Sea of Fire (41 page)

“Why?” the man asked. His eyes were still shut. He seemed utterly unconcerned.

“What better way to earn our trust than to pose as a virtuous sea captain fighting smugglers? We give that trust, along with safe passage to shore. Then, as soon as you get there, you slip away.”

“The photograph is as mixed up as you are, Mr. Herbert.”

“Then answer the question,” Herbert pressed. “Where and when were you born?”

Loh was watching the man carefully. He did not flinch. Nor did he tell Herbert what he wanted to hear.

“I’ll tell you what,” Herbert said. “You’re a cheap fake and a lowlife smuggler, but I won’t hold that against you. You’re not the guy I want.”

The man said nothing.

“The man I want is Jervis Darling,” Herbert continued. “You give him to me, and you walk.”

The man opened his eyes slightly. “You can’t offer that kind of deal.”

“You don’t deny that Mr. Darling is behind this smuggling operation?” Jelbart asked.

“Mr.
Darling,” the man said with contempt. “You’d call the fallen prince Your Highness,” he suggested.

“Obviously, you do know Darling, then,” Herbert said.

“Only by reputation,” the man replied. He closed his eyes again and settled deeper into the seat.

Loh was surprised. Herbert seemed unusually calm. Like a grand master with a checkmate move that no one else saw.

“You look like the kind of tough monkey who isn’t afraid to face death,” Herbert said. “Much as I’d like to, I won’t threaten to throw you out the helicopter door or anything like that. What I am going to do, however, is change the plan. And since we found you in international waters, I don’t think Warrant Officer Jelbart has the will or authority to object.”

Jelbart nodded. The floor was Herbert’s.

“We are not going to take you to Cairns,” the intelligence officer went on. “We are going to land at Cape Melville where the local police will meet us and hold you. We will turn you over to FNO Loh. When her patrol ship arrives, you will be taken to Singapore, to the military police, and the ultimate justice of the magistrate’s court.”

The man looked at him. “Balls to you,” he replied.

Herbert shrugged. “Suit yourself, tough little monkey. Either way, I get Darling. Pilot? Make the change.”

The pilot looked at Jelbart. The warrant officer nodded.

“We will get the information we want,” Loh added, “because the chief interrogator will have it flogged or drugged from you. The military police have that authority under the Singaporean Nuclear Emergency Response Act of 2002. It defined nuclear trafficking as an act of terrorism. In Singapore, individual rights are suspended when evidence points to imminent deeds of mass destruction.”

Herbert gave her an appreciative look for the added push.

The man opened his eyes. They did not seem quite as relaxed as they were a moment before.

“We’re nearing the coast,” Herbert pressed. “What’s it going to be? Jail here and cooperation, or jail there and electrodes on the earlobes and God knows where else?”

The man looked out the window. The coast was coming into view.

“I’m guessing you’ve been pretty slick till this point,” Herbert said. “But your luck has hit a wall. Trust me.”

The man regarded Herbert. “I won’t go to jail,” he said. “I did not run the ship, and I did not run the operation. I was just a mate.”

“Are you John Hawke?” Herbert asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“What was your job?”

“Security chief,” he answered unapologetically. “I had no contact with sellers or purchasers, and I did not interact with the contraband. Peter Kannaday ran the ship. Jervis Darling ran the operation. His nephew Marcus operated communications and is back there in the water.”

“Those flares?” Loh asked.

“They were fired by Kannaday to sink the dinghies,” Hawke replied. “He wanted to prevent anyone from getting away.”

“Why?” Herbert demanded.

“Because we were told by Jervis Darling to sink the ship,” Hawke said.

“To hide evidence of what?” Herbert asked.

“A nuclear processing laboratory on board,” Hawke replied.

Herbert smiled.

“But I will not repeat any of this for the record if you send me to prison,” Hawke said. “I go free, or you have no testimony.”

“The deal is this,” Herbert told him. “You talk or you go to Singapore. We’ll encourage leniency, but that’s the best you’ll get.”

“That’s not good enough,” Hawke snarled.

