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“Has Doherty passed you within the last few minutes?”

“Da up the Falls Road He went into seven zero six”

“Hartley,” said the colonel as he charged on down the corridor, “you and Crann keep an eye on Doherty Make sure he doesn’t leave his cabin If he does, arrest hieant Roberts didn’t need a second knock He opened the door within seconds, and greeted Colonel Scott-Hopkins with “Good ularly woke hiht, dressed in his pajamas

“Grab your tool kit, Roberts, and follow ain on the move

It took Roberts three flights of stairs before he caught up with his co officer By the time they reached the stateroom corridor, Roberts knehich of his particular skills the colonel required He dashed into the chairman’s cabin, and peered closely at the vase for a moment before slowly circl

ing it

“If it’s a bouess the nuer”

“But can you do it?” asked the captain, sounding remarkably calm “Because if you can’t, ers I don’t need this trip to be coe”

“I can’t do a daet my hands on the control panel It has to be somewhere else on the ship,” said Roberts, “probably quite near by”

“In his lordship’s cabin would be my bet,” said the colonel, “becausethat it was occupied by an IRA bomber called Liam Doherty”

“Does anyone knohich cabin he was in?” asked the captain

“Nu the oldthe corridor”

The captain and the sergeant ran out of the room and into the corridor, followed by Scott-Hopkins, Harry, and Giles The captain opened the cabin door with his passkey and stood aside to let Roberts in The sergeant walked quickly across to a large trunk in the middle of the room He tentatively raised the lid and peered inside

“Christ, it’s due to detonate in eight minutes and thirty-nine seconds”

“Can’t you just disconnect one of those?” asked Captain Turnbull, pointing to a myriad different colored wires