The Silent Sea

by Clive Cussler

  “Close the door and stay inside,” Juan said. The person didn’t need to be told twice. Even if he hadn’t been armed, Juan’s voice demanded compliance.

  The screaming had stopped, which in a hostage situation means the gunmen now had complete control and the crowd had become docile. That wasn’t a good sign.

  Juan found a stairwell, ducked his head around quickly, and then committed himself when it was clear. He eased his way up until he could see the floor of the topmost deck. From this vantage, it looked deserted, so he climbed a little higher. Despite the sultry air, he felt chilled in his sopping clothes.

  There were a cluster of people standing and kneeling around a prone form. Cabrillo’s heart felt like it had stopped in his chest. There were no Argentine gunmen here, just passengers, and with a sickening dread he knew who was down.

  He raced from his cover position. A woman yelled when she saw him running toward them, a pistol dangling from his hand. Others turned, but Juan ignored them. He burst into the circle of people.

  Max Hanley lay flat on his back, blood coating half his face and forming a black puddle on the polished wooden deck. Juan scooped up his head and pressed his fingers against his friend’s neck in the vain search for a pulse. Surprisingly, it was there, and strong.

  “Max,” he called. “Max, can you hear me?” He looked up at the crowd staring down on them. “What happened?”

  “He was shot, and the gunmen grabbed some woman and took off downstairs.”

  Cabrillo used his coattail to wipe away the blood and saw a long oozing trench along Hanley’s temple. The bullet had grazed him. Max probably had a concussion and would certainly need stitches, but chances were he would be fine.

  Juan got to his feet. “Please look after him.”

  He raced back down the stairs again, anger and adrenaline making him reckless. The Argentines had approached the Belle from the port side, so he raced across the ship and descended another flight of steps to the main deck.

  In front of him was the entry door where just hours ago he and Max had boarded the stern-wheeler. It was open, and through it he could see the dark silhouette of a man. He shouted, and when the man turned and confirmed he was wearing a ski mask, Cabrillo fired a double tap to the torso. The man fell back, his head hitting something with an empty thud, and then he splashed into the water.

  Marine engines roared an instant later. Juan ran to the open door to see the back of the cigarette boat pulling away, a rooster tail of white water forming in its wake as it gained speed. He raised his pistol in a two-handed combat grip but held his fire. It was too dark to see anything but shapes, and he couldn’t risk hitting Tamara.

  He doubled over, breathing hard, and fought to control his emotions.

  He’d failed. There was no other way to look at it. He had failed, and now Tamara Wright was going to pay for it. He turned away in disgust with himself, and, out of stupid testosterone-fueled anger, punched a decorative mirror hanging on a nearby wall. His reflection went crazy in the shattered glass, and his knuckles came away bloody.

  Juan took another couple of deep breaths to compose himself and start his brain thinking rationally again. The list of favors he would need to call on to get him and Max out of this mess was going to be monstrous.

  For now, though, the important thing was Max. He felt his phone vibrate as he rushed back up the stairs, but he ignored it. That it had amazingly survived its dunking was a fact of so little importance that it never entered Cabrillo’s mind. The feel of the ship had changed, and the seaman in him told him the Belle’s captain had slowed so they could turn back for Vicksburg, where every cop on duty would be waiting.

  It was going to take some fast talking to keep himself out of prison. The shootings would eventually be proven justified, but there was still the fake ID, the unregistered guns, and the fact that he and Max had lied to customs to get into the country in the first place. This was why Juan preferred to work in the Third World. There, a judicious bribe in the right hands bought your freedom. Here, it tacked another couple of years to your sentence.

  Up on deck, people were still clustered around Max, but Juan could see that his friend was sitting upright. The blood had been cleared from his face, and a man was holding a bar towel to the side of his head.

  “I’m sorry,” he said when Juan squatted down at his side. “I went to pull Tamara behind me, and the guy just opened fire. One went wide, but the second . . .” He pointed to his head. “I went down like a sack of potatoes. They get her?”

  “I got one of them, but, yeah, they got her.”

  “Damn.”

  “That’s putting it mildly.” Juan’s phone vibrated again. This time he pulled it out to check who was calling. “This can’t be good.”

  “Langston, you’ve got lousy timing,” he said to the veteran CIA agent.

  “You’re not going to believe what happened about two hours ago.”

  Juan had put it together when the gunmen stormed the ship, and said, “Argentina just announced that they’re annexing the Antarctic Peninsula, and China has already recognized their sovereignty.”

  “How could you . . . ?” Overholt’s voice trailed off in incredulity.

  “And I can guarantee that when this comes up at the UN tomorrow, the Chinese will use their veto power as permanent members of the Security Council to kill any resolutions condemning the annexation.”

  “They’ve already announced they would. How did you know?”

  “That’s going to take a little explaining, but first I think I’m going to need a favor. Do you happen to know anybody in the Vicksburg P.D.?” Cabrillo asked this as the ship’s purser showed up with two goons from the engine room carrying wrenches the size of baseball bats.

