"Who hired you?"

"Friends of yours in the United States," answered Cabrillo. "That's all that I can say."

"Then you had no idealistic purpose, no political cause?"

Cabrillo smiled slightly. "We always have a purpose."

Tural sighed. "I had hoped that salvation, when it came, would come from another quarter."

"Your people did not have the means to do it. It's that simple. That is why they came to us."

"It's a great pity your only motivation was money."

"It wasn't. Money is simply the vehicle," said Cabrillo. "It allows our corporation to pick its fights and to fund our charity projects. It's a liberty none of us had when we were employed by our respective governments." He glanced at his chronograph. "Now if you'll excuse me, we're not out of the woods just yet."

Then he turned and left Tural staring after him as he walked away.

ELEVEN SEVENTEEN. IF they were going to make a run for it, now was the time, thought Cabrillo. The alarm had long been answered at the prison, and by now patrols were certainly roaming the city and the countryside in search of the escaped prisoners and their rescuers.

Their only link was the truck driver, but he could not provide any information to the Cuban security forces, even if he was captured and tortured. His original contact had made no mention of the Oregon. As 35 far as the driver knew, the rescue team had come from a landing party on another part of the island.

Cabrillo lifted a phone and called down to the Corporation's president in the engine room. "Max?"

Hanley answered almost immediately. "Juan."

"Have the ballast tanks been pumped dry?"

"Tanks are dry and the hull is raised for speed."

"The tide is about to turn and will swing us around. We'd better leave while our bow is still aimed toward the main channel. As soon as the anchor comes free, I'll set the engines very slow. No sense in alerting any observers on the sh.o.r.e to a sudden departure. At the first alarm or when we reach the main channel, whichever comes first, I'll enter the program for full speed. We'll need every ounce of power your engines can give."

"You think you can get us through a narrow channel in the dead of night at full speed without a pilot?"

"The ship's computer system read every inch of the channel and the buoy markers on the way in. Our escape course is plotted and programmed into the automatic pilot. We'll leave it to Otis to take us out."

Otis was the crew's name for the ship's automated control systems. It could steer the Oregon within inches of the intended route.

"Computerized automated controls or not, it won't be an easy matter to race through a tight channel at sixty knots."

"We can do it." Cabrillo punched off and hit another code. "Mark, give me a status on our defense systems."

Mark Murphy, the Oregon's weapons specialist, replied in his west Texas drawl, "If any of them Cuban missile launchers so much as hiccups, we'll take them out."

"You can expect aircraft once we're in the open sea."

"Nuthin' we cain't handle."

He turned to Linda Ross. "Linda?"

"All systems are online," she replied calmly.

Cabrillo set the phone in its cradle and relaxed, lighting up a thin n 37.L.36.

Cuban cigar. He looked around at the ship's crew, standing in the control center. They were all staring at him, waiting expectantly.

"Well," he said slowly, before taking a deep breath, "I guess we might as well go."

He gave a voice command to the computer, the winch was set in motion, and the anchor slowly, quietly--through Teflon sleeves the team had inserted inside the hawsehole, which deadened the clank of the chain--rose from the bottom of the harbor. Another command and the Oregon began to inch slowly ahead.

Down in the engine room, Max Hanley studied the gauges and instruments on the huge console. His four big magnetohydrodynamics engines were a revolutionary design for maritime transport. They intensified and compounded the electricity found in saline seawater before running it through a magnetic core tube kept at absolute zero by liquid helium. The electrical current that was produced created an extremely high energy force that pumped the water through thrusters in the stern for propulsion.

Not only were the Oregon's engines capable of pushing the big cargo ship at incredible speeds, but it required no fuel except the seawater that pa.s.sed through its magnetic core. The source of the propulsion was inexhaustible. Another advantage was that the ship did not require huge fuel tanks, which enabled the s.p.a.ce to be utilized for other purposes.

There were only four other ships in the world with magnetohydrodynamics engines--three cruise ships and one oil tanker. Those who had installed the engines in the Oregon had been sworn to secrecy.

Hanley took proprietary care of the high-tech engines. They were reliable and rarely caused problems. He labored over them as if they were an extension of his own soul. He kept them finely tuned and in a constant state of readiness for extreme and extended operation. He watched now as they automatically engaged and began pushing the ship into the channel that led to the sea.

Above in the command center, armored panels slid noiselessly apart, revealing a large window on the forward bulkhead. The murmur among the men and women gazing intently at the lights of the city was quiet, as though the men manning the Cuban defense systems could hear their words.

Cabrillo spotted another ship leaving the harbor ahead of them.

"What ship is that?" he asked.

One of the team pulled up the list of ship arrivals and departures on his computer monitor. "She's a Chinese-registered cargo vessel carrying sugar to Hangchou," he reported. "She's leaving port nearly an hour ahead of her scheduled departure time."

