chances of escaping a second time will be nil, he thought. But it did not sway him.
“Sorry, but I am going. You stay safe here.”
“But you have been wounded. You might not be up to it,” Carmen said.
Andrew had been dimly aware of the throbbing ache but had actually forgotten. Now he bent to look, fingering the rent in his wetsuit. “Am I bleeding?” he asked.
Carmen leaned forward and examined the back of his thigh and both buttocks. “No, not really,” she admitted.
“Then it can’t be too serious,” Andrew said. He was worried but equally was determined not to let his injuries prevent him finding out.
“But you could cause some permanent damage,” Carmen said.
Seeing the distress in his sister’s face caused Andrew to weaken for a moment but then he shook his head. “Too bad! I will worry about it when I get back.”
“Oh Andrew, please don’t!” Carmen pleaded.
“It will be alright, sis. I know what I am up against now. I will hide against the reef and just watch from a distance. Don’t worry. I will be gone about an hour,” he said.
“But it is unsafe. Divers should always dive with a buddy,” Carmen said.
Andrew nodded. “I know, but in this case the risk must be run. Sorry, I am going, and you can’t stop me,” he said.
“If you must,” Carmen answered. She bowed her head and let out a sigh, then clenched her teeth and looked directly at him. “You take care then,” she said.
Andrew felt a rush of affection for her. “I will. You dig a hidey hole and relax. If you want something to do keep a lookout out to sea there for periscopes,” he said.
“Periscopes?”
“Yes. That sub won’t just navigate by sonar in amongst all these reefs. They will want some visual references too,” Andrew explained. At the back of his mind was his own experience but also a comment he had heard about how hard it was to navigate safely through the outer reefs when the tide was up and there were no large breakers to mark the coral from the openings.
“OK,” Carmen replied. “I guess those crooks will be in radio contact with it.”
“Yes, but not much. They wouldn’t want their transmissions to be picked up by the wrong people, like our navy or Coastwatch. Now stay down and rest. I will be back,” Andrew said.
With that he set off crawling on hands and knees around the north side of the sand cay. As he did several sharp pains shot through his right leg and buttocks but he gritted his teeth and ignored it.
I will worry about that later, he thought.
As he reached the edge of the water again Andrew turned and looked back. He saw Carmen watching him and she gave a small wave but looked very drawn and anxious.
I should be worried too, Andrew thought. But to his own surprise he just felt determined. I will make sure these murdering mongrels pay, he vowed.
Pausing behind the last of the sand rise Andrew spat in his face mask and rinsed it then pulled it on. Then he checked his air. 165psi. That should last half an hour or so, he thought.
Then he paused to study the sea out to the east. Even from right down at water level he was able to pick out the darker water of the Boat Passage and the distant wrecks on Longbow Reef. There was a light chop ruffling the ocean.
That will make it hard to spot a periscope, he thought.
Seeing none he placed his regulator in his mouth and slid forward into the water, crawling and pulling himself along using his hands until the water was deep enough to swim. Then he began to fin, taking care to avoid scraping or bumping the coral as much as he could. The shoals of brightly coloured fish that flitted away he barely noticed. Even a small octopus that he would normally have cringed away from Andrew just noted and ignored.
Not a blue ringed. It won’t bother me, he told himself.
As he made his way east across the now flooded reef Andrew tried to use the remaining coral outcrops as cover to observe from. At each one he selected the next one he wanted to hide behind and then swam to it and carefully surfaced. Each time he remained as low as he could and with most of his head hidden behind the coral. And each time he noted the position of the game fishing boat.
It isn’t moving. It must be anchored or moored to that net arrangement somehow, he decided. A check of his watch showed it was 1050. Ten minutes to the top of the tide. If I was in a sub I’d want to use the slack water to get in and out, he thought. That told him to get a move on as he had about five hundred metres to swim.
Andrew went under and finned fast east. He noted that there was now almost no current and that many more fish were in evidence. Ahead of him he saw the colour change and he knew he was reaching the seaward edge of the reef. Having swum along it only an hour before he knew what to expect he did not waste time but swam straight out over the edge and turned right. Then he went down to five metres to get out of the surface disturbance and began swimming as fast as he could.
I don’t need to go any deeper, he told himself.
That would only give safety and decompression problems. As he swam he hugged the side of the reef. Every couple of strokes he looked in all directions. But now he was not thinking of sharks or gropers. In the front of his mind was that deadly powerhead striking the back of Tristan’s skull. Fear made him very alert and very cautious.
The sand of the seabed was only about five more metres below him and out to his left, extending to the limit of visibility was the slowly shelving sand of the large triangular area between the Challenger Channel and the Boat Passage. That area was much too shallow for a submerged submarine to operate in and Andrew was pretty sure that the vessel would not surface in daylight.
Too much risk of being seen by one of our Coastwatch or surveillance planes if it did, he thought. There would be no point in using a sub in that case. It will come in submerged along the Boat Passage.
He also surmised that the sub would probably not even surface at night but would use a snorkel to recharge its air and batteries.
It must be an old diesel. No navy is going to lose even an old nuclear powered boat, he decided. His compass warned him when he began changing direction to southwest. I am rounding the southeast corner of the reef. Almost there. I had better go slowly, he told himself.
So he slowed down and began to hunch in crevices while he scanned the water ahead. Then he moved a few metres to the next one and repeated the process. His watch told him it was 1100—the top of the tide.
Can’t be much further, he thought.
And it wasn’t. As he peeked around the next coral outcrop Andrew saw dark shapes ahead and fear sent him close in against the seaweed and coral. At first he could not make out what he was seeing, but then the distinct shape of a diver showed against the lighter shade of the sand. That sight sent a stab of pure terror coursing through Andrew and he began to breathe fast and tensed, ready to flee.
But the diver was busy working and obviously had not seen him. The man was about fifty metres away and he appeared to have a long hose and was at the corner of a dark triangular object that was getting bigger and spreading on the sea floor. Then a large, dark spherical shape began to rise and as it did the hazy triangular thing went up with it. Then Andrew understood what he was looking at.
It is that net. They are using the winches to spread it out along those steel wires using the pulley blocks and now they are raising the corners of the net with air bags, he noted.
Then he saw a darker shape off to his right and saw that it was the back of the net. It was being winched up to where the game fishing boat was just visible as a dark shadow on the silver ripples.
They have