The Terminators by Donald Hamilton

Author:Donald Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Titan

12

The ship’s captain apparently used the same undocking technique everywhere, going ahead against the wire-cable spring line, as I think it’s called, and then backing free as soon as the stern had swung out far enough to give him maneuvering room. At least he used it in Molde just as he had in Ålesund.

As we drew away stern first, I waved a friendly hand at the little group standing beside the cluster of suitcases on the dock: the dark-haired girl in the gaily checked slacks, the white-haired man with the bandaged hand, and the tousle-haired young executive type in the sharp sport coat. I didn’t really expect to get a response, and, except for a glowering look from Dr. Elfenbein, I didn’t. The wind turned sharper and colder as, moving forward now, the ship picked up speed out of the small harbor.

I said, “Let’s go have a beer in the lounge. I guess it’s still inhabitable; they don’t seem to turn on the terrible telly until six.”

Shortly, Diana and I were installed in a couple of the comfortable, shackled-down chairs in the first-class lounge. The TV was, happily, blank and silent and a waitress from the dining room was plying us with the best the ship could legally offer in the way of booze, pretty feeble stuff. I took a taste of the Norwegian brew and decided that it tasted no worse than any other beer. You’ll gather I’m not really an aficionado.

I said, “Okay, now that we’re out of the wind, tell me. Am I correct in deducing, from the way you kept trying to stand up for him, that you had a thing going with Mr. Robert Wetherill?”

Diana hesitated. After a moment, she shook her head and said wryly, “No, you’re not correct, darling. I would very much have liked to have a thing going with Mr. Robert Wetherill, but that’s not quite the same thing, is it?”

“Does that mean he just couldn’t see you, or that he was looking elsewhere?”

She sighed. “Now who’s clairvoyant? If you must know, Robbie’s attention was firmly concentrated elsewhere. As a matter of fact, it was really rather funny, I guess, if you had a good sense of humor. There was I yearning after Robbie, who couldn’t see me; and there he was yearning after Evelyn, who couldn’t see him. And she, well, I think she kind of hoped the Skipper, once he got over the loss of his wife… No, I’m not being fair. I don’t know that. We weren’t quite close enough to compare yearnings. But it would have been like her. She was a very dignified and proper girl, you know, much too dignified and proper to get involved in a hot and messy affair with somebody her own age; but a discreet liaison with a distinguished older man… Oh, damn, I’m being catty, and I promised myself I wouldn’t, particularly now she’s dead.”

I was a little surprised at Hank Priest, with his wartime experience. The group he’d got together—the youthful U.

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