Текст книги "The Final Affair"

Автор книги: David McDaniel

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Who’S Fluent In Dolphin?”

An U.N.C.L.E. jet carried them from Djakarta to the small field at Makasar in just under two hours. From 40,000 feet the ocean was a featureless cloudstreaked sheet in shades of greens and blues varying with the depth except where odd-shaped lumps of,greenish-black broke the surface. jun.gle-tipped peaks rising from the vast sunken plain beneath the shallow Java Sea. At last they saw ahead a jagged spine of mountains jutting from he sea, mist-shrouded and kar; a bony peninsula springing from a body of land which was only a shadow on the edge of the world to their left and fading towards the horizon to their right. Before the sea on the far side had vanished behind the mountains. they started their long descent towards a city which lay at the foot of a lush valley on the near coast.

Fifteen minutes later the door swung down and became a short set of steps leading to a red-cinder paved airstrip and stifling heat. Napoleon’s liht summer suit, comparatively comfortable in a New York heat wave, se~med suddenly bulkier and oppressive as he ducked slightly through the hatch and the interior air-conditioning vanished behind him.

A two-storey tower and a row of white buildings made up the airport facility.

In the main waiting rocxn, next to customs, they were greeted tentatively bya young woman in pink.

“U.N.C.L.E.?” she said as they entered.

“Yes,” said Mr. Waverly.

“My name is Merah Diambu —I’m Dr. Kaja assistant. Ladju came in this morning and they’ve been working over charts all day. He’s just full of information. He’s been back to the island, and he’s checked with several locals apparently.”

“Fascinating. Does he talk to strangers?”

“He’s never had the opportunity, but I shouldn’t doubt it. Come on, I have a car outside. Unless you’re waiting for luggage?”

HNo,” said Napoleon. “That’s coming separately, since we don’t know how long we’ll be staying. Do you really talk to fish?”

HOf course not. No cold-blooded animal has intelligence capable of speech.

Dolphins are as mammalian as people —and possibly more intelligent. We couldn’t learn to talk to them, but some of them are learning to talk to us.

You must be Napoleon Solo.”

They exchanged information on the short drive south to a small group of buildings around the foot of a short low pier facing the declining sun. and Merah recited the names correctly to Dr. Larry Kaja. who squatted beside a wide shallow pool in which eight lazily moving feet of sleek power reclined on a bed of dark sand near a two-way hydrophone. Dr. Kaja was young, square-faced, bearded and tanned.

“Can he hear us?” asked Joan.

“Probably. Can you hear them?” Dr. Kaja addressed his microphone.

“C’ear azz a behl, Larry,” said a speaker on the ground beside him. and the dolphin rolled lazily on his side and raised a casual flipper in greeting.

“‘Ow’zzzat?”

“You’ve got the initial L pretty good, but you lost the first one right after the plosive.”

“Yah, I know.”

With a quick twist he lifted half his gleaming length out of the pool along with a cascade of water and leaned over the edge peering near-sightedly up at his visitors. swinging his head to scan them intently.

Napoleon gaped in amazement and turned to Illya. “That’s really him?”

“Uh-huh, ” said Illya. “How about that?”

“Can he hear us?”

“Not well out of the water.” said Dr. Kaja.

ladju opened his glistening snout like a duck’s beak and emitted a staccato series of high-pitched quacks before writhing back into the pool, displacing another slosh of warm seawater.

“Open mouthh mean surprizze, yah?”

“Right, Ladju. These are the men who are curious about that island you found.”

“Curreeosity izz a ffuhn zzing. But zzey’re noht ahll mehn. Hey, you wahnna p’ay taggg?”

“Me?” said Joan. “I – uh —”

“Now just a minute, buster,” said Napoleon. “That’s my wife you’re talking to.”

The speaker erupted in a sputtering cackle as Ladju flipped back and forth in the pool, rolling over and over.