“The only other option is to walk out the door right now,” Herbert told him. “Frankly, I think five to ten years with cable TV is a better deal than a long drop into a cold sea.”

Even in the dark, Loh could see Hawke’s expression tighten. He looked as if he wanted to put a fist through Herbert’s chest. But that would get him nothing. He would still have to deal with Loh and Jelbart.

John Hawke’s mouth sagged into a frown. His eyes lost their cruel luster. The slight man lowered himself back into the seat and looked out the window. He appeared to be lost. Herbert was right. This was probably the first time the man had ever been cornered. And it happened without a blow thrown or shot fired. The security chief had been undone by words.

Just words.

Herbert looked as pleased and surprised as Hawke looked sullen.

The sun was beginning to brighten the skies behind the hills as Lowell Coffey waited for the helicopter. The attorney had managed to get a little sleep in the fire station before Hood called to tell him about Captain Kannaday’s rescue. Spider was asleep in the next cot. Coffey stepped into the brisk morning to take the call. When it was done, he breathed in the crisp air.

Washington, D.C., had never tasted like this. Nor Beverly Hills. Both cities were hot and fuel-scented. The only other place the attorney had spent any time was the Middle East. That was dusty and arid.

Queensland was not just soul reviving. It was a treat for the eyes and ears. It was a deep, rich green and silent, save for the occasional bird or cricket and the wind that carried the sound.

“Jesus!”

Coffey jumped when his phone beeped again. He fished it from his belt. It was Bob Herbert, telling him that the helicopter had landed at an air base to refuel. They would be arriving in Cairns by five-thirty. He also wanted to inform Coffey that the man they had on board was not Peter Kannaday.

“It’s a thug named John Hawke, who has confessed to sinking the yacht and helping Jervis Darling smuggle nuclear waste from ship to ship. The yacht even had a processing lab on board.”

“He told you all this on the helicopter?” Coffey asked.

“Right.”

“No attorney?”

“We fished a barracuda from the Coral Sea and used him,” Herbert said. “No, we didn’t have an attorney.”

“And you have no evidence,” Coffey asked.

“No.”

“Then you have no right to hold him,” Coffey replied.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Herbert asked. “We have a shitload of circumstantial evidence.”

“No,” Coffey said. “What you have is a ‘confession’ that he can deny ever having made. Word against word is a hollow legal exercise.”

“Oh, come
on!”
Herbert said. “Four people heard him!”

“Four people can plot,” Coffey said. “They’re no more valid than one, legally. The Rule of Evidence applies here just as it does in the United States. The Evidence Act was amended in 1995 to link it to the Drugs, Poisons, and Controlled Substances Act of 1981.”

“To do what?” Herbert asked. “Protect drug dealers?”

“To preserve justice,” Coffey replied. “Where is Hawke now?”

“He’s still in the helicopter.”

“Smart.”

“What?”

“He wouldn’t want to get out on a military base,” Coffey said. “If he did, you could theoretically hold him for trespassing.”

“Lowell, this is a joke, isn’t it?” Herbert demanded. “You’re pulling my bum leg.”

“Bob, I am completely serious,” Coffey said.

“That’s
not
what I want to hear,” Herbert snapped.

“Sorry. But unless you can get someone who will identify Hawke as an accomplice, you have no reason or right to hold him,” Coffey said. “Until you get to the yacht and locate evidence, until you can connect Hawke to smuggling activities or to the sinking, he’s an innocent man. When you land here, he can demand to be released. And you’ll have to let him go.”

“I don’t believe this,” Herbert said. “The prick played me. He fed me what I wanted to keep from going to Singapore.”

“Is that where you told him you’d take him?” Coffey asked.

Herbert said it was.

“
That,
at least, would have been legal,” Coffey said.

“Wait. What do you mean ‘would have been’?” Herbert asked. “Can’t we still do it?”

“Sure, but it probably won’t do you any good,” Coffey told him.

“Why?”

“You landed in Australia,” Coffey said. “Hawke is Australian. Under international law, that gives the authorities here first crack at him. If you took him to Singapore now, the courts there could not move against him unless Australia first declined to do so.”

