“Where in hell did this come from?” Acosta said in astonishment.
“Bring your light inside,” said Mancuso, his worst fear realized.
With the added brightness they could see the trailer was clean. The desks were uncluttered, the wastebaskets emptied, and no ashtrays were to be seen anywhere. The only sign of previous occupancy was a construction worker’s hardhat perched on a hook and a large blackboard hung on one wall. Mancuso studied the lined columns. The numerals were in Arabic, while the headings were written in katakana symbols.
“A schedule?” asked Acosta.
“An inventory of the treasure.”
Acosta sank into a chair in back of a desk. “Gone, all of it smuggled away.”
“About twenty-five years ago, according to a date on the board.”
“Marcos?” asked Acosta. “He must have gotten here first.”
“No, not Marcos,” Mancuso answered as though he’d always known the truth. “The Japanese. They returned, took the gold, and left us with the bones.”
14
CURTIS MEEKER PARKED his wife’s Mercury Cougar and casually strode the three blocks to Ford’s Theater between E and F streets on Tenth. He buttoned his overcoat against the brisk fall air and fell in step with a group of senior citizens who were on a late Saturday evening walking tour of the capital city.
Their guide stopped them in front of the theater where John Wilkes Booth had shot Abraham Lincoln and gave a brief lecture before taking them across the street to the Petersen House where the President had died. Unobtrusively, Meeker slipped away, flipped his federal shield at the doorman, and passed into the lobby of the theater. He conversed briefly with the manager and then sat down on a sofa, where he appeared to be calmly reading a program.
To any late first-nighters who quickly passed by Meeker to their seats, he looked like an indifferent theatergoer who was bored with the restaging of a late-nineteenth-century play based on the Spanish-American War and preferred to sit it out in the lobby.
Meeker was definitely not a tourist or a theatergoer. His title was Deputy Director of Advanced Technical Operations, and he seldom went anywhere at night except to his office, where he studied satellite intelligence photos.
He was basically a shy man who rarely spoke more than one or two sentences at a time, but he was highly respected by intelligence circles as the best satellite photo analyst in the business. He was what women refer to as a nice-looking man, black hair specked with gray, kind face, easy smile, and eyes that reflected friendliness.
While his attention seemed locked on the program, one hand slipped into a pocket and pressed a button on a transmitter.
Inside the theater Raymond Jordan was fighting to stay awake. Under his wife’s sideways glare he yawned as a defense against the hundred-year-old dialogue. Mercifully, to the audience sitting in the old-style hard seats, the plays and acts at Ford’s Theatre were short. Jordan twisted to a more comfortable position in the hard wooden seat and allowed his mind to drift from the play to a fishing trip he’d planned for the following day.
Suddenly his revery was broken by three soft beeps on a digital watch on his wrist. It was what was called a Delta watch because of the code it received, and was labeled as a Raytech so it looked ordinary and wouldn’t stand out. He cupped one hand over the crystal display that lit up on the dial. The Delta code alerted him to the severity of the situation and indicated someone would fetch or meet him.
He whispered an excuse to his wife and made his way to the aisle and then to the lobby. When Jordan recognized Meeker, his face clouded. Though he welcomed any interruption, he was not happy that it concerned some kind of crisis.
“What’s the situation?” he asked without preamble.
“We know which ship carried the bomb,” answered Meeker, rising to his feet.
“We can’t talk here.”
“I’ve arranged with the manager for the theater’s executive suite. I can brief you privately in there.”
Jordan knew the room. He led off with Meeker trailing and entered an anteroom furnished in 1860s decor. He closed the door and stared at Meeker. “Are you certain? There is no mistake?”
Meeker shook his head solemnly. “Photos from an earlier weather bird showed three ships in the area. We activated our old Sky King intelligence satellite as it passed over after the explosion and factored out two of the ships.”
“How?”
“With computer enhancement of the radar-sonar system that enables us to see through water as though it was transparent.”
“Have you briefed your people?”
