Fury.
GUAM
Beth’s jaw dropped open as Juan wheeled her into the Oregon’s dining room. Virtually every table had been transformed into a display with a painting lying atop it. Even the eagle finial that had started the whole thing was there.
“This is the last time all of these paintings will be in one place,” Juan said, “so I thought you’d want to take one last look at them before we return them to their rightful owners. Sorry we couldn’t bring the Manet you recovered in Bangkok. The Gardner Museum has it under lock and key in Thailand until it goes back to the U.S. They’re ecstatic that you found their stolen art, as are the other museums. The discovery has made worldwide news.”
Beth wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks. All of these magnificent masterworks had been thought to be gone forever and now they’d be preserved for future generations. She felt an enormous sense of pride for having a part in their retrieval.
She took her time appreciating each and every one until she got to the last. Then she realized there were only fifteen.
“Where’s the Picasso?”
Juan went over to a rectangular object draped with a cloth. He carried it to her and removed the cloth with a flourish.
It was the Picasso, set into an elegant gold frame.
“This belongs to the Corporation now,” Juan said. “We made a generous offer to the insurance company that paid off the owner and they gladly accepted. Maurice thought it would look good in here. Would you like to hang it?”
“I’d be honored.”
He gave her the small oil painting and she checked out the stellar framing job. She turned it over and gasped when she saw that the back had been marred by writing that looked like it had been done with a Sharpie.
It was a crude drawing of a flower along with the words Cephalantheropsis inviolabilem. Beth recognized it as scientific plant name. The first word was the Latin for the flower genus. The second was the species. The word meant invulnerable.
“This wasn’t here when I first inspected the painting,” she said. “Believe me, I would have seen it.”
Juan nodded. “I think Locsin wrote it there for safekeeping. Can it be removed?”
“Not without risking damage to the canvas.”
“That’s what I thought. Since it’s not visible from the front, we’ll leave it as is.”
He helped her secure it to the wall fasteners that had already been installed. She had to admit it did look beautiful there.
Juan put his hand on her shoulder and said, “It’s done.”
Beth knew what he really meant. The hateful drug was finally gone for good. As long as the Picasso stayed on that wall, no one would ever again see the name of the flower used to make Typhoon.
And she believed him. From what Beth had seen, there was no better place on earth to keep a secret than the Oregon.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Clive Cussler is the author of more than seventy books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA® Files, Oregon® Files, Isaac Bell, and Sam and Remi Fargo. His life nearly parallels that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers have discovered more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Confederate submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much press publicity. Like Dirk Pitt, Clive Cussler collects classic automobiles. His collection features more than eighty examples of custom coachwork. Cussler lives in Arizona.
Boyd Morrison is the coauthor with Cussler of the Oregon Files novels Piranha and The Emperor’s Revenge, and the author of four other books. He is also an actor and engineer, with a doctorate in engineering from Virginia Tech, who has worked on NASA’s space station project at Johnson Space Center and developed several patents at Thomson/RCA. In 2003, he fulfilled a lifelong dream by becoming a Jeopardy! champion. He lives in Seattle.
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Typhoon Fury Page 38