Larry flipped a switch on the small waterproof amplifier at his feet and the sound cut off. “He scored on you, Mr. Solo,” he explained. “He’s laughing at the moment.”

Joan asked hesitantly, “Ah —did I misinterpret the tone of his…”

Larry suppressed a smile. “I’m afraid not. I have no idea how serious he was, but your reaction was reasonably appropriate. Don’t worry —Ladju has a weird sense of humor; but he’s tremendously honorable.– all the dolphins I’ve ever known are. Even if he is a little strange, even by their standards; Kanta, his girlfriend for a while, said so. Partly it’s his more human characteristics, she said.”

“I see,” said Illya, whose smile had not been suppressed since his partner was looking elsewhere. “But aOOut those charts.—”

A brass bell began clanging insistently on a post beside the pool as Ladju jerked the dangling rope with his teeth until Larry switched on the hydrophone again.

“Sohrry abou’ zzat,” said the speaker. “You ghoing to the islan?”

“If it’s the island we’re looking for,” said Mr. Waverly. “What can you tell me about it? Do you know where it is?”

“I cou’ take you zzere, bu’ I cou’n’t ttehll you whehre itt izz.”

“I have that problem on Long Island sometimes,” said Napoleon.

“Actually, we have it pretty well located,” said Larry. “The last chart we went oyer —the one showing sincline shifts and minor currents in that area —checked with the bottom contour map you read this morning. And tell them what you saw there.”

“Hlotsss of misstakss on tchartsss.”

“What did you see at the island?”

“Hydrophonezz ahll aroun’. I wehn’ up c’ose an’ tchecked i’ toutt.

Zzere’zz a neht across zhe reef ‘assage, bu’ I ssmelled zzubmarinezz inzide.

An’ I came up to zhe beatch an’ zzaw hlotss of houzzezz. Zzome bhig onezz.”

“There are no established military bases in that area,” said Mr. Waverly.

wWhere is this island, exactly?”

“It’s called Fapa Tui.” said Larry. “and it’s at 122°48’ East and 7°31’

South. What exactly do you expect to find on this island, anyway? Somebody’s secret laboratory or the headquarters of a subversive international organisation?”

“All that and rore,” said Mr. Waverly. “I presume you heard that Thrush had been destroyed?”

“yah.” said Larry. “I didn’t believe it.”

“You were right. Only most of Thrush has been destroyed. Fapa Tui may be their major hard base. and if it is left in operation they could restore their entire network within three months..

.1 see. What do yoo plan to 00?”

.Invade.” said Mr. Waverly succinctly.

“Far out! w soon?”

“As soon as a satellite photograph verifies that this island is indeed our target. a force of five hundred men under my command will 90 ashore and secure that island.”

“Just like that?”

.We sincerly hope so. Dr. Kaja. It will not be as simple as it sounds, but two weeks should see the end of Thrush —as we know it —with the help of our handsome and intelligent friend ladju.M .., The object of this flattery twisted with delight and chirped like a soprano duck. “You Misster Hwaver’y – you p’ay tchehkerzz?”

MCheckers? Heh —as a matter of fact I used to be considered rather good at the game.” Waverly’s jowls corrugated as an amazed smile stretched his leathery features. “Would you care for a game?”

“Sshure. I can bea’ Larry.”

“Two out of three,” said Dr. Kaja. “But I’m improving with practice.M

ladju’s sputter,ing cackle sounded again and he rolled over onto his back, kicking delightedly amid sheets of water. as Napoleon and Illya stared speechless at him and their commander-in-chief.

 

Alexander Waverly’s communicator chirped discreetly shortly before midnight. He awakened instantly and slipped a hand under his pillow to answer it.

“Waverly here.”