“Yes.
Jordan stared Meeker in the eye. “Are you satisfied with your conclusions?”
“I haven’t a doubt,” Meeker replied squarely.
“The proof is solid?”
“Yes.”
“You know you’ll share the responsibility if you’ve screwed up.”
“As soon as I’ve made my report, I’m going home and sleep like a baby… Well almost.”
Jordan relaxed and settled into a chair beside a table. He looked up at Meeker expectantly. “Okay, what have you got?”
Meeker pulled a leather-bound file folder from a deep pocket inside his overcoat and laid it on the table.
Jordan smiled. “You don’t believe in briefcases, I see.”
“I like my hands free,” Meeker said with a shrug. He opened the file and spread out five photographs. The first three showed the ships on the surface with incredible detail. “Here you see the Norwegian passenger-cargo liner circling the drifting Japanese auto carrier. Twelve kilometers away, the British survey ship is in the act of lowering a submersible into the sea.”
“The before shot,” said Jordan.
Meeker nodded. “The next two are from the Sky King taken after the explosion, revealing two shattered hulks on the bottom. The third has disintegrated. Except for a few scattered pieces of her engines on the seabed, there is virtually nothing left of her.”
“Which one was she?” Jordan asked slowly, as if anticipating the answer.
“We made positive IDs on the two that sank intact.” Meeker paused to turn from the photographs and look into Jordan’s eyes as if to underscore his answer. “The ship that was transporting the bomb was the Japanese auto carrier.”
Jordan sighed and leaned back in the chair. “It doesn’t come as a great shock that Japan has the bomb. They’ve had the technology for years.”
“The giveaway came when they built a liquid-metal fastbreeder reactor. Fissioning with fast neutrons, the breeder creates more plutonium fuel than it burns. The first step in producing nuclear weaponry.”
“You’ve done your homework,” said Jordan.
“I have to know what to look for.”
“Like an elusive, yet-to-be-discovered factory for nuclear weapons production,” Jordan said acidly.
Meeker looked at him unwaveringly, then smiled. “Your ground intelligence hasn’t got a clue where they’re making them either.
“True,” Jordan admitted. “The Japs have accomplished an incredible cover-up. I’ve a hunch their government leaders are in the dark as well.”
“If their production facility was aboveground, our new satellite detection array would have nailed it.”
“Odd there are no areas of unusual radioactivity.’
“We’ve detected nothing outside their electrical power reactors and a nuclear waste dump near a coastal town called Rokota.”
“I’ve seen the reports,” said Jordan. “They sank a four-thousand-meter shaft to throw their waste. Could it be we’ve overlooked something?”
Meeker gave a negative shake of his head. “We’ve yet to detect indications of extensive construction or the right type of traffic in and out of the area.”
“Damn!” Jordan snapped. “Japan freely sails the oceans with nuclear bombs destined for United States ports while we sit on our thumbs without knowing the site where they’re manufactured, their final destinations, or the plan behind the wh
ole operation.”
“You did say ‘bombs,’ plural?” asked Meeker.
“The readings from the seismographic center in Colorado show there was a second detonation a millisecond after the first.”
“Too bad you couldn’t have launched a major operation to find the answers ten years ago.”
“With what funding?” Jordan grunted. “The last administration gutted intelligence-gathering budgets. All that politicians are interested in are Russia and the Middle East. The last people the State Department will allow us to probe are our good buddies in Japan. Two retired agents we’ve had to keep under contract are all we’re allowed there. Israel is another nation that’s off limits. You wouldn’t believe the times we were ordered to look the other way while the Mossad pulled off deceptions the Arabs took the blame for.”
“The President will have to give you full discretionary power when you show him the seriousness of the situation.”
“I’ll know first thing in the morning after I brief him.” Jordan’s smooth, polished mask was showing a tiny crack, and his voice turned ice cold. “No matter how we attack this thing, we’ll be playing catch-up. What scares me, really puts the fear of God in me, is that we’re already too late to cut off the plot in midstream.”
