Triple (58 page)

TJUPLE

Dickstein smiled. 'Vell, I do, and it's my life, and besides, rm the

senior officer here and it's my decision, so to hell with all of YOU."

So he had dressed and armed himself, and the captain had abown him how

to operate the launcYs radio and how to maintain an interception course

with the Karla, and they had lowered the launch, and he had climbed down

into it and pulled away.

And he was terrified.

It was impossible for him to overcome a whole boatload of KGB all on his

own. However, he was not planning that. He would not fight with any of

them if he could help it. He would get aboard, hide himself until Suza!s

diversion began, and then look for her; and when he had found her, he

would get off the Karla with her and flee. He had a small magnetic mine

with him that he would fix to the Karla's side before boarding. Then,

whether he managed to escape or not, whether the whole thing was a trap

or genuine, the Karla would have a -hole blown in her side big enough to

keep her from catching the Coparelli.

He was sure it was not a trap. He knew she was.there, he knew that

somehow she had been in their power and had been forced to help them, he

knew she had risked her life to save his. He knew that she loved him.

And that was why he was terrified.

Suddenly he wanted to live. The blood-lust was gone: he was no longer

interested in killing his enemies, defeating Rostov, frustrating the

schemes of the Fedayeen or outwitting Egyptian Intelligence. He wanted

to find Suza, and take her hom4,% and spend the rest of his life with

her. He was afraid to die.

He concentrated on steering his boat. Finding the Karla at night was not

easy. He could keep a steady course but he bad to-estimate and make

allowance for how much the wind and the waves were carrying him sideways.

After fifteen minutes he knew he should have reached her, but she was

nowhere to be seen. He began to zigzag in a search pattern, wondering

desperately how far off course he was.

He was contemplating radioing the Coparelli for a new fix when suddenly

the Karla appeared out of the night alongside him. She was moving fast,

faster than his launch could go, and he had to reach the ladder at her

bows before she was

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past, and at the same time avoid a collision. He gunned the launch

forward, swerved away as the Karla rolled toward him, then turned back,

homing in, while she rolled the other way.

He had the rope tied around his waist ready. The ladder came within

reach. He flipped the engine of his launch into idle, stepped on the

gunwale, and jumped. The Karla began to pitch forward as he landed on the

ladder. He clung on while her prow went down into the waves. The sea came

up to his waist, up to his shoulders. He took a deep breath as his head

went under. He seemed to be under water forever. The Karla just kept on

going down. When he felt his lungs would burst she hesitated, and at last

began to come up; and that seemed to take even longer. At last he broke

surface and gulped lungfuls of air. He went up the ladder a few steps,

untied the rope around his waist and made it fast to the ladder, securing

the boat to the Karla for his escape. ne magnetic mine was hanging from

a rope across his shoulders. He took it off and slapped it on to the

Karlds hull.

The uranium was safe.

He shed his oilskin and climbed up the ladder.

The sound of the launch engine was inaudible in the noise of the wind,

the sea, and the Karld's own engines, but something must have attracted

the attention of the man who looked over the rail just as Dickstein came

up level with the deck. For a moment the man stared at Dickstein, his

face registering amazement. Then Dickstein reached out his hand for a

pull as he climbed over the rail. Autornatica.11y, with a natural

instinct to help someone trying to get aboard out of the raging sea, the

other man grabbed his arm. Dickstein got one leg over the rail, used his

other hand to grab the outstretched arm, and threw the other man

overboard and into the sea. His cry was lost in the wind. Dickstein

brought the other leg over the, rail and crouched down on the deck.

It seemed nobody had wen the incident.

The Karla was a small ship, much smaller than the Coparelli. There was

only one superstructure, located amidships, two decks high. There were

no cranes. The foredeck had a big hatch over the foeard hold, but there

was no aft hold: the crew accommodations and the engine room must occupy

all the below-deck space aft, Dickstein concluded.

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He looked at his watch. It was five-twenty-five. - Suza!s diversion

should begin any moment, if she could do it.

He began to walk along the deck. There was some light from the ship's

lamps, but one of the crew would have to look twice at him before being

sure he was not one of them. He took his knife out of the sheath at his

belt: he did not want to use his gun unless he had to, for the noise

would start a hue and cry.

As he drew level with the superstructure a door opened, throwing a wedge

of yellow light on the rain-spattered deck. He dodged around the comer,

flattening himself against the foeard bulkhead. He heard two voices

speaking Russian. The door slammed, and the voices receded as the men

walked aft in the rain.

In the lee of the superstructure he crossed to the port side and

continued toward the stem. He stopped at the corner and, looking

cautiously around it, saw the two men cross the afterdeck and speak to

a third man in the stem. He was tempted to take all three out with a

burst from his submachine gun-three men was probably one fifth of the op-

position-but decided not to: it was too early, Suza!s diversion had not

started and he had no idea where she was.

