A Bridge Of Magpies (20 page)

My bare feet made no sound. I went closer. The figure started to move away-back to me. My pulse rate doubled. It was a
woman.
Automatically
I
looked for the ghost hounds. She didn't hear me before
I
was right up to her and threw my arm in a stranglehold round her throat,

-I
dragged her into the light.

It was Jutta,

134

I didn't know whether to hug her or hit her.

Since in fact I'd already half-scared her to death-I supported her indoors.
She
slumped on to a stool and rubbed her throat. Ì pity the real ghost.'

Seeing her nearly on the point of passing out did something to my heart, and I found my hands were shaking. 'Lucky I didn't take a knife to you?

'Thanks for the lights, Struan. I was lost in the fog.'

My anger thinned. 'You little idiot! You could have fallen over a cliff, broken a leg–anything. Been savaged by a bull seal, even.'

She tried to smile. 'My throat feels just like that' '

Where'd you come from?'

'Auckland Cove.'

'Has
Gaok
run ashore? What's happened? Where's Kaptein Denny? Is he safe?'

'He's okay. He's on his
way.'

'On his way?

'I talked him into putting me ashore. We waited till dark. He dropped me off on the other side of the island. I walked. Then I spotted the ghost light'

She'd started-with reaction, to shake like
a wet
dog. `

You're cold.'

'Scared too.'

'I'll fix some coffee.'

`Struan . .

'It can keep.'

I blew up the embers and we sat on stools in front of the fire.

`You must have done a lot of taJking. Kaptein Denny's not an easy subject to persuade. And what about the chance you've thrown overboard: the chance to learn about your father?'

She spoke into the coffee mug she'd cupped between her hands. 'Can't you see why I came back?'

135

The whole point of sending you to Luderitz was for you to explain the situation personally to the admiral. Your short-circuit blows the fuses on my plan.'

She went on
as
if she hadn't heard me, 'It probably sounds wet. You.'

We didn't look at each other for individual reactions: we simply sat and stared into the fire for a long time. Finally, I said, 'If it's going to be a rough party with
Sang A
I'd rather not have a woman around.'

She got up and stood behind me. She pressed against me so that I could feel her breasts and belly against my back. She rested her throat on my head so that
when
she spoke softly, as if to herself, I still got the words because it had the effect of a throat microphone. It was as intimate, too. She locked a wrist round my neck, a sort of caressing affectionate imitation of my stranglehold on her earlier.

'If you'd broken my neck out there I'd have died happy, thinking you'd be glad I'd come,'

'I'm glad but I'm mad.'

'All glad is what I want'

I pulled her round to kiss her but she fought me off. '

Heart firing blanks again, Jutta?'

She slipped out of my grasp and went round behind me again. This time she ran her fingers over my lips and nose and eyes.

'I'm not at the firing stage, Struan. I'm loading up. I don't know with what. Shot or blanks. Could be either.' 'But you came back.'

'I came back.'

'If you don't know, who does?'

'Ask the Bridge of Magpies.'

That was the answer, of course.

She stroked my head, and I could feel her breasts against my back. I wanted to lose myself for ever in the valley be. tween them–down, down, down.

After that, there wasn't much more to say. But there was
a
lot to
think.
I lay awake through the
small
hours, wondering whether I wasn't the biggest sucker ever: sleeping almost next to a woman I was more than half in love with, and doing absolutely nothing about it. Mystics, they say, keep virgins in their beds. I'm low on mysticism, myself. I wished I could hear her breathing but I couldn't because of the grumbles of 136

the gannets and penguins close to the bunkhouse. The ghost lights still burned because Jutta thought them beautiful. I tried to sort out my feelings towards her and also to unravel the Kaptein Denny-Sang
A-U-MO
tangle,
as
well
as
that of
the
sound of guns we'd heard that other night, but I got nowhere.