MGood morning, sir,” said Miss Cramer’s voice. “I thought you should know at once that the NASA photograph of the island you specified checks against the map —the buildings are a11 in the right places, except for three extra quonset huts. I’ve also had Section Four prepare a preliminary report on it, and they are working on a detailed study which may include a hydrographic report from soundings made in 1886; Thrush has owned the island since 1904. Would you like to hear the prel imi nary report or shall I send you a hardcopy?”

“Fax it to Djakarta. They can ship it on the jet which will bring the rest of our equipment here. What did you find out about suanarine forces available?

Did Tadashi Miruko agree?”

“He offered two hundred fifty troops, but his sub fleet is in Manila, thirteen hundred nautical miles from Thrush Island. I took the liberty of calling the naval base at Darwin, which is only about seven hundred. Under the circumstances. they were willing to give us four landing subs and two hundred men. With an U.N.C.L.E. Battalion Command Module, you’ll have almost five hundred troops.”

“That’s not too many. Have you arranged to fly Miruko’s army to Darwin?

And have you heard from Mike Hoar?”

“Colonel Hoar requires two weeks’ notice, but as a personal favor he’s offered seventy experienced troops if you’ll coyer their transportation and the usual per diem. How soon will you want to strike? I haven’t tied anything to a schedule, pending your decision.u

“I will want to strike as soon as all the troops can be brought to bear.

How long will that take?”

“Forces can be joined in Darwin within thirty-six hours. and the subs will take three days to Uffa.”

“To where? We’re attacking Fapa Tui.”

“I beg your pardon? At 122°48’ by 7°31’? Just a moment… Apparently the Indonesian government gave it a native name in ‘62. It was Dutch in the earliest records —used as a major transfer point in the slave trade between 1830 and 1865. It was called Uffa then. An English group was there for a few years before it was abandoned in 1887, and Thrush apparently set up there about twenty years later., All this is covered in that preliminar:/ report, along with a blow-up from the recon photo.”

“Hmm. I see.”

“The new construction on the island had been tentatively identified by Military Intelligence as a top-secret Indonesian military installation, but they didn’t have anything definite, and the Indonesian government denied it.

They have refused to participate in this operation, by the way. but the U.N.

Security Council convinced them not to interfere as long as you don’t carry the battle off the island or bring any forces near the mainland.”

“Satisfactory. I see no reason to delay —mobilise at once. Effect armaments and security preparations according to the memorandum I left you.

Put all this in motion in my name. and call me back in ten hours.”

In the next few days, mighty forces shifted silently, focussing on an obscure, almost forgotten speck of land lost in the southern ocean, while Illya, Napoleon and Joan cleaned their guns and did roadwork along the wide dark beach at low tide, alternately running a mile and jogging a mile each way every afternoon. Mr. Waverly reclined beneath a wide sunshade shared with ladju, Dr. Kaja kibitzing. across a four-foot checkerboard. just awash at the edge of the pool. Evenings were spent over maps and charts of Thrush Island or working out in an improvised gym. Terse conferences were held over a juryrigged radio link through Djakarta to Ambon with the commanders of the attack.

forces; coded coordinate systems pinpointed locations on their copies of the charts. The full plan of attack was worked out during these final days.

A heavy cargo jet, unable to land at the small Makasar field, parachuted the Squid II minisub into the ocean half a mile offshore from Dr. Kaja’s lab on Thursday afternoon. ladju gave Napoleon and Illya a tandem ride out to where it bobbed low in the water, and exhibited tremendous curiosity about the sub, especially its finless propulsion and steering system. fure than twice the size of Mr. Simpson’s first model, which they had employed in a similar but smaller operation against an insular Thrush base, it was nearly identical in design: a fat grey teardrop with a ring of Coanda jets pointing out at right angles to its longitudinal axis just ahead of the bulge. Silent, invisible to sonar while in motion, capable of forty-five knots submerged. it would carry the four of them to rendezvous with the main assault force, covering the three hundred miles in under eight hours with no effective limit on functioning depth; the ocean was not deep enough to crush the pressure hull.

