Читать книгу Alistair MacLean Sea Thrillers 4-Book Collection: San Andreas, The Golden Rendezvous, Seawitch, Santorini - Alistair MacLean, Alistair MacLean, John Denis - Страница 14

McKinnon, deep in sleep though he was, was instantly awake at Naseby’s shake and swung his legs over the edge of Captain Bowen’s bunk.

‘What’s the time, George?’

‘Six a.m. Curran’s just been down from the bridge. Says the blizzard has blown itself out.’

‘Stars?’

‘He didn’t say.’

The Bo’sun pulled on an extra jersey, duffel coat and sea-boots, made his way up to the bridge, spoke briefly to Curran and went out on the starboard wing. Within only a second or two, bent double and with his back to the gale-force wind, coughing and gasping as the ice-chilled air reached down into his lungs, he was beginning to wish himself anywhere except where he was. He switched on his torch and picked up the thermometer. It showed –8° 40° of frost on the Fahrenheit scale. Combined with the strong wind the temperature, expressed in terms of the chill factor on exposed skin, was in the region of –80°F.

He straightened slowly and looked out towards the bows. In the light of the Red Cross arc lamps on the foredeck it was at once clear, as Curran had said, that the blizzard had blown itself out. Against the deep indigo of the sky, the stars were preternaturally bright and clear. Breathing through a mittened hand that covered both mouth and nose, McKinnon turned into the wind and looked aft.

At first he could see nothing, for the bitter wind brought instantaneous tears to his eyes. He ducked below the shelter of the canvas windbreaker, fumbled a pair of goggles from his coat pocket, strapped them under his duffel hood, straightened again, and, by dint of wiping the back of his free mitten against the glasses, was able to see, intermittently, what was going on astern.

The waves – the weather had not yet worsened to the extent that the seas had become broken and confused – were between twelve and fifteen feet in height, their lee sides whitely streaked with spume and half-hidden in flying spray as the wind tore their tops away. The stars were as brilliant as they had been in the other direction and McKinnon soon located the Pole Star, off the starboard quarter. The wind was no longer backing to the north and the San Andreas, as far as he could judge, was still heading roughly between southwest and south-south-west.

McKinnon moved back into the bridge, thankfully closed the door and pondered briefly. Their present course, it was safe to assume, offered no danger: on the other hand it was not safe to assume that they would or could maintain their present course. The weather, in this grey and undefined area between the Barents and Norwegian Seas, was notoriously fickle. He had not, for instance, expected – and had said as much – that the skies would clear that night: there was equally no guarantee that they would remain clear and that the wind would not back further to the north. He descended two decks, selected an armful of warm clothing from the now mostly abandoned crew’s quarters and made for the hospital area. Crossing the dangerously slippery upper deck and guided only by the lifeline, he became acutely and painfully aware that a change was already under way, a factor that he had not experienced on the starboard wing only a few minutes ago. Needle-pointed ice spicules were beginning to lance into the unprotected areas of his skin. It augured ill.

In the hospital mess-deck he came across both Jones and McGuigan, both of whom assured him that no one was or had been abroad. He passed into B ward, at the far end of which Janet Magnusson was seated at her desk, her elbows propped on it, her chin propped on her hands, and her eyes closed.

‘Aha!’ McKinnon said. ‘Asleep on the job, Nurse Magnusson.’

She looked up, startled, blinked and tried to sound indignant. ‘Asleep? Of course not.’ She peered at his armful of clothing. ‘What on earth is that for? Have you moved into the old rags trade, Archie? No, don’t tell me. It’s for that poor man in there. Maggie’s in there too – she won’t be pleased.’

‘As far as your precious Maggie is concerned, I would have thought that a little suffering for Lieutenant Ulbricht would be preferable to none. No salt tears for either Sister Morrison or the Lieutenant.’

‘Archie!’ She was on her feet. ‘Your face. Blood!’

‘As far as the Lieutenant and myself are both concerned that should please your friend.’ He wiped the blood off his face. ‘It’s not nice up top.’

‘Archie.’ She looked at him uncertainly, concern in the tired eyes.

‘It’s all right, Janet.’ He touched her shoulder and passed into A ward. Sister Morrison and Lieutenant Ulbricht were both awake and drinking tea, the sister at her desk, Ulbricht sitting up in bed: clear-eyed and rested, the German pilot, as Dr Singh had said, unquestionably had quite remarkable recuperative powers. Jamieson, fully clothed and stretched out on the top of a bed, opened an eye as McKinnon passed by.

