Chapter 75

"You what?" she screeched.

"This is what we found in the master stateroom." Chuck and Chester held out a handful of assorted pinhole cameras, microphones, transmitters and motion detectors.

"Oh god ... pitch 'em over the side."

"We can't ... they are all plainly engraved, 'PROPERTY OF UNITED STATES.'"

"Give 'em to me, I'll do it. You guys are citizens ... we're not ... sort of ... dual citizenship and diplomatic immunity, anyway."

Reluctantly, they handed the handful over.

"All of them," she demanded. Possibly the only reason she wasn't throwing a full bore hissy-fit was because she was sooo well laid and happier than she'd been in almost three years.

'All of them' was a box the size of a pair of genuine Australian Saltwater Crock boots ... in fact ... that's what the box was. A box for a pair of a couple of thousand dollar worth of boots.

"Where did the box come from?" she asked.

"It was in the storage locker. Chester found it."

"What else is in the locker?"

"Bunchajunk ... boxes, crates, chests, a safe, stuff like that."

By now David was interested, "What locker ... where is it?"

"Aft ... engine room ... behind the cycler for the missiles. It looks like it's right up against the stern."

"How big is this 'locker'?"

"Six/eight feet deep ... half the width of the stern."

"We're talking about a couple hundred square feet. I want to see it," Andrea said.

So ... three flights of ladders and a couple of companionways later, Chuck, Chester, David, Andrea and Jake were behind the intake metalwork for the air induction to the turbines. They couldn't see anything.

"Where?"

"Right there ... oh ... right. Forgot ... it's pretty well hid." Chuck turned a couple of bolts holding the brass plate that had the instructions for starting the removed and replaced MTU diesels, picked up a piece of the starboard side workbench. Part of the bulkhead popped in and slid to the side. Lights turned on when the hatch opened. "Chester's the one who found this. He got curious about the length of the engine compartment ... it was too short."

Chester pointed at the aft bulkhead. "That was supposed to be the stern ... but it didn't get condensation on it in the mornings or after the turbines ran ... all the rest of the walls did ... both sides, I mean ... that one didn't. There had to be something behind it."

Andrea got it right away. "Did you check both sides?"

"Ah ... nope ... didn't think about it."

"Show me what you did."

So he pushed down the piece of metal on the workbench ... the door slid shut and popped into place. He tightened the two bolts and that was it. It looked just like all the interior bulkheads.

"Do that on the other side," Andrea commanded, "Please."

When all three of the four bolts were removed from the plate it wiggled ... and was pretty heavy. David held it up while Chester took the last bold loose. A hollow was behind the plate.

A series of switches and an analog clock were in the hollow. Two of the switches had locking red shields.

" ... Umm ... don't open the other half yet. I want to talk to Langley first," David suggested. "Let's see what we can find in the starboard locker."

Besides the boots ... very nice boots ... too small for David ... but just right for Jake ... there were several crates ... of unissued experimental L65's, a British bullpup layout prototype assault rifle developed in the 1970s. At one time it was known as the 4.85( .190cal.) Individual Weapon, a reference to the calibre of the bullet it fired ... a very interesting rifle ... the magazine was behind the trigger guard. This particular configuration is quite ugly, actually.

There were at least one hundred thousand rounds of .190 caliber ammunition in hermetically sealed tins, cases of rocket propelled grenades, British personal body armor, 9-mm Browning L9A1 semi-automatic pistols with thousands of rounds of hollow-point ammunition to fit ... and 100 AT4's, an 84-mm unguided, portable, single-shot recoilless smoothbore antitank weapon built in Sweden and unissued before 1987.