The sounds of voices came through the door. The play was over and the audience was flowing into the lobby.
Jordan came to his feet. “I’ll have to break off and make an appearance or my wife will play iceberg on the ride home. Thanks for alerting me to your bird’s discovery.”
“There is one more thing,” said Meeker. He slipped another photograph out of the file folder and held it up to the light.
Jordan peered at an object in the center of the photo. “Looks like some kind of big farm tractor. What’s the significance?”
“What you see is an unknown deep-sea vehicle driving over the sea bottom five thousand meters below the surface, not more than twenty kilometers from the explosion area. You know who owns it or what it’s doing there?”
“Yes…” Jordan said slowly. “I didn’t, but I do now. Thank you, Curtis.”
Jordan turned from a totally mystified Meeker, opened the door, and melted into the throng leaving the theater.
15
TRUE TO HIS WORD, Pitt drove the mauled DSMV free of its buried prison. The metal tracks shrieked as they ground their way through the lava rock, a centimeter at a time. With tortured sluggishness the great vehicle clawed its way to the surface of the sea bottom, shook off the stone and ooze that trailed in a huge cloudy river from its rear end, and rolled onto the barren terrain.
“We’re clear,” Plunkett cried in delight. “Jolly well done.”
“Jolly well done,” Pitt mimicked. He switched on computer control and called up a series of geographical displays on the monitor. “A miracle we broke out with no pressure leaks or mechanical damage.”
“My dear fellow, my faith in you is as deep as the sea… ah, we’re under. I didn’t doubt your fortitude for a minute.”
Pitt spared him a curious stare. “If you’re taken in that easily, I have a bridge in New York I’d like to sell you.”
“What was that about a bridge’?”
“Do you play?”
“Yes, I’m quite good. Won more than a few tournaments. And you?”
“I deal a mean hand of Old Maid.”
The exchange was slightly less than bizarre considering their predicament, but they were men absorbed in their element and well aware of the danger of being trapped in the abyssal depths. If either Pitt or Plunkett felt any fear, he didn’t show it.
“Now that we’ve escaped the landslide, what’s the plan?” asked Plunkett as calmly as if he was requesting another cup of tea.
“The plan is to go up,” Pitt answered, pointing toward the roof.
“Since this magnificent old crawler has no buoyancy and we’ve a good five kilometers of ocean above us, how do you expect to accomplish the impossible?”
Pitt grinned.
“Just sit back and enjoy the seascape. We’re going to take a little ride through the mountains.”
“Welcome aboard, Admiral.” Commander Morton gave a razor-edge salute and extended his hand, but the greeting was purely official. He was not happy and made no attempt at hypocrisy. “A rare occasion when we’re ordered to surface at sea during a cruise to take on visitors. I have to tell you I don’t like it.”
Sandecker smothered a smile as he stepped from the Shanghai Shelly’s launch onto the bridge of the partially surfaced sail tower of the Tucson. He shook Morton’s hand with a casual unconcern and a dominating posture that, if anything, made his presence seem like an everyday affair.
“I didn’t pull strings to have you deviate from operational procedure so I could drop in for cocktails, Commander. I’m here on presidential order. If it’s an inconvenience, I’ll be happy to return to the junk.”
A pained expression crossed Morton’s face. “No offense, Admiral, but Soviet satellites—”
“Will photograph us in vivid color for the entertainment of their intelligence analysts. Yes, yes, but we don’t really care what they see or think.” Sandecker turned as Giordino climbed aboard. “My assistant project director, Al Giordino.”
Unconsciously almost, Morton acknowledged Giordino with a half salute and showed them through a hatch down to the control center of the sub. They followed the commander into a small compartment with a transparent plotting table with a recessed interior that provided a three-dimensional sonar view of the seabed.
Lieutenant David DeLuca, the Tucson’s navigation officer, was leaning over the table. He straightened as Morton made the introductions and smiled warmly. “Admiral Sandecker, this is an honor. I never missed your lectures at the academy.”
