The Shark Mutiny by Patrick Robinson Page A

sou’west.”
    “Jimmy, you can make a dead straight line from any one point to any other. You need three to show evidence of a straight line.”
    “Well, sir, at least the proximity of the missiles must be significant.”
    “Not necessarily so, Jimmy. I am afraid that all the ‘ evidence ’ is very circumstantial. By which I mean we know nothing. The mines China ordered may well still be in Zhanjiang. Their trip to Iran may easily have been to sell the two frigates. Global Bronco was carrying eighty thousand tons of the world’s most volatile petrochemical. Anything could have set it off. I would be sympathetic if you could locate for me one indisputable fact. Leave it for now, Jimmy. Until we get hard evidence.”
    The Lieutenant stood up, and he looked Admiral Borden square in the eye. “I just have a damned weird feeling that when the next evidence turns up, we’re not gonna love it.”
    Admiral Borden shook his head, and called back Arnold Morgan. “Sir,” he said, “I simply do not have one single piece of Intelligence that points to anything but a bad accident on that tanker, which caused it to explode.”
    “I do not doubt that, Admiral. The issue is whether you should be raising heaven and hell to find some.”
    “Sir, sometimes there is simply nothing to find.”
    “The fact that you can’t find it does not mean it doesn’t exist.” Arnold Morgan was beginning to dislike the Acting Director at Fort Meade, and that was bad news for the Acting Director. But Admiral Morgan wasreceiving a distinct impression that David Borden did not want to find anything.
    “If I were you, David, I would be damned careful about taking a negative view, because if you delay us, put us behind the eight ball, I shall be forced to HAVE YOUR ASS, RIGHT?” Click. Down phone.
    “ KATHY !”
    The door opened once again. And Ms. O’Brien entered, smiling sweetly. Too sweetly. “Would it make you any happier, my darling,” she said, “if I went out and bought a ship’s Klaxon so I could signal back to you? I expect people would get used to it…‘ KAAAAA-THEEEEE!…BAHAA…BAHAAA ….’ Two blasts for positive, one for negative, three for panic…”
    The Admiral burst into laughter, despite his rising irritation at the attitude of David Borden.
    “Kathy, upon whom the sun rises and sets for me, I wanna let you into a deep and, thus far, unspoken secret. Right here I suspect I’m dealing with a total asshole in the chair of the good George Morris at the NSA.”
    “Oh, how very depressing.”
    “Possibly more than you know. Book us a table at the restaurant in Georgetown tonight, will you? Between you, and Monsieur Pierre, and my old friend Billy Beychevelle, perhaps you can raise my spirits.”
    “Why, sir…,” she replied, putting on a southern accent even more firmly than her own far-lost Alabama drawl, “ah sure would be deeply honored to bring y’all raaht back into the world of good cheer and fahn manners.”
    Arnold watched her strut out, shook his head, smiling, and turned CNN back on.
    Meanwhile, back at his desk in Fort Meade, Jimmy Ramshawe, surrounded by ocean charts, was glaring at the one that mapped the Bassein River on the Bengal Bay coast of Burma, or, as it is now known, Myanmar.
    “Crazy bastards,” he muttered. “Like changing the bloody name of Australia to Michelob.”
    He picked up the telephone and called the embassy, trying to catch Jane before she left for Georgetown. He just made it.
    “Just a quick question,” he said. “Can I meet you at home tonight instead of in the bar?”
    “You mean my home?”
    “Right.”
    “Okay. What time?”
    “Six. I got a little project you might want to help me with.”
    “No worries. I’ll be waiting.”
    The day passed without further drama, or knowledge as to what happened to the Global Bronco . The great tower of fire alongside the ship raged on into the heavens until the evaporating gas had burned off, and when it finally died it left