[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

you understand the delicacy of the arrangements between Oilstar and the
Venezuelan government. If anything should happen to interfere with
that& relationship, many people could be out of jobs.
 Show him the faxes, McKendry said.
Keene took out letters from Juan Ortega de la Vega Bruzual for the Security
Ministry, and Fredrick Van Alman for Oilstar, both of which firmly requested
cooperation  in whatever these two gentlemen desire.
The captain sighed.  Politics! He practically spat out the word.
 If you wish, we will pass on your reluctance to Minister Bruzual  McKendry
could see by his flinch that Calisto recognized the security minister s
name  and arrange for you to discuss the matter with him. However, he s a busy
man and may not take too kindly to being disturbed.
 I d prefer to know more about your& activities, the captain said.  What are
you trying to do?
Keene s nostrils flared.  I will have Señor Bruzual contact you. You will be
able to ask him as many questions as you like, provided you still have a job.
The captain gave best.  What is it you want of me?
McKendry saw his partner s relief.  We need to go with you to theValhalla
platform and return here, if necessary.
 Why?
 Yours is not to reason why.
McKendry shot Keene a look to tell him to let up a little.
 After we load from theValhalla platform, I m going up to the Caribbean next,
the captain said.  Not back to Puerto La Cruz.
 Wherever. Keene shrugged his shoulders.  We ll manage.
 There s a utility closet down in the pump room. No one goes there except for
maintenance, and we re not due for any. You re welcome to stay there. Sleep if
you can. Calisto reached up to point at a chart on the wall, a large and
detailed map of the Venezuelan coast and the Caribbean.
 We ll head out of here in an hour and make our way around the Araya Peninsula
between the coast and la Isla Margarita  the captain s finger traced a line
along the northeastern coast of Venezuela  around the Paria Peninsula through
the Dragon s Mouth  his finger passed through the narrow patch of blue between
the point of the Venezuelan coast and the northern edge of Trinidad  down the
Gulf of Paria and into the Serpent s Mouth to theValhalla platform.
 Sounds reasonable to me, Keene said.
The captain looked at him as if he believed he was not all there.  Remember
the map well, because you won t have a view. There are no windows in the pump
room.
 We re not tourists, McKendry said.
The captain nodded.  Very well. There will be a new moon tonight. We will
arrive at the pumping station at approximately ten o clock. Most of my crew
take a boat over to theValhalla for their replacements. Until then, you are to
stay in your quarters. Around midnight they should all be out of the way and
you can safely come out on deck.
17
After countless hours hidden in the cramped metal-walled crawl space down in
theYucatán  s pump room, Keene s idea of what was and wasn t reasonable had
undergone a 180-degree change. The passage so far had been long and dreary,
with nothing to see, no creature comforts, and too much time for reflection.
He would have liked to play a card game or even do something as simple-minded
as tic-tac-toe.
Anything to keep himself from thinking about Arthur. By now, after so many
years and so many adventures in the Daredevils Club, it should have been easy
to accept the death of a member par for the course. But it was never easy.
Were it not for this confinement, the loss of Arthur would have come in sharp
stabs of pain, engendered not so much by memories as by sights and sounds that
reminded him of his friend. Out of deference to his partner, who was perfectly
content to spend the time in silent contemplation, he did not suggest any
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
trivial amusements.
The droning engines stopped a little after eleven-thirty as the tanker pulled
up to theValhalla  s secondary pumping pier. Keene glanced at the luminous
dial of his watch.  Nearly two hours late. Our Captain Calisto seems to be a
true Venezuelan. Mañana, mañana& What do you say we give them half an hour to
anchor themselves and get the crew off before we wander up and take a look
around?
McKendry didn t answer.
 Hey, Sleeping Beauty, Keene said.
This time, McKendry s answer was a light snore.
As Keene fidgeted impatiently, an idea began to take form. By midnight, it had
become a plan. He tore a page out of the small notebook he carried in his
pocket. Using a red felt pen he d found on the floor, he wrotemidnight at the
top of the page. Then he wrote a brief note to McKendry, who would be awakened
soon enough by the silence of the engines:
Always wanted to piss into the wind from a great height so I m swimming over
to the rig to play King of the Hill. If you can t see me swimming back by 2
a.m., start worrying.
He threw the pen aside, placed the note where McKendry was sure to see it upon
waking, and, groping his way up the metal staircase, left their quarters.
Practiced in moving stealthily without losing time, he made his way up the
seven decks to the bulkhead door that opened onto the sprawling main deck of
the tanker.
Once outside, he took a welcome breath of fresh, albeit humid, air and looked
around.
The empty supertankerYucatán was anchored under quicksilver starlight in a
calm black sea, about a quarter of a mile from the monolithic offshore
oil-production platform. The rig itself stood like a skyscraper on the ocean,
raised up out of the water on four enormous concrete piers like stilts. The
platform s tall derrick, numerous cranes, helipad, and flare boom rode several
hundred feet above the water. The long shaft through its center plunged down
into the sea bottom like the proboscis of a voracious mosquito.
Keene had once invested a small amount of money in offshore drilling. The
investment had led to a significant amount of reading for which, he thought,
he was presently grateful. Without that, he would not have had the vaguest
understanding of what was going on. Because of it, he knew that theValhalla
rig pumped crude oil from strata deep beneath the sea, but did not bring it up
into the big platform itself; instead, the fresh crude was shunted to a
pipeline laid across the ocean floor toward a separate derrick, a stand-alone [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]