Hazard (15 page)

Hazard's and Keven's guns were both custom-fitted with a new type of silencer. Compared to the more commonly used and longer type, this silencer was much more discreet. Only about three-quarters of an inch in length and diameter. It screwed on and could be left on.

How to fight with a knife.

Considering his adversaries, Hazard believed that was something he'd damn well better learn. He was surprised to find how much dancelike agility it required, and such delicate touch. It wasn't just a matter of stabbing someone. Rely on the sharpness of the blade, he was told. Hazard finally became quite efficient at it, so good, in fact, that his instructor gave him a special kind of knife. On first examination it appeared to be ordinary, with a snap on its handle that shot its five-inch blade straight out. Its exceptional feature was what happened to the blade when it penetrated; when it went into flesh the pressure of resistance activated a mechanism inside its handle that made the blade revolve at high speed in a coring motion. Gruesome. Hazard accepted it with thanks.

During those intensive three weeks at the farm (twenty-one consecutive days, with not even a Sunday off) it wasn't easy for Hazard and Keven to find time and place for being alone. Keven was assigned a room on the top floor of the east wing, rather isolated. Hazard's room was on the same floor but way over on the other side of the building. Fortunately there was never much traffic in the corridor after midnight and they nearly got caught only twice.

Hazard found that having to sneak from room to room added a desirable spice to their activities. Keven admitted to that added effect, although sneaking around for such a natural purpose was against her values, made her also feel unduly guilty, she said.

They compromised. One night he'd sneak; the next night it was her turn.

Keven also complained about having to be so quiet when they were together. Several times she almost suffocated herself with a pillow.

8

ON MAY
18th, shortly before sundown, a clean, white ship entered the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt.

It was a two-thousand tonner with blue lettering on its hull that identified it as the
Sea Finder
out of Washington, D.C. From stem to stern just above the waterline it had a painted red stripe, although that graphic attempt to give the ship sleekness was defeated by the upright structure that stood at midship—a 110-foot framework tower that resembled an oil derrick. It made the vessel appear awkward, top-heavy.

There was no other ship in the world like the
Sea Finder.
It had been specially planned and built by a large, diversified corporation for an admirable scientific purpose. Underwater search and recovery.

Even the ship's propulsion system was designed to better fulfill that purpose. Instead of the usual horizontal churning propellers, it was driven by vertical bladed units that extended down beneath the ship, one forward and another aft. The
Sea Finder
could, for example, rotate a full three hundred and sixty degrees in place as though revolving on an axis. And it could maintain an exact position, hover over any chosen spot of the ocean's floor with the precise control of a helicopter, even in heavy seas.

Neatly stacked and secured on its foredeck were sections of four-and-a-half-inch pipe in sixty-foot lengths. Four hundred of these. Directly below the derrick, a bottom portion of the ship's hull was omitted to form an open well twelve by thirty-six. Using the derrick, the sections of pipe could be fitted together and lowered down through the well into the sea to a depth of twenty-four thousand feet. Attached to the business end of the pipe, a special assembly of underwater lights, television cameras, and sonar devices could scan the ocean floor along a search path twenty-four hundred feet wide and five hundred feet ahead. The accuracy of this sensor assembly was such that at a distance of a thousand feet it could distinguish between two objects no more than three feet apart.

Once an objective was located, the huge tongs fixed to the extreme end of the pipe could be put to work. The heavy-duty tines of the tongs would spread apart and then close around the object like a giant claw. Then it would be only a matter of bringing the pipe up in the same section-by-section manner it had been lowered. And, of course, the recovered object would finally come up with it.

The beauty of it was that all these underwater functions could be controlled with ease from above in the ship's recovery-operations room. A complex electronic system was involved, but its operation had been reduced to push-button simplicity.

The
Sea Finder
was indeed one of a kind. Unfortunately it had not been in service when the submarine
Thresher
went down in 1963 and when an H-bomb was lost in 1968 off Polomares, Spain. It would have been perfect for those jobs. In any case, until another such emergency occurred, the ship was a marine archeologist's dream come true.

It had proved itself on its maiden voyage by recovering from a depth of three thousand feet what remained of a Portuguese galleon that had sunk in 1682 off the coast of Colombia. From that initial effort, the corporation that owned the
Sea Finder
had already recouped a good share of its seven-million-dollar investment. The galleon gave up seven hundred thousand old pesos, each containing one and a half ounces of pure silver. Other objects recovered, such as weapons, tools, cooking utensils, and porcelain (of mere historic value), were donated to the various institutions represented by the archeologists voluntarily along on that expedition.

With that profitable first success to its credit, the
Sea Finder
was ready for the even greater rewards promised by the Mediterranean. It was estimated that for the thousand years before Christ and the thousand years after, more than twenty thousand ships went to the bottom of that sea. The Mediterranean, comparatively deep and cold, was especially conducive to underwater preservation. Also the small amount of sediment there, only about six inches every thousand years, meant it was possible that many ships that went down in ancient times were still intact.

To the
Sea Finder's
crew of thirty and the twelve marine archeologists and other scientists aboard, it was an inspiring theory, particularly so considering the numerous Roman ships that had sailed from Alexandria and never reached Rome. Many were laden with tributes and taxes, vast amounts of gold.

So for the
Sea Finder,
with its advanced recovery system, the Mediterranean would be relatively easy pickings.

To guide the ship into Alexandria, an Egyptian harbor official had come aboard. Under his direction it made for pier 2, the mooring station nearest the harbor entrance. Pier 2 was remote and isolated from the rest of the busy port. It was a restricted area, where the
Sea Finder
would attract the least attention. The ship's captain, a man named Copeland, saw the practical side of that. It made good sense not to flaunt the United States flag in those not particularly amiable waters.

