John, meanwhile, had counted on just this response, “Now, now, guys, I’m not asking you to step away from a lowered gangway, you think I want to explain that to the big man?” They all laughed a bit and the two other men were visibly relieved at the lieutenant’s reaction. John went on, “They aren’t heavy and it shouldn’t take more than an hour or so. One of the yard’s crane operators is still on duty and he will work the gantry. We’ll load them in the forward bay and then I’ll take care of it in the morning.” He looked at them and shrugged.

It all seemed harmless enough. The forward access bay was sealed from the upper deck down, so it was just a holding bay for now anyway. Without a reason to question the well-liked and famously competent officer in front of them, they both nodded and waved the lieutenant on his way. They were already distracted by their previous conversation when the lieutenant returned from for’ard and the now open loading bay and then jogged back down the gangplank to the wharf. As he saw John coming back down off the warship, Mike Lombardi stepped down from the driver’s seat of the second truck and met him on the pier.

They came close and talked quietly, “All right, Mike, you’ve got the keys to the crane?” Mike nodded. He had procured the keys along with a cursory lesson in the crane’s operation through a sternly worded letter from Admiral Hamilton to the base commander demanding the strictest of secrecy on his part. It was the kind of letter that, when backed up by an otherwise innocent sounding phone call from the admiral using a certain denoted codeword, could open pretty much any door on the base.

“So, we’ve got twenty-six crates to load in two hours.” said John.

Mike nodded once, hesitated, and then shook his head as he took in the scale of what was being demanded, “Wait, I thought we had ten hours?” he said quietly.

John shrugged, “Yes, but I want to get the casings all fitted tonight, plus the longer we spend loading them the greater the chance we could be discovered.”

Before Mike could comment further, John went on, “Look, that crane is rated up to twenty tons, that means that if we are smart about it we can do this in four goes.”

Mike shook his head, “But they aren’t set in four pallets, they are all crated separately.” he said with outward calm but inward confusion.

But John smiled, “Leave that to me, Mike. I’ll get them hooked up, you just lift them and drop them like we discussed.”