‘’Morning, Bo’sun. It is morning, isn’t it?’

‘Six-twenty, sir.’

‘Good lord. Selfishness, that’s what it is – I’ve been asleep for seven hours. How are things?’

‘A quiet night up top. Here, too?’

‘Must have been – no one gave me a shake.’ He looked at the bundle of clothing that McKinnon was carrying, then at Ulbricht. ‘Stars?’

‘Yes, sir. At the moment, that is. I don’t think they’ll be there for long.’

‘Mr McKinnon!’ Sister Morrison’s voice was cold, with a touch of asperity, as it usually was when addressing the Bo’sun. ‘Do you intend to drag that poor man out of bed on a night like this? He’s been shot several times.’

‘I know he’s been shot several times – or have you forgotten who picked him out of the water?’ The Bo’sun was an innately courteous man but never at his best when dealing with Sister Morrison. ‘So he’s a poor man, now – well, it’s better than being a filthy Nazi murderer. What do you mean – on a night like this?’

‘I mean the weather, of course.’ Her fists were actually clenched. Jamieson surveyed the ward deckhead.

‘What do you know about the weather? You haven’t been out of here all night. If you had been, I would have known.’ He turned a dismissive back on her and looked at Ulbricht. ‘How do you feel, Lieutenant?’

‘I have an option?’ Ulbricht smiled. ‘I feel well enough. Even if I didn’t I’m still coming. Don’t be too hard on the ward sister, Bo’sun – even your lady with a lamp in the Crimea had a pretty short way with difficult patients – but she’s overlooking my natural selfishness. I’m on this ship too.’ He climbed stiffly out of bed and, with the assistance of McKinnon and Jamieson, started to pull clothing on over his pyjamas while Sister Morrison looked on in frigid disapproval. The disapproval finally culminated in the drumming of fingertips on the table.

‘I think,’ she said, ‘that we should have Dr Singh in here.’

McKinnon turned slowly and looked at her and when he spoke his voice was as expressionless as his face. ‘I don’t think it matters very much what you think, Sister. I suggest you just give a shake to Captain Bowen there and find out just how much your thinking matters.’

‘The Captain is under heavy sedation. When he regains consciousness, I shall report you for insolence.’

‘Insolence?’ McKinnon looked at her with indifference. ‘I think he would prefer that to stupidity – the stupidity of a person who is trying to endanger the San Andreas and all those aboard her. It’s a pity we don’t have any irons on this ship.’

She glared at him, made to speak, then turned as Dr Sinclair came into the ward. Sleepy-eyed and tousle-haired, he looked in mild astonishment at the spectacle before him.

‘Dr Sinclair! Thank heavens you’re here!’ Rapidly and urgently she began to explain the situation to him. ‘Those – those men want starsights or navigation or something and in spite of all my protests they insist on dragging a seriously ill man up to the bridge or wherever and –’

‘I can see what’s happening,’ Sinclair said mildly. ‘But if the Lieutenant is being dragged he’s not putting up much in the way of resistance, is he? And by no stretch of the imagination can you describe him as being seriously ill. But I do take your point, Sister. He should be under constant medical supervision.’

‘Ah! Thank you, Doctor.’ Sister Morrison came very close to permitting herself a smile. ‘So it’s back to bed for him.’

‘Well, no, not quite. A duffel coat, a pair of sea boots, my bag of tricks and I’ll go up with them. That way the Lieutenant will be under constant medical supervision.’

Even with three men lending what assistance they could, it took twice as long as expected to help Lieutenant Ulbricht as far as the Captain’s cabin. Once there, he sank heavily into the chair behind the table.

‘Thank you very much, gentlemen.’ He was very pale, his breathing shallow and abnormally rapid. ‘Sorry about that. It would seem that I am not as fit as I thought I was.’

‘Nonsense.’ Dr Sinclair was brisk. ‘You did splendidly. It’s that inferior English blood that we had to give you this morning, that’s all.’ He made free with Captain Bowen’s supplies. ‘Superior Scotch blood. Effects guaranteed.’

Ulbricht smiled faintly. ‘Isn’t there something about opening pores?’

‘You won’t be out in the open long enough to give your pores a chance to protest.’

