31
WHILE KATARINA WAITED
on the Argo’s bridge, Kurt Austin sat
in the conference room with Captain Haynes and Joe Zavala. He spent
ten minutes relaying the events he and Katarina had endured that
night, concluding with the grisly discovery at the French team’s
beach house.
In response, Captain
Haynes told him of the attack on the Grouper , Paul’s near drowning, and his current
condition. He and Joe then took turns explaining what they knew of
Gamay’s theory that the Kinjara Maru
had been hit with some type of directed-energy weapon.
“Are we talking about
something like the SDI program?” Kurt asked, referring to the
Strategic Defense Initiative. “Something that could shoot down
missiles?”
“Could be,” the
captain said. “The thing is, we don’t really know. But it’s
possible.”
“And why hit some
random freighter in the middle of the Atlantic?” Kurt
asked.
Before anyone could
answer, the intercom light flashed, and the communications officer
spoke.
“Incoming call for
you, Captain. It’s Director Pitt.”
“Put him on speaker,”
the captain said.
The speaker crackled
for a second and then the sound of Dirk Pitt’s voice came over it.
“I know it’s late there, gentlemen, but I understand everyone is
still up.”
“We’ve been
discussing the events,” Haynes said.
“I just posed a
question that’s been on my mind since this started,” Kurt said.
“Why target a bulk carrier in the middle of the Atlantic? That goes
for simple piracy or this electromagnetic weapon we’re now talking
about.”
“I think I have the
answer to that,” Dirk said. “Hiram Yaeger is doing a study to
figure out the power requirements and capabilities of such a weapon
right now, but when I asked him what someone would need to create
such a weapon his short answer was ‘More.’”
“More?” Kurt said.
“More what?”
“More everything,”
Dirk replied. “More energy, more materials, more money.
More than it might be easy to get one’s
hands on. In this case, the Kinjara
Maru was likely targeted for a shipment of titanium-doped
YBCO. It’s a highly advanced, hellaciously expensive compound used
to make incredibly powerful superconducting magnets.”
“And those magnets
can be used in making energy weapons,” Kurt guessed. “Just like the
one Gamay thinks hit the ship.”
“Exactly,” Pitt said.
“Basically, these superconducting magnets are essential to any
high-intensity energy projects. Normal magnets create too much heat
at high energy levels, but superconductors pass the energy through
without creating any resistance at all.”
Joe spoke up. “Sounds
like someone has adapted that technology for a military
purpose.”
“Yaeger agrees with
you,” Pitt said. “And Gamay’s tests on the samples from the
Kinjara Maru are all but
unequivocal.”
“Any idea who’s
behind it?” Kurt asked.
“Not yet,” Pitt said.
“Could be a terrorist group, or some rogue nation or faction. Last
year we fought with the Chinese Triad over a bioweapon, so I guess
anything’s possible.”
“What about a money
trail?” Kurt said. “If this stuff is so expensive, there has to be
some record of its purchase.”
“We’re looking into
it,” Pitt said. “So far, we’ve been able to identify massive
purchases of various superconducting materials spread around
through several dozen companies that now appear to be dummies. It’s
as if someone was trying to corner the market on the more powerful
superconducting materials.”
Kurt looked at Joe
and then the captain. Pitt continued to speak.
“The problem is, all
the odd purchases lead to front companies, which in turn are
operating as subsidiaries of other shell corporations. The funds
come from unidentified sources, and the front closes up shop
immediately after completing the deal. It makes for a hard path to
follow. On the surface, it all seems legit. People get paid as
they’re supposed to, no red flags go up. No one’s the wiser, at
least until now.”
Kurt said, “If
they’re cornering the market, why did they need to steal
anything?”
“Titanium-doped YBCO
is the most powerful superconductor made,” Pitt said. “It can
operate effectively in field strengths of up to nine hundred
teslas.”
“Aside from an
excellent nineties rock group,” Joe asked, “what exactly is a
tesla?”
