"Nikki the Rat?" she said it with no [race of humour.
"Nikki. yes. Or, First Officer Pennington. it could have been you, or one of your girls. We still have to discuss the question of how Morgan"s body was found. You said it was one of your Wrens. Which one?"
"Leading Wren Deeley." Her hand shook, lifting the cup. So much so lhat she had to put her other hand up to steady it.
"Okay. Clover. We both know whose side you"re on. because you came storming into the villa on Ischia. having almost had me killed . . ."
She suddenly appeared to steady herself. "I saved your life as it happens. We blew the BAST girl to h.e.l.l and gone. You were there. We triggered that explosion before you could get close. It was, as they say, a b.u.t.ton job."
"Right, Clover. After spending time with me at Northanger you went back io Yeovilton and collected your girls. Girls you"d already worked with."
"Yes.
"Then how do you explain Leading Wren Deeley? The girl who found friend Morgan"s body?"
She took another sip of coffee, then said, "James, I just can"t explain her. Those last few weeks at Yeovilton were spent going through all the drills with the girls - all the stuff we would have to do for Stewards" Meeting. I came back from Northanger and one of my Leading Wrens had gone sick. They had simply put Deeley in her place. I had a bit of a row with the Executive Officer about it. I also had to go through the training with Deeley on her own. Thank G.o.d, she"s smart and a quick study, as they say in the theatre.
Bond looked into her eyes. They were steady and nothing stirred or moved within them. "You baby-sat me in Ischia with a team, right?"
"You know it"s right.
"And you"re still watching my back here, in Invincible?
"Part of my orders, yes. It isn"t easy, James."
He let the pause hang between them for almost a minute. Tve checked you out. Clover. You appear to be absolutely clean."
"What d"you mean? Checked me out?"
"I"ve been onto our records in London with a list of names. You come out clean, and you"ve done all the courses for my particular service.
"Of course I have. d.a.m.n it. I"ve been in the Royal Navy for six years."
Then why didn"t you run a check on Deeley?"
"I didn"t think it . ."
Bond hit the desk with the flat of his palm, "Who do you think was responsible for Ed Morgan"s death?"
She gave a long sigh, "Nikki the Rat. She arrived in the heads very conveniently, just after Deeley found the body.
"Don"t be naive. Clover. You saw the state of those heads, they were awash with blood. We made one h.e.l.l of a mess in the corridors just getting the body looked at and moved. Footprints all over the place. When we arrived - you, me and the marine - there was one set of smudged footprints leading out. Deeley, you say, found the body, followed quickly by Nikki Ratnikov. Deeley actually went into the heads, yes?"
"Yes." A very small voice.
"Nikki stood outside the bulkhead and screamed her head off, right?1 She nodded.
"Then Deeley came out. In a state? You haven"t told me any of this, yet. But I"m presuming it. Am 1 right?"
She took a long sip of coffee. "The screaming woke me. After all. my cabin"s almost opposite the heads."
"Yes?"
"I came out and there was Nikki screaming . . ."
"Standing just outside the bulkhead?"
"Yes."
"And Deeley was inside, with her feet paddling in blood?"
A quick, almost reluctant, nod. "She was in a state. Just standing there looking at the body and the blood. Frozen there. I thought she"d have hysterics. She could have caught them quite easily from the Russian, who was making one h.e.l.l of a din/ Then?"
"The marine guard came running. He said something about reporting to you."
"Which he did, with you on his heels. You got to me a couple of minutes after him. What happened in that couple of minutes?"
"Nikki faded away, sobbing her heart out,"
"And you told Deeley to come out?"
"Yes." Again the little nod.
"You saw she was dripping blood all over the place from her feet?"
told her to wait a minute and got a towel from my cabin. She wiped off her feet and I told her to get back to her cabin. I said I"d talk to her later."
"And have you?"
"Yes, I"ve seen her. She seems to be in shock. There are three other girls in her cabin, they"re helping to calm her down. Actually I got the doc to give her something. Sedative."
"You realise that, unless the killer got out very quickly, Deetey"s your main suspect? One set of smudged, b.l.o.o.d.y footprints, which ended suddenly along the pa.s.sage, when we got there. De-elcy"s. we presume, with her feet wiped off with your towel. What was she wearing?"
"A robe. Towelling robe, most of the girls find those convenient."
"Carrying anything?"
"No."
"Then there"s another problem. We haven"t recovered the murder weapon. Somewhere, someone"s got a very sharp knife. And there"s the other matter of you not having Deeley security cleared when they gave her to you at Yeovilton."