The two men came back along the starboard deck and went inside. Dickstein

walked up to the remaining man in the stem, who seemed to be on guard.

The man spoke to him in Russian. Dickstein grunted something

unintelligible, the man replied with a question, then Dickstein was close

enough and be jumped forward and cut the man's throat.

He threw the body overboard and retraced his steps. Two dead, and still

they did not know he was on board. He looked at his watch. The luminous

hands showed five~thirty. It was time to go inside.

He opened a door and saw an empty gangway and a companionway leading up,

presumably to the bridge. He climbed the ladder.

Loud voices came from the bridge. As he emerged through the companionhead

he saw three men-the captain, the first officer and the second

sublieutenant, he guessed. The first officer was shouting into the

voice-pipe. A strange noise was coming back. As Dickstein brought his gun

level, the captain pulled a lever and an alarm began to sound all over

the ship. Dickstein pulled the trigger. The loud chatter of the gun was

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partly smothered by the wailing Maxon of the fire alarm. The three men

were killed where they stood.

Dickstein hurried back down the ladder. The alarm must mean that Suza's

diversion had started. Now all he had to do was stay alive until he found

her.

The companionway from the bridge met the deck at a junction of two

gangways-a lateral one, which Dickstein had used, and another running the

length of the superstructure. In response to the alarm, doors were

opening and men emerging all down both gangways. None of them seemed to

be armed: this was a fire alarm, not a call to battle stations. Dickstein

decided to run a bluff, and shoot only if it failed. He proceeded briskly

along the central gangway, pushing his way through the milling men,

shouting, "Get out of the way" in German. They stared at him, not knowing

who he was or what he was doing, except that he seemed to be in authority

and there was a fire. One or two spoke to him. He ignored them. There was

a rasping order from somewhere, and the men began to move purposefully.

Dickstein reached the end of the gangway and was about to go down the

ladder when the officer who had given the order came into sight and

pointed at him, shouting a question.

Dickstein dropped down.

On the lower deck things were better organized. The men were running in

one direction, toward the stem, and a group of three hands under the

supervision of an officer was breaking out fire-fighting gear. There, in

a place where the gangway widened for access to hoses, Dickstein saw

something which made him temporarily unhinged, and brought a red mist of

hatred to his eyes.

Sm was on the floor, her back to the bulkhead. Her legs were stretched

out in front of her, her trousers torn. He could see her scorched and

blackened skin through the tatters. He heard Rostov's voice, shouting at

her over the sound of the alarm: "What did you tell Dickstein?"

Dickstein jumped from the ladder onto the deck. One of the hands moved

in front of him. Dickstein knocked him to the deck with an elbow blow to

the face, and jumped on Rostov.

Even in his rage, he realized that he could not use the gun in this

confined space while Rostov was so close to Suza. Besides, he wanted to

kill the man with his hands.

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He grabbed Rostov's shoulder and spun him around. Rostov saw his face.

"You!" Dickstein hit him in the stomach first, a pile-driving blow that

buckled him at the waist and made him gasp for air. As his head came down

Dickstein brought a knee up fast and hard, snapping Rostov's chin up and

breaking his jaw; then, continuing the motion, he put all his

strength.behind a kick into the throat that smashed Rostov's neck and drove

him backward into the bulkhead.

Before Rostov had completed his fall Dickstein turned quickly around, went

down on one knee to bring his machine gun off his shoulder, and with Suza

behind him and to one side opened fire on three hands who appeared in the

gangway.

He turned again, picking Suza up in a fireman's lift, trying not to touch

her charred flesh. He had a moment to think, now. Clearly the fire was in

the stern, the direction in which all the men had been running. If he went

forward now he was less likely to be seen.

He ran the length of the gangway, then carried her up the ladder. He could

tell by the feel of her body on his shoulder -that she was still conscious.

He came off the top of the ladder to the main deck level, found a door and

stepped out.

There was some confusion out on deck. A man ran past him, heading for the

stem; another ran off in the opposite direction. Somebody was in the prow.

Down in the stem a man lay on the deck with two others bending over him;

presumably he had been injured in the fire.

Dickstein ran forward to the ladder that he had used to board. He eased.

his gtm on to his shoulder, shifted Suza a little on the other shoulder,

and stepped over the rail.

Looking about the deck as he started to go down, he knew that they had seen

him.

It was one thing tp see a strange face on board ship, wonder who he was,

and delay asking questions until later because there was a fire alarm: but

it was quite another to see someone leaving the ship with a body over his

shoulder.

He was not quite halfway down the ladder when they began to shoot at him.

A bullet pinged off the hull beside his head. He looked Up to see three men

leaning over the rail, two of them with pistols. Holding on to the ladder

with his left hand, he put his

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