Monster: Tale Loch Ness

by Jeffrey Konvitz

"I hope you've found everything in order," Scotty said, also noting indecision and an awkward quality of fear in Whittenfeld's usually steady voice.

  "They're in order. In fact, I think we're ready. And I've confirmed the readiness of the inspection investigators as well. I am going to notify the London office to notify the Department of Energy that we and the inspection investigators are prepared to present our findings to the commission."

  "Are you sure you're all right?" Scotty asked.

  "Just tired, Mr. Bruce," Whittenfeld replied, unsteadilly lighting a cigar. "How was the seismic work?"

  "It went well."

  Whittenfeld walked to the window and looked out. Scotty examined Whittenfeld's face. He sensed severe strain. Not physical. But mental. He was sure Whittenfeld had been through an emotional cyclone.

  It did not surprise him.

  "What about the blowout prevent control hose?" he finally asked.

  "I finished the inspection."

  "And?"

  A bead of sweat ran down Whittenfeld's face. "I reached a conclusion."

  "Do you want to let me in on it?"

  Whittenfeld blew a ring of smoke into the air. "Of course." He walked toward Scotty. "There is nothing I keep from you. But I would like you to bear with me for a few days. The information I have is startling. The proof I have found is frightening. Only I know the particulars. I would like to keep them with me until I face the tribunal."

  My God, Scotty thought. "Of course," he said.

  "I have information that will focus the spotlight of the world on Scotland."

  "I understand."

  "Good, Mr. Bruce."

  They stood in silence, facing each other. Then Whittenfeld returned to his desk.

  "I will speak to you later," he said.

  Scotty said nothing and left the room.

  Chapter 19

  That afternoon, Geminii Petroleum's London office notified the secretary of state for energy that the Columbus investigation had been completed.

  The investigation commission convened immediately thereafter. As Fallworth had noted, the commission tribunal was composed of members of select governmental departments. Andrew Farquharson, its chairman, and Peter Droon had been drawn from the Scottish Office, Mary MacKenzie from the Highland Regional Council. There were also individuals from the Petroleum Engineering Division, the Home Office, the Department of Trade, and the Health and Safety Executive.

  The inclusion of Droon and MacKenzie had drawn considerable attention from the start. The press considered their selection a canny political maneuver, a device to suggest impartiality and a high regard for Scottish nationalism. Cabinet spokesmen, however, insisted they'd been chosen by lot from lists provided by their respective departments.

  The public inquiry was gaveled into session in the executive chamber of the Highland Regional Council, Inverness. The preliminary sessions focused on a description of the Columbus and the environmental impact of her destruction, while the succeeding ones concentrated on the salvage operation and a description of the recovered drill ship and sonar tug. It'was only after the committee obtained a complete preliminary picture that it shifted the focus to the chain of events leading to the catastrophe, the causes, and a possible assignment of blame.

  Peter Droon, of the Scottish Office, scanned the packed gallery, especially the press section, then, while fiddling with the end of his tie, looked back at the witness.

  "Mr. Bruce," he said, "am I correct making the following assumptions based on the expert testimony elicited so far? The Columbus was found in three discrete sections, though parts of her had broken free. The bow of the sonar tug was imbedded in the drill ship's hull, and much of the drill ship's stern section, behind the impact point, had broken loose. Parts of the drill pipe were imbedded in the remains of the derrick. The blowout control hoses and the guide wires were missing, presumably having been burned off the ship by the fire and explosions?"

  "That's correct," Scotty said, leaning back in his chair, obviously disquieted; he had finally been called to testify, the next to last witness, after having listened to seven days ot brutal testimony.

  "We'd like to pose several questions based on these facts," Droon explained. "We'd like you to elaborate."

  "If I can."

  "That's all we can ask of you," Droon said, glancing briefly at Mary MacKenzie. "Several expert witnesses have suggested the tug was caught in the gas blowout and sucked into the heavier drill ship. Would you agree?"

  "Yes."

  "That obviously implies the tug was close enough to the drill ship and wellhead to have been caught in the gas funnel."

  "Yes."

  "But, Mr. Bruce, according to testimony and Geminii's carefully documented operational orders, the tug was to have remained at least half a mile away from the ship."

  "That's correct."

  "Well, then. Perhaps you can tell me what the hell the tug was doing alongside the Columbus?"