  A second later, he was facedown on the deck, with one goon sitting on his back while the second gorilla pinned his legs. The purser was holding the Glock like a tarantula in one hand and had Cabrillo’s cell in the other. Juan hadn’t bothered putting up a fight. He could have taken out all three, but he had Max to consider.

  He just wished Overholt had answered him, otherwise this was going to be a long night.

  EIGHTEEN

  In total, they lost eighteen precious hours. Max spent most of these under guard at the River Region Medical Center, where his head was scanned and stitched up. Juan was the guest of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department. They kept him up all night in a windowless interrogation room, where detectives and uniformed cops grilled him relentlessly.

  It took them two hours to determine that his identification was bogus. Had Cabrillo expected any kind of background check, he could have brought papers that would prove legit no matter how hard the authorities studied them. But he hadn’t expected this kind of trouble, so his identity was breachable. Once they learned he wasn’t William Duffy of Englewood, California—the name on his second set of papers—the questions came harder and faster.

  And while his story about a woman being abducted off the Natchez Belle had been confirmed by other passengers and the crew, the police seemed more interested in the hows and whys of his and Max’s presence to try to thwart the attack.

  There was nothing Juan could say to convince them that he wasn’t part of the plot. And when the rushed ballistic report came back proving that the dead John Doe wearing a ski mask who’d been fished from the river had been killed by the gun the crew took from him, murder-one charges were threatened. They delighted in pointing out that Mississippi was a death-penalty state.

  The FBI arrived at around nine the following morning, and for an hour, while jurisdiction was established, Cabrillo was left alone. Just for the fun of it, he pretended to pass out. Four cops, who’d been watching through the two-way mirror, rushed in. The last thing they wanted was for their prisoner to escape justice by dying on them.

  It was around two-thirty, by his estimate—his watch had been taken upon his arrest—when two gray men in matching gray suits showed up. The cops and FBI agents, who were arrayed against
Cabrillo like a pack of dogs slobbering over a fresh bone, looked nervous. They were told by the gray men that this was a matter for the Department of Homeland Security.

  The salivating looks evaporated. Their bone was being taken by an even bigger dog.

  Juan’s cuffs were removed and replaced by a pair the Homeland agents had brought. Then he was given his belongings, including his suitcase from the Belle, and escorted outside. The bright sunlight felt wonderful after so many hours under the nauseating glow of fluorescent lights. They led him wordlessly to a black Crown Victoria that screamed government vehicle. One of them opened the rear door. Max was sitting in the back bench seat, half his head swaddled in bandages and tape.

  “How’s the noggin?”

  “Hurts like hell, but the concussion’s mild.”

  “Good thing they shot you in the head, otherwise they could have hit something important.”

  “You’re all heart.”

  As soon as Cabrillo was settled next to Max, the car pulled away from the sheriff ’s office. The agent in the passenger’s seat turned and held up a key. Juan wasn’t sure what he wanted until he recognized it as the key to his cuffs. He held up his hands and they were freed.

  “Thanks. We won’t give you any trouble. Where are you taking us?”

  “Airport.”

  “And then?”

  “That’s up to you, sir. Though my orders were to recommend you leave the country.”

  Max and Juan exchanged knowing smirks. Langston Overholt had done it. God only knew how, but he’d gotten them out of that quagmire. Juan wanted to call him right away, but his cell phone had finally died from its soak in the river, and Max’s hadn’t been returned to him.

  The agents dumped them at the curb in front of the Jackson-Evers terminal. Juan hailed a taxi as soon as they’d pulled out of sight.

  “I take it we’re not going to follow their advice?” Max asked.

  “We are, but I don’t want to hear you grumble about flying commercial. There’s a charter service here.”

  “Now we’re talking.”

  Twenty minutes later, they were in the general-aviation terminal waiting for their plane to be fueled. Juan was using his laptop to act as a telephone. His first call was to Overholt.

  “I take it you’re out?” the old CIA agent asked.

  “Charter jet’s fueling as we speak. Max and I both owe you one. How’d you do it?”

  “Suffice it to say, it’s done, and leave it at that. How could you possibly know about Argentina and China?”

  Juan wanted to tell him about Tamara Wright’s abduction, but for now even someone as powerful as Overholt couldn’t do anything more than was already being done by local law enforcement and the FBI.

  He explained what Linda Ross and her team had discovered when they checked into the Argentine research station. He also told him about the gruesome find at Wilson/George.

  “Okay, so I understand your thinking that Argentina’s going to make a play for the peninsula; they’ve been rattling sabers over it for years, even before the current junta. But China? That caught the CIA, State Department, and the White House completely by surprise.”

  “Here’s the thing. When I spoke to you last night, Max and I were with a woman named Tamara Wright—”

  “The one they kidnapped?”

  “You’ve read the police report?”

  “Just bits and pieces. They’re taking it seriously, but there are no leads. The speedboat was discovered in Natchez, where a van was stolen from a plumber’s house. The APB is out, but so far no hits.”

  “I figured it would be something like that. They’re smart. I bet that van will be found wherever they stole the cigarette boat. They’ll have their own set of wheels back and could be just about anywhere.”

  “Agreed. China?” Overholt prompted.