Up on the bridge McKinnon adjusted Ulbricht’s goggles, then scarfed him so heavily above and below the goggles that not a square millimetre of skin was left exposed. When he was finished, Lieutenant Ulbricht was as immune to the weather as it was possible for anyone to be: two balaclavas and a tightly strung duffel hood made sure of that.

McKinnon went out on the starboard wing, hung a trailing lamp from the canvas windbreaker, went back inside, picked up the sextant, took Ulbricht by his right arm – the undamaged one – and led him outside. Even although he was so cocooned against the elements, even though the Bo’sun had warned him and even though he had already had an ominous foretaste of what lay in store in their brief journey across the upper deck, he was totally unprepared for the power and savagery of the wind that caught him as soon as he stepped out on the wing. His weakened limbs were similarly unprepared. He took two short sharp steps forward, and though he managed to clutch the top of the windbreaker, would probably have fallen but for McKinnon’s sustaining hand. Had he been carrying the sextant he would almost certainly have dropped it.

With McKinnon’s arm around him Ulbricht took three starsights, to the south, west and north, clumsily noting down the results as he did so. The first two sights were comparatively quick and simple: the third, to the north, took much longer and was far more difficult, for Ulbricht had to keep clearing away the ice spicules from his goggles and the sextant. When he had finished he handed the sextant back to McKinnon, leant his elbows on the after edge of the wing and stared out towards the stern, occasionally and mechanically wiping his goggles with the back of his hand. After almost twenty seconds of this McKinnon took his good arm and almost literally dragged him back into the shelter of the bridge, banging the door to behind him. Handing the sextant to Jamieson, he quickly removed Ulbricht’s duffel hood, balaclavas and goggles.

‘Sorry about that, Lieutenant, but there’s a time and a place for everything and daydreaming or sightseeing out on that wing is not one of them.’

‘The funnel.’ Ulbricht looked slightly dazed. ‘What’s happened to your funnel?’

‘It fell off.’

‘I see. It fell off. You mean – I –’

‘What’s done is done,’ Jamieson said philosophically. He handed a glass to the Lieutenant. ‘To help you with your calculations.’

‘Thank you. Yes.’ Ulbricht shook his head as if to clear it. ‘Yes. My calculations.’

Weak though he was and shivering constantly – this despite the fact that the bridge temperature was already over 55°F. – Ulbricht left no doubt that, as a navigator, he knew precisely what he was about. Working from starsights, he had no need to worry about the vagaries of deviation and variation. With a chart, dividers, parallel rules, pencils and chronometer, he completed his calculations in remarkably short order and made a tiny cross on the chart after having consulted navigational tables.

‘We’re here. Well, near enough. 68.05 north, 7.20 east – more or less due west of the Lofotens. Our course is 218. Is one permitted to ask our destination?’

Jamieson smiled. ‘Quite frankly, Lieutenant Ulbricht, you wouldn’t be much use to us if you didn’t. Aberdeen.’

‘Ah! Aberdeen. They have a rather famous prison there, do they not? Peterhead, isn’t it? I wonder what the cells are like.’

‘It’s a prison for civilians. Of the more intractable kind. I should hardly think you’d end up there. Or in any prison.’ Jamieson looked at him with some curiosity. ‘How do you know about Peterhead, Lieutenant?’

‘I know Scotland well. I know England even better.’ Ulbricht did not seek to elaborate. ‘So, Aberdeen. We’ll stay on this course until we get to the latitude of Trondheim, then south until we get to the latitude of Bergen – or, if you like Mr McKinnon, the latitude of your home islands.’

‘How did you know I’m a Shetlander?’

‘Some members of the nursing staff don’t seem to mind talking to me. Then on a more westerly course. That’s speaking roughly, we’ll work out the details as we go along. It’s a very simple exercise and there’s no problem.’

‘Of course it’s no problem,’ Jamieson said, ‘neither is playing Rachmaninoff, not as long as you are a concert pianist.’

Ulbricht smiled. ‘You overrate my simple skills. The only problem that will arise is when we make our landfall, which of course will have to be in daylight. At this time of year North Sea fogs are as common as not and there’s no way I can navigate in a fog without a radio and compass.’

‘With any luck, there shouldn’t be all that much of a problem,’ McKinnon said. ‘War or no war, there’s still pretty heavy traffic on the east coast and there’s more than an even chance that we can pick up a ship and be guided into harbour.’

