Medusa

Questions, questions, the result emotional torment and my heart reaching out to her. Surely to God two people who had been as close to each other as we had been then could make contact across the distance that now separated us. If I thought hard enough, if I could concentrate my mind sufficiently, surely I could evoke some response from her, some telepathic indication of where she was.

I was there by that beacon for a long time, alone with my thoughts, and right above me the Golden Farm to remind me of two other lovers. And then Petra came to say the launch had finally returned.

‘Any message from the ship?’ I asked her.

She shook her head and I stared at that narrow strip of water, wondering whether I could make it, picturing him back in his day cabin, his desk piled with urgent messages. In the circumstances, my note would hardly seem of great importance. Soo would either be dead or abandoned somewhere. Whichever it was, he had every reason to think a few more hours would make little difference.

I was in the tent, stripped to my underpants and stuffing my clothes, pipe, matches, keys, money, everything I might need ashore, into a plastic bag, when the flap was pulled back and I looked up to find Petty Officer Jarvis standing there. ‘Captain’s compliments, sir, and the launch is waiting to take you ashore.’

I shall always bless him for that. In the midst of all his problems he had read my note and understood my urgency, the depth of my feeling. I didn’t attempt to see him. I just scribbled a note of thanks and handed it to Jarvis as he led me up the gangway on to the stern and for’ard to where the rope ladder was rigged. The same midshipman was in charge of the launch, and as we swung away from the frigate’s side, I asked him what the news was. He looked at me, wide grey eyes in a serious face. ‘News, sir? You haven’t heard?’ And when I told him it had been a long night and I had slept late, he grinned at me and said, ‘They miffed off. The revolutionaries and those mercenaries who put that Fuschia chap in. The fleet, too — the fleet that was going to support the new government. It just faded off the radar screen. And all because of Medusa.’

‘A Russian fleet, do you mean?’

‘Yes, the Russians. The American Sixth Fleet is shadowing them.’

‘Is that official?’ I asked him. ‘About the Russian and American fleets?’ We had swung away from the ship’s side and were heading for Cala Figuera, the note of the engine making it difficult to talk. ‘Did you hear it on the news?’

He shook his head. ‘I haven’t had a chance to listen to the BBC, but that’s what they’re saying — saw them off all on our own, long before those Spanish ships arrived.’ And he added, ‘Now that he’s back from seeing the Spanish admiral, I’ve no doubt the Captain will be making an announcement. I’d like to have heard that.’ He gave an order to the helm, then turned back to me. ‘You know him well, don’t you, sir?’ It was more a statement than a question and he didn’t wait for me to answer. ‘He’s a super man. Never batted an eye all night, going the rounds, chatting and joking with everybody and all of us expecting to be blown out of the water any minute. Then, when it’s all over, he has a thanksgiving in the wardroom.’

‘When was that?’

‘It was early, about 04.30. Just those on the ship. A few prayers, a hymn or two. All he told us then was that the situation had improved and we should give thanks to God.- The boy was smiling to himself, remembering the scene. ‘Lead kindly light … I can still hear him singing it in that fine voice of his. He’s Welsh, you see.’ And he grinned apologetically, embarrassed at being carried away and forgetting I would have known that. And when I asked him how the ship had come to land up on Bloody Island, he looked at me uncertainly, suddenly hesitant. But the excitement of events and his admiration for his Captain got the better of him. ‘The buzz is he put her aground himself,’ he said brightly.

‘Deliberately?’

‘I couldn’t say, sir. I wasn’t on the bridge. But that’s what they’re saying — so that there was no way they could shift us. We were committed then, you see, a Nato ship stuck there and prepared to fire at anything that didn’t support the legitimate Spanish government and the Spanish King.’