Devil's Gate nf-9

by Clive Cussler

“Great excuse,” he said. “Where were you headed?”

  “The control room,” the man said.

  “Take me there,” Kurt demanded.

  The man glanced at the pistol in Kurt’s hand once again and then nodded. He moved to the catwalk and began climbing it. Kurt followed as the catwalk curled around the reactor’s containment wall.

  55

  AT THE TOP OF THE CLIMB, the catwalk bent away from the reactor. There, a small offset area enclosed with steel walls and plate glass windows overlooked the entire setup.

  The crewman grabbed a handle and opened the door. Kurt shoved him inside and raced in behind him.

  Two other men waited there, dressed in white, studying a monitor screen. One wore coveralls and looked like an engineer. The other, he guessed, was a technician, based on the coat he wore.

  Kurt soon had all three backed up against the wall.

  The question now was what to do.

  He inched forward to the screen the men had been studying. The monitor displayed a side view of the ship.

  “Schematic?” he asked.

  One of the technicians nodded. “Power conduits,” he said.

  Kurt looked more closely. Colored icons had different text next to them. Beside a yellow block was “Primary Electrical.” He figured that was the ship’s standard electrical system. A blue-colored icon read “High Voltage.” Its lines ran down toward the bottom of the ship and then looped in a circle and rose up near the bow and came back to a section amidships. Based on the photos he and Joe had seen, he could tell the raised-up sections coincided with the odd protrusions Joe had noticed near her anchor lines and the bulging section in the ship’s center.

  “Is this the accelerator’s path?” he asked.

  The men nodded in perfect synchronization. “It runs around the ship and exits near the bow,” the engineer said.

  “Of course,” Kurt mumbled. Kurt could not believe he hadn’t seen the connection sooner.

  The Onyx had been in Sierra Leone when Andras was seen there, and Kurt knew this coincided with the loading of the YBCO material onto the Kinjara Maru, but he’d never taken it a step further and made the leap of realization that the Onyx contained the weapon that fried the Kinjara in the first place.

  Now it seemed so obvious, but one thing puzzled him. Where was the Onyx the morning he and the Argo had happened on the stricken freighter? They’d performed a pretty good search after Andras had fled and faked his death by destroying the speedboat. They’d found nothing visually or even on radar.

  That meant there still had to be a submarine.

  Kurt guessed that Andras and his men had gone overboard just before the explosion. He guessed they swam down to a small submarine, perhaps twenty or thirty feet below the surface, and entered through an air lock of some kind.

  Meanwhile, Kurt and the rest of the Argo’s crew had been transfixed by the explosion.

  But if the Typhoon was laying in a scrapyard somewhere, then what were the thugs using?

  “You have a submarine?” he asked.

  The technician nodded. “There are three here.”

  “Any of them big enough to haul cargo?”

  “The Bus,” the engineer said. “It’s one hundred ten feet long. Mostly empty space.”

  Unless it’s filled with tons of YBCO, Kurt thought.

  If Kurt was right, the Onyx had fried the Kinjara Maru and moved on. Andras must have taken the YBCO off the Kinjara during the night, loading it aboard the Bus and sending the sub to haul it to wherever the Onyx was, somewhere long over the horizon. But he couldn’t get the ship to sink fast enough, and that led to Kurt’s spotting the smoke trail in the morning.

  But it didn’t answer a more pressing question. If the Onyx was the ship killer, why was Andras demanding full power from the reactors? If Kurt’d heard correctly, there was no ship in range to fry with the particle accelerator.

  He tapped the screen to zoom out. His eyes fell on the huge bundle of high-voltage lines in the dead center of the ship, where the tanks would have been had the Onyx actually been a crude carrier.

  “What’s this?” he asked, pointing to the central section of the ship. “All this mess, what is it?”

  The men hesitated.

  “Come on,” Kurt snapped, gun held steady. “I don’t have all day.”

  “It’s the Fulcrum,” the engineer said finally.