“Which they won’t,” Herbert said. “Not if Darling is involved.”

“That’s what your guest is obviously planning on,” Coffey said.

“Shit,” Herbert replied. “We land at the fire station, Hawke walks, Darling helps him get lost, and we don’t have a witness.”

“Except for those people at sea, who probably got no closer to Darling than that koala.”

“I can’t let him go,” Herbert said. “What the hell do I do?”

“You need a witness in order to hold him,” Coffey said. “When is Loh’s patrol boat due there?”

“Any minute,” Herbert said. “But we don’t know what condition the crew will be in or even how many key people survived. So much for words.”

“Excuse me?”

“I took Paul’s advice and talked to Hawke,” Herbert said. “What I should have done was follow my gut.”

“Which told you what?”

“To empty a bullet casing of gunpowder on his tongue and interrogate him with a match,” Herbert said.

“I’m with Paul on that one,” Coffey said.

“I figured.”

“No, Bob. You did the right thing,” Coffey said. “If you had tortured Hawke, he could have landed and had
you
arrested.”

Herbert was silent.

“The more important thing now is, do you think Hawke was telling the truth about Darling?” Coffey asked.

“I do,” Herbert told him. “He had nothing to lose. Hawke needed to keep me hooked until we reached a nonmilitary landing site. The best way to do that was with the truth.”

The phone went silent. Herbert’s frustration was almost palpable. The tranquillity of the morning was gone.

“You say I need a witness,” Herbert said. “Can we stay at the base until the patrol boat arrives?”

“Yes, but if Hawke suspects anything, he can legally request an escort off the base,” Coffey said.

“How would he get one?” Herbert asked.

“You can’t deny him a phone call,” Coffey said. “Muscling a citizen who is not even a prisoner plays poorly in court.”

“Lowell, you’re not helping me,” Herbert said.

“I’m trying,” Coffey said. “I want to stay focused on the case, not on the fact that Hawke knows how to manipulate the Australian legal system. He’s probably had countless run-ins with the courts. He knows his way around.”

“Now that you mention it, every damn thing Hawke told me implicated someone else,” Herbert said. “Jervis Darling, Darling’s nephew Marcus, Captain Kannaday. According to Hawke, all he did was run security. Yet he never even confessed to firing a bullet.”

“What about other potential leads or witnesses?” Coffey asked. “Do you have anyone on the mainland?”

“No one that I can—” Herbert began. He stopped suddenly.

“What is it?” Coffey asked.

“I just thought of something,” Herbert said. “There
is
someone who can nail this guy.”

“Who?” Coffey asked.

“Later,” Herbert said.

“Wait,
Bob?”

There was no answer.

“Bob, are you coming back to the station?” Coffey asked.

The dial tone returned. So did the external tranquillity of the morning. Inside, however, Lowell Coffey was not happy. He was bothered by the subtleties of his profession. The details were legitimate and necessary, but they could also allow a nuclear terrorist to go free.

Coffey loved the law and admired those who upheld it, in the field and in the courts. He did not think of himself as the barracuda Herbert had alluded to. What he did feel like, however, was a dolphin. Smart and swift.

And powerless.

The Bell rose swiftly from the RAAF Airfield Defence Squadron satellite base in Cooktown. It angled toward the southwest. John Hawke had been silent since his confession. His expression was still dour. He did not make eye contact with anyone on board.

Bob Herbert was less genial than he had been before they landed. Jelbart asked him if anything was wrong. Herbert said there was not.

Bob Herbert was lying.

The intelligence chief was sitting in the cabin, waiting. Figuring out exactly how he was going to play this. After Herbert had spoken with Coffey, he called Stephen Viens at Op-Center to ask for specific satellite intelligence. While he waited for Viens to arrange that, FNO Loh received a call from Lieutenant Kumar on her patrol boat. They had reached the scene of the sinking. The yacht was gone, but seven individuals had been pulled from the sea. The yacht crew had provided their names, but there was no way of knowing whether they were telling the truth. Kumar did not know whether Marcus Darling was among them.