Passage by Night - Jack Higgins [62]
'To the buoy? But how will they detonate it? She said they wouldn't even be here when it happened.'
'Radio beam from the boat's transmitter. Detonate it electronically from fifty or sixty miles away.' Viner shook his head, an expression of puzzlement on his face. 'What a way to go after all these years. Is there an answer, Harry?'
'Have a cigarette,' Manning said. He lit one quickly but as he took it from his mouth, the German's eyes closed and all that was left of life escaped from his body in a gentle sigh.
When Manning turned, Orlov and Morrison were standing in the entrance. 'Did you get all that?'
Morrison nodded. 'One thing puzzles me. He said they'd gone under the reef. What did he mean?'
They turned and went up on deck. 'I know this place well,' Manning said. 'They call the reef "The Cathedral." It stretches for several miles to the south. A great passage cuts through for about three hundred yards, arched like a nave. On the other side in the channel, the reef slopes for a while and then goes down deeper than I've ever been.'
They jumped for the deck of the Grace Abounding and started to strip.
'How long do you figure it'll take us to get round to the other side in the boat?' Morrison demanded.
'At least a half hour, it's tricky navigating,' Manning said. 'We'll be quicker if we go after them through the reef. Seth can take the boat round the long way and pick us up at the buoy.'
Seth brought the aqualungs up on deck quickly and they struggled into them. One of Manning's straps twisted at the back. He tried to reach it and failed and Anna came across.
As he tightened his chest strap, she did the same for him at the sides. She picked up his diving mask and handed it to him. Her face was quite calm, the eyes steady. For a moment only, her fingers touched his and stayed there, and then she turned and joined her father who had come up on deck and now stood beside the wheelhouse with Seth.
Manning and Morrison had a spear gun each and Orlov had lashed one of the spare harpoons to the end of a six-foot boat hook, making it into a crude spear.
When they were ready, Manning nodded to Seth. 'Allowing for the mist, you should reach the buoy in about a half hour. We'll see you there.'
There was somehow a comfort in making such a definite statement and he went over the rail quickly and sank down into the cold waters.
In the dawn light, the sea was a place for grey-green shadows and he waited for the others and then swam forward into a milky phosphorescent mist. The current sucked them in towards the reef and he dived with a quick flick of his fins, sliding smoothly down towards the great arched opening they called The Nave.
It stretched into infinity, light slanting through the coral, shading already into different colours, adding to the illusion that they were swimming through some great submerged cathedral.
There was as yet no sign of their quarry, but already the water was beginning to change colour and a few minutes later, he was aware of the turbulence of conflicting currents and they passed out into the channel.
When he surfaced, he saw the buoy at once, a red blob in the sea some three hundred yards away. He took a quick fix with compass and submerged again. Morrison and the Russian were waiting for him and he waved them on and took the lead.
The sea change was startling. Already, the greyness was fading and the range of visibility through the clear green water was excellent. The reef slanted away beneath them to the left and he moved on through that strange, silent world, fish scattering to avoid him.
He saw them as if through the wrong end of a telescope, and yet quite clearly. The chain of the buoy dropping down to the sloping surface of the reef, the five figures grouped around it just below the surface.
He moved on at