  “Fulcrum?” Kurt said. “What does it do?”

  The engineer reached over and tapped the screen, zooming in on the array. Kurt’s eyes went to the screen a little too intensely. It made him vulnerable. Something he realized too late.

  The engineer lunged for him, grabbing his gun arm with both hands. Kurt yanked it free, slammed an elbow into the man’s gut, and then knocked him sideways with a forearm to the face. But the crewman had grabbed some type of wrench off the floor. He swung it at Kurt, missing his face by inches as Kurt pulled back.

  Kurt triggered the Beretta with two quick pulls, and it spat two shells into the crewman’s chest, the sound muffled by the silencer. The man fell back, dropped the wrench noisily, and crumpled to the deck.

  Kurt snapped the weapon around to his right. But it was too late.

  The technician had punched some kind of alarm button. Klaxons began sounding and lights flashing.

  Kurt jammed the gun into the man’s face, thought of killing him, and then relented. For all he knew, this guy was the only one who knew how to shut down the reactor.

  Guessing he had little time, Kurt kneed the man’s solar plexus and sent him sprawling. Then he turned, ducked out the door, and began racing down the catwalk. His feet clanked on the open metal loud enough to be heard over the humming generators, but he didn’t have time for stealth.

  Halfway down the catwalk’s stairs, shots rang out.

  He saw a ricochet first and then a group of men near the door he’d come in through. He fired back, forced them to take cover, and leapt over the railing. Landing on his feet, Kurt took off running. He sprinted past the reactor units and raced deeper into the ship.

  He came to a door, grabbed the handle, and wrenched it open. To his surprise, a blast of cold air greeted him.

  He sprinted inside only to find himself racing beneath a giant lattice of huge interlocking arms, folded up in a way that reminded him of stacked lawn chairs or a monstrous jungle gym that hadn’t been assembled.

  Hundreds of gray blocks lined each one of the arms. High-voltage power conduits and a network of pipes and hoses covered in frost ran between the blocks.

  The whole compartment was the size of a small stadium, ten stories high, four hundred feet long, and stretching the entire breadth of the Onyx. As he raced along the metal floor he spotted giant hydraulic pistons connected to the folded array of hinged arms.

  He guessed this was the Fulcrum. But what that meant, he had no idea.

  The design gave him the impression that it could open up, spreading apart like a giant handheld fan. A diagram on the wall warning the crew to keep clear of the hinges seemed to indicate the same thing. He’d assumed the particle accelerator that ran around the hull and exited near the front was the ship’s weapon. So what the hell did this thing do?

  Whatever it was, it seemed more important to the engineers than the particle accelerator, and that worried Kurt.

  Before he could learn any more, Kurt heard footsteps and another door opening at the far side of the cavernous room. He realized he was being surrounded. He looked up. Another catwalk beckoned thirty feet above.

  Cautiously, he climbed up the hydraulic actuator and pulled himself onto the array. It was like scaling the world’s largest set of monkey bars. He was almost there when he accidentally touched one of the coolant pipes.

  He pulled his arm back with lighting speed and somehow managed not to lose his balance or curse in pain. Gritting his teeth, he looked at his hand. The skin was peeling off as if it had been burned, but he knew better: it had frozen instantly.

  He looked a
t the pipe. Writing barely visible beneath the frost read “LN2,” a common abbreviation for liquid nitrogen. From what he’d learned, superconducting magnets had to be chilled to ridiculous temperatures in order to activate their superconducting properties. He guessed the pipe’s insulated surface was at close to 70 degrees below zero. The liquid inside would be pressurized and pumping through at an incredible 321 degrees below zero.

  Kurt began climbing again.

  Don’t touch the pipes, he mouthed to himself, as if his freezer-burned skin wasn’t enough to remind him.

  By the time he reached the catwalk he could see the men pursuing him. Three of them approached from one side, five more from the other, spread out along the floor.

  As quietly as he could, Kurt climbed onto the catwalk. After sitting still for a second, he began creeping along it.

