Coincidence - Alan May [79]
The first, Rob told Kathleen, was to have the Coast Guard cutter—the Serendipity it was called—that was already on course for the area continue and intercept the Coincidence at sea.
“We’re all pretty much agreed, given their current position, that the hijackers are going to aim for Easter Island. The Air Force is getting ready to do another flyover ASAP to determine the exact position of the Coincidence, and to make sure the Inspiration is still afloat.”
Kathleen winced. The thought that the Inspiration might not be afloat had not entered her mind.
“Of course there’s some risk to the hostages in confronting and challenging the Coincidence in the water. And we don’t know how the hijackers will respond if they see the Serendipity approaching them.
“Even so, we’re thinking this is less risky than the second option, which is to wait until the hijackers reach their destination and then overtake them once they’ve docked. For one thing, as soon as they’ve gotten to Easter Island, the hostages—”
Rob broke off, uncertain of how to put this without unduly alarming Kathleen. Unduly? How the devil could any amount of alarm be considered undue now? Still, he groped for the words to use.
“As long as they’re at sea, the hostages are useful, especially the doctor. Even though at last report Stefano was improving and is probably over the worst, he’s still getting the intravenous fluids and meds, and there’s always a chance something could go wrong. They’ll want to have the doctor around as long as possible.
“But once they come ashore, the hostages will become more of a liability than an advantage for the hijackers. They have no idea that the Inspiration has been able to get the word out about the whole affair, so they’ll have no reason to believe that anyone on Easter Island will be on the lookout for them. If the hostages decided to act up in any way … Our guess is that they’ll decide they’re better off if they don’t have the hostages with them.”
Kathleen let out a small gasp.
“Then, too,” Rob went on quickly, “Vogler—he’s the State Department guy—he pointed out that if we approach them on Easter Island we’ll have to involve the Chilean officials and that might lead to all kinds of jurisdictional problems.
“And, since the Serendipity is the only ship in the area, we’re thinking it’s best to keep it as close as possible to the Inspiration, just in case they need any help there, rather than sending it all the way to Easter Island.”
Assuming that those on the Inspiration were still alive enough to need help, Kathleen thought.
“At any rate,” Rob said, “the Air Force will be flying over and taking photos soon. They’ll try to establish communication somehow with your ship so we can tell them what the plan is. We’ll just have to sit tight until then, right?”
Right.
34
It was all a matter of balance. Captain Luke Marzynski had logged almost two hundred thousand miles in his sailing career; sailing without a rudder had been one of the first lessons he had learned. On a ship the size of the Inspiration, you couldn’t fine-tune the adjustments, but it was perfectly possible to sail effectively in the right general direction. It was all a question of balance, of the set of the sails.
“So the first thing is to raise the inner jib and the main staysail,” he told Mac. “That’ll get us moving in the right direction. Then we’ll hoist the mainsail. Just keep moving it in and out, in and out, to find the balance.”
“What about the square sails?” Mac asked.
“Right. Easter Island is almost due west, and the prevailing wind is from the east, so we can use the square sails as well. Raise both the upper and lower topsails.”
It felt good to be in command again.