‘Agreed,’ Ulbricht said. ‘A Red Cross ship is not easily overlooked – especially one with its funnel missing.’ He sipped his drink, pondered briefly, then said: ‘Is it your intention to return me to the hospital?’

‘Naturally,’ Sinclair said. ‘That’s where you belong. Why do you ask?’

Ulbricht looked at Jamieson. ‘I would, of course, be expected to do some more navigating?’

‘Expecting, Lieutenant? “Depending” is the word you’re after.’

‘And at frequent intervals if cloud or snow conditions permit. We never know when the set of the sea and the wind may change without our being aware of it. Point is, I don’t much fancy dragging myself back down to the hospital, then coming back up here again every time I have to take starsights. Couldn’t I just lie down in the Captain’s cabin?’

‘No objections,’ Jamieson said. ‘Dr Sinclair?’

‘Makes sense. Lieutenant Ulbricht is hardly on the critical list and it could only help his recuperation. I’ll pop up every two or three hours to see how he’s getting on.’

‘Bo’sun?’

‘Fine by me. Fine by Sister Morrison too, I should imagine.’

‘I shall have company, of course?’

‘Company?’ Sinclair said. ‘You mean a nurse, Lieutenant?’

‘I don’t mean a nurse. With all respect to your charming young ladies, Dr Sinclair, I don’t think any of them would be much use if this fellow you call Flannelfoot came up to remove or destroy the sextant and chronometer and the way I’m feeling I couldn’t fight off a determined fly. Also, of course, he’d have to dispose of witnesses and I don’t much fancy that.’

‘No problem, Lieutenant,’ the Bo’sun said. ‘He’ll have to try to dispose of either Naseby or myself and I don’t much think he would fancy that. We would, though.’

Sinclair shook his head sadly. ‘Sister Morrison isn’t going to like this one little bit. Further usurpment of her authority. After all, the Lieutenant is her patient, not mine.’

‘Again no problem,’ McKinnon said. ‘Just tell her the Lieutenant fell over the side.’

‘And how are your patients this morning, sir?’ McKinnon was having breakfast with Dr Singh.

‘No dramatic changes, Bo’sun. The two Argos crewmen in the recovery room are much of a muchness – as well as can be expected when one has a fractured pelvis and the other massive burns. The condition of Commander Warrington and his navigating officer is unchanged – Cunningham is still in deep coma and is being fed intravenously. Hudson is stabilized – the lung bleeding has stopped. Chief Officer Kennet is definitely on the mend although heaven knows how long it will be before we can take those bandages off his face. The only one that gives some cause for worry is the Captain. It’s nothing critical, not even serious, just worrisome. You saw how he was when you last saw him – breathing hellfire and brimstone in all directions. He’s gone strangely quiet now, almost lethargic. Or maybe he’s just more calm and relaxed now that he knows the ship’s position and course. That was a fine job you did there, Bo’sun.’

‘No credit to me, sir. It was Lieutenant Ulbricht who did the fine job.’

‘Be that as it may, Captain Bowen appears to be in at least a more philosophical mood. I suggest you come along and see him.’

When a man’s face is completely obscured by bandages it is difficult to say what kind of mood he is in. He had the stem of a rather evil-smelling briar stuck between his burnt lips and again it was impossible to say whether he was enjoying it or not. When he heard McKinnon’s voice he removed the pipe.

‘We are still afloat, Bo’sun?’ The enunciation was clearer than it had been and was costing him less effort.

‘Well, sir, let’s say we’re no longer all gone to hell and breakfast. No more alarms and excursions either. As far as I can tell, Lieutenant Ulbricht is very much of an expert – I don’t think you’d hesitate to have him as your navigating officer. He’s lying down on the bunk in your cabin, sir – but you will have been told that and the reasons why.’

‘Broaching my rapidly dwindling supplies, I have no doubt.’

‘He did have a couple of tots, sir. He needed it. He’s still a pretty sick man and very weak and the cold out there on the wing bridge was vicious, I don’t think I’ve ever known it worse in the Arctic. Anyway, he wasn’t doing any broaching when I left him. He was sound asleep.’

‘As long as he keeps on acting in this fashion he can do as much broaching as he likes. Give him my sincere thanks.’