  He remained virtually silent, but the vibration caused by his movement caused a chunk of frost to break off of the bottom. It dropped like an icicle from a power line and made a sound like shattering glass as it hit the ground.

  “Up there!” someone shouted.

  Kurt took off, running. He heard a single shot and then nothing.

  Had he managed to look back, he would have seen the leader of the pursuers grabbing the shooter and all but choking him for firing a stray shot in this room. But Kurt never looked back. He made it to the door on the far side of the Fulcrum’s vast bay and pushed through it, closing it behind him.

  He raced forward, desperately looking for a place to hide and a way to send a message.

  Something was about to happen, this ship was about to take some type of action, he was certain of that. And whatever it might be, he was pretty certain the rest of the world would not like what was coming.

  56

  Moscow, Russia

  THE BALD MAN FROM THE STATE, a ranking member of the FSB, held court in a windowless room in the Lubyanka, the huge monolithic headquarters building of the Russian Federal Security Service.

  In the room with him were several members of the Politburo and a representative from the Russian Navy and a general in the Red Army.

  He’d just finished listening to a radio call from Katarina Luskaya, claiming she was aboard a ship with a man named Andras who wanted to sell them a superweapon, one that would put them years ahead of the Americans and the Chinese.

  After listening to the explanation, one of the politicians could not contain his scorn. “Strange that we have not heard anything of this weapon,” he said, “and now we are to believe your most junior operative has uncovered it.”

  “She was captured by Andras,” the Bald Man said. “It is fortunate that he has kept her with him. It is he who brings the offer to us. We have a history with him.”

  “It is not a good one,” the general noted.

  “No, it is not,” the Bald Man admitted.

  “And he demands an outrageous amount,” the Politburo member said.

  The Bald Man waved him off. “Of course we would not pay what he asks. A fraction, perhaps ten percent. Even then, only if it was decided that we should.”

  “Your agent sounded as if she was under duress,” the general said.

  “Yes,” the Bald Man replied. She had used a code word designed to alert only them to the fact that she was being held against her will. But, to her credit, she had chosen the less harsh of the two codes, which meant she thought the situation might be manageable. He was rather impressed with the young former Olympian.

  The lone naval representative in the group spoke up. “It would be nice to get a look at that ship,” he said. “If it turns out to be of interest, we can start negotiations. If it turns out to be a lie, we simply write Ms. Luskaya off.”

  The Bald Man cut his eyes to the naval representative. This younger generation understood little. It concerned him. “All of you are missing the bigger point. According to Andras, they will demonstrate the weapon against the American capitol in less than thirty minutes. That makes the question of the ship irrelevant. What we must decide — now that we have been informed — is whether to tell the Americans.”

  The room went silent. No one wanted to speak.

  “It is a very delicate situation,” the Bald Man said. “If the threat turns out to be real and it should come out that we knew about it in advance…”

  There was no need to elaborate.

  The Politburo member spoke. “What do you recommend?”

  The Bald Man wrung his hands. Every instinct in his body told him it was an American problem. To some extent, he wouldn’t have minded seeing a disaster sprung on his old adversary. But the repercussions could be enormous. The law of unintended consequences could not be discounted.

  “Inform the Americans of the threat,” he said finally. “Do not speak of the ship, and make sure you forget that we had this conversation.”

  He looked around the room. All present were men of power, but they feared him, as they should.

  “What happens after that is up to them,” he added.

  “And the ship?”

  “If the opportunity should arise,” the Bald Man replied, “we take it when it’s offered. Perhaps we pay, perhaps we barter. Those are mere details to be considered later.”

  FIVE THOUSAND MILES AWAY, in the middle of the Atlantic, Andras stood over Katarina, who remained at the radio console. Finally, a call came through. It was the Bald Man.

  “Tell Andras we are not interested in damaged goods this time,” he said.

  She looked up. Whatever the message meant, Andras understood. He nodded.

