Coincidence - Alan May [71]
Jim Oliver.
Jim never made a call that wasn’t necessary. And if he had news about what was happening with those kids—and even the teachers were barely more than kids—out in the middle of the ocean, well, the strategies on Markman’s tedious charts might be moot anyway.
Rob stood up, held up a hand to stanch the flow of Markman’s verbiage, apologized for the interruption, and took the call.
28
Kathleen Tutty set down the telephone yet again, dumped out her second cup of coffee gone cold, and poured herself a fresh cup. It had begun to seem as though the BWA office had turned into a news clearinghouse, and she herself into a mere conduit of information. Already this morning she had talked to Mac, who had told her the wonderful saga of Pierre’s rope descent onto the Coincidence.
“Like a lemur he was, scuttlin’ doon the towline,” was how he described it. “I’d not seen anythin’ like it since I was in Madagascar.”
That they had managed to get the second walkie-talkie over and now had regular communication between the two boats was a godsend, the first glimmer of hope that a safe resolution might be achievable.
Kathleen had immediately called Edward Flynn, who was on his way back from South Africa, and Jim Oliver, now in Washington, to tell them the news. Jim had in turn called Rob Montgomery, reaching him right in the middle of his meeting.
Within ten minutes, Rob was on the line to Kathleen, outlining the plan that those at the meeting had agreed upon given the change in circumstances, a variation on Flipper Markman’s option 2B:1.
Kathleen was to decide on a code word and let Mac know what it was when he called her next. Mac would then wait for Dave to call him on the walkie-talkie (they had agreed that it was too risky for Mac to initiate any calls) and tell him the code word, which Dave would then relay to the captain. When the captain gave Kathleen his routine report, he would listen for the code word. If he heard it, he would know the time was right to put the plan into action.
When the Coast Guard cutter Serendipity reached the vicinity, Mac would sever the towline and set the Coincidence adrift as soon as night fell, trying to get about fifty miles from the Inspiration before dawn. In the morning, the hijackers would realize their boat was gone, stop, and turn around. If all went as expected, they would launch the dinghy, most likely with three men in it, and set out to find the Coincidence. The Coast Guard cutter would intercept and apprehend them while the Inspiration crew subdued the three men left onboard.
“What we need you to find out is what the injured man’s condition is now,” Rob said. “That way we can determine whether the doctor can immobilize him easily. We also need to know the size, capacity, and range of the dinghy, and whether there are any weapons—or items that might be used as weapons—on board the Inspiration.”
“I can give you the specs on the dinghy right now,” Kathleen replied, opening the left middle drawer of her file cabinet.
“Let’s see … the Inspiration is equipped with a sixteen-foot hard-bottomed Zodiac. It’s got a fifty-hp Yamaha motor, and can travel up to about twenty knots. As for weapons, they are strictly banned on all BWA vessels. But there have been occasions, now and then, when someone has brought one aboard anyway. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had one of those scofflaws this time! Anyway, I’ll see what I can learn about that and about the injured man and let you know.”
Kathleen stood up and stretched her arms over head, allowing a tiny sliver of optimism to penetrate her defenses. She’d been trying to stay calm, stay focused, to do what needed to be done, without dwelling on what was going on in the Pacific. She’d found that the best way to ward off complete despair was, paradoxically, not to feel too optimistic about it either but to erect a