ladju was impressed by its speed and range. having often swum circles around conventional submarines; he discussed it with Napoleon and Illya as they checked it out until the ruddy equatorial sunset faded into the sea.

ladju’s part in the operation would be simple but essential —only a dolphin could approach the silent detectors without alerting the island’s defenses, and after the transfers of personnel from one craft to another Md been accomplished eighty miles beyond the ring of listening devices, ladju would lead two or three of his friends towards the island. accompanying the Squid II as far as the outer defense line, closely followed by the troop subs…

The modern calendar-clock on the stone wall had an anachronistic look. like a wristwatch on a knight. It showed 1830, 22 August, when two alarm lights went on almost simultaneously and a previously silent loudspeaker clattered to life.

Two reclining Thrush guards snapped to alert as the Duty Tech hurried to check an illuminated diagram.

“What’s that?” one of them ‘lsked. “Some kind of fish?”

“Uh-huh.” said the Tech. .Couple of dolphins. I’d say. But there’s more —or something. Just a minute… They’re on two adjacent stations. That’s funny.”

“More than one of ‘em?”

“Yeah. 247 and 248 are three-quarters of a mile apart. and both of ‘em have something right up close making noise.”

“Why dolphins?”

“I dunno. It sounds like dolphins. Maybe I’d better tape it. Dr.. Egret will be able to tell. In fact.n he added. as a switch started reels turning.

“I think I’II call her right now. My orders are to report to her if anything unusual happens, and this is unusual as far as I can tell. The Council had held a few quick sessions. and they see anmies from U.N.C.L.E. in every cloud fonnation.”

“Me too,” said the Guard. “Call Dr. Egret.”

The dolphins were still at it and the tapes continued to roll when Dr.

Egret arrived fifteen minutes later. She listened intently for a few moments.

and then said. “They’re taking turns. One of them talks for a minute. then the other one. How regular has that been?”

“Uh, I couldn’t tell the difference. vhat are they talking about?”

“I haven’t the least idea. Your microphones won’t pick up most of their speech frequencies, and we couldn’t hear them if they did.n She bent over the oscilloscope and studied its cryptic green trace. .Do you have both stations on at the moment?”

“Yes.”

“Turn one off.”

Then only one voice emerged from the speaker, alternating something like a high-pitched Bronx cheer with an unearthly titter. Dr. Egret listened intently. .Can you take that tape and slow it down?” she asked the Tech.

“Yeah —at least to quarter-speed.” He started a second recorder going, stopped the first and rewound the tape a short distance. A knob was turned and the tape started again. Another switch gave them the sound, grotesquely stretched.

The Bronx cheer became a staccato heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh” lasting several seconds and the titter seemed almost articulated..

“It almost sounds like it’s saying, ‘Erdeycum, erdeycum,’” said the Guard, and Dr. Egret nodded.

“It is strange,” she agreed. “That almost seems to be a rd. 1‘11

check it in Flint’s Vocabulary. I think I recognise the other sound —it’s a kind of laugh a dolphin gives when he’s about to playa joke on an unsuspecting victim. Most of them seem to be fond of practical jokes. I’ve occasionally thought they might be willing to trade services for underwater versions of a whoopee cushion or an electric buzzer.” She shook her head. “How long have they been at this?”

“About a quarter of an hour. They just started up all of a sudden. We didn’t even hear them approach the stations.”

“You wouldn’t. Switch back to the monitors. please. let’s see what they’re up to now.”

The tape playback stopped, and only a faint hiss and thrum of open sea.

filled the roan. The Tech flicked a couple of switches, therr looked ur and shrugged his shoulders. “Huh! They’re gone.”

Dr. Egret snorted. “There was probably nothing to it,” she said. “I’II never understand dolphins —I don’t think a human being can. In some ways they’re far better than people. But in roost ways they’re just very different.”