  “He understands,” she said, keying the microphone.

  “Da,” the Bald Man said. “Well done, Ms. Luskaya. We await your return.”

  She didn’t feel as if she’d done well. All she’d done was cower before a thug who’d kidnapped her, threatened her, and killed others, including Major Komarov and Kurt, who had tried to save her from this very fate. And now she was part of an incident that would take countless lives in his country.

  She could see no way to stop it.

  Suddenly, Klaxons began to sound. Andras reacted, and the door opened seconds later.

  “What the hell is going on?” Andras demanded.

  A breathless crewman stood there. “Problem in the reactor compartment.”

  “A leak?” he asked.

  “No,” the man said. “We have an intruder.”

  Andras laughed. “An intruder? Are you sure? We’re twelve hundred miles from the nearest land.”

  “I know,” the man said. “I can’t say how it happened. No ships or boats have come close to us. Sonar has detected no undersea craft. Maybe a stowaway,” he guessed finally.

  “Also unlikely,” Andras said with supreme confidence. “More probable, someone’s drunk and making a very big mistake.”

  Katarina could hear the anger in his voice. She wouldn’t want to be the crewman who might be making that mistake.

  “All the crew are accounted for,” the man said. “One of the engineers is dead, another was beaten up by an American commando with silver hair.”

  Katarina’s face lit up.

  “Silver hair?” Andras said, suddenly tensing.

  The crewman nodded.

  “Austin,” Andras muttered slowly.

  Katarina hoped so. She couldn’t figure out how it was possible, but she hoped it was true.

  Andras saw it.

  “Look at your eyes,” he said sarcastically. “All full of hope. You won’t make much of an agent if that’s the best you can hide your feelings.”

  “I’m not an agent,” she said.

  “Clearly.” He sounded disgusted.

  “We’re looking for him now,” the crewman said, interrupting. “But he ran through the Fulcrum bay and vanished.”

  “This is a ship,” Andras said. “There are only so many places to go. Keep searching. I’ll be on the bridge. Post guards at all entrances to the Fulcrum and near the reactors. Shoot anything that approaches either.”

 
; The crewman nodded, and Andras looked at his watch. “We have nineteen minutes. Keep him at bay that long, and I’ll hunt him down myself.”

  The crewman left. Andras grabbed Katarina by the wrist and dragged her into the hall. Two doors down, he opened her cabin, threw her in the chair, and tied her up once again. Hands first, behind the back of the chair, and then her feet.

  “I’d hoped to have more fun with you,” he said, “but it’ll have to wait. Don’t worry, you won’t need to pretend that you’re interested anymore. I don’t care.”

  With that, he stormed out, slamming and locking the door.

  If ever there was a time to escape, she thought, now was it.

  She pulled and twisted and tried desperately to slip the ropes, but they only grew tighter. She looked around the room. Nothing sharp presented itself; no knives, no letter opener, no scissors. But that didn’t mean she would give up.

  She rocked the chair back and forth until it fell over. Now on the floor, she dragged it, moving along like an inchworm with a stone on its back and making about as much progress. Finally, she had inched her way over to the small desk.

  Sitting on top were two wineglasses and the bottle that she and Andras had shared, each of them hoping to impair the other’s judgment.

  Lying at the base of the desk, she began banging into it with her shoulder. It rocked back and forth slowly until one of the glasses fell and shattered.

  She squirmed around, trying to reach one of the pieces. She felt a few shards digging into her arm. She didn’t care. All that mattered was getting a larger curved one and using it on the rope.

  Finally, she touched one. Grabbing it awkwardly, she felt it cut her palm, but she managed to hold it in a position where she could work it against the rope. She began to move it back and forth, pressing it against the rope as best she could.

  She hoped it was cutting into the rope that bound her because with each movement she felt it slicing into her hand, and her palm and fingers were growing slick with blood.

  It hurt like crazy, but she wouldn’t give up until every drop of blood had drained from her body.