Ridley rocked back and forth as if sitting still was impossible. He shook his head. He seemed ready to explode. “I never should have—”
“But you did.”
Ahab glared at the traitor; he’d been waiting for his second thoughts and pangs of regret to come pouring out. He was surprised it had taken this long.
Ridley stood angrily and then grabbed a coat. “I’m going to have a smoke.”
As Ridley made his way to the back stairway, Ahab returned his attention to the video screen. To his utter disbelief, Kurt Austin had just walked into the room.
Chapter 31
Kurt stepped into the crowded bar feeling far more at home than the Chinese. He’d spent half his life in busy seaports and harbor towns. This was his kind of crowd, even if they mostly spoke another language.
He made a slow pass through the place, just watching and listening. It didn’t take long to spot all the players. The Russians were in one corner, blending nicely, but talking a bit too loud. The Chinese sat on the far side of the room, sticking out more obviously despite their civilian clothes. There wasn’t a large Asian population in Norway.
Kurt saw only two of them, and not the man he was looking for. Turning, he located Gushan standing at the bar with his back to the crowd.
Kurt went right toward him, noticing a tumbler of whiskey on the counter as he arrived. “Interesting place for the People’s Liberation Army Navy to make an unscheduled liberty call,” he said, parking himself beside Gushan at the bar.
Gushan didn’t budge. He’d seen Kurt approaching in the mirror. He’d been expecting him to show up one way or another ever sincethe woundedLyrahad managed to limp into port. If there was going to be a confrontation, this seemed as good a place as any.
“We’ve heard good things about the waters,” he said, doing his best to borrow a line from the American filmCasablanca. Kurt had quoted it several times when they’d been hunting the ecoterrorist Ahab. He’d sent Gushan a link to watch it while he recovered from his wounds in the hospital. Gushan had watched it several times, considering it a window into the American mindset and trying his best to keep up with the snappy English dialogue.
“You were misinformed,” Kurt said, following along. “The waters here are frozen.”
“So it would appear,” Gushan replied.
“I saved your life once,” Kurt said directly. “How thoughtful of you to repay me by trying to sink my ship and drown my crew.”
Gushan’s jaw clenched. He refused to look Kurt’s way, staring straight ahead. “We saw your ship enter the harbor,” he said. “It seems to have had a terrible accident. I must congratulate you on saving it and bringing it safely to port.”
“The damage was no accident,” Kurt said. “Someone put three iron fish into our side. Fish that were made in China. Know anything about them?”
Gushan stared at his nearly empty glass. “Only that four of them would have done more damage than three.”
Kurt considered the information. He hadn’t thought about it at the time, but it made little sense to use the first penetrator to take out the sonar sled. Sink the ship and you’ve dealt with the sled as well. It was a wasted round. A well-placed and purposefully wasted round. One he now assumed had been misaimed by Gushan. Gushan had pulled his punch. TheLyrawouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t.
Kurt nodded slowly.So now they were even.
The bartender came into sight. Kurt pointed to Gushan’s glassand held up two fingers. The bartender retrieved a bottle and poured the drinks.
“It is fortunate,” Kurt said, continuing their conversation. “For both our sakes. Your ship has been tracked by an American Seawolf attack sub since the moment you left the ice field. Had we gone down, they would have blasted you from the sea within a matter of minutes.”
Kurt had no idea if this was true. But it made for a good bluff.
Gushan nodded, accepting the dangerous reality stoically. He didn’t doubt it for a second. “So the guardrails are off,” he said, turning to Kurt at last.
Kurt stared at his old friend. Willing him against all odds to be reasonable. “Let’s talk about putting them back on.”
—
As Kurt spoke to Gushan, Joe waited outside in a large orange vehicle outfitted with knobby tires and cold-weather gear. The Big Orange Rig, as the NUMA team called it, was designed to go off-road in the backcountry; handling terrain no regular four-by-four could take.
It was painted the color of a lifeboat, carried the NUMA logo on both the side and the roof, and sprouted no less than four antennas, each for a different radio system or sensor. It was not exactly inconspicuous, but it was the only vehicle available to take off the ship and Kurt was more interested in making an entrance than sneaking up on anyone at this point.
While Joe understood the advantage of being obvious, he was a little wary of lingering in the machine while it sat in the parking lot. He kept his head on a swivel, checking the lot around him, using the mirrors and the vehicle’s multiple cameras. It wasn’t long before he noticed two people sneaking toward him. They came across the lotand up to the passenger side of the vehicle. One of them banged on the door.
A dark face appeared beyond the tinted glass. A second face huddled next to it, a little lower.
