He turned to Ross. "If this was a technical failure and the Air Force is dealing with only one single missile, you can consider the job done. That's what General Dagmar said."

      "Who the heck is General Dagmar?" Ross answered without looking up. "I never heard the name Dagmar mentioned before."

      "General Dagmar is my sweetheart girl at Johnson Base, the nightshift communications officer. She has ordered every aircraft to intercept that is in the air near Johnston Base. She has also broadcast the alert to every station at Langley Base and got three replies already. She further alerted the Air National Guard in Richmond. Our best bet is Langley, though. They've got the right platforms. They can track this thing with AWACs that guide the fighters to shoot it down. Dag said, consider it done. She didn't even seem concerned. Of course, if this was a planned attack with swarms of these coming in from all sides..."

      "God help us then!" said Ross and cut Tony off.



      Ross got the scope tracking the boat again. By then the boat had turned towards the open sea, possibly trying to get away from Captain Simons' cutter.

      "They won't outrun the Coast Guard," said Ross. "It's just a matter of time before Jack will catch up with them." He took the phone again.

      The computer kept tracking the boat. We watched it steaming out to sea. We watched it with bated breath, though there wasn't anything exciting to see. Ross seemed to have gotten through to the Coast Guard. "Let me speak to Captain Simons... What do you mean, you can't allow..."

      As he spoke the tracking screen went white. I noticed a flash far out over the water. Then came the sound of an explosion. It must have been a huge explosion for the sound of it to travel so far over the wind. When the tracking picture cleared the boat was no longer visible. There was floating debris. The boat hadn't actually sunk. It had disintegrated as though it had been filled to the brim with dynamite.

      Ross relayed the event over the phone. "No, that couldn't have been Jack shooting at them. You of all people should know that the Coast Guard doesn't carry large weapons," he said. "It was either a suicide blast, or a kill by a submarine."

      While we watched, a sub surfaced, probably looking for survivors.

      "I don't think they want any witnesses left behind," said Sylvia.

      We saw people at the tower of the sub shooting into the water.

      "What a waste of fine sailors!" commented Ross. "Damn it all!!!"

      "I can't believe what I'm seeing," mumbled Tony. "It looks like the guys on the sub are shooting at something all right. Why would they be killing the survivors?"

      "Maybe they are shooting to sink some equipment that is still afloat," commented Ross.

      Minutes later the sub submerged again.

      "Jack may be in great danger!" said Ross and picked up the telephone again. "Why can't you stop Captain Jack Simons? He must stay out of this area! The submarines mean business. They appear to have shot their own survivors or whatever else floated about... Radio silence! My God, break the radio silence! You can't let Captain Simons run into this trap... Sure you can come and see the whole thing on video tape, but you better have Jack with you!"



      Twenty minutes later, Captain Jack Simons and his crew sat with us in the living room. The tape was rewinding. The phone to the Coast Guard was still open. The CIA was on its way with a chartered floatplane to pick up the tapes. More people from the nearby Coast Guard and Navy station were also coming up. But before any of them arrived we had a private celebration.

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Stories about  Love from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche