Chapter 18
Failure!

Tom returned to the comms room with Margie and used the radar link from the bridge to check on the corvette. The computer advised him that she was now less than 1500 away and closing, had changed course so that she would pass Condor Rock as close as 550 metres. The CCTV cameras mounted on the mast could now clearly produce an image of the corvette as she approached. Tom considered it was time to hail the corvette. He went to the radio, selected a switch labelled ‘IntFreq’ which opened the four main hailing channels simultaneously. He slid the small pencil shaped desk microphone towards him as he briefly wrote down what he wanted to say. Then, when he was ready, he depressed the transmit key and spoke into the microphone.

“This is exploration vessel SeaWitch, at anchor in South African waters on the eastern side of Condor Rock in the South Atlantic. We are hailing the large vessel approaching these waters to the west of our position. Please respond and acknowledge this transmission, over.”
He released the key and waited. There was a delay of twenty or thirty seconds and then as he was about to repeat his transmission, the response came.
“SeaWitch, this is Captain Swickard, aboard Navy support vessel Nomad III, we acknowledge your hail and report that we have you on radar sir, over.”
“Nomad III, Captain Swickard, thank you for your response sir, we appreciate the contact. Our project leader is Analise Van Rensberg; we are studying the Blue Rock Lobsters at Condor Rock. These are sensitive creatures and in decline. We must ask you to move away from the rock at least 1500 metres and stop screws; any disturbance of the shallow waters could destroy the eggs for this year. Over.”

“Sea Witch, this is Nomad III, I confirm that we have stopped engines and are presently just outside 1500 metres from the Rock. We are here on an exercise, providing support to a local vessel and we shall escort her to safe harbour after which we shall depart to the deep waters. We apologise if we have disturbed your work. Over.”
Tom was watching the corvette on the CCTV and radar. She had stopped and was outside the South African waters, so there was nothing more he could say. However, he felt it prudent to thank them and so again depressed the switch.
“Nomad III, this is Sea Witch, thank you, your co-operation is greatly appreciated. Please use dead slow when departing these waters as the seabed is very close to your screws. Be advised that we have scuba divers in the water presently. Over.”

“Sea Witch, roger, we are aware of the depth of water, but were unaware of your divers, we will use dead slow and our observers will keep close watch for divers. Good days sir. Over and out.”
Tom flicked off the radio. He stood in silence for a minute or two with Margie staring at him. “I’ve got to let Annie know.” He darted out of the door with Margie in hot pursuit. In a few minutes they were on the lower deck and standing before Analise.
“What’s up Tom?”
He related the gist of the conversation while the others listened intently.
“She’s going in!” Analise retorted, banging her fist on the cabin wall beside her, “Either there’s a storm coming, or they’ve got sufficient intelligence to work out that she’s going to be hit and have asked for help in getting her to safety. That’s screwed us up for the time being.”

“How the hell are we going to do this now?” Tom was looking at the corvette through the binoculars again. She had started to move slowly. “I’m going back to the comms room to monitor this.” He raced back to the comms room and watched the radar screen. The large blip that was the corvette was shown as at a range of 1600 metres and travelling at 5 knots. Further out at 2200 metres there was the smaller blip, the Sea Vac, now also moving at 5 knots. Both had turned east, towards the shore. Analise and the others arrived at the door of the comms room.
“She’s going in already Annie, you’re the boss, what next?”
“Listen, as far as everyone knows, we are a legitimate research team, legally diving and collecting specimens – I brought up a great 3 kilo male lobster – we have enough food here for a week. We also have permission to take the power dinghy into Swakopmund harbour to restock our supplies if we need to. We’ll carry on and sit it out, they’ll get bored and lose money before we do. She’ll have to come out again, it’s their living.”

Kurt swore, punched the wall rushed out onto the deck to hurl abuse at the distant grey shape of the corvette with the small shape of Sea Vac alongside. He did not like this one bit, his adrenaline had been building all morning for the heist and now it was demanding action. He stormed into the radio room and stopped just a foot from Analise’s face. “LISA! This was a stupid idea, we’ve wasted a whole week, we’ve given up our jobs and for what --?
“KURT!” Analise cut off his ranting, “WHEN I want your opinion, I’ll ASK for it! OK you’re angry, but NOTHING has changed, the heist WILL go ahead…….”
“Attack the Sea Vac in harbour, brilliant…..”

“No, you don’t get it do you? She’s got to come back out, that diamond field was HUGE according to Margie’s estimate. Look for yourself on their own reports, Tom has them on screen – going Tom print out the report for that strike.”
Tom selected the report and pressed ‘print’. The laser printer whirred and then deposited ten sheets of paper in the tray. Analise grabbed them and thumbed through them, then selected the page she needed and thrust it at Kurt. “Look, there, what does it say…… estimated load, 900 kilos, estimated collection period 7 days. She’s only been out on it two days, there’s 5 days of diamonds still down there.”
“So?”
“Kurt, we’re DIVERS……..”
“I saw no diamonds where we dived…”

“They don’t know that. Now even though this is in SA protected waters, they still have mineral rights, including the Rock itself, so even if we found anything we’d have to tell them and hand them over.”
“So what’s your point Lisa?”
“Kurt, you are not using your very well conditioned brain today are you? One of two things will happen. Either we’ll get a visit before today’s out, or the dredger will come back out before three days have passed, I guarantee it!”
Kurt calmed down considerably during this brief scolding by Analise and now he turned briefly towards Margie, staring at her intently for several minutes so that she became embarrassed and pulled at her clothes as if she felt he had stripped her naked. “Margie girl, you are deep in this, so what have you got to say?”

