Wilbur Smith's Smashing Thrillers (64 page)

‘
I am the daughter of a sailor, if there was
danger I would understand it. I am happy to go myself and take my son
with me.
’

The judge nodded, looked down at the papers on his desk for a
moment.

‘
As I understand the circumstances, Mr. Teacher, it is common ground that
the mother has custody?
’

‘
That is so, my lord. But the father is the
child's guardian.
’

‘
I'm fully aware of that, thank you
,’
he snapped
acidly.
He paused again before resuming in the measured tones of judgement,
‘
We
are concerned here exclusively with the welfare and safety of the child.
It has been shown that the proposed journey will be made during the
holidays and that no loss of schooling will result.
On the other hand, I do not believe that the petitioner has shown that
there exists reasonable doubts about the safety of the vessel on which
the voyage will be made. It seems to be a modern and sophisticated
ship. To grant the petition would, in my view, be placing unreasonable
restraint on the child's mother.
’
He swivelled in his chair to face
Nicholas and James Teacher.
‘
I regret, therefore, that I see
insufficient grounds to accede to your petition.
’

In
the back seat of
James Teacher's Bentley, the little lawyer murmured apologetically.
‘
He was right, of course, Nicholas. I would have done the same in his
place. These domestic squabbles are always
–‘

Nicholas was not
listening.
‘
What would happen if I picked up Peter and took him to
Bermuda or the States?
’

‘
Abduct him?
’
James Teacher's voice shot up an
octave, and he caught Nicholas arm with genuine alarm
.
‘
I beg of you,
dismiss the thought. They would have the police waiting for you
-
God!
’
Now he wriggled miserably in his seat.
‘
I can't bear to think of what
might happen. Apart from getting you sent to gaol, your former wife
might even get an order restraining you from seeing your boy again, she
could get guardianship away from you. If you did that, you could lose
the child, Nicholas. Don't do it. Please don't do it!
’

Now he patted
Nicholas arm ingratiatingly.
’
You'd be playing right into their hands.
’
And then with relief he switched his attention to the briefcase on his
lap.

‘
Can we read through the latest draft of the agreement of sale again?
’
he
asked,
‘
We haven't got much time, you know.
’
Then, without waiting for a
reply, he began on the preamble to the agreement which would transfer
all the assets and liabilities of Ocean Salvage and Towage to the
Directors of the Bank of the East, as nominees for parties unnamed.

Nicholas slumped in the far corner of the seat, and stared thoughtfully
out of the window as the Bentley crawled in the traffic stream out of
the Strand, around Trafalgar Square with it wheeling clouds of pigeons
and milling throngs of tourists, swung into the Mall and accelerated
down the long straight towards the Palace.

‘
I want you to stall them
,’
Nicholas said suddenly, and Teacher broke off
in the middle of a sentence and stared at him distractedly.

‘
I beg your pardon?
’

‘
I want you to find a way to stall the Sheikhs.
’

‘
Good
God, man.
’
James Teacher was utterly astounded.
‘
It's taken me nearly a month - four hard weeks to get them ripe to sign
,’
his voice choked a little at the memory of the long hours of
negotiation.
‘
I've written every line of the agreement in my own blood.
’

‘
I need to have control of my
tugs, I need to be free to act-‘

‘
Nicholas,
we are talking about seven million dollars.
’

‘
We are talking about my
son
,’
said Nicholas quietly.
‘
Can you stall them?
’

‘
Yes, of course I can, if that's what you truly
want.
’
Wearily James Teacher closed the file on his lap.
‘
How long?
’

‘
Six
weeks - long enough for Golden Dawn to finish her maiden voyage, one way
or the other.
’

‘
You realize that this may blow the whole deal, don't you
?’

‘
Yes, I realize that.
’

‘
And you realize also that there isn't another
buyer?
’

‘
Yes.
’

They were silent then, until the Bentley pulled up before
the Bank building in Curzon Street, and they stepped out on to the
pavement
.

‘
Are you absolutely certain?
’
Teacher asked softly
.

‘
Just do it
,’
Nicholas replied, and the doorman held the bronze and glass doors open
for them.

Bermuda asserted its calming influence over Nicholas the moment he
stepped out of the aircraft into its comfortable
w
arm
th and clean,
glittering sunlight. Bernard Wackie's gorgeous burnt-honey-coloured
secretary was there to welcome him. She wore a thin cotton dress the
colour of
freshly cut pineapple and a flashing white smile.

