Into the Heart of the Sea

All Rights Reserved © 2002 by James R. Mori

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

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Any resemblance to actual people and events is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fiction.

ISBN: 0-595-24217-0

ISBN: 978-1-4620-9724-1 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

CAST OF CHARACTERS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

EPILOGUE

This book is dedicated to my father, Amedor Romain Mori. He did his duty like so many others of his generation.

Grateful thanks to family, friends and associates, past and present, who are hidden among the pages of this book.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Main Characters

Jeff Romano.. .An American businessman and an observer of the natural world who travels in the quest of both interests. Blood and marriage relate him to those who fought in the wars of Empire.

Al Romano III…The father of Jeff Romano who was called upon to perform brave deeds and died believing he had failed.

Antonio Romano II.. .An Argentine Navy pilot whose destiny is in the heart of the sea.

Andy Carruth and Jenny Warden.. .A soldier and a nurse in the service of the Queen. They wait together for a defining moment and pass on the lineage.

Guyito Flynn.A Prince of Peru, a spy, and a patron to Jeff Romano.

Noah Kleinberg.. .Born Pyotr Konev in the Soviet Union. An Israeli engineer and spy whose nimble fingers can adjust anything and make anything grow.

Other Characters

Jake Carruth. Who taught his grandson, Jeff Romano, to love the things that many of us fail to see.

Achille and Alberto Romano II…Brothers who lose their land upon the death of their father. One dies inside until he replaces the land; the other welcomes the adventure made possible by its loss.

Kathy, Debbie, and Cindy Romano.. .Simply the best.

Buster and Pits.The dogs. As the bumper sticker says, we should all be half as good as they think we are.

Sean Carruth.A boy soldier in a foreign land. The battlefields were not the only place he found horror.

Zakhi Klein…An orthodox Jewish businessman and Israeli soldier. He is a part of the blue wave that blows nightly over deep Galilee.

Jossi Kurtz. An Israeli businessman who does so much more than business.

Edmond Belmonte and Luis Fantas.Two sons of the soil of Chile who learn that land may be taken by the ballot box, as well as by bullets.

Bernardo Flynn.son of Guyito and recipient of the baton passed on to him by Jeff Romano.

Multlah I and Multlah II.Two Gurkha sergeants, who in separate wars, half a world and half a lifetime apart, are saved by the actions of two brave captains.

Bucky Wetcott…A scion of Republican State Department Civil Servants going back farther than anyone can remember. Most of the things he does are definitely not diplomatic.

Domingo Sanchez.Knows life’s ups and downs, called Sydney by Jeff Romano, who helped save him from exile in a tropical Siberia.

Arnon Soor. An Israeli industrialist and ex-Army general who had commanded thousands in previous battles, leads nineteen on his most important mission.

Admiral Lucho Garcia.. .Guyito Flynn’s son-in law. All he ever wanted to do was fly.

Hammond Ford, Fred Harman, Kyle Ballard.. .The bosses. Everyone has one.

Finally

The butterflies, beetles, spiders, fish and other creatures that teach Jeff Romano important survival strategies and so much more.

The forest, jungles, deserts, plains, tidelands, and seas of Earth that are so easy to learn to love.

PROLOGUE

.and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Psalms 46:2

The west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California

Just after midnight on January 30, 1996, people living in the small community of Cottage Springs heard a low rumbling noise above the pounding rainstorm. In the past five days twenty-two inches of warm rain had fallen on over four feet of wet snow. The tremendous weight of the water forced the super-saturated snow and glacial till down the mountainside, taking with it boulders the size of cars, thousands of mature pines, oaks, cedars, firs, and everything else that stood in its way. A two hundred yard wide swath of dense forest was swept clean from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the Stanislaus River Canyon over two miles below.

When the debris slide reached the bottom of the canyon, it struck the Sourgrass bridge and pushed it up the opposite side of the canyon a quarter of a mile. The steel beams and girders were twisted around trees like a child’s toy.

Vacationers in a few cabins downstream from the bridge were awakened by the sound of silence, because the debris slide had dammed the river that had been flowing at eighty-seven thousand cubic feet of water per second. Everyone knew that the damming of the river and the silence was only temporary so they ran through the rain and darkness for their lives.