‘I’ll do that. Have you any instructions, sir?’

‘Instructions, Bo’sun? Instructions? How can I give any instructions?’

‘I wouldn’t know, sir. I’ve never been a captain.’

‘You bloody well are now. I’m in no position to give anyone instructions. Just do what you think best – and from what I’ve heard to date your best seems to be very good indeed. Not,’ Bowen added deprecatingly, ‘that I would have expected anything else of Archie McKinnon.’

‘Thank you, sir. I’ll try.’ McKinnon turned to leave the ward but was stopped by Sister Morrison. For once, she was looking at him as if he might even belong to the human race.

‘How is he, Mr McKinnon?’

‘The Lieutenant? Resting. He’s a lot weaker than he says he is but he’d never admit it. A very brave man. And a fine navigator. And a gentleman. When he says he didn’t know the San Andreas was a hospital ship I believe him absolutely. I don’t believe many people absolutely.’

‘I’m quite sure you don’t.’ The return to the old asperity proved to be momentary. ‘I don’t think I believe he knew it either. In fact, I don’t believe it.’

‘That’s nice.’ McKinnon smiled at her, the first time, he reflected with some astonishment, that he’d ever smiled at her. ‘Janet – Nurse Magnusson – tells me you come from the east coast. Would it be impertinent to ask where exactly?’

‘Of course not.’ She smiled and McKinnon realized with an even greater sense of shock that this was the first time she’d ever smiled at him. ‘Aberdeen. Why?’

‘Odd. Lieutenant Ulbricht seems to know Aberdeen rather well. He certainly seems to know about Peterhead prison and isn’t all that keen on ending up there.’

A brief flicker of what could have been concern registered on her face. ‘Will he?’

‘Not a chance. If he brings this ship back to Aberdeen they’ll probably give him a medal. Both your parents from Aberdeen, Sister?’

‘My father is. My mother’s from Kiel.’

‘Kiel?’

‘Yes. Germany. Didn’t you know?’

‘Of course not. How should I have known? Now that I do know, is that supposed to make a difference?’

‘I’m half German.’ She smiled again. ‘Aren’t you surprised, Mr McKinnon? Shocked, perhaps?’

‘No, I’m not shocked.’ McKinnon looked gloomy. ‘I have troubles of my own in that direction. My sister Jean is married to an Italian. I have a niece and a nephew, two bambinos who can’t – or couldn’t before the war – speak a word of English to their old uncle.’

‘It must make – must have made – communication a bit difficult.’

‘Luckily, no. I speak Italian.’

She removed her glasses as if to examine them more closely. ‘You speak Italian, Mr McKinnon?’

‘Yes. And Spanish. And German. You must be able to speak German – you can try me any time. Surprised, Sister? Shocked?’

‘No.’ She shook her head slowly and smiled a third time. It was borne in upon McKinnon that a smiling Margaret Morrison, with her warm, friendly brown eyes was a totally different creature from the Sister Morrison he thought he had come to know. ‘No, I’m not. Really.’

‘You come from seafaring people, Sister?’

‘Yes.’ This time she was surprised. ‘How did you know?’

‘I didn’t. But it was a fair guess. It’s the Kiel connection. Many British sailors know Kiel well – I do myself – and it has, or did have, the finest regatta in Europe. Your father’s from Aberdeen. A fisherman? A seaman of some sort?’

‘A seaman of some sort.’

‘What sort?’

‘Well ….’ She hesitated.

‘Well what?’

‘He’s a captain in the Royal Navy.’

‘Good Lord!’ McKinnon looked at her in mild astonishment, then rubbed an unshaven chin. ‘I shall have to treat you with more respect in future, Sister Morrison.’

‘I hardly think that will be necessary, Mr McKinnon.’ The voice was formal but the smile that followed was not. ‘Not now.’

‘You sound almost as if you were ashamed of being the daughter of a Royal Navy captain.’

‘I am not. I’m very proud of my father. But it can be difficult. Do you understand?’

‘Yes. I think I do.’

‘Well, now, Mr McKinnon.’ The glasses were back in position and Sister Morrison was back in business. ‘You’ll be seeing Lieutenant Ulbricht up top?’ McKinnon nodded. ‘Tell him I’ll be up to see him in an hour, maybe two.’

McKinnon blinked, which was about as far as he ever permitted himself to go in the way of emotional expression. ‘You?’