“It’s a unit of power
designed to measure magnetic field strengths,” Pitt said. “I can’t
exactly tell you what nine hundred teslas means in numbers, but by
comparison the superconductors used in levitating trains in Japan
become overloaded at four teslas. So if four teslas can lift a
train, nine hundred teslas can lift two hundred twenty-five of
them.”
Captain Haynes
exhaled slowly. “Arms race,” he said. “If you’re building a weapon,
you might as well have the most powerful version you can
find.”
Something still
didn’t make sense to Kurt. “If all this was so clandestine, how’d
the pirates know this YBCO was on the ship?”
“Despite all the
secrecy,” Pitt said, “there were still three parties who knew about
it.”
“The buyer, the
seller, and the shipper,” Kurt said.
“And of the three of
them,” Pitt said, “who had any reason to sink that ship and make
the material disappear?”
“The seller,” Kurt
said, realizing what Pitt was getting at. “So they get a good
price, make all the arrangements to turn this superconducting
material over to the Chinese, and then they raid the ship and take
it back.”
“Pretty damn
devious,” Haynes said. “Are we sure we’re not barking up the wrong
tree?”
“I have the manifest
of the Kinjara Maru,” Pitt said. “Along
with the captain’s log and the loadmaster’s notes, which are
transmitted to Shokara’s headquarters electronically when their
ships leave port. I’d read them to you, but I’m driving, so here’s
the gist of it. I think you’ll understand when I’m
done.”
Pitt continued. “The
ship docked in Freetown, Sierra Leone, three days before it went
down. It picked up a standard bulk cargo of various ores bound for
China and then received orders to hold in port for two days,
awaiting one more delivery.”
“The YBCO,” Kurt
guessed.
“Right,” Pitt said.
“But when the shipment finally arrived, there were several things
odd enough about it for the captain to note them in the log. First,
the load was put aboard the ship by a group of men who were not
regular dockworkers. A mixed group of white and black men did most
of the loading. The captain remarked that they ‘resembled a
military or paramilitary unit.’”
“I’ve heard rumors of
mercenaries taking over mines out there and running them for a
profit,” Kurt said.
“Only, YBCO isn’t
mined,” Pitt said. “Beyond that, the leader of this group insisted
that the YBCO absolutely had to be stored separately from the other
ores in a specific temperature-controlled hold. A request that
seemed odd enough to the loadmaster to risk an argument with these
military men. An argument he lost.”
“Why would they do
that?” Joe asked. “Does temperature affect it?”
“No,” Pitt said. “But
the Kinjara Maru has only one small
temperature-controlled hold.”
“Making the material
easy to find and off-load,” Kurt said.
“That’s what it
sounds like,” Pitt said.
“So the seller is
also the pirate,” Captain Haynes summarized.
“And the pirate has
the energy weapon,” Kurt added. “Which means the people who sold
this YBCO—the same people who boarded the ship—are also the ones
building the weapon out of it. So they must be the ones cornering
the market.”
“Makes you wonder
what they’re up to,” the captain said.
“Exactly,” Pitt said.
“Whoever these people are, they need so much material for whatever
they’re doing that they’re willing to anger the Chinese and risk
exposure to get their hands on every ounce they can. Including some
they’ve already sold.”
“Maybe that explains
why they’re here on Santa Maria,” Kurt said. “I’ve tangled with one
of them already, same guy we argued with as the KM went down. Now, I don’t know who took the core
sample and murdered the French team, but one will get you ten it’s
all linked together.”
“But we saw their
boat explode,” Captain Haynes said. “We even found a few
bodies.”
“A few sacrificial
pawns,” Kurt said. “The others probably went over the side before
the explosion. Left the suckers behind.”
“But we never spotted
any other vessels in range to pick them up, or even a helicopter,”
the captain said. “And they certainly didn’t swim to
Africa.”