Jeff Romano, a nearby resident, and a geologist friend with the unlikely name of Alfonse Peabody, viewed the event several days later. Dr. Peabody told Jeff, What we see here is only the earth trying to make itself round.

By the summer of 2001, the scar on the earth was mending nicely because it is in Nature’s best interest to heal herself. Since mature forests respond favorably to cataclysmic events, myriad species of fungi, lichens, grasses, sedges, herbaceous plants, shrubs, wildflowers, and seedling trees revel in the sunshine and abound in the now open areas. Insects swarm, birds and many other animals, both large and small, flock to the bounty. In time as measured by Dr. Peabody, the forest will return in an instant. In time as measured by the rest of us, generations must wait to see the forest as it once was. Each in its own time in its own place, turn, turn, turn.

The mountains, rocks, stones, soil, grains of sand, and the many Lands of Goshen that we call Terra Firma, are in reality only temporary structures on their journey to the heart of the sea.

CHAPTER I

THE CONDOR

June 8, 1962

The Andes, Argentina

^^^estward and above Mendoza and the foothills, black condors fly without effort in the thin cold air of the Andes. A narrow paved road winds and twists through the mountains all the way to Chile and eventually to the Pacific Ocean. Each May Antarctic storms begin to pile up snow that lock the mountains in a winter fastness.

Twelve-year-old Antonio Romano II and his two older cousins have recently fashioned a sled from an old wagon, barrel staves, and a wine keg that was discarded from the family winery. They have driven up from the lush Romano farmland in a truck with the sled. The vineyards, orchards, and the people are beginning a season of rest, and time for sledding and other activities is allowed during this time of year, as the harvest season is behind them.

The boys are taking turns hauling the sled up a steep hill in deep snow and recklessly riding the contraption to the bottom. It is exhilarating and great fun.

Antonio is visiting his relatives from his home in Buenos Aires and will be allowed to stay on his uncle’s farm for a week. It is his favorite place to be. He wishes his family and his father were farmers like the rest of his family because it is a much more exciting life than that of a lawyer and being the son of one. Antonio reaches the top of the hill for his second turn on the sled and as he is catching his breath, he looks across the valley to the high peaks to the west. He sees large black condors riding the ther-mals effortlessly as they drift off to the north. He is struck with the sight and cannot move. The large black birds stand out against the steel blue sky in contrast to the white snow. After a period of time his cousins call up from below. Come down, Antonio. It’s our turn.

Antonio kicks the sled down the hill to his cousins but he remains.

In the thin cold air of the Andes a young man watches the condors flying without effort. He wishes that he were able to soar also.

June 8, 1982

The South Atlantic

Approaching the Falkland Islands

Commander Antonio Romano II, Argentine Naval Air Division, is flying today in the most important flight of his life but it will not be done without effort. He will make a statement for the honor of his country against the British pigs who are attempting to remove the Argentine soldiers from the Malvinas (Falklands). Antonio thinks about his enemies during his flight. No, they are not pigs. They are brave men and women doing their duty and doing what their country asks of them, just as I too am doing.

Britain and Argentina had been on a collision course ever since Argentina landed troops and iron workers on desolate South Georgia Island to salvage scrap iron from an old whaling station on March 29. Demands from the British Foreign Office to leave the island were ignored and shortly after, Argentina commandos routed a small detachment of

British Marines on South Georgia. On April 2, Argentina invaded Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands with thousands of troops and the stage was set for a full-blown war between the two countries.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, had conducted unsuccessful shuttle diplomacy between Buenos Aires and London as the crisis grew. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made the following comment about the inhabitants of the Falklands to Secretary Haig. „They are British subjects. There is nothing to discuss." Mrs. Thatcher and the junta government of Argentina leave the question of sovereignty to their armies and navies.

The Falklands and South Georgia Island had been two of many portions of earth that had been colored red in the old geography books when red denoted lands of the British Empire. Indeed the sun never set on the British Empire. The British presence had been on the Falklands and South Georgia for centuries. However small and insignificant the Falklands may be, tucked away at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, no upstart Argentine dictator was about to decide the sovereignty of any part of what was left of the British Empire.

An tonio is piloting a French built Super Entenard jet fighter with an Exocet missile attached menacingly under the right wing. It is the consummate weapon for use against naval vessels in a war.