‘Yes. Me.’ If bridling hadn’t gone out of fashion she would have bridled.

‘But Dr Sinclair said he would come –’

‘Dr Sinclair is a doctor, not a nurse.’ Sister Morrison made it sound as if there was something faintly discreditable in being a doctor. ‘I’m the Lieutenant’s sister-in-charge. He’ll probably require to have his bandages changed.’

‘When exactly will you be coming?’

‘Does it matter? I can find my own way.’

‘No, Sister, you won’t. You don’t know what it’s like up top. There’s a full gale blowing, it’s forty below, black as the Earl of Hell’s waistcoat and the deck’s like a skating rink. No one goes up top without my permission and most certainly not nurses. You will phone and I will come for you.’

‘Yes, Mr McKinnon,’ she said primly. She gave a slight smile. ‘The way you put it, it doesn’t leave much room for argument.’

‘I’m sorry. No offence. Before you come up, put on as much warm clothing as you think you will need. Then double the amount.’

Janet Magnusson was in B ward when he passed through it. She took one quick look at his face and said: ‘What’s the matter with you?’

‘Prepare thyself, Nurse Magnusson. The end is nigh.’

‘What on earth do you mean, Archie?’

‘The dragon next door.’ He jerked a thumb towards A ward. ‘She has just –’

‘Dragon? Maggie? Yesterday she was a lioness.’

‘Dragon. She’s stopped breathing fire. She smiled at me. First time since leaving Halifax. Smiled. Four times. Unsettles a man.’

‘Well!’ She shook his shoulders. ‘I am pleased. So you admit you misjudged her.’

‘I admit it. Mind you, I think she may have misjudged me a bit, too.’

‘I told you she was nice, Archie. Remember?’

‘Indeed I remember. And indeed she is.’

‘Very nice. Very.’

McKinnon regarded her with suspicion. ‘What’s that meant to mean?’

‘She smiled at you.’

The Bo’sun gave her a cold look and left.

Lieutenant Ulbricht was awake when McKinnon returned to the Captain’s cabin.

‘Duty calls, Mr McKinnon? Another fix?’

‘Rest easy, Lieutenant. No stars. Overcast. More snow, I’m thinking. How do you feel?’

‘Well enough. At least when I’m lying down. That’s physically, I mean.’ He tapped his head. ‘Up here, not so well. I’ve been doing a lot of wondering and thinking.’

‘Wondering and thinking why you’re lying here?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Haven’t we all? At least, I’ve been doing nothing else but wondering about it. Haven’t got very far, though. In fact, I haven’t got anywhere.’

‘I’m not saying it would help any, just call it curiosity if you like, but would you mind very much telling me what’s been happening to the San Andreas since you left Halifax? Not, of course, if it means telling me naval secrets.’

McKinnon smiled. ‘I don’t have any. Besides, even if I did have and told you, what would you do with them?’

‘You have a point. What indeed?’

McKinnon gave a brief résumé of what had happened to the ship since leaving Nova Scotia and when he had finished Ulbricht said: ‘Well, now let me see if I can count.

‘As far as I can make out there were seven different parties involved in the movements of the San Andreas – actually aboard it, that is. To begin with, there was your own crew. Then there were the wounded survivors picked up from this crippled destroyer. After that came the Russian submarine survivors you took from this corvette you had to sink. Then you picked up some wounded servicemen in Murmansk. Since leaving there you’ve picked up survivors from the Argos, the Andover and Helmut and myself. That makes seven?’

‘That makes seven.’

‘We can eliminate the survivors from the broken-down destroyer and the sinking frigate. Their presence aboard your ship could only have been due to sheer happenstance, nothing else. We can equally forget Commander Warrington and his two men and Helmut Winterman and myself. That leaves just your crew, the survivors from the Argos and the sick men you picked up in Murmansk.’

‘I couldn’t imagine a more unlikely trio of suspects.’

‘Neither could I, Bo’sun. But it’s not imagination we’re concerned with here, it’s logic. It has to be one of those three. Take the sick men you picked up in Murmansk. One of them could have been suborned. I know it sounds preposterous but war itself is preposterous, the most unbelievable things happen in preposterous circumstances, and if there is one thing that is for certain it is that we are not going to find the answer to this enigma in the realms of the obvious. How many sick men are you repatriating from Russia?’