"She was Grade 3 cleared. On her doc.u.ments. She"s been working on cla.s.sified stuff at Reel HQ. Northwood."
"It actually says that?1 "You want to see it?"
"Later. It"s all a forgery anyway."
"What . . .?"
He didn"t let her finish. "Leading Wren Sarah Deeley does not exist. Clover."
"What d"you . . ."
Again he stopped her, by completing the question. "What do I mean? I mean what 1 say. No Leading Wren Deeley exists in your branch of the service. I"ve had it from London. She"s a plant, and I suspect that Ed Morgan knew it. or, at least suspected it. He had other suspicions as well."
"This is crazy!"
"No. you"ve made a terrible mistake. Clover. You were in charge. You should have personally seen to it that all security clearances matched up and were for real."
"Oh, my G.o.d." There was no denying the shock in her voice and on her face. "What do we do. James?"
"You mean what do / do? I"ll tell you." He spoke for ten minutes, saying that he would feel safer if she was out of the way. Til arrange a marine guard and have you kept somewhere out of sight. It"ll make mailers easier. Then I want to talk to the Captain. After that, I"ll see Nikki Ratnikov. 1 want an independent identification of the Deeley girl. Then I"ll question her, and she"ll probably be taken into custody and held until it"s all over and we"re in Gib. I"m not going to bother my people as yet. More secure to do it directly from Gib. Okay?1 "Whatever you say, James."
As he rose, so she came towards him, one hand reaching out and grasping his sleeve. "James, my career"s at risk. I"ve played everything by the book, even saved your life from that wretched girl who. I"m certain, was going to see you dead before Christmas Day was out. You owe me . . ."
"And you. Clover, owe me now. I"ll do whatever I can for you."
She came closer, her young body thrusting against his.
Bond pulled away, holding her ai arm"s length. "Later, Clover. When it"s all over we"ll talk. Just wait." He went to the cabin door, opened it and spoke the marine on duty. While they waited, the Tannoy blasted out - the Captain saying thai they had now cleared the English Channel. "There are slill submarines shadowing us," he boomed, "but they tell me they"ve been ordered not to attack. The political situation is that both sides are talking, in spite of the fact that seven NATO air bases on the European Continent were attacked, with varying degrees of damage and success, during the night. I"m going to stand down Red Watch for two hours, but you are all on an immediate response alert. 1 shall keep you informed of any change in the situation."
The click that ended the message coincided with the knock on his cabin door. It was the marine sergeant Harvey. The man was tired, like everyone else on board, and it showed. Bond lost no time asking questions and then issuing orders - "Have you anywhere we can stow First Officer Pennington while I make a couple of enquiries?"
"Yes. sir. The duty marine sergeant"s cabin. I"m still there for the next hour or so."
"Right, take her there, and make sure she"s under guard. There"s the possibility she could be attacked, like our American friend last night - at least until I"ve finished my job."
"If you"ll come with me. Ma"am," Sergeant Harvey appeared to be very considerate. To Bond he said. Til see she"s guarded every minute, sir."
Clover gave Bond a weak smile, the look of someone with a lot on her mind, and departed with the sergeant. Before he could close the cabin door, a ynung midshipman appeared in the corridor, which, like all the other pa.s.sageways below the flight deck, was only wide enough for two people to pa.s.s by brushing against each other. In the US Navy. Bond remembered, they called them "knee-touchers".
"Captain"s compliments, sir. Could you join him in his day cabin as quickly as possible?"
Tell him I"m on my way. I wanted to see him in any case." Bond turned back into his cabin, opened up the little cupboard which stowed away a small handbasin and mirror. He looked unshaven, but that could be dealt with later. For now. he sloshed cold water over his face, cleaned his teeth and ran a comb through his hair.
*You look dog-rough. Bond, if 1 may say so." Rear-Admiral Sir John Walmsley did not look too hot himself, but you don"t tell Rear-Admirab thai kind of thing - unless you"re a Vice-Admiral or above. Walmsley was obviously in a foul mood. "Well, you got anything to tell me?"
Bond wondered why a man of Walmsley"s station could so easily murder the English language. "Such as what, sir?" He bordered on that armed forces" crime called dumb insolence.
"Such as your detective work: your gumshoeing. Such asr whether we can all sleep safely in our bunks. Whether we have a band of Thugees aboard. or a crew of cut-throat pirates. Have you caught the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who cut the American"s throat?"