"Name?" asked Cabrillo.

"In English, the Red Dawn. The shipping line is owned by the Chinese army."

"Turn out all the outer lights, and increase speed until we are close astern of the vessel ahead," he commanded the computer. "We'll use her as a decoy to lead us out." The outer deck and navigation lights blinked out, leaving the ship in darkness as she narrowed the gap between the two vessels. The lights inside the command center dimmed to a blue-green glow.

By the time the Red Dawn entered the ship's channel and pa.s.sed the first of the string of marker buoys, the darkened Oregon was trailing only fifty yards off her stern. Cabrillo kept his ship just far enough back so that the Chinese vessel's deck lights would not cast their beams on his bow. It was a long shot, but he was betting the silhouette of his ship would be mistaken for the shadow of the Red Dawn.

Cabrillo glanced at a large twenty-four-hour clock on the wall above the window just as the long minute hand clicked onto 11:39. Only twenty-one minutes to go before the Cubans' defense systems test.

"Following the Red Dawn is slowing us down," said Linda. "We're losing precious time."

Cabrillo nodded. "You're right, we can't wait any longer. She's served her purpose." He leaned over and spoke into the computer's voice receiver.

"Go to full speed and pa.s.s the ship ahead!"

38.39.Like a small powerboat with big engines and a heavy hand on the throttles, the Oregon dug her stern into the forbidding water and lifted her bows clear of the waves as her thrusters erupted in a cloud of froth, creating a vast crater in her wake. She leaped down the channel and swept past the Chinese cargo ship less than twenty feet away, as if she were stopped dead in the water. The Chinese sailors could be seen staring in stunned disbelief. Faster and faster with each pa.s.sing second she raced through the night. Speed was the Oregon's crowning achievement, the thoroughbred heart of the vessel. Forty knots, then fifty. By the time she pa.s.sed Morro Castle at the entrance to Santiago, she was making nearly sixty-two knots. No ship in the world that size could match her speed.

The beacon lights mounted high on the bluffs were soon little more than blinking specks on a black horizon.

THE ALARM SPREAD quickly onsh.o.r.e that a ship was making an unauthorized departure--but the radar and fire control operators did not unleash their sh.o.r.e-to-surface missiles. Their officers could not believe that such a large ship was moving at such an incredible rate of speed. They a.s.sumed their radar systems were malfunctioning, and they were reluctant to unleash missiles that they did not think could lock on to such an inconceivable target.

Not until the Oregon was twenty miles out to sea did a general in Cuban security put two and two together and deduce that the sudden departure of the ship and the escape of the Santa Ursula prisoners were somehow tied together. He ordered missiles fired at the fleeing ship, but by the time the word filtered down through the sluggish command, the Oregon was out of acceptable range.

He then ordered jets from the Cuban air force to intercept and sink the mystery ship before it reached the protection of a United States Coast Guard cutter. It could not possibly escape, he thought, as he sat back, lit a cigar and contentedly puffed a cloud of blue smoke toward 1 the ceiling. Seventy miles away, two geriatric MiGs were sent aloft and set a course toward the Oregon as directed by Cuban radar.

CABRILLO DIDN'T NEED to study a chart to see that sailing around the tip of Cuba from Santiago through the Windward Pa.s.sage and then northwest to Miami was little more than a suicide run.

For nearly six hundred miles, the Oregon would be less than fifty miles from the Cuban coast, a voyage in a shooting gallery. His safest option was to set a course southwest around the southern tip of Haiti and then almost due west to Puerto Rico, which was a territory under the U.S.

flag. There he could unload his pa.s.sengers, where they would be safe and cared for at proper medical facilities before being flown to Florida.

"Two unidentified aircraft closing," announced Linda.

"I have them," Murphy announced, hunched over a console with enhanced radar screens and an array of k.n.o.bs and switches.

"Can you identify?" asked Linda.

"Computer reads them as a pair of MiG-27s."

"How far out?" Cabrillo probed.

"Sixty miles and closing," Murphy answered. "Poor beggars don't know what they're in for."

Cabrillo turned to his communications expert, Hali Kasim. "Try and raise them in Spanish. Warn them we have surface-to-air missiles on board and will knock them out of the sky if they show any sign of hostility."

Kasim didn't have to speak Spanish to deliver the warning. He merely ordered the computer to translate his message over his radio, which was tuned to twenty different frequencies.

After a couple of minutes he shook his head. "They are receiving, but not responding."

"They think we're bluffing," said Linda.

"Keep trying." Then to Murphy: "What's the range of their missiles?"