“Annie’s right Kurt MAN, she’s in control and she knows exactly what’s happening.”
“You tell me what YOU think, I want to hear another woman’s view – I think I know what the views of the boys are.”
“OK Kurt, we intended to board Sea Vac this evening, that’s now off. Underneath her former position is a bed of quality diamonds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I would estimate that they dredged up about 6 million dollars worth. That’s not even a hundredth of what they have yet to bring up. They can’t afford to leave them down there. They know we are divers. We could go in at night, grab handfuls, a few million dollars worth, and be gone in the morning. They can’t risk that. I am sure we will get a visit, today. They’ll try and frighten us off, they know they can’t touch us. They’ll want to bring the gunbuses out here and sit above us, they can’t do that all night. Their best shot is to scare us away. They won’t, so we’ll sit it out until they have to send that dredger back out. That is MY personal opinion.”

“Annie and Margie are both right Kurt.” Tom saw it was time to speak up himself.
“Easy for you to say, you’re shagging Margie.”
“KURT!”
“I’m sorry, sorry Tom, that was uncalled for, no, give us your feelings, please.”
“The way I see it is this, they are greedy fat cats, all they are concerned about is the millions of dollars on the sea bed. Look how paranoid they get when someone gets out of their car for a piss in the desert. They will have churning guts all the time we are here and those diamonds are there. If they can’t touch us, they will have to bring the dredger out again, with armed guards possibly, but she’ll have to go back to work. That is inevitable. In the meantime we have to prepare for a visit, get anything that isn’t to do with Lobster Research out of sight, and get plenty of stuff to do with lobsters in the main rooms. What have we got Annie?”

“Apart from the big boy I brought up, not much!”
“Leave it to me,” Rafi spoke up, “I have things I can make look good, get me some glass jars and some yellow dye.”
“What have you got?”
“I brought a lot of stuff up from the inflatable,” he had two sacks over his shoulders, “I though we might need them.” The sacks contained a lot of the things they had brought up from Cape Town and put into the inflatable just in case someone got close enough to have a look. “Look,” he tipped them out onto the floor, there were all kinds of lobsters, mummified, eggs, bits of seaweed, shark egg cases and so on, once inside proper jars, they’d look convincing. He gathered them all up in almost one sweep and deposited them back into the sacks. “We must work quickly, together, now.”

“Well done Rafi, OK, let’s help Tom disguise the equipment here first and then we can all go up to the lounge and get this stuff set up, ok Tom, what shall we do?"
“Annie, I have some things to add to the equipment that will adequately disguise their use. Kurt – here, take these two false fronts and place them on those two units over there.”
“Sure Tom,” said Kurt as he took the two fronts which were skilful replicas of SONAR receiver screens, and placed them over the GPS and COMSAT screen. Tom in the meantime had placed two more on the units he was standing by so that they looked like the sort of equipment scientists would use to weigh items and/or measure them. Now the radio room looked like a scientific communications laboratory. Tom nodded. “That’s it guys, topside then.”

A few minutes later they were all up in the lounge where Rafi was setting up the large glass jars Analise was handing him. He filled them each three-quarters full with water. Analise handed him a small bottle. He dripped a few drops from the bottle into each jar and the water turned an opalescent yellowish green. Analise handed him the sack he had placed on the worktop earlier, and then she filled a large glass tank with seawater. Rafi reached into the sack and produced some of the things he’d shown the others below. He dropped them skilfully into the jars, whilst Analise was dropping a few stones and pieces of seaweed into the tank. Tom, Kurt and Margie stood silently observing these activities. Then Tom exclaimed, "Wow! They look like REAL specimens, well done Rafi!”
“Thank you Tom, I was hoping to get that effect.”

Analise turned now to Rafi, “Where’s the Big Boy I brought up from the rocks?”
“They are all in that cool box Annie.”
“ALL?”
“Yes, there are more than one.”
Analise popped the lid on the cool box and was amazed to see four large blue lobsters looking at her. “There are four in here, I only brought up this big one, “she said as she held up the 3-kilo male. She slipped rubber bands onto his claws to stop him hurting the others and dropped him into the tank.
“Yes I know, so where did the other three come from – Kurt?”
“Yes Rafi, it was me, Lisa my love, I thought maybe we could have a candle-light lobster dinner……”
“Maybe later, but right now I’m glad you caught them.” Analise banded and dropped the other three into the tank and started an air pump, not that the lobsters need much infused air, but it always looks more effective that way.
“There,” she said triumphantly, “now we look the part!”

“Well done you two,” remarked Margie as she looked intently at their ‘specimens’.
“Thank you Margie, let’s hope our visitors are convinced by this charade. OK everyone, white coats for Kurt and Margie please, blue overalls for Rafi and Tom – you’re the electronics and engine techies so you only need to blend into the background.” She handed the garments out and they donned them swiftly. Tom returned to the comms room and Rafi to the bridge. Analise and Margie pulled up a couple of stools, put some papers onto clipboards and sat up to the bar worktop with pens in hand. Kurt took the powerful binoculars and went out onto the deck.

The horizon was bright and clear, he scanned from his left to the right. He saw nothing. The sun was high now and the temperature unbearably warm even in the shade. The coastline was shimmering in the heat haze, making it all the more difficult to see anything either with the naked eye or with any magnification. As they were over 3 kilometres off the shore, they were probably invisible against the rock too, even with binoculars of 50x magnification. Radar would show them up as a second, smaller blip alongside Condor Rock. He scanned again, sweat falling from his brow, and was about to step back into the shade when he saw it.

© Bob Curby 2009