‘
Mr. Wackie's waiting for you at the Bank, sir.
’

‘
Are you out of your
mind, Nicholas?
’
Bernard greeted him.
‘
Jimmy Teacher tells me you blew
the Arabs out of the window. Tell me it's not true, please tell me it's
not true.
’

‘
Oh, come on, Bernard,
’
Nicholas shook his head and patted him
consolingly on the shoulder,
‘your com
mission would only have been a
lousy point seven million, anyway.
’

‘
Then you did it!
’
Bernard wailed,
and tried to pull his hand out of Nicholas grip.
‘
You screwed it all up.
’

‘
The Sheikhs have been screwing us up for over a month, Bernie baby. I
just gave them a belt of the same medicine, and do you know what? They
loved it. The Prince sat up and showed real interest for the first
time. For the first time we were speaking the same language. They'll
still be around six weeks from now.
’

‘
But why? I don't understand.
J
ust
explain to me why you did it.
’

‘
Let's go into the plot, and I'll explain
it to you.
’

I
n the plot Nicholas stood over the perspex map of the
oceans of the globe, and studied it carefully for fully five minutes
without speaking.

‘
That's Sea Witch's latest position, she's making good passage.
’

The green plastic disc that bore the tug's number was set in
mid-Atlantic.

‘
She reported two hours ago
,’
Bernie nodded, and then with professional
interest,
‘
How did her sea trials go off?
’

‘
There were the usual wrinkles
to iron out, that's what kept me in St Nazaire so long.
But we got them straight and Jules has fallen in love with her.
’

‘
He's
still the best skipper in the game.
’

But already Nicholas
’
attention had
switched halfway across the world.

‘Warlock's still in Mauriti
us!
’
his voice snapped like a whip.

‘
I had to fly out a new armature for the main generator.
It was just bad luck that she broke down in that God-forsaken part of
the world.
’

‘
When will she be ready for sea?
’

‘
Allen promises noon
tomorrow. Do you want to telex him for an update on that?
’

‘
Later.
’
Nicholas wet the tip of a cheroot carefully, without taking his eyes off
the plot, calculating distances and currents and speeds.

‘
Golden Dawn? he asked, and lit the cheroot while he listened to
Bernard's reply.

‘
Her pod tanks arrived under tow at the new Orient Amex depot on El
Barras three weeks ago.
’
Bernie picked
u
p the pointer and touched the
upper bight of the deep Persian Gulf . They took on their full cargoes
of crude and lay inshore to await Golden Dawn's arrival.
’

For a moment,
Nicholas contemplated the task of towing those four gigantic pod tanks
from Japan to the Gulf, and then he discarded the thought and listened
to Bernard.

‘
Golden Dawn arrived last Thursday and, according to my agent at El
Barras, she coupled up with her pod tanks and made her turn around
within three hours.
’
Bernard slid the tip of the pointer southwards down
the eastern coast of the African continent.
‘
I have had no report of her
since then, but if she makes good her twenty-two knots, then she'll be
somewhere off the coast of Mozambique, or Maputo as they call it now,
and she should double the Cape within the next few days. I will have a
report on her then, she'll be taking on mail as she passes Cape Town.
’

‘
And passengers
,’
said Nicholas grimly; he knew that Peter and Chantelle
were in Cape Town already. He had telephoned the boy the night before
and Peter had been wildly elated at the prospect of the voyage on the
ultra
-
tanker.

‘
It's going to be tremendous fun, Dad
,’
his voice cracking with the onset
of both excitement and puberty.
‘
We'll be flying out to the ship in a
helicopter.
’

Bernard Wackie changed the subject, now picking up a sheaf
of telex flimsies and thumbing swiftly through them.

‘Right,
I've confirmed the standby contract for Sea Witch.
’

Nicholas nodded, the contract was for Jules Levoisin and the new tug to
stand by three offshore working rigs, standard exploration rigs, that
were drilling in the Florida Bay, that elbow of shallow water formed by
the sweep of the Florida Keys and the low swampy morass of the
Everglades,
‘
It's ridiculous to use a twenty-two-thousand-horsepower
ocean-going tug as an oil rig standby
,’
Bernard lowered the file, and
could no longer contain his irritation,
‘
Jules is going to go bananas
sitting around playing nursemaid. You are going to have a mutiny on
your hands - and you'll be losing money. The daily hire won't cover
your direct costs.
’