Peruvian Navy markings were noticed on the Exocet missile during Antonio’s preflight check at the Rio Gallegos Naval Air base. Peru had recently sided with Argentina against Chile in a border dispute and now supports her neighbor with supplies used against the British. Antonio knew that his country’s supply of the deadly Exocet was very low and he assumed correctly that Peru had provided for her neighbor in her hour of need.

On May 25, HMS Coventry was attacked by Argentine Skyhawks and hit by three 1,000-pound bombs. Nineteen British sailors died. On May

29, an Exocet missile hit the British destroyer, HMS Sheffield, killing 24 and wounding 30 before she slipped beneath the waves. On the same day, another Exocet finished off the MV Atlantic Conveyor that had been hit earlier by Argentine bombs. Argentine tactics against the British fleet consist of attacks by single low flying Entenards with an Exocet missile and Douglas A-4C Skyhawks with 1,000-pound bombs. It is becoming a very nasty conflict.

After removing his oxygen mask and goggles, Antonio wipes his blue eyes and reaches under his restraining harness to the gold coin and chain that hangs around his neck. His father had given him the coin upon his completion of flight school; it has become a talisman and is Antonio’s only departure into the realm of metaphysics. He kisses the coin and rubs it into his red mustache with a gloved hand as he prepares for the missile launch.

A large plume of flame lights up the sea under the Entenard jet fighter as Antonio fires the missile. Flying on patrol 1,000 meters above, Commander Ian Merton in a Sea Harrier jump jet of 800 squadron from the British carrier HMS Hermes, sees the launch immediately. He radios a warning of a missile launch and arms his AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles. He puts the Harrier into a steep dive, acquires a launch affirmation, and pickles off one Sidewinder that hits Antonio’s Entenard dead center. For a brief moment, before the fireball incinerates him, Antonio soars like a condor before his body falls into the heart of the sea with the spiraling debris of his jet fighter.

Commander Merton stifles the urge to shout Tallyho.

The electric guidance circuitry in the Exocet is a marvel, but it cannot distinguish between a ship with a Red Cross on its side and one without a Red Cross. The British know that the hospital ship HMS Weymouth will be needed in their attempt to remove the Argentines from the Falklands. Pains are taken to keep the hospital ship from harm’s way. She is given maximum protection, the same afforded to her aircraft carriers, as she carries Argentine as well as British wounded. Caution and plans aside, the

Exocet fired by Commander Romano minutes earlier is now locked onto HMS Weymouth. Nothing short of a miracle, malfunction, or the almost impossible task of downing the missile before it strikes the ship can stop it.

-Aboard the hospital ship are 147 wounded British, 11 Argentines, and over 100 medical staff and crew members.

In the wardroom Nurse Jenny Warden, RNNA, is holding the hand of Captain Andrew Carruth. The captain had been in command of company D of 2 Para Battalion and was wounded in an action called Goose Green. Nurse Warden is in love with Captain Carruth and is having a hard time keeping her attention strictly professional.

Andy receives his first visitor since being wounded. It is a Gurkha sergeant attached to Andy’s company who had received permission to visit wounded Gurkhas on the ship. Sergeant Multlah has also come to thank his captain for saving the lives of his men. He walks across the ward and comes to attention at Andy’s bed, stomps his right foot, salutes palm outward, and says, Suh. He then removes a large curved knife from a leather scabbard, draws the sharp edge across his ear lobe, and returns the bloody knife to the scabbard.

In a ceremony that had been conducted by the sergeant’s father 37 years earlier to another captain in another war, he begins a chant. Andy does not understand the words but the meaning and sentiments come through clearly. The sergeant places the knife on Andy’s chest, weeps, salutes again, and does a smart about face. He marches from the ward with blood running down his neck.

An alarm sounds as Sergeant Multlah exits the room calling the ship’s crew to stations. The Exocet is very close and its arrival just above the water line of HMS Weymouth is imminent. The captain and nurse know exactly what is about to happen. They hold their breath and wait.

Among the debris of the Entenard jet fighter resting at the bottom of the sea is an 1861 Victor Emanuell II gold coin on a chain. The coin had

made a long journey across the same ocean many years earlier. The church had used the coin to pay for land in Italy and it had been buried for many years under a large eucalyptus tree.