‘Seventeen.’

‘Do you happen to know the nature of their injuries?’

McKinnon regarded the Lieutenant speculatively. ‘I have a fair idea.’

‘All seriously wounded?’

‘There are no seriously wounded, far less critically injured patients aboard. If they were, they wouldn’t be here. Poorly, you might call them, I suppose.’

‘But bedridden? Immobile?’

‘The wounded are.’

‘They are not all wounded?’

‘Only eight.’

‘Good God! Eight! You mean to tell me that there are nine who are not injured?’

‘It all depends upon what you mean by injured. Three are suffering from advanced cases of exposure – frostbite, if you like. Then there are three with tuberculosis and the remaining three have suffered mental breakdowns. Those Russian convoys take a pretty vicious toll, Lieutenant, in more ways than one.’

‘You have no cause to love our U-boats, our Luftwaffe, Mr McKinnon.’

The Bo’sun shrugged. ‘We do send the occasional thousand bombers over Hamburg.’

Ulbricht sighed. ‘I suppose this is no time for philosophizing about how two wrongs can never make a right. So we have nine unwounded. All of them mobile?’

‘The three exposure cases are virtually immobile. You’ve never seen so many bandages. The other six – well, they can get around as well as you and I. Well, that’s not quite accurate – as well as I can and a damned sight better than you can.’

‘So. Six mobiles. I know little enough of medicine but I do know just how difficult it is to gauge how severe a case of TB is. I also know that a man in a pretty advanced stage can get around well enough. As for mental breakdowns, those are easy enough to simulate. One of those three may be as rational as we are – or think we are. Come to that, all three of them may be. I don’t have to tell you, Mr McKinnon, that there are those who are so sick of the mindlessness, the hellishness, of war that they will resort to any means to escape from it. Malingerers, as they are commonly and quite often unfairly called. Many of them have quite simply had enough and can take no more. During the First World War quite a number of British soldiers were affected by an incurable disease that was a sure-fire guarantee for a one-way ticket to Blighty. DAH it was called – Disorder Affecting the Heart. The more unfeeling of the British doctors commonly referred to it as Desperate Affection for Home.’

‘I’ve heard of it. Lieutenant, I’m not by nature an inquisitive person, but may I ask you a personal question?’

‘Of course.’

‘Your English. So much better than mine. Thing is, you don’t sound like a foreigner talking English. You sound like an Englishman talking English, an Englishman who’s been at an English public school. Funny.’

‘Not really. You don’t miss much, Mr McKinnon, and that’s a fact. I was educated in an English public school. My mother is English. My father was for many years an attaché in the German Embassy in London.’

‘Well, well.’ McKinnon shook his head and smiled. ‘It’s too much. It’s really too much. Two shocks like this inside twenty minutes.’

‘If you were to tell me what you are talking about –’

‘Sister Morrison. You and she should get together. I’ve just learnt that she’s half-German.’

‘Good God! Goodness gracious me.’ Ulbricht could hardly be said to be dumbfounded but he was taken aback. ‘German mother, of course. How extraordinary! I tell you, Bo’sun, this could be a serious matter. Her being my nurse, I mean. Wartime. International complications, you know.’

‘I don’t know and I don’t see it. You’re both just doing your job. Anyway, she’s coming up to see you shortly.’

‘Coming to see me? That ruthless Nazi killer?’

‘Maybe she’s had a change of heart.’

‘Under duress, of course.’

‘It’s her idea and she insists on it.’

‘It’ll be a hypodermic syringe. Lethal dose of morphine or some such. To get back to our six walking unwounded. Widens the field a bit, doesn’t it? A suborned malingerer or ditto TB patient. How do you like it?’

‘I don’t like it at all. How many suborned men, spies, saboteurs, do you think we’ve picked up among the survivors from the Argos? Another daft thought, I know, but as you’ve more or less said yourself, we’re looking for daft answers to daft questions. And speaking of daft questions, here’s another one. How do we know the Argos really was mined? We know that tankers are extremely tough, heavily compartmented and that this one was returning with empty tanks. Tankers don’t die easily and even laden tankers have been torpedoed and survived. We don’t even know the Argos was mined. How do we know it wasn’t sabotaged so as to provide the opportunity to introduce a saboteur or saboteurs aboard the San Andreas? How do you like that?’