  “Dr. Wright told us about a Chinese expedition in the late 1400s that sent a fleet of three ships to South America.” Juan paused, expecting Overholt to question the validity of such a claim, but the wily case officer knew when to keep quiet. “One of the ships was afflicted by a disease that drove the crewmen insane. Sound familiar?”

  “The guy at Wilson/George,” Langston breathed.

  “They ate tainted food provided by island natives. I think it was human flesh, most likely brain, and they got a dose of prions. The ship was scuttled with the crew aboard, and the remaining two ships ventured northward and eventually back to China.

  “Five hundred years later, along comes Andrew Gangle, who finds a mummy someplace near their base. It’s carrying gold and jade. Somehow, he gets infected, most likely he accidentally stabbed himself on a shard of bone. Now he’s got a prion disease rotting away his mind until he snaps and goes berserk.”

  “That scuttled ship is off the coast of Antarctica? Dear God,” Overholt exclaimed as he made the intuitive leap that Cabrillo had had the night before. “If they can prove that Chinese explorers discovered Antarctica a couple hundred years before the first European, they . . .”

  “Exactly,” Juan said. “They’ll lay claim over it, or at least the peninsula. But with Argentina already so well entrenched, the smart move for them is to partner up and share the spoils. I believe this has been in the works for some time, long before we got involved. I think the Argentines were courting the Chinese because they would need the protection of a superpower and the patronage of someone in the UN. It was the chance discovery of that blimp and the subsequent events, like getting their hands on tangible proof that the Chinese had visited South America, that cemented the deal.”

  “Do the Argentines or Chinese know the location of the third ship?”

  “Not yet, but they’ll be able to figure it out with enough research. Admiral Tsai’s drawing was pretty specific. A good computer program and Google Earth should do it. But here’s the thing: even if they don’t find it, they can still claim the ship visited Antarctica. Who’s to stop them?”

  “We are.”

  “What’s the official White House position?”

  “Events are unfolding too fast. They haven’t said much, beyond the usual condemnation.”

  “What does your gut tell you?”

  “I honestly don’t know. China currently holds the lion’s share of our national debt, so they have us over a barrel in that respect. Also, logically, are we willing to go to war over a part of the world only a handful of people care about?”

  “This is about principles,” Juan pointed out. “Do we stick to our ideals and risk lives for a bunch of penguins and a forty-year-old treaty or do we let them get away with it?”

  “That’s it in a nutshell, and I don’t know what the President will do. Hell, I don’t know how I feel. Part of me says to kick the bastards back to Beijing and Buenos Aires, but what’s the point? Let them have the oil and the penguins. It’s not worth putting our military personnel in harm’s way.”

  “Dicey call,” Juan agreed, though in his mind the decision was a no-brainer. Argentina broke a binding international treaty by invading neighboring territory that didn’t belong to them. They deserved the full wrath of the United States, and any other signatory to the Antarctic Treaty. He suddenly remembered something. “Has NASA had a chance to analyze the power cell we recovered from their downed satellite?”

  “Yes, and it is possible it was shot down, like your guy suggested, though they hedged and said the cause was indeterminate.”

  “Why would they risk it?” Cabrillo mused. “Why, with everything at stake, would they take the chance and intentionally shoot down one of our birds?”

  “If you want a real head-scratcher, it wasn’t a spy satellite and was never rumored to be one. It was designed to monitor carbon dioxide emissions and was going to be used to make sure countries stay within their targets when and if a new treaty is implemented to replace the Kyoto Protocol.”

  Juan remained quiet for a moment, thinking. “Of course,” he said. “They can hide the thermal signature of their Antarctic activit
ies using sea water, but oil-and-gas exploration would produce a dense plume of carbon dioxide in a place that shouldn’t have any. Once that satellite went active, we’d have known exactly what they were up to.”

  “If they were going to annex the peninsula only a week after shooting down the satellite, why bother?” Overholt asked.

  “You haven’t been paying attention, Lang. The deal with China was only cemented in the last couple of days. Without that alliance, Argentina would need to keep their activities secret for months, maybe a year. China might have helped them shoot it down as a good-faith gesture or to guarantee they get the bulk of the crude that’s pumped from those new wells. Either way, it shows they’ve been in bed together for a while.”

  “I should have thought of that.”

  “I’ve spent the last eighteen hours under police interrogation and I saw it, so, yeah, you should have.” Juan was teasing, which at a time like this was an indication of the depths of his exhaustion.

  “What are your plans now?”

  “I’ve got to make contact with the Oregon before I know where we’re heading, but I’ll keep you updated. Please do the same.”

  “Talk to you soon.”

  Max had listened to Juan’s end of the conversation. “You don’t know where we’re going?”

  Juan pulled the microphone from his ear. “Do you honestly think I’m going to trust the locals to find Tamara Wright? We got her into this mess and we’re damned sure going to get her back out. I’ve rented the plane with the greatest endurance they have here, so we’re going to get her no matter where she is.”

  “That’s why I love you. You’ll spare no expense trying to get me a date.”

  Cabrillo grinned at Max’s shamelessness and replaced the Bluetooth headset to call the Oregon. He asked Hali Kasim, their communications specialist, to patch him through to Eric Stone.