  "We're not sure. We tried to check the tug's instruments. However, they had been totally destroyed, as had all of her records. We can only guess the tug was either steaming toward the drill ship to offer help or to warn the drill ship of impending danger."

  "To warn the drill ship? Mr. Bruce, the tug had a radio."

  "Unfortunately not. We recovered the tug's radio. The radio had multiple shortings, which we determined had occurred prior to the catastrophe. So if there was a warning to be given, it would have to have been given at close range."

  "Couldn't visual signals have carried the distance?"

  "No. You've heard the testimony concerning the weather conditions on the night of the blowout. The fog was so thick the tug had no choice but to make a near approach."

  "Could the tug have been closing to offer aid? Might they have seen the blowout?"

  "Of course they saw the blowout. But I doubt they were closing because of it."

  "Why?"

  "Because there was too little time between the blowout and the aeration to have allowed the tug to reach the danger zone. No, the tug was closing before the blowout—closing to warn of impending danger."

  "How could the tug have known of such a danger?"

  "It had highly sophisticated equipment on board designed to detect foreign objects in the loch."

  "Then you're suggesting there was a foreign object present which the tug perceived could endanger the Columbus and therefore the tug was moving to warn the ship's crew of the foreign object's presence."

  Scotty glanced back at Whittenfeld, who was seated in the rear, next to Lefebre, Foster, and a team of company executives, then turned toward Superintendent MacGregor and Inspector MacKintosh, who had attended every session. "I don't know," he said. "We do know one of the control hoses, parts of which we were able to find, was severed a hundred feet below the water surface. We suspect the drill pipe was bent as well, pinching off the downward flow of mud, thereby causing the blowout."

  "What could have pinched the drill pipe.

  "The disalignment of the riser."

  "How might the riser have been disaligned?"

  "Based on our prior experience—and the committee has reviewed the record—we suspect something might have pushed it out of whack."

  "What severed the blowout control hose?"

  "You'll have to ask Mr. Whittenfeld. He examined the hose."

  Farquharson interceded, tapping his cane. "Mr. Bruce could you possibly reconstruct the sequence of events aboard the drill ship prior to her demise?"

  "I would have to make many assumptions."

  "We understand that. But we would still appreciate an attempt."

  Scotty fiddled with his notes. "As you know, the Columbus had taken a kick and had instituted kill procedures. During these procedures, the blowout preventer would have been closed, sealing off the well. With the blowout preventer closed, there could not have been a blowout unless the preventer had structurally failed or the well wall itself had collapsed. Neither occurred. We examined the well. It is in
tact. I personally examined the blowout preventer, Exhibit D, and there is nothing structurally wrong with it. It did not fail. Therefore, the preventer would have to have been open at the time of the blowout, and we have to conclude the kill procedures had been completed and the drill team had returned to normal operation, which would correspond to the radio messages received from the ship."

  Farquharson arched his brow, puzzled. "Then what caused the blowout?"

  "As I said, the drill pipe was pinched closed by the movement of the riser after drilling had been resumed. The pinching cut off the downward flow of mud, which had kept the gas from flowing to the surface. Then, suddenly, without down pressure, the well flowed."

  "Why didn't they close the preventer again once they realized the riser was out of alignment?"

  "First of all, everything happened very fast. And secondly, they might well have tried to close the preventer only to discover they were unable to. I told you one of the control hoses had been severed."

  "But there was another, a backup."

  "Yes. But we never recovered it. Since one hose had been severed, it's highly likely the other had been, too. Therefore, there would have been no way to activate the blowout preventer."

  "Then what happened?"

  "Based on the evidence, the drill pipe blew out of the well and up through the ship. Gas followed. There was an explosion and fire. Then the aeration."

  "How did the gas get into the water beneath the ship?"

  "It ate right through the lower riser joints."

  "The crew was helpless?"

  "Correct."

  The Trade representative pointed. "Couldn't the crew have moved the ship away at the first hint of trouble?"

  "No. The events happened very quickly, sir. Plus, there were restraints. The ship was held in place by half a dozen anchors. It was attached to the riser. They would have had to close the blowout preventer before moving, which I told you might have been inapossible from the first. And last but not least, there was no tug to pull the ship. The Columbus is a ship, but it has no engines. Due to drilling-space demands, engines were omitted in the design stage. When you want to move the Columbus, a seagoing tug provides power, and there were no seagoing tugs in position at the time."