‘Like yourself, I don’t like it at all. But you’re not seriously suggesting that Captain Andropolous would deliberately –’

‘I’m not suggesting anything about Captain Andropolous. For all I know, he may be as double-dyed a villain as is sailing the seas these days. Although I’m willing to consider almost any crazy solution to our questions, I can’t go along with the idea that any captain would sacrifice his ship for any imaginable purpose. But a person or persons to whom the Argos meant nothing might quite happily do just that. It would be interesting to know whether Andropolous had taken on any extra crew members in Murmansk, such as fellow nationals who had survived a previous sinking. Unfortunately, Andropolous and his crew speak nothing but Greek and nobody else aboard speaks Greek.’

‘I speak a little Greek, very little, schoolboy stuff – English public schools are high on Greek – and I’ve forgotten most of that. Not that I can see that it would do much good anyway even if we were to find out that a person or x number of persons joined the Argos at Murmansk. They would only assume expressions of injured innocence, say they don’t know what we are talking about and what could we do then?’ Ulbricht was silent for almost a minute, then suddenly said: ‘The Russian shipwrights.’

‘What Russian shipwrights?’

‘The ones that fixed the damage to the hull of your ship and finished off your sick-bay. But especially the hull repairers.’

‘What about them?’

‘Moment.’ Ulbricht thought some more. ‘I don’t know just how many niggers in the woodpile there may be aboard the San Andreas, but I’m all at once certain that the original one was a member of your own crew.’

‘How on earth do you figure that out? Not, mind you, that anything would surprise me.’

‘You sustained this hull damage to the San Andreas while you were alongside the sinking corvette, before you sunk her by gunfire. That is correct?’

‘Correct.’

‘How did it happen?’

‘I told you. We don’t know. No torpedoes, no mines, nothing of that nature. A destroyer was along one side of the corvette, taking off her crew, while we were on the other taking off the survivors of the sunken Russian submarine. There was a series of explosions inside the corvette before we could get clear. One was a boiler going off, the others could have been gun-cotton, two-pounders, anything – there was some sort of fire inside. It was at that time that the damage must have happened.’

‘I suggest it didn’t happen that way at all. I suggest, instead, that it was then that a trusty member of your crew detonated a charge in the port ballast room. I suggest that it was someone who knew precisely how much explosive to use to ensure that it didn’t sink the ship but enough to inflict sufficiently serious damage for it to have to make for the nearest port where repair facilities were available, which, in this case, was Murmansk.’

‘It makes sense. It could have happened that way. But I’m not convinced.’

‘In Murmansk, did anyone see the size or type of hole that had been blown in the hull?’

‘No.’

‘Did anyone try to see?’

‘Yes. Mr Kennet and I.’

‘But surprise, surprise, you didn’t. You didn’t because you weren’t allowed to see it.’

‘That’s how it was. How did you know?’

‘They had tarpaulins rigged all around and above the area under repair?’

‘They had.’ McKinnon was beginning to look rather thoughtful.

‘Did they give any reasons?’

‘To keep out the wind and snow.’

‘Was there much in the way of those?’

‘Very little.’

‘Did you ask to get behind the tarpaulins, see behind them?’

‘We did. They wouldn’t let us. Said it was too dangerous and would only hold up the work of the shipwrights. We didn’t argue because we didn’t think it was all that important. There was no reason why we should have thought so. If you know the Russians at all you must know how mulish they can be about the most ridiculous things. Besides, they were doing us a favour and there was no reason why we should have been suspicious. All right, all right, Lieutenant, there’s no reason to beat me over the head with a two-by-four. You don’t have to be an engineer or a metallurgist to recognize a hole that has been blown from the inside out.’

‘And does it now strike you as strange that the second damage to the hull should have occurred in precisely the same ballast compartment?’

‘Not now it doesn’t. Our gallant – ours, not yours – our gallant allies almost certainly left the charge in the ballast room with a suitable length of fuse conveniently attached. You have the right of it, Lieutenant.’

‘So all we have to do now is to find some member of your crew with a working knowledge of explosives. You know of any such, Mr McKinnon?’

‘Yes.’

‘What!’ Ulbricht propped himself up on an elbow. ‘Who?’

McKinnon raised his eyes to the deckhead. ‘Me.’

‘That’s a help.’ Ulbricht lowered himself to his bunk again. ‘That’s a great help.’