"Not yet. sir. But it shouldn"t be too long. Within the next half-hour or so. unless I"m being led up the garden path."
"And, when you"ve caught this fellow, do you think it"s safe to continue with Stewards" Meeting? Last night, early this morning anyhow, you were all for chucking it away."
"1 needed to lalk to you about that, sir. Might I ask you what arrangements were made with the US Navy about communications?"
The Rear-Admiral nodded, and repeated, almost word for word, what Admiral Gudeon had told him.
"And the Russians?"
"Not quite as cryptic." Walmsley was down to giving shorthand answers.
"Can you expand on that?"
"Yes. They can use our main Communications Room, but not with much freedom. The Americans had iheir own gear on board, as you know. The Russians"ve been okayed to pa.s.s en clair signals through our transmitters. I suspect their signals aren"t quite as straightforward as they appear. I should tell you they"ve reported Morgan"s death."
"What really need to know, sir, is how long have we got before there"s any question of an abort?"
"At the moment we"re in a readiness state for Stewards" Meeting, Bond. Things are going ahead exactly as planned. It all starts to happen at around ten tonight, if I recommend an abort after six. then I"ll gel a right old rollicking from the powers that be. What"s worrying you1." The ihreat by these BAST hooligans? There"s no way they can possibly have information on Stewards" Meeting."
Bond took in a deep breath. "Surely, sir, you must know they have some intelligence. I was nearly taken out; there was some loose talk at the RNAS Yeovilton. We"ve had a very serious incidem aboard. I rsally don"t know the security risks . . ."
Walmsley ran a hand across his brow. "I let fly at you after the incident. Bond. I"m sorry about that, but 1 don"t want to abort. As I said to you before, this is of great political importance." He repeated himself with a stronger accent. "Of great political importance. Now. give me your Sunday punch. If you gel the fellow who killed Morgan, do you reckon we"re in the clear?"
"It might be just that little bit safer. Bond said, allowing his tone to take on a grave-side seriousness. "But we cannot be one hundred per cent sure."
"Give me the odds."
That an attempt will be made to compromise Stewards" Meeting?"
Walmsley nodded.
"Fifty-fifty. If I get the killer or not. sir, it"s always been fifty-fifty. We don"t know enough about this d.a.m.ned group BAST. We never have. The seriousness of a threat has always been high. I mean, if our people arc right, BAST lost men, and spent a great deal of money organising some form of a.s.sault. We"ve a.s.sumed it was aimed at Stewards" Meeting, but we can"t be sure."
Sir John Walmsley waited for a minute or so. "If you get the person who killed Morgan, and if he can be interrogated, it will help?"
"If it"s who I think, then I would imagine interrogation isn"t going to be of much a.s.sistance. If. as i suspect, it"s a BAST job, done to protect their own, on board this ship, then the culprit will be highly trained. Won"t break under any normal interrogation. .And there will just not be time to bring in any specialists. In any case. sir. I would suspect that the killer knows very little. BAST appears to be well drilled. If so. they"ll work in the usual manner of terrorist groups: cells, cut-outs, all that kind of thing. It"ll all be very much need-to-know."
Walmsley stood up and paced the small cabin. "Will you, won"t you, will you, won"t you, will you join the dance? I"ll tell you. Bond. Unless something comes up - hard intelligence, I mean - I shall go ahead with Stewards" Meeting once you have the killer under lock and key. I can"t afford to abort."
"As you say. sir. But, if I might suggest that all parties are given some kind of warning . , ."
"They"ve already had the main warning. Bond. They already know these BAST elowns might just make some kind of attempt to compromise the operation. All three parties have stated that the risk is calculated. In other words, they all want Stewards" Meeting to go ahead as arranged."
"They know about Morgan?"
Walmsley gave an unspoken "No", shaking his head and pursing his lips.
"Then on their own heads be it."
"Easy to say. Bond. But people like that tend to lash out if something does happen. And if your worst fears are realised, then it will be our b.a.l.l.s they"ll cut off. We both know that/ Bond grunted.
"We"re on a hiding to nothing. Captain Bond. Whatever steps we take, they"ll have us for breakfast - fried, with a little tomato and bacon, I suspect."
"Then I"d best get on with putting my one suspect away; then doing some grilling of my own - without bacon and tomato."
"Let me know." Walmsley"s tone became belligerent again. Must let me know the results. But, after five, local, this afternoon all bets are off. We go ahead."