How long does a man live? Does he live a thousand days, or only one? For a week, or for several centuries? How long does a man spend dying? What does it mean to say forever? Pablo Neruda

CHAPTER II

EXODUS

Part I—Adventure

October 11, 1886 Santa Teresa, Italy

As the river Seccia exits the Appeni and flows into the Po River Valley of northern Italy, it carries bits and pieces of the mountains onto the land of Stephano Romano. Over the millennia the river has deposited three bench lands of alluvial soil on its east side. The lower two are as level as a table and produce wheat, corn, oats, barley and an assortment of vegetables. The last and highest of the bench lands slopes gently downward to the north. Here the orchards and vineyards benefit from the air drainage that protects the trees and vines from spring frosts. The Romanos have farmed the land longer than anyone can remember. A small dairy herd produces cheese, butter, and milk, and two small houses for the seasonal workers stand next to the remnants of a gristmill near the river. It reminds the family of how self-sufficient the farm and land had been to their ancestors. Over the past two hundred years produce from the farm nourished the families who lived on the farm and those in the surrounding Province including the cities of Parma, Modena, and Bologna.

The main house was built of stones from the river and fields. It is very strong and has sheltered generations of Romanos. The house stands on a small rise above the bench lands of the river and is shaded by two very large chestnut trees. The trees west of the house and the large stones from the river and fields keep the house cool in the summer. The massive stone fireplace keeps the kitchen/living room warm in the winter.

Today the house no longer resounds with the laughter of children or the chatter and clatter of a working farm and vibrant family. Except for 25-year-old Achille Romano, all of the children have drifted away from the farm. The eldest son, Alberto, is a junior Professor of Foreign Languages at Padua University and two daughters, Carolina, 34, and Ermina, 35, married merchants and now live in Parma.

The elder, Stephano Romano, age 61, is in his bed at mid-day. Stephano’s wife, Ermina, died six years previously and the chest pains Stephano experienced at her death and since have become increasingly more severe during the last few months. The life of Stephano is leaving his body as surely as did the joy when Ermina died and when each successive child left for the cities. The once red beard is now white and the once happy blue eyes now show only sadness, pain, and fear.

From the adjoining farm the neighbor, Anna Dondero, has been caring for Stephano during his final days. Yesterday Stephano asked Anna and his son, Achille, to summon Father Minetti and the other Romano children to his bedside.

Stephano had not been a good Catholic during his life as there were too many excuses on the farm that allowed him to miss too many masses. Now with each passing painful day Stephano worries more and more for his soul.

The clip clop of horse hooves in front of Father Minetti’s buggy resounds off the cobblestone driveway leading to the silent and sad

Romano farmhouse. His high white collar contrasts sharply with his long black frock. The long entrance passes grapevines and is lined by a double row of poplar trees, now beginning to turn yellow. He can see the stone house and the two chestnut trees, also now with yellowing leaves. Father Minetti can remember many happy days of his childhood, of weddings and parties at the now somber house. He has drunk the wine from the vineyard and eaten the cheese and bread from the land on many occasions.

Dino Minetti had grown up in Santa Teresa and had known the Romanos since he was a small child. Dino and the eldest son of Stephano Romano, Alberto, have been friends and rivals their entire lives. During their school days each tried to outdo the other in their games and studies. Alberto was perhaps the smarter of the two, but Dino was more persistent and tried harder and frequently won their contests. When Alberto won the affection and the hand of Teresa Del Antoni in marriage, Dino fled to the seminary. He finds himself today on his way to pray for and to comfort Alberto’s father.

Father Minetti enters Stephano’s darkened room and says, May God bless you, Stephano.

While gasping for breath and grimacing in pain, Stephano addresses his concern. Father, I fear for my soul. I have not done my part for our Lord Jesus or for the church during my life. I have a paper here drawn up and witnessed by Solicitor Mattiola in Parma. It has been filed and recorded. I want you to know what I have done before I pass on.

What is in the paper, Stephano?

It is my last will and testament. I am leaving the farm to the church. My children have all left the land except for Achille and I would only ask that he be allowed to stay on the land for he is the best farmer in the Province.

It is not necessary nor do I believe it possible for one to buy entrance into heaven, Stephano. All that is required is forgiveness, prayer, and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior. Father Minetti holds the hand of the dying Stephano and prays with him in the darkened lonely room.

