I had done the best I could.
Chapter 7
Michael Howell
June 30 to July 3
I had spent a long time thinking over what I was going to tell Captain Touzani and had rehearsed it carefully. Although I never supposed that he would swallow the story whole — that would have been too much — I had hoped that he would find it politic to pretend to do so. So I did my best to make it easy for him.
It was wasted effort.
He is a barrel-shaped man with muscles like a stevedore and a big, bald head. He seems to wear a permanent and somewhat sarcastic little smile, but this is the result of a bullet through the lower jaw and the scar from the wound. When he really smiles the other side of his mouth moves and he shows his dentures.
He really smiled only once when I saw him in his cabin that morning.
He had rightly concluded that the trouble his ship had experienced in Tripoli had been contrived, but had not been able to discover who had done the contriving or why. Naturally, the failure rankled. Now, he was looking to me for the answers. Unwisely, I gave him the same ones I had given Mr. Mourad.
He shook his head. “I was there, Mr. Howell. I tell you that was a really funny business. Nobody had his hand out, nobody was saying anything, nobody knew anything. Then, suddenly, it was over. All a mistake. A mistake? With nobody having been paid?”
“Somebody was paid, Captain. You may be assured of that. There was a new cog in the machinery. It had been overlooked. Once it was greased, all was well. Let us leave it at that. These things happen.”
I should have been less casual, less impatient to get to the matter I wanted to discuss with him. He became stuffy.
“Yes, Mr. Howell, these things do happen. But now, it seems, they keep happening to this ship, and that I do not like.”
“Keep happening, Captain?”
“Mr. Mourad now informs me that this ship is to carry passengers to Alex.”
I had meant to tell Mr. Mourad to keep quiet about the passengers and leave me to break the news gently, but I had forgotten. There had been too many other things on my mind.
“That is the main reason I am here to see you, Captain. About the passengers.”
“I was wondering why I had been honoured, Mr. Howell. I had thought that perhaps it was because of Tripoli.”
“Let’s forget about Tripoli, Captain. I need your help in a rather delicate matter. It concerns these passengers Mr. Mourad has mentioned. What he did not tell you, because he doesn’t yet know, is that I will be one of them.”
He had small brown eyes. For the next few minutes they never left mine for an instant.
“That is indeed a surprise,” he said coldly, “although, of course, a very gratifying one. A voyage of inspection, I presume.”
I sighed. “Captain, I don’t make voyages of inspection, as you very well know. I said that I needed your help and I meant it.”
“I’m sorry if I offend you, Mr. Howell, but after Tripoli…”
“And I asked you to forget about Tripoli. That’s over and done with. This has absolutely nothing to do with it” His cabin was a hot-box. I mopped my forehead.
“A drink instead of that coffee, Mr. Howell. I have some beer on ice.”
“Yes, that’s a good idea.”
But he still didn’t take his eyes off me, even while he was pouring the beer. I waited until he was back in his chair and then said my piece.
“Even though you don’t live in this country, you must be familiar, Captain, with the political situation. In particular you must be aware of the close but covert relationships which exist between some agencies of the government and the Palestinian liberation factions.”
He nodded.
“Those agencies are powerful and have considerable influence in high places. No ministry, no minister is wholly immune from their pressure. With its considerable involvement in government-backed co-operatives, neither is the Agence Howell immune. You follow me?”
Again he nodded.
“So then, when we are asked by a certain agency to carry four passengers on a Howell ship bound for Alex, and also to arrange that during the voyage the ship departs slightly from her normal routing, I do not instantly refuse. I think first of the consequences of refusal. I don’t have to tell you, Captain, that they would be unpleasant.”
“They dare to threaten you?”
“There is no daring involved, Captain. They can threaten with impunity, and carry out their threats, too. I told you. Not even ministers are immune.”
“Dogs.”
“But with sharp teeth. When I raise objections — as, when I tell you what is required, you may do — I am insulted. When I persist, when I tell them that no captain of mine is going to take their orders, they make a further demand. So, you have five passengers instead of four. I am supposed to give you their orders and see personally that they are carried out.”
He started to speak but I stopped him.
“No, Captain, don’t say it. There is no need. The only orders you will ever get from me are those that the representative of a ship’s owner is properly entitled to give. I might make certain requests, but that is all they would be — requests that can be granted or refused at your discretion. That is understood.”
He took a swallow of beer. “What do they want, Mr. Howell?”
I took the chart from my briefcase and spread it out before him.
“That’s what they want.”
He stared at it a long time. It was a relief to have him staring at something other than me.
I had expected an explosion of some sort, but none came. When at last he spoke it was to ask a question.
“Why six knots?”
I gave him what I thought was the safe answer. “I don’t know, Captain. I assume — only assume, because I have not been told — that there is to be a rendezvous with a vessel from the Israeli coast.”
“To take off the passengers?”
“I don’t know.”
“To take on others from the shore?”
I shrugged my lack of knowledge.
“Mr. Howell, if the intention were a rendezvous with a boat from shore, surely a position for the rendezvous would be indicated. There is nothing like that here. Instead, we are asked to steam at six knots for almost two hours.”
“Those are the orders as I was given them.”
He reached for his beer again. “Who are these passengers?”
“Palestinian fedayeen. That much is certain. The name of the leader was given as Yassin. He is said to be an important man.”
“Will these passengers be armed?”
“Probably.”
“Will they be carrying other arms — arms to be put ashore?”
“Nothing was said about that.”
There was a silence, then the brown eyes studied me again.
“You spoke of certain requests that you might make, Mr. Howell. What would they be?”
“First, that you make the course change indicated on the chart as far as the turn opposite Caesarea. Second, that, except for the slowdown to six knots, you ignore the rest of the orders and steer a course along the Israeli coast which will keep you not less than ten miles from it. No closer at any time. Third, that you do this without informing the passengers.”
“Making them miss this rendezvous you spoke of?”
“That’s right.”
“I thought you said these dogs had teeth.”
“With luck they’ll believe that the shore boat was at fault. Anyway I’ll worry about that later. Let’s just say that I don’t like being ordered about by thugs and having to impose on the loyalty of Captain Touzani.”
He thought and then nodded. “All right, Mr. Howell. I won’t refuse those requests. I can’t say that I’m happy about the third one though, not informing the passengers. If there’s a seaman among them and he knows what the original orders were, he’ll know soon enough when they aren’t carried out.”