He didn't do anything right away so I let one leg buckle at the knee and the big round shadow moved on the deck, the horns swinging. He spoke sharply to the guard and the guard began running.
I'd asked Tewson who was in charge of the rig. T'ang, he'd told me. I wanted to know about him. Army colonel, honorary rank, actually a physicist, their top missile man, big in Pekin. He'd do. That was what had changed my mind. I'd unscrewed this thing from the turnbuckle and brought it up here last night in case I could use it for a last-ditch get-out, chuck it at the fuel tanks and drop overboard while everyone was busy, swim to the island and make the rendezvous. But Tewson might not have been game, didn't look like a swimmer.
With a man like T'ang on the hook we could do it with a bit more style provided I didn't drop this bloody mine and someone didn't shoot me.
Back on fire. I could swear those bastards hadn't got the flames out. They were just standing there gawping, stink of wet charred bedclothes coming out of the cabin, water all over the place. I could hear the rest of the crew coming on deck, some of them asking what was going on, three fast shots banging into the girders behind me and a shrill voice but not in time to stop the fourth one and it bit into my ribs and I staggered and the voice of the interrogator shrilled out again and they started dropping their guns where they stood.
Then he was staring above me again.
I think he was praying.
Been a shock and I brought the mine down, holding it against my chest like a medicine ball, ready to throw, I suppose some stupid prick had panicked, well, this wasn't the most stable situation, anything could happen.
'Listen,' I said, 'get T'ang here!'
Could feel the blood under my tunic, warm on the skin. No particular pain and nothing coming into my mouth, smashed a rib with any luck but oh Jesus Christ I was tired, I was tired.
The Colonel was a short man, very straight-backed, epaulettes on his white tunic, pyjama pants, comic opera if it hadn't been so bloody deadly, I said what I wanted him to do.
He looked at me for a long time.
It was incredibly quiet. Thirty or forty men on deck in a semi-circle and the big lamp throwing shadows.
The bells had stopped and the hydrants were shut off and all I could hear was someone whispering and someone telling him to shut up.
Colonel T'ang stood in front of me.
He hadn't said anything yet.
My eyes were still watering and he looked blurred. I couldn't see what he was thinking and I didn't really care because I was going to tell him what to think and if he didn't like it I was going to lob this bloody lollipop right in his face, getting fed up with holding Come on, get a grip.
Drifting away again.
'Colonel.' He was like a statue. 'I'm ready to die for my beliefs. You have five seconds.'
If I could only stay on my feet another five seconds.
One.
He didn't move.
I'd spoken in English: he was an educated man and more likely to know English than Cantonese.
Two.
I thought my hand was bleeding. My left hand. Must take great care of it, little Chih-chi had said. Fat lot of chance.
The interrogator was standing next to the colonel, a step to the rear. He was watching the mine, fascinated. Conceivably he was thinking in terms of a flying leap, catch it before it hit the deck. I'd stop that lark.
Three.
Thing of course was that nobody could really do anything without this man getting killed, and if they let that happen Pekin would have their balls off.
Four.
Possibly he was wondering if he could talk me out of it but I'd pre-empted that one: tell these people you're ready to die for your beliefs and they won't question it, terribly keen on ideology, there's a species of ant that fights fires, they throw themselves bodily on to the flames till the sheer weight of numbers puts them out, I suppose it takes all sorts.
Five.
He was still watching me and I got the thing above my head and lurched forward with it and an enormous hiss went up from the crowd of men and T'ang threw his hands out but I managed to keep my balance in time when he just said:
'No!'
After that it was okay.
I told him to go first down the iron ladders and I followed him and the seaman fell in behind. He was going to pilot the launch.
'Hello,' I said when we got there. 'Coming along?'
He was standing by the launch, his thick-lensed glasses catching the light. I'd told him to wait for us here at 01.10 hours if he was interested. I'd expected he would be: he didn't like the bit about Tai Tam Bay.
I began thinking she wasn't there.
The break-off rendezvous was for 01.29 hours, Heng-kang Chou Island, rotating sectors beginning with the north coast. So she ought to be standing off by now and I'd been using the signalling lamp on our way in.
Mandarin. Mandarin. Mandarin.
No acknowledgement but I changed it to instructions.
Surface. Surface. Surface.
Felt rotten, all this trouble and they couldn't even get here in time to There she was.
The sea broke ahead of us in a long dark wave and the water streamed off her hull as she came up, black and shining under the moon.
Swordfish.
The launch slowed and I had to grip the rail as the weight of the mine started swinging me round. I'd got it in the crook of my left arm and Tewson made a move to steady it but I warned him off because I didn't know how sensitive these detonators were. He was watching me, obviously worried: I suppose I looked a bit far gone because the blood had soaked into the tunic below my ribs and my back was in a mess and my eyes wouldn't quite focus, kept blurring, use some sleep that was all, but he was waiting for me to keel over and blast the whole lot of us into Kingdom Come.
Colonel T'ang stood erect in the stern, hadn't looked at us once since we'd left the rig. Shocking loss of face and all that, well, I couldn't help it, got my job to do.
We pulled alongside and started wallowing in the waves the sub had put out when she'd surfaced, our fenders squawking against her plates as a seaman swung a boathook across. Lot of people in the conning-tower: Ferris and Ackroyd, couple of officers, all with drawn revolvers as if they were expecting some sort of trouble. 1 told Tewson to go aboard first.
'These two men are going back to the rig,' I told Ackroyd.
'All right.'
'Can someone take this thing for me? But go easy.'