But he wasn’t quiet sure why the murderers had done it or how it was to be used although he had a few suspicions.
Off to his left front a hundred metres away was the start of the bathtub shaped depression that led northeast as the deep part of the Boat Passage. Even as Andrew looked at it a dark shape began to materialize out of the blue background. The sight sent shivers of apprehension through Andrew because whatever it was it was big.
Is that the sub? Andrew wondered.
He thought it was and it was what he was expecting to see but he wasn’t sure. But then his ears confirmed that the distant object was man made. The noise of a rotating propeller carried through the water to him. Fearful lest he be detected by some means he squeezed right in among the coral and tried to slow his breathing.
And then the shape was right there, close to the net and he was sure.
It is the sub! he told himself.
Chapter 6
CUNNING BASTARDS!
As the submarine crept into view Andrew stared in amazement. This was a real submarine, not some midget made by drug runners. It was at least seventy metres long and even in the gloom of the water he could make out details like torpedo tubes and openings for flooding the casing. The sub had a conning tower and the top of this was almost breaking the surface. It had its periscope up.
They will be using their periscope to keep a bearing on the fishing boat, he thought. And they will be in radio communication with it.
Over such a short distance he knew that there was very little risk of a low power VHF radio transmission carrying very far.
They might even have underwater radios so they can talk to those divers.
Andrew was no expert on submarines. Both he and Carmen had done surface tours of RAN submarines, but he had never been in one when it was dived. Nor did he want to be. Long ago he had acknowledged he was too much of a coward for that. One result of not being interested in them was that he had never bothered to study the different types. All he could decide now was that it looked longer and different from the RAN submarines.
It has a row of windows on the conning tower, he noted with amazement.
He could not tell if the windows were pressure resistant for people inside to look through when the submarine was dived but decided not to take the risk. He stayed huddled in against the coral.
The submarine came to a standstill. Several times spurts of bubbles erupted from holes along the lower side of the hull.
They must be blowing ballast to maintain depth, Andrew thought.
He knew that submarines could attain negative buoyancy in the same way as divers. He had also read that they could settle on the bottom if it was suitable. But he also suspected that a vessel that large would have difficulty keeping position if it did not have steerage way on.
The bow of the submarine was at least a hundred and fifty metres away and its stern stretched back to be almost invisible in the blue gloom. It was stationary over the last part of the deep section of the Boat Passage. Andrew watched intently, keeping an eye on the nearest diver who remained holding the corner of the net.
The net must be there to catch their cargo, Andrew thought. He did not think that the submarine would surface. Too risky and if they were going to do that they would do it in deep water well out from the reefs, he mused.
A minute later he was proved right. There was a humming noise and then a great puff of bubbles erupted from the lowest torpedo tube on his side of the submarine’s bow. A short, stubby projectile shot into view and went spinning through the water. Andrew immediately noted that it was not a proper torpedo.
Too short and it doesn’t appear to have a propeller or control fins, he told himself.
The object had a sphero-conoidal head on a short, cylindrical body. It obviously lacked its own motive power as its course followed a parabolic curve which ended in the net. There was a big puff of sand and silt and Andrew saw the net jerk and billow.
Very tricky! Andrew thought with grudging admiration.
There was another puff of air and a second container shot from another torpedo tube and lobbed into the net. A few seconds later a third and then a fourth followed. Andrew watched, fascinated.
I wonder what is in those projectiles? he thought.
In all six projectiles were spat out by the submarine. All landed in the net. Almost immediately the propeller noises of the submarine increased and Andrew saw it start to slide backwards.
That is it then. He is getting out of here, Andrew decided.
Gripped by the drama of the spectacle Andrew watched, quite forgetting that he was underwater. The submarine reversed for about a hundred metres until he could only just see it as a huge cigar shaped shadow out over the deeper section of the channel. Then the submarine’s image began to change shape, even while still reversing.
Turning to port, Andrew decided.
Within another minute the submarine was side on across the channel. Then its engine note changed and it began to move forward, turning to starboard as it did. Andrew watched with appreciation at the skill involved in that manoeuvre.
I wouldn’t like to try that on the surface with a vessel that large in such a restricted space, he thought.
But he did appreciate that the submarine was well clear of the reef and that if it touched bottom it would only hit sand and would be unlikely to damage itself.
Still, you would not want to be trying to a manoeuvre like that with any sort of current running. I can see why they do it at slack water on the top of the tide, he mused.
Before another minute had passed the submarine had vanished seawards in the gloom. Andrew was able to detect its propeller noises for a few minutes more and then they too were gone.
Well, fancy that! he told himself, amazed by what he had just seen.
Then he remembered to check his dive computer. To his relief he had 115psi of air remaining. Plenty for me to get safely away, he thought.
But he didn’t go. Instead he remained in hiding and watched what the divers were doing. From his Navy Cadet experience he was both able to guess what would happen next and to concede that, as an exercise in seamanship, it was very skilfully done.
The divers swam in and attached a steel cable lowered from the game fishing boat to one of the projectiles. The projectile was then winched up. The whole operation took only a couple of minutes before the object vanished up through the surface.
The cunning bastards! Andrew thought, admitting grudging admiration for the men he both feared and hated.
A poem his English teacher had once taught him flitted through his brain. The villain’s aim was better than his cause and I was hit and hit again! Andrew quoted. He found it deeply irritating and somehow offensive that evil men could also be very capable.
For the next ten minutes, Andrew remained watching. During that time three more of the projectiles were winched up to the game fishing boat. As the fifth was hooked on by the two divers visible Andrew remembered to look at his air pressure. With something of a shock he saw it had dropped to 95psi.
I had better start back, he thought. I know how it is done now and Carmen will be getting worried.
Andrew waited until both the divers that were visible appeared to be engrossed in their work and then he edged out of his crevice and began edging back around the outcrop behind him, hugging the coral as close as he could, eyes on the enemy. That way he made the next