Bloody Passage - Jack Higgins [38]
Barzini reappeared after a couple of hours with a mug of coffee. "You get some rest now. I'll take over for a while."
"All right," I said.
He moved past me to take the wheel and I gave him the course. He said, "What in the hell goes on?"
"I haven't the slightest idea. The only thing I'm certain of is that Stavrou hasn't told us everything. That's why Langley was slipped in at the last moment. If it hadn't been for the Arabic thing they'd have come up with some equally valid excuse."
"What about the girl?"
I put him in the picture there. Told him everything including the bit about the Uzi in the bulkhead flap.
"I see," he said. "You think if she tells him about that he'll think she's doing a good job?"
"Something like that."
"Can we trust her?"
"I don't know. She knows about the Stechkin as well, remember."
"I see. She tells him about the Uzi, but doesn't tell him about the Stechkin, means she's on our side?" He shook his head. "How will you know? Langley wouldn't be fool enough to take them. Not at this stage of the game."
"Exactly, so we wait and see. I'm going to get some sleep now. Wake me in three hours and I'll take another turn at the wheel."
I opened the door, moved along the heaving deck, head down against the rain and went below.
I slept in the aft cabin and when I awakened it was almost three o'clock. Simone was fast asleep on the other bunk covered by a blanket, her face calm and untroubled.
Nino and Angelo, I knew, were bunking forward and when I went into the saloon, Langley was lying on one of the bench seats. He seemed to be asleep although I couldn't be sure. Not that it mattered and I went up the companionway softly.
There was quite a sea and cold spray stung my face as I moved along the deck and opened the wheelhouse door. Barzini was standing at the wheel, a cheroot between his teeth. The smell was terrible and I opened a window.
"Don't say it," he told me cheerfully. "I don't know how I stand it myself."
"Years of practice," I said. "What's the situation?"
"Dead on course and making good time. There's been a sea running for about half an hour now. Nothing to worry about. I tried getting a weather report, but there was too much radio interference. Electric storm somewhere out there."
Lightning flickered on the horizon. I eased past him and took the wheel. "I'll spell you again in three or four hours," he said and went out.
I sat there feeling the wheel kick in my hands and outside the wind scattered the rain in silver cobwebs through the navigation lights. It was all rather pleasant. The world, the outside world, in a manner of speaking, had ceased to exist.
It was perhaps a couple of hours later that the door opened softly and Simone came in with a tray. I could smell coffee and something more. The delicious scent of fried bacon.
"Now what are you trying to do, spoil me?"
She put the tray down on the chart table, pulled out a stool and sat down. I helped myself to one of the bacon sandwiches. "I hear you and Langley had your heads together earlier."
"That's right."
"Did you mention the Uzi?"
She nodded. "I told him that I saw you checking it through the window of the wheelhouse."
"And what did he have to say to that?"
"Nothing much." She shrugged. "He said he'd take care of it and told me to keep my eyes open for anything else out of the ordinary."
There was a light on the horizon to starboard.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Malta," I said. "St. George's Head light."
"And how far have we to go?"
"From our starting point to Cape Misratah on the Libyan coast is about three hundred and twenty miles."
I think she'd asked the question more for something to say than anything else. For a while she sat there in silence while I finished the sandwiches and then said with some slight hesitation, "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you something."
"All right," I said.