In the end I gave it up and fell asleep,

The next day was a Saturday. Because the pressure was off–it would be at least twenty-four hours before the frigate arrived, provided Kaptein Denny made average time–there was a purposeless air about the day. It
was
warm, windless, with a few cats-paws on the surface of the channel. Nothing could be seen of
Sang A
before mid-morning, because of early fog. We rose late and I fixed the trouble with
Ichabo's
engine – a faulty injector.

Then
we
went down to the landing and rubbernecked at the birds and at a group of cute seal pups that came sporting round the jetty. Neither of us knew how to handle our situation of emotional hiccoughs. Jutta was very serious and sweet to begin with and then gay and sweet when the seaJ

pups cavorted about. We idled, but it wasn't the same as during the storm in Alabama Cove, when we had tried to sink ourselves in chores about the cutter. We were on the way to being in love–and we both knew it.

There was nothing idle or purposeless about
Sang A
when the fog lifted. Three or four boats were darting in and out from her side like jackals snooping at a kill. There was also a lot of activity on deck. Through my binoculars I could make out the crew working winches and arranging heavy chains and cables. Those tarpaulins were still firmly in place, however.

'Maybe they've discovered
an
outcrop of the lost city, Struan.'

I strung along with her. 'They're a long way from Doodenstadt. But it's shallow where
Sang A
is–not more than fifty feet.'

'Perhaps the lost city was overwhelmed and submerged at some
time
in the
past-
and most of it is now beneath the channel.'

'Could be. Koch's cave was supposed to be half-in and half-out of the sea.'

'They must be pretty sure about it, to have come here with all that expensive and elaborate equipment,'

137

Too elaborate and too expensive altogether, I reminded myself. But I couldn't tell her that.

`Relic-robbers are professionals these days-make no mistake,' I replied as convincingly as I could. 'I've seen them at work in the Aegean. I once got caught up in a shooting off the Turkish coast Where they'd looted an underwater town. Maybe the same thing's going on here'

Ànd you're all that stands between them and whatever they're after.'

Ì mean to find out what that is–today.'

`Struan–don't stick your neck out! Please!'

'I was sent here to do a job. I shall go on doing it until the frigate takes over. If, meanwhile, I can find proof about
Sang A,
so much the better.'

`For my sake!'

Ì'm going to throw a firecracker right
into
that black elephant's trunk. I'm boarding her tonight. Secret recce. Objectives: one, equipment under tarpaulins; two, electronics shack.'

`They'll kill you if they catch you.'

Ì'll see that they don't.'

'I'm coming too.'

`Not on your
life!'

Ì came back–to be with you. Isn't that enough?'

It wasn't . . . after the night before! I told her-however-that she could be of very real help in ferrying me to within boarding distance of
Sang A.
'I'll swim the last bit,' I added. `

You can pick me up on the way back I could lose my way in the fog otherwise. We'll fix a pick-up signal. Right?'

That pleased her, and the day didn't seem too long,
as
we sat on the rocks and watched
Sang A's
activities. The launches darted about purposefully at first-and we could almost sense the crew's expectancy, but after a time interest appeared to flag. Finally the launches gave up and the ship itself came into the picture. She up-anchored and made several runs in different directions in the vicinity of the area in which the boats bad been working. It became clear to me that she wasn't using the type of echo-sounder I'd been accustomed to; because each time she all but reached the spot indicated by the launches, she would sheer off to one side. This manoeuvre was repeated several times, and totaJly mystified me. The picture, as I saw it, was that the launches'

138

sweep had snagged on a promising ocean-bed object and
Sang A's
passes were intended to plot it. Why, then, veer away
just
when it was reached? Perhaps the electronics shack would provide the answer.

Sang A's crew
knew we were watching them. Canvas dodgers were rigged on light stanchions on her rails, further to mask the tarpaulined objects. Several times I caught Kenryo and Emmermann studying us through binoculars.
Sang A
kept it up all day. The weather was glorious, and I was content just to sit there with Jutta.

By the late afternoon the fog bank had started rolling in from the sea:
Sang A used
her radar to continue with her plotting runs.