“But a whole bunch of them —at least four, anyway —: swirTlning up to our detectors and jabbering? What could they possibly been up to?”

“I have no idea. Some alien game, probably. I remember a couple of years ago there was one in this area who came by two or three times a week. I think it was the same one every time —it used to come up to one or another of our stations and say, “Hello, Doctor Lilly, hello Doctor Lilly,’ over and over for a few minutes before swimming away. Kept this up for a couple of months before it lost interest.”

“Oh well,” said the Guard, “as long as it doesn’t mean anything…”

Ten miles west of the island two submarines rode low in the dark water, linked bya short catwalk two feet above the gentle swells from the darkened bridge of the command sub to the top hatch of the Squid, where a faint greenish light showed. Alexander Waverly, bundled in his camel’s-hair coat, hat settled firmlyon his head, stood in the bridge compartment to see the first assault group under way. One at a time they went up the ladder to the starlit top deck and across after a final checkout of assignment and equipment. The pilot who would put them ashore and pull back, went first, followed by Sanders and Goldin, who would accompany Illya to the powerhouse, to settle their explosives canfortably for the short ride to shore. Voices were ‘ow, as a directional pick-up on the shore could still spot them over open sea. Dim golden lights on the eastern horizon indicated their goal.

“The main landing forces are in position,” Mr. Waverly said. “They will hit the beach approximately ninety seconds after the power goes off.”

“And the power should go off about thirty seconds after I’ve hit the telephone exchange and started the jammer,” Napoleon said. “I could do it in my sleep.”

“I trust you can do it awake. Mr. Kuryakin?”

“All set, sir.”

A voice spoke quietly down the hatch from above. “Ready for the rest of you.”

Short and Mills, Waverly’s personally chosen support for Napoleon and Joan, hoisted their packs and clambered up into the warm tropical night. Illya followed them, and Joan followed Illya. Napoleon paused a moment at the foot of the ladder and turned to face his chief, uncertain of just what he wanted to say.

Mr. Waverly spoke instead. “Good luck, Mr. Solo. Just don’t take any unnecessary chances.” He extended his hand unexpectedly, and Napoleon took it.

“We’ve got the-n licked, sir,” he said as they shook hands. “You may get the Nobel Prize for this night’s work.”

“I’d rather have you all back,” said Waverly gruffly. “Now get going.

The entire invasion is waiting on you. And remember, they don’t know they’re licked. It’s up to us to convince them.”

Quickly Napoleon turned and swarmed up the ladder. The hatch closed behind him before he was into the Squid. and then they were on their way.

Surf murmured on the sand behind them as the Squid silently withdrew and vanished beneath the inky surface. Ahead a black bulk blocked the stars and rising third-quarter moon which shone palely on the sloping coral a short distance to their right past the Barn. Both teams had rehearsed endlessly on photographs of this beachhead during the past twenty hours, and each individual knew his part like a trained dancer. Not a word was spoken as seven figures clad in commando black shared out equipment and separated into two groups.

Four went to the right, to the nearer corner of the high windowless wall which rose above them, the rear of the huge stone barn, almost as big as the Big House, which it nearly adjoined at the diagonally opposite corner. Three went to the left, moving like darker shadows in the star-pierc~ darkness, with neat bundles of high explosives and silenced sidearms at the ready.

Illya led his team around the corner, and saw that lights burned in three windows of the Big House even at this late hour. Two Guards walked the terrace.

And seventy feet of blank. wall stretched fr001 the rear corner where the U.N.C.L.E. team crouched to the side door, lighted but unguarded, which would lead them to the generator room. And forty feet of neatly trimmed lawn separated the door from the wide terrace.

They hugged the grey stone wall in the darkness and watched, timing the ritual pacing of the two Thnush Guards. Infrared sniperscoped rifles slung at the ready could turn night into day for them at the flick of a finGer.

