Page 61 of Clive Cussler The Iron Storm
“They miscalculated her propulsion. She is slow, only about fifteen knots. They converted her to oil in 1911 in hopes of boosting her speed, but to no avail. She can’t keep up with the rest of Germany’s High Seas Fleet. She’s useless to them. I wager they just wanted her big guns back when they tried to cancel the sale.”
Bell couldn’t remain in the plush chair he’d been occupying. He got to his feet and began to pace, his brain racing with ideas and possibilities. “Winston, you said Rath couldn’t operate a large ship with only forty-five men if he needed to feed coal into the boilers. TheSaarlandis now oil-fired. Do you believe he and his crew could steal the ship from impound on the Azore Islands and sail it to New York in order to bombard the city?”
“Why on earth would they do that?” Clementine asked in her thick Scottish brogue.
Bell answered straight away, even though the idea had just struck him. “For the same reason they wanted to plant false invasion plans in Holland. They want to draw yet another belligerent into the war, sow more carnage, weaken Old World institutions so that he and hisilk can implement their vision of what Europe should be when it’s all over, some twisted form of Bolshevism, I would imagine.”
“Oh my.”
“Indeed. How about it, Winston?”
Before the seasoned statesman could respond, his aide, Davida, knocked on the library door as timidly as a church mouse.
“Yes,” Churchill called. “What is it?”
“Mr. Churchill, theAdmiral Joaquim Lisboawas built to burn coal, but was converted to oil in 1911.”
“Yes, we know. I recalled there is an old Jane’s reference book in here.”
“More importantly, sir, the telegraphs to the Azore Islands are down, both from our end and coming in from North America.”
“Since when?”
“Three weeks, sir. News reached us a week after a storm tore up the cables running into the capital, Ponta Delgada. No news yet on when a cable-laying ship will be able to recover the cables and effect repairs. Until then all communication is via mail service aboard ships calling on the port.”
Churchill and Bell exchanged worried looks. The Englishman ground out his cigar. “Thank you again, Davida. Please give us a minute.”
Marion stated the obvious. “That means there’s no way of knowing if this Rath character is trying to steal the ship and no way to alert the locals.”
“I need to get there,” Bell said, also stating the obvious.
“He has a few days’ head start,” Churchill pointed out.
“We have no idea how he’s getting to the Azores. He might need to travel overland some distance to reach a ship willing to take him. It could take a week or more. He seems to favor smuggling routes,which are safe for him but notoriously slow. And moving forty-five men inconspicuously isn’t all that easy, either.”
Again Churchill played the spoiler. “He set up a clandestine training facility right under the Germans’ noses. The man is resourceful.”
“I grant you that,” Bell conceded, still thinking on the deviousness of Rath’s plan to goad the Dutch into the war. Diabolical. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have to try. I know all the fast liners are either laid up in port or serving as troopships, but there must be a speedy freighter in some English harbor.”
“What are you going to tell President Wilson?” Churchill asked with nonchalance as he poured the last of the champagne into his flute.
The question came out of left field for Bell and rendered him momentarily speechless. He quickly gathered his wits. “I mean no disrespect, Winston, but I believe that information should remain confidential until I issue my report directly to the President.”
“No disrespect taken. If I am going to divert vital war material for you yet again, I’d like to know what I’m getting in return.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“We have dozens of destroyers lying about, what with the German High Seas Fleet unwilling to have another scrap like Jutland.”
“You’d let me aboard one and send it to the Azores?”
“I’m considering it, but there is a quid pro quo attached, I’m afraid.”
Bell considered his position. On the one hand, Churchill was his only option of getting to the Azores quickly enough to make a difference. On the other, the Brit was Machiavellian enough to use what was in Bell’s recommendation to some advantage, an advantage Bell couldn’t possibly fathom as of yet. In the end, he went with his gut. Rath was the enemy here, not Winston Churchill, and nomatter what he recommended to Wilson, it was still the President’s call to declare war.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marion nod imperceptibly. It wasn’t that he needed her approval, but it was reassuring that they were of a like mind.
He said, “I’m going to recommend that the United States enter the war, that we integrate our forces with the seasoned troops already deployed on the front, but under no circumstances are we to place our men under the command of a French or English general.”