I got up and stretched. 'That's it! I'll have the wraps off her after dark-both literally and figuratively, I hope.'

'What do you hope to find, &man?'

'Catch-as-catch-can. It's a toss-up whether
I
go for the shack or the tarpaulins first. Depends.'

'You were going to teach me to row with muffled oars.'

I checked the channel. 'Fine.
Sang A can't
see what we're doing any more. Come down to the jetty.'

When it came to the point, the drill wasn't necessary. Either
Sang A
regarded Saturday night as party night or else they had some other reason to celebrate, because shortly after dark boozy sounds started to float across the water; pin-pointing her position
was
thus no problem. I
made
do with black shorts and jersey, though I would have preferred
a
rubber suit. I made sure I had a knife for the tarpaulin lashings; the rifle I would leave behind in the dinghy with Jutta.

Jutta became more and more edgy as the deadline approached. When finally we were at the jetty and almost ready to board the dinghy she exclaimed, 'You'll need
a
torch. I'll get one.

She
doubled off into the fog before I had time to protest that a torch was the last thing I'd require. My arms were full and I offloaded my things into the boat. By that time Jutta was overdue-it was only a short distance to the bunkhouse. Irritated at the delay, I climbed up the iron ladder to the top of the jetty. She wasn't around. I went to the bunkhouse. It was empty. I started back towards the cottage with a feeling of uneasiness. I'd almost reached it when 139

there was a chatter from the birds and Jutta came hurrying down the path, torch in hand.

"Struan?'

She was breathing heavily as lf she'd been running. '

Where the devil have you been?'

'I lost myself in the fog . . . I went the wrong way '

Uphill? With the bunkhouse lights to guide you?'

'I couldn't see ... I'm sorry ... I heard you coming .. It was an unconvincing performance and killed the fun approach to the
Sang A
escapade we'd had all day.

'Let's go,' I snapped. 'We've wasted enough time
as
it
is.'
We made
our way in silence to the jetty and shoved off, still without speaking. We could safely have whispered but I chose not to. Whispers are for someone very close-and she was very far away from me that night: just an outline crouched in the boat's stern.

We'd only gone a little way when I thought I heard the sound of a distant engine. I couldn't be sure: fog plays all kinds of tricks. I shipped the oars. We waited. A long time.
Nothing
came. We went on.

Then there was another long wait when a sound like the wash of a bow-wave–possibly oars–came through the darkness. The night seemed full of presences. Again it proved to be nothing tangible.

Soon we were close enough to make out the loom of
Sang A'
s
portholes–a series of bright circles in the murk–though her decks were in darkness.

I shipped the oars, checked my knife and got
ready
to go. Jutta sat silent, an amorphous silhouette, not a woman. It was better that way.

But I couldn't just slip over the side without a word; J

whispered, 'Fire when you see the whites of their eyes. Make sure they're not mine.' That
was
mean; I meant it to be.I went over the side–the water wasn't as cold as I'd expected. I hung on to the side for a second, my face level with the gunnel.

She crouched down to me. 'Take care of yourself, darling.'

I'd already let go and had given myself a push to get clear of the boat: Jutta had become a dim ghost before I'd taken in what she'd said.

All the way out I'd been spoiling for an encounter with 140

one, or more, of
Sang
A's toughies to work off the roil inside me, now I had to stop myself from going soft.
I
deliberately shut out Jutta, and concentrated on the job ahead.

The
Sang A
crowd were certainly beating it up. There were whoops and shouts and laughter, and the occasional thump. Several launches and dinghies were tied up alongside her and it was
as easy as
going up stairs to find my way to the deck. I couldn't see overmuch because the decks were so dim, so I used one of the big chains as a guide, following it until J came to the big seven-ton anchor shackled to its
end.I
decided to investigate the electronlcs shack first because it was less exposed than the deck, and the racket below provided me with my maximum opportunity for indoor reconnaissance.