A Dawn Like Thunder by Douglas Reeman Page B

shoved off from the base.’ He hesitated. ‘You know, the petty officer. A real dish.’
    Ross replied quietly, ‘You didn’t waste much time.’
    â€˜Oh, it wasn’t that. When I met her I was looking for you.’ He glanced only briefly at the curved deckhead as the hull gave a sudden shiver. ‘She was upset. I could tell.’
    â€˜What about?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Maybe I imagined it. I don’t think so. She’s not like the others.’
    â€˜How so?’ It was good to let him talk. Whatever he showed outwardly, he must be nervous about the operation, his first. Or was it something else?
    â€˜Well, I heard somebody say at the party that she’s – well, half-and-half, if you see what I mean?’
    Ross said, ‘I do believe you’re blushing.’ But all he could think of was her suppressed anger when she had entered Pryce’s office, as if she had known they were talking about her. He added lightly, ‘She’s probably cheesed off at being bothered by lovesick subbies!’
    â€˜All the same . . .’ They both looked up as
Turquoise
’s commander strolled into the wardroom, yawning and scratching his black beard.
    â€˜Any char yet?’
    A curtain twitched slightly. ‘Not so much bloody noise!’
    Jessop swiped the curtain where he imagined the occupant’s backside would be and growled, ‘Don’t be so bloody disrespectful to your captain!’ Then he grinned. ‘All quiet up top. I had a quick peek at first light. Like a mill-pond.’ He became businesslike again. ‘We received no signals when we were charging batteries last night. So it’s still on.’ He glanced at the chart. ‘Our chummy-boat landeda party of squaddies yesterday, so we would have heard something if that had misfired.’
    Ross, too, was looking at the chart, the neat lines and soundings, depths and compass variations, seeing it as it really would appear. Rocks, small beaches, and the headland where the radar station was said to be. He could guess what the bearded submariner was thinking. How could men volunteer for that kind of work? Put ashore to fend for themselves in an area known to be crawling with Japs. Sheer courage, or was it a kind of madness? An Australian major who had been instructing them in jungle warfare had said, ‘Keep it in your minds at all times. This enemy is like nothing you’ve known before. No use bleating about the Geneva Convention and a prisoner’s rights if you get captured. All the territory they’ve taken is held by fear, by sheer bloody savagery.
So keep it in your minds.
Get them first.’ He had stared around at their intent expressions, face by face. ‘They kill people like us,’ he had lingered over the final word, ‘eventually.’
    Ross thought suddenly of Villiers. He had actually gone back to Singapore, and he had no doubt that he would go again if it was suggested to him. And what of the girl in England, another man’s wife? Perhaps she might change his mind.
    Napier stood up and looked for his shoes. ‘I think I’ll go and see how my Number Two is getting on.’
    He left the wardroom and Jessop said thoughtfully, ‘When I fix a ship in my crosswires I try not to think of the people who are going to die when I fire a salvo. But this is different. I prefer
my
war.’ He grimaced suddenly. ‘God, smell those sausages! Whoever invented them should be marooned on a desert island for a year with nothing else to eat!’
    Ross knew his mind was somewhere else, planning,preparing in case the operation had already been discovered by the enemy. But he asked, and he was surprised at how calm he sounded, ‘By the way, what time
did
Our Nel first sight the combined fleet?’
    Jessop paused, a mug of tea halfway to his beard. ‘Six o’clock in the morning. It wasn’t until eleven-forty