Sandecker beamed. “I hope I didn’t put you to sleep.
“Not at all. Your accounts of NUMA projects were fascinating.
Morton flicked a glance at DeLuca and nodded down at the table. “The admiral is most interested in your discovery.”
“What can you show me, son?” Sandecker said, placing a hand on DeLuca’s shoulder. “The message was you’ve picked up unusual sounds on the seabed.”
DeLuca faltered for a moment. “We’ve been receiving strange music—”
” ‘Minnie the Mermaid?’ ” Giordino blurted.
DeLuca nodded. “At first, but now it sounds like John Philip Sousa marches.”
Morton’s eyes narrowed. “How could you possibly know?”
“Dirk,” Giordino said definitely. “He’s still alive.”
“Let’s hope so,” Sandecker said with mounting joy. He stared at DeLuca. “Can you still hear the music?”
“Yes, sir. Once we obtained a fix, we were able to track the source.
“It’s moving?”
“About five kilometers per hour across the bottom.”
“He and Plunkett must have survived the earthquake and escaped in Big John,” Giordino concluded.
“Have you attempted contact?” asked Sandecker of Morton.
“We’ve tried, but our systems are not designed to transmit in water deeper than a thousand meters.”
“We can contact them with the underwater phone in the submersible,” said Giordino.
“Unless…” Sandecker hesitated. He glanced at Morton. “Could you hear them if they were trying to contact a surface vessel, Commander?”
“If we can hear their music, we could hear their voice transmissions. Might be garbled and distorted, but I think our computers could piece together a coherent message.”
“Any such sounds received?”
“None,” replied Morton.
“Their phone system must be damaged,” Sandecker speculated.
“Then why are they able to transmit music?”
“An emergency amplifying system locator in case the vehicle had a breakdown,” answered Giordino. “A rescue vehicle could home in on the sound. But it wasn’t built for voice transmission or reception.�
��
Morton stirred in slow anger. He did not like losing control of a situation on board his own command. “May I ask who these people are in Big John, as you call it, and how they came to be traipsing over the bottom of the Pacific Ocean?”
Sandecker gave a negligent wave of his hand. “Sorry, Commander, a classified project.” He turned his attention back to DeLuca. “You say they’re on the move.”
“Yes, sir.” DeLuca pressed a series of buttons and the display recessed in the table revealed a section of the sea bottom in a three-dimensional holograph. To the men crowded around the table, it felt as though they were looking down into a submerged Grand Canyon from the top of an aquarium. The detail was enhanced by advanced computer and sonar digital mapping that showed the images in muted color heavy on blues and greens.
The Mendocino fracture zone dwarfed the famous tourist sight of northern Arizona, its steep escarpments averaging 3,000 meters high. The uneven rims along the great crack in the earth’s submarine surface were serrated with hundreds of ridges, giving it the appearance of a huge gash through a series of sand ripples.
“The latest underwater visual technology,” Morton offered proudly. “The Tucson was the first sub to have it installed.”
“Code-named The Great Karnak,” Sandecker said loftily. “Knows all, sees all. Our NUMA engineers helped develop it.”
Morton’s face, now curiously red and sullen, looked abjectly defeated in the game of one-upmanship. But he took control and made a brave comeback. “Lieutenant, show the admiral his toy in action.”
DeLuca took a short wandlike probe and traced a light beam across the floor of the display. “Your underwater vehicle emerged at this point in a small canyon just off the main fracture zone and is now traveling in a zigzag pattern up the slopes toward the top of the fracture zone’s edge.”
Giordino stared somberly at the flattened area where the mining project once stood. “Not much left of Soggy Acres,” he said sadly.
“It wasn’t built to last forever,” Sandecker consoled him. “The results more than paid for the loss.”
Without being asked, DeLuca enlarged the display until the fuzzy image of the DSMV could just be seen struggling up the side of a steep slope. “This is as sharp as I can bring her in.”
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