38.39.Like a small powerboat with big engines and a heavy hand on the throttles, the Oregon dug her stern into the forbidding water and lifted her bows clear of the waves as her thrusters erupted in a cloud of froth, creating a vast crater in her wake. She leaped down the channel and swept past the Chinese cargo ship less than twenty feet away, as if she were stopped dead in the water. The Chinese sailors could be seen staring in stunned disbelief. Faster and faster with each pa.s.sing second she raced through the night. Speed was the Oregon's crowning achievement, the thoroughbred heart of the vessel. Forty knots, then fifty. By the time she pa.s.sed Morro Castle at the entrance to Santiago, she was making nearly sixty-two knots. No ship in the world that size could match her speed.

The beacon lights mounted high on the bluffs were soon little more than blinking specks on a black horizon.

THE ALARM SPREAD quickly onsh.o.r.e that a ship was making an unauthorized departure--but the radar and fire control operators did not unleash their sh.o.r.e-to-surface missiles. Their officers could not believe that such a large ship was moving at such an incredible rate of speed. They a.s.sumed their radar systems were malfunctioning, and they were reluctant to unleash missiles that they did not think could lock on to such an inconceivable target.

Not until the Oregon was twenty miles out to sea did a general in Cuban security put two and two together and deduce that the sudden departure of the ship and the escape of the Santa Ursula prisoners were somehow tied together. He ordered missiles fired at the fleeing ship, but by the time the word filtered down through the sluggish command, the Oregon was out of acceptable range.

He then ordered jets from the Cuban air force to intercept and sink the mystery ship before it reached the protection of a United States Coast Guard cutter. It could not possibly escape, he thought, as he sat back, lit a cigar and contentedly puffed a cloud of blue smoke toward the ceiling. Seventy miles away, two geriatric MiGs were sent aloft and set a course toward the Oregon as directed by Cuban radar.

CABRILLO DIDN'T NEED to study a chart to see that sailing around the tip of Cuba from Santiago through the Windward Pa.s.sage and then northwest to Miami was little more than a suicide run.

For nearly six hundred miles, the Oregon would be less than fifty miles from the Cuban coast, a voyage in a shooting gallery. His safest option was to set a course southwest around the southern tip of Haiti and then almost due west to Puerto Rico, which was a territory under the U.S.

flag. There he could unload his pa.s.sengers, where they would be safe and cared for at proper medical facilities before being flown to Florida.

"Two unidentified aircraft closing," announced Linda.

"I have them," Murphy announced, hunched over a console with enhanced radar screens and an array of k.n.o.bs and switches.

"Can you identify?" asked Linda.

"Computer reads them as a pair of MiG-27s."

"How far out?" Cabrillo probed.

"Sixty miles and closing," Murphy answered. "Poor beggars don't know what they're in for."

Cabrillo turned to his communications expert, Hali Kasim. "Try and raise them in Spanish. Warn them we have surface-to-air missiles on board and will knock them out of the sky if they show any sign of hostility."

Kasim didn't have to speak Spanish to deliver the warning. He merely ordered the computer to translate his message over his radio, which was tuned to twenty different frequencies.

After a couple of minutes he shook his head. "They are receiving, but not responding."

"They think we're bluffing," said Linda.

"Keep trying." Then to Murphy: "What's the range of their missiles?"

40."According to specs, they're carrying short-range rockets with a range of ten miles."

Cabrillo looked solemn. "If they don't break off within thirty miles, take them out. Better yet, launch one of ours. Then manually guide it for a close flyby."

Murphy made the necessary calculations and pressed a red b.u.t.ton.

"Missile on its way."

An audible swoosh swept the command center as a rocket lifted from an opening in the foredeck and swept into the sky. They all watched on the monitors as it raced to the northwest and soon disappeared.

"Four minutes to flyby," said Murphy.

Every eye turned to the big clock above the window. No one spoke, all waiting in antic.i.p.ation. Time dragged as the second hand on the clock seemed to take forever to make a sweep. Finally, Murphy spoke mechanically. "Missile pa.s.sed two hundred yards over and between the hostiles."

"Did they get the message?" asked Cabrillo, a slight tone of apprehension in his voice.

There was a long pause, and then, "They're turning for home,"

Murphy reported happily. "Two Cubans who are very lucky men indeed."

"Also smart enough to recognize a no-win situation."

"Indeed," Linda said with a broad smile.

"No blood on our hands this day," Cabrillo said with an obvious sigh of relief. He leaned over in his chair and spoke to the computer.

"Slow to cruise speed."

The clandestine operation was almost complete, the contract fulfilled.

The Oregon and her crew of executives did not consider themselves lucky. Their achievement had come from a combination of special skills, expertise, intelligence and precise planning. Now, except for a technician to watch over the command center and the navigation systems, everyone could relax; some headed for their staterooms for well 1 41.deserved sleep, while others congregated in the ship's dining room to snack and wind down.