As Father Minetti is leaving the house, Achille is standing at the front door. Achille, it is time that you call your brother and sisters home. He will not last much longer.

Two days later and before Alberto arrives, Stephano is gone. After the funeral, Solicitor Mattiola informs the family of Stephano’s last wishes.

September 18, 1887

The children of Stephano, led by Alberto, contest the will in the courts. Almost a year later a settlement is reached. The church is generous and offers to pay the family for livestock, buildings, equipment, improvements, and goodwill. The settlement money is sufficient for Alberto, his family, and Achille to emigrate to the New World. Carolina and Ermina will stay in Parma.

A bag of gold coins is given to each of Stephano’s children by Solicitor Matiola on behalf of the church. Achille is angry. He is a man of the soil and no amount of money can soothe his torment.

Alberto says to Achille, It is a fair settlement, Achille. It will allow each of us a new start if we so desire.

It is blood money, Alberto; the church took advantage of a sick and dying old man. I spit on the gold coins.

Alberto travels back to the farm with Achille, leaving his wife Teresa and five young children with his sisters in Parma. He wants one last look at the farm. Alberto stands in contrast to his younger brother, Achille, who has large hard-work hands, a barrel chest and is dressed in his finest clothing but still looks like the man of the soil. Alberto is slender and is dressed in a high collared starched white shirt and lime green tie. A straw hat shades a face that is adorned with a red mustache and goatee. He wears a white linen jacket, dark trousers, highly polished shoes adorned with spats, and carries a cane. Alberto is a university professor and looks the part.

Memories of past times flood into Alberto as he walks around the farm for the last time. He is standing at the river and looks at the place where

the elephant was found when he was a young man. After a hard winter and very wet spring, the river flooded and exposed the bones of an elephant. The event caused quite a bit of excitement in the area, and reporters and people from all over the Province came to view the wonder. A professor from the university came to excavate the remains. He declared that it was an Ice Age mammoth. The local Priest and Alberto’s friend, Dino Minetti, declared that it was a skeleton from one of the elephants taken into Italy by Hannibal when he attacked Rome in ancient times. This controversy continues to the present day. It has been the topic of discussion over many glasses of chianti and the cause of a fair number of fist fights, including one between Alberto and Dino Minetti.

Adventure and restlessness have always been within Alberto. As a young man he found the predictability of life on the farm stifling. The planting, harvesting, pruning, the milking of the cows and most everything else was predictable to the point of extreme boredom. The hard work was also not to his liking. His younger brother, Achille, thrived on just the things that Alberto could not stand. Alberto excelled in his schooling. His brilliant mind and gift of persuasion led him to graduation from university and eventually to a professorship in languages. Now after his fourth year at the university as a professor, he finds his profession and his being a member of academia depressing. He hates the petty politics and back stabbing at the university. With the opportunity that his gold coins afford him, he decides to make a new start in the New World.

Just after the New Year in 1888, Alberto, Teresa, and their five young children, Guissepi, Edma, Vanda, Iona, and young Alberto depart for America. Achille has been looking for new land to buy in Italy but can find nothing to his liking. He tells Alberto that he will follow him if he cannot find what he is looking for. The two sisters, Carolina and Ermina, try to keep Achille from following Alberto to the New World. They want to keep as much of the family together as possible.

All emigrants who travel to America from Europe in the Nineteenth Century do not travel in cramped and uncomfortable conditions. The family Romano has two private staterooms and eats meals in private on the ship. Alberto has with him an article from a newspaper extolling the virtues of inexpensive, plentiful, and productive land in southern New Jersey. The area has become the breadbasket for the rapidly growing New York and Philadelphia areas. Alberto tells Teresa that their family will once again become farmers. The children are excited but Teresa is very apprehensive.

Passage through Ellis Island is humiliating. They are poked, prodded, questioned, made to stand in long lines, and finally given entrance to a New World. Old values of tradition, status of profession, or family dominance are quickly washed away in the melting pot and each person and family must make his or her own way.

The new beginning for the Romanos is easier than it is for many others. The bag of gold coins from the church and the dowry of Teresa Del Antoni make the transition possible with a minimum of disruption other than the cultural shock.

The