Exodus - Leon Uris [99]
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Major.”
Brigadier Sutherland was beginning to catch on. He looked from the tug to Parker and to Alistair and he knew that the Mossad Aliyah Bet had caught him unprepared. He flushed. Major Cooke, the Kyrenia area commander, reported. “We’ll have boarding parties formed in ten minutes, sir. Two hundred men and we’ll commandeer some trawlers here to take them out.” Sutherland did not even hear him.
“Where is the loud-speaker, damn it all!”
Ten minutes later Sutherland grabbed a microphone. A silence fell over the harbor. The boarding parties stood by to go out into the middle of the harbor after the Exodus.
“Hello, out there! This is Brigadier Bruce Sutherland, the commander of Cyprus, speaking,” his voice shot out in a series of echoes. “Can you hear me out there?”
In the wheelhouse of the Exodus, Ari Ben Canaan opened his public-address system. “Hello, Sutherland,” he said, “this is Captain Caleb Moore of the 23rd Transportation Company, His Majesty’s Jewish Forces on Cyprus. You can find your lorries up at St. Hilarion.”
Sutherland turned pale. Alistair’s mouth dropped open.
“Hello, out there!” Sutherland’s voice snapped angrily. “We are going to give you ten minutes to return to dockside. If you do not we are going to send out a heavily armed boarding party and bring you back.”
“Hello, Sutherland! This is the Exodus speaking. We have three hundred and two children aboard this boat. Our engine rooms are loaded with dynamite. If one of your troops sets foot on this boat or if one round is fired from any of your guns we are going to blow ourselves up!”
At that instant Mark Parker’s story was being cabled from London to every corner of the world.
Sutherland, Alistair, and the five hundred British soldiers on the quay stood speechless as a flag was run up on the mast of the Exodus. It was a British Union Jack and in its center was painted a huge Nazi swastika.
The battle of the Exodus was on!
Chapter Thirty
EXCLUSIVE! DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH: MODEL 1946
BY AMERICAN NEWS SYNDICATE CORRESPONDENT
MARK PARKER
KYRENIA, CYPRUS: (ANS)
I am writing this story from Kyrenia. It is a tiny, jewel-like harbor on the northern coast of the British Crown Colony of Cyprus.
Cyprus has been rich in the pageantry of history. The island is filled with reminders of its vaunted past, from the ruins of Salamis to the cathedrals of Famagusta and Nicosia to the many castles of Crusader glory.
But none of this colorful history can match for sheer naked drama the scene that is being played at this very moment in this quiet, unknown resort town. For some months Cyprus has been a detention center for Jewish refugees who have tried to run the British blockade into Palestine.
Today, three hundred children between the ages of ten and seventeen escaped the British camp at Caraolos in an as-yet-undetermined manner, and fled across the island to Kyrenia where a converted salvage tug of about two hundred tons awaited them for a dash to Palestine.
Almost all the escapees were graduates of German concentration and extermination camps. The salvage tug, fittingly renamed the Exodus, was discovered by British Intelligence before it could get out of the harbor.
With its three hundred refugees the ship is sitting at anchor in the center of the harbor, which measures a mere three hundred yards in diameter, and has defied all British efforts to have the children debark and return to Caraolos.
A spokesman for the Exodus has announced that the hold of the boat is filled with dynamite. The children have joined in a suicide pact and they will blow up the boat if the British attempt to board her.
LONDON
General Sir Clarence Tevor-Browne dropped the copy of the newspaper on his desk. He lit a cigar and studied the reports. Mark Parker’s story was creating a sensation not only in Europe but in the United States. Tevor-Browne had a request for instructions from Sutherland, who refused to take the responsibility of issuing an order to board the Exodus.
Tevor-Browne knew that part of the blame was his. He