.”
Homestead Base was home to the National Air Reserve in Florida. It was America’s most southerly base.
Starling hissed through closed teeth and nodded his head resignedly. “Damn you, Khan. Damn you and all your kind to hell.”
His massive shoulders heaved and he looked at the signals officer from beneath his dark eyebrows. Looking at his watch he began to compute times and distances in his mind.
“The observers noticed the switch at first light; about six a.m. We have to assume the switch was made at midnight. Six hours.”
He turned his attention to Francesini knowing he would be automatically computing the figures with him. “If she makes twenty knots and is still under way, she could be one hundred and thirty miles out by now.”
Francesini cut in. “But with the weather conditions deteriorating, we might have to assume half that speed and distance; seventy miles.”