Illya shifted slightly to peer at his watch. Eight minutes left before Napoleon could be sure of his position and the generators must go. Still, he could afford another sixty seconds wnile booted figures paced slowly on the terrace.

Once around his corner and into the moonlight, Napoleon left his group in a series of quick. quiet dashes from one shadow to another, spying out ahead for sentries. They paused at last behind the front corner of the Barn. At the other end of the building they could see the Big House; to their right a long dark lane between two long. low buildings —Mr. Waverly’s report said they were built as slave pens, but nothing of how many they must have held. Somehow appropriate that Thrush should now be using the:n. The cor!1nunications exchange was on the upper floor of the second building. There was a convenient light directly over the double door at the near end.

Il1ya dropped his arm and started forward toward the distant door just as the second Guard turned away. He knew without looking back his team was with him; the three slipped into the lighted interior, crouching below the level of the glass pane in the door as it sighed slowly closed. They moved quickly out of view and looked around. Stairs ahead, descending to a deep hum and a smell of power. Six minutes to go.

Napoleon surveyed the wide yard, not to mention all but the rear of the Big House. from which they would be clearly visible. and wondered how to break unobserved across a moonlit stage. .He leaned his head close to huddle with his team.

“All right, gang,” he said. “There’s no reason to expect a total curfew, is there, Joan?”

“Not unless whatever’s left of Central declares an official state of siege, and they wouldn’t likely do that if they’ve had no warning at all we Know of their existence.”

“Could we have gotten this far if there had been a state of siege declared?”

asked Bob Short.

“No,” Joan admitted. “We probably would have been machine-gunned about the time we hit the beach.”

“How did you know there wouldn’t be?” asked Bill Mills, the fourth agent.

“I just didn’t think there was,” said Joan. “I was right.”

“I’m glad,” said Mills.

“So am I,” said Napoleon. “Therefore, since we won’t be shot on sight unless somebody gets the idea we’re up to something —or recognises us. which would amount to the same thing —I suggest we simply saunter across the lawn as if we knew what we were doing and go through that door just as though we had every right to be there.”

“Toujours l’audaice, Napoleon,” said Joan, and he stared at her for a moment.

“That’s right,” he said. “That’s one thing I never forgot about you.”

Their eyes held for a moment like a kiss, and then he looked down at his watch.

“Five minutes, gang. Okay —by the numbers…saunter!”

They walked easily along a hundred feet of gravel path to the middle long Building and throug the door. Stairs were on the left, as described, and the four cat-footed up them to a quiet tiled hall on the second floor.

The lower level beneath the Barn was deep. Illya and his team crept down steel steps towards a blue blaze of fluorescent lights beyond the next door panel, which opened into the tension of power, the tang of ozone and the hissin9 roar of working generators. Four minutes left to find the master control point and plant their charges. They moved purposefully down the short aisle between six squat pyramids towards a board full of meter faces. Good. Plenty of time to work in.

Behind a door marked INTERCOM in three scripts Solo’s team found their first action. Two startled operators turned from their switchboards to inhale a stunning breath of knockout gas and slumped from their fonn-fitting chairs to the floor. Mr. Short applied his attention to the lock on an unmarked door and it gave way to a dark cool closet-like room filled with racks and a sound like tiny metallic insects. Napoleon found a switch on the wall which brou9ht shadowed light to the rack-packed room.

“There’s nothing like this place anyplace near this place,‘t he said, “so this must be the place. let’s keep it small; one pound in the middle of each rack should do it. Give the timers a synchronised start for three minutes when I give you the signal. Ready —”

The lights went out and there was a very soft thump under the floor.

“Oh boy,” said Napoleon. “I think something’s gone wrong. Set the timers for fifteen seconds and let’s get the hell out of here!”

He pulled the antenna on the jammer, dropped it into a wooden desk drawer and slarrrned it closed. They made it into the corridor just as the inner door was belched across the room and a cloud of cement dust billowed out after it with a sprinkling of resistors and relays.