“No,” Kurt said. “But
Paul and Gamay were attacked underneath the water. That means these
people undoubtedly have a submarine of some kind.”
“So there was a
mother ship,” the captain said. “Terrorists with a submarine.
What’s the world coming to?”
“Much like space,”
Pitt said, “the depths below are no longer just the domain of the
world’s nations. We know of half a dozen Chinese subs that were
supposed to go to the scrapyard and vanished instead. There are
also other models out there for sale, and private builds as
well.”
“Not to mention the
Russian Typhoon-class subs that were turned into cargo haulers,”
Kurt said. “We dealt with one of them last year.”
“And at least one of
those is still unaccounted for,” Pitt added.
“Wonderful,” the
captain said facetiously.
“So these thugs have
a submarine,” Kurt noted. “Maybe a Typhoon-class boat converted
into a cargo carrier. They have some type of lethal electromagnetic
weapon that fries you before you even know something’s happening
and they’re willing to risk exposure and the wrath of the Chinese
to get more material. And right now the tower of rock we believe to
be a naturally occurring superconductor is sitting out there,
unattended and all by its lonesome.”
“The table
is set,” Pitt said. “You think they’re
going to show up for dinner?”
“Like St. Julien
Perlmutter at an all-you-can-eat buffet,” Kurt said.
Haynes nodded. “Makes
sense. They’ve effectively chased us from the scene by showing
their ability to attack.”
“And they know that,”
Kurt said, guessing they’d seen the Argo come into port just as he had.
“A Portuguese frigate
with ASW capabilities will be on scene tomorrow afternoon,” Pitt
said.
“I’m guessing they
know or expect that too,” Kurt said. “That gives them twelve hours
to act.”
Silence descended on
them as everyone considered the implications.
“Those Typhoons
were converted to cargo carriers,” Dirk
noted. “Able to haul fifteen thousand tons where their missile bays
used to be.”
“And if thirty tons
of YBCO is worth sinking a ship over,” Kurt said, “how likely is it
that an outfit interested in ‘more’ is going to pass up a free haul
like this?”
The silence returned.
Even over the speaker all that could be heard was a quiet
background of white noise.
“If they have a Typhoon,” Pitt said, “all they would
have to do is carve sections out of the wall and drop them in the
missile bay like it’s the back of a dump truck. But let’s be clear.
We don’t know that they have one.”
Kurt nodded,
accepting that, and Joe glanced over at him, raising his
eyebrows.
“Even if we did know
what they had,” Joe said, “what exactly are we going to do about it?”
Kurt considered Joe’s
words. A Typhoon armed with torpedoes and crewed by mercenaries was
far beyond the Argo’s capability to
deal with.
“Joe’s right,” the
captain said. “We can’t risk the ship. Until the naval forces come
into range, we have no choice but to give these people wide berth,
whatever they’re up to.”
Kurt knew they were
right, but it felt like giving up to him, like quitting. There had
to be a way to stop them. He glanced through the window in the
conference room’s door, focusing on Katarina. She sat quietly on
the bridge, a NUMA windbreaker over her shoulders, sipping a cup of
coffee and talking to a crewman as she waited. A thought came to
him.
“What if we don’t try
to stop them?” he said. “What if we get out there, hide in among
the wrecks, and lie in wait for them. Then if they do show up, we
find a good moment and attach a transmitter to their hull. That
way, we can track them to wherever their base is and let the big
boys deal with the rest.”
The captain and Joe
seemed to like the plan. Pitt remained silent.
“Director?” the
captain said.
“Sounds like a huge
risk,” Dirk said. “Easier to get some ASW patrols from shore-based
aircraft.”
“All that’ll do is
scare them off,” Kurt said. “This way, we find out who they are and
where they’re from.”
“And how do you plan
on getting out there without tipping your hand?” Pitt asked.
“They’ll expect something the moment you leave port.”
Kurt smiled and
glanced at Joe. “We’ll take the Barracuda,” he said.