By the time all the ship's lines were secure and its engines cut it was dark. In the distance across the way the lights of Alexandria shone and pulsed invitingly, but no one on the
Sea Finder
would be allowed to go ashore that night. An official order. Everyone, including the captain, was to remain aboard until papers had been inspected. And radio silence was to be maintained. Just a formality, the harbor official said.

Captain Copeland did not protest but he firmly reminded the harbor official that he and his ship and men were there with the sanction of the Egyptian Government by arrangements made through the Arab Republic's cultural attaché in Washington. The Ministry of Culture had agreed to allow the American archeologists and oceanographers to examine certain old documents and charts kept in the archives in Alexandria. The harbor official politely assured Captain Copeland that he saw no reason why everything should not be put straight by the next day at the latest. It was only a normal matter of clearance. Meanwhile, would the Captain please cooperate and be sure no one went ashore under any circumstances?

Captain Copeland gave his word on that.

To make certain his word was kept, three Arab soldiers with automatic rifles stood guard on the otherwise deserted pier.

The crew and scientists aboard the
Sea Finder
had been looking forward to going ashore. They'd been at sea for fifteen days and now they couldn't even go for a walk on the pier. They grumbled about it until Captain Copeland explained the situation. They then became more or less resigned to waiting until the next day to experience the publicized romantic mystique of the ancient city.

The ship settled down for the night.

By midnight everyone was asleep, except one of the crew assigned to gangway watch.

At half past twelve a pair of canvas-covered troop carriers came down the pier and stopped at the ship. The man standing gangway watch thought little of it; he assumed it was only the three guards on the pier being relieved. He didn't become alarmed until one of the guards came up the short gangway and pushed an automatic rifle point blank into his chest. He was told in bad English to be quiet.

Out of the troop carriers came fifteen uniformed, armed men. They quickly went aboard the
Sea Finder
and within minutes had the ship's entire complement assembled on the rear deck. No one resisted. Everyone was frightened by the guns and the serious attitude of the troops who pointed them.

Captain Copeland demanded an explanation.

An Arab wearing the rank of major was in charge. He ignored Copeland's demand, informed the assembled group they were to be escorted off the ship for clearance purposes. No harm would come to them as long as they cooperated.

Several of the crew who had on only their skivvies asked to get dressed.

Request denied.

Captain Copeland thought it best to comply. He advised his men to do the same and he rather courageously promised the Arab major ample retribution when the proper Government officials learned of this outrageous treatment.

The major nodded.

Copeland and his men filed off the ship, climbed up into the troop carriers, and were taken away.

Immediately two other troop carriers came, bringing thirty men, civilians this time. They boarded the
Sea Finder
and spent the next four hours getting acquainted with the unique ship. They already knew it comparatively well from weeks of studying the schematic and systems plans that had been purchased by a sympathizer in the United States and sent over. That hadn't been difficult; it was not a military ship, but a private one.

The men had been chosen for this assignment because of their various special abilities. Some were recent graduates of the Oceanographic Institute of Alexandria. Others were engineers and communications experts out of the science department of Cairo University. Several of the men had worked for years in the Saudi and Libyan oil fields. What all thirty had in common was impatience with politics and a fervent belief in militancy.

At 3:30
A
.
M
. the ship's diesel-electric engines were started and set at idle. A half hour later the mooring lines were taken in, and the ship pulled away from the pier. The same harbor pilot who had guided the ship into the port now guided her out. With running lights dimmed. Hardly anyone, surely no one of consequence, had witnessed the
Sea Finder's
arrival—and the isolation of pier 2 had served its purpose. Now no one saw her go. It was as though the ship had never ever been there.

By sun-up it was well beyond sight of Alexandria, headed west at full speed. The following day just north of Darnah it kept rendezvous with a Libyan tanker to take on fuel, and four days later it was at Gibraltar. A friendly hello signal flashed from the rock. The
Sea Finder
returned the greeting, passed through the strait to the Atlantic, and altered its heading to southwest. An automatic dead-reckoning analyzer kept it steady on course.

Each day along the way, the Arab crew practiced using the search and recovery equipment. Each man concentrated on his own special task. The Arabs had difficulty doing that. Their habit, inclination, was to pay more attention to what the other fellow was doing and tell him how to do it better. They were collectively good at giving advice but individually resented taking it. Despite the confusion this caused, they did manage to get organized and were working together fairly smoothly by the time they neared their destination.

Where they were going was not a port but an area of the ocean known as the Canary Basin—one of the deeper parts of the Atlantic, situated just east of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. They were after a specific position, and the
Sea Finder's
inertial-navigation system would help pinpoint it.

A reading indicated the ship's position to be 33 degrees 7 minutes west, 27 degrees 5 minutes north. They continued on until the reading showed precisely 34 degrees 5 minutes west, 26 degrees 2 minutes north. They were there. Now they could only hope the information they'd received was correct.

The ship's special engines were adjusted to hold position and the crew went to work. First the gantry was used to lift the leader section of pipe from the foredeck and deposit it onto the narrow, gutterlike runway that ran down the center of the deck. Automatically the leader pipe was pushed to the derrick, where a huge vicelike block clamped onto its end and hoisted it full length upright within the derrick. Then the pipe was lowered through a surrounding device that snugly guided it down to the well deck just below. There the sensor assembly—with its television cameras, lights, and sonar—was fitted onto the pipe, and the large recovery tongs were secured just below that on the very end.

Upon signal the pipe was sent down into the water of the open well. Stop, so that a second section of pipe could be joined to the first. This second section had already been lifted into position within the derrick above and now it was swiftly connected by a flush collar tightened by a powerful electric wrench. This same procedure was methodically repeated. Section after section of pipe was strung together and lowered into the ocean.