Chapter 41

In the tropics ... and we were absolutely in the tropics ... Noumea is at 22° 16′ 0″ S, 166° 28′ 0″ E; that's twenty two degrees, sixteen minutes, zero seconds, south of the Equator; the Tropics start at 23° 26′ 13.8, the sun is almost as reflective as the snow in the snowy wastes of Alaska.

The ripples glisten like light reflected from a very good quality diamond, but no diamond ever had billions of brilliants. The ocean is huge and the reflected light from even a minor chop was blinding. Picking out the flash from a periscope lens cover is a pure miracle. Channet and I both saw it.

The Zeiss turret binoculars came equipped with a sun filter switch and I had immediately engaged it even before I placed my eyes on the eyepieces. It wasn't much but it was enough for the raised stalk to be seen ... the upright floating stick Channet had seen before the engine room explosion. It was time.

I altered course in my normal manner.

"TACKING. Coming about, 'Ware the booms Nothing suspicious, nothing out of the ordinary ... our normal tack and coming about. We settled in to our normal course.

I blew into the engine room voice tube. It whistled in the silent engine room.

"Scottie!"

"Aye, Captain."

"Step up to the wheel please," I said. "Bring Inkeri with."

"Aye Captain."

It's not all that far from the engine room to the bridge ... I laugh. Bridge! Very funny, David.

"Captain?"

"Scottie. We have a serious situation."

"The Japanese sub?" Scottie asked.

"You knew?"

"It's very quiet down below ... the Japs aren't being very quiet. After dark, they surface and charge batteries. Some times they run across the moon streak."

The moon streak is the reflected light of the moon reflecting off the water.

"It's an old sub ... Captain," Scottie said. "One gasoline engine ... might even be a Holland."

"They're stalking us?"

"Probably..."

"Do they do this often?"

"Captain, I was a drunk ... people talk around me. They're sure I won't remember. I remember."

"What?"

"A group of Imperial Navy officers were meeting some American arms merchants in a bar in Saigon. The Japs wanted a German submarine ... the Yanks had one. This would have been ten years or so ago." Scottie ruminated. "The officers were saying something about trading in the islands ... and eliminating the competition. Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere."

"We need to shake this one," I said.

"How about we sink it?"

"Can we do that?"

"Dark of the moon in five days. We can be very quiet."

"Explosives?"

"We have that ... the Aussies at Norfolk."

"Captain, they're not very fast ... that ... and the noise make me feel they're an old sub. Once they figured out what we're doing ... they just steered out 344 degrees. They've been waiting where we cross our line. We cross, they run to the next coordinates, submerge and wait."

"What then?"

"We make our turn, and douse lights and sail back ... They'll motor on, charging batteries. Those old subs have to leave the conning tower hatch open ... it's the air intake for the engine. We wait for them to surface and drop a surprise down the hatch, Boom!"

"That doesn't sound fair."

"Captain, they've shot at us twice. A torpedo makes a distinct sound."

We missed them three nights running ... on the fourth night we could hear their engine and lots of noise ... a party. Something was happening. A single lookout with a bottle of something.

The light from below shone and illuminated the thin mist. We were on top of them before an alert could be called. Then it was too late. Channet was in the rigging with the bomb. The timed charge dropped down the hatch.

A bitter pill.

Fire shot from the hatch and then a major explosion ... and nothing.

"That's for Annie's sister," she said.

We made Noumea two days later.

The American ambassador called on us. Then the Germans, the French Governor, and the Japanese.

We attended a gala affair in our honor. The girl we saw in Ecuador? She was rescued ... and nearly one hundred missing girls of all nationalities were freed. For three hundred, they were too late.