  Mary MacKenzie spoke. "Mr. Bruce. After the Columbus and tug were recovered, there were subsequent dives made to recover additional material. Correct?"

  "Yes."

  "What were the results?"

  "You have our written statement."

  "I'd like to hear it from you."

  "We were missing four entire guide wires and both blowout preventer control hoses. In addition, the blowout preventer, guide frames, wellhead, and TV monitors were still on the bottom. We recovered most."

  "What didn't you recover?"

  "The guide wires. One entire control hose. The upper section of the other."

  "Why?"

  "Most likely they had fallen off the plateau where the wellhead was located and had sunk into the loch's deepest abyss."

  She glanced at the exhibit table. "We seem to have everything but the recovered control hose."

  "Mr. Whittenfeld will present it."

  "You say the control hose was severed?"

  "Yes."

  "Did you see the control hose upon its recovery?"

  "Only from a distance."

  "Well, do you think the severance might have been caused by structural failure?"

  "I don't know," he said. "I didn't get close enough to examine the hose. Nor did I get a chance to inspect it on shore. As I said, Mr. Whittenfeld took control."

  "Has anyone examined the control hose other than Mr. Whittenfeld?"

  "You'll have to ask Mr. Whittenfeld."

  MacKenzie glanced at Droon, who formulated the next question.

  "From your testimony, Mr. Bruce," Droon said, "you suggest the entire matter comes down to the severed control hose, correct?"

  "I would say so."

  "Asuming your analysis is correct, Mr. Bruce, could anything have been done to save the ship after the hose had been severed?"

  "In my opinion, if both hoses were cut? No."

  "And prior?"

  "That's problematical. We don't know—or at least I don't know—why the hose broke, so I can't begin to even guess at preventive measures. And even if I knew, the real question is whether the crew knew there was trouble."

  "Where were you while all this was occurring?"

  "In a helicopter racing to the scene."

  "What did you see when you arrived?"

  "The Columbus and the tug going down. The water aerated. Fire. The riser sticking out of the water. The Columbus slid down the riser like a fireman on a firehouse pole."

  "Did you ever think such a thing could happen?"

  "No."

  "What were the odds?"

  "Gigantically long."

  "You would have bet against it?"

  "With my life."

  "Yet it happened."

  "Yes."

  "So you are saying it's virtually impossible to ensure complete safety on your rigs."

  "Now wait a minute. The Columbus was a safe ship. The chance such a sequence of events would ever happen again is remote. Until we know what happened to the hose, Mr. Droon, and why the ship went down, I think we should avoid conclusions."

  "Mr. Bruce is right," Farquharson said, waving Droon to silence. "Does anyone have additional questions?"

  Several committee members posed more questions, but they were inconsequential. When Scotty's testimony ended, Farquharson announced they would call the final witness, William Whittenfeld, after recess.

  Scotty stood alone in the hall, staring through the windows. He'd wanted to say more. Based on Furst's assessment, he suspected the control hose hadn't broken by itself, nor had it been cut. But Whittenfeld atone had examined the material and had the results in hand, and as Whittenfeld had so clearly implied, there was to be no discussion about the blowout preventer control hose until Whittenfeld himself faced the tribunal.

  Returning to the hearing room, Scotty took a front seat near the exhibit tables. Whittenfeld walked immediately to the witness stand. Prior to the first question, an exhibit was wheeled into the room: the recovered portion of the blowout control hose.

  Looking extremely nervous once more, haggard, too, Whittenfeld fielded a barrage of preliminary questions, then moved to the exhibit. Describing how the exhibit had been analyzed, he then dropped the bombshell.

  "I submit that the control hose was severed," he screamed, near frenzy. "And I submit the severance was caused by an oxy-arc torch, a work of sabotage. Yes! The sonar tug was steaming toward the Columbus to warn her. The tug had picked up the trace of a submersible in the loch, a submersible which cut the control hose and presumably the other hose and guide lines and pushed the riser, bending the drillpipe, setting off the sequence of events leading to the destruction of the drill ship!"

  Shocked, the committee attempted to clarify the specifies. Whittenfeld was ready. He let the committee examine the hose and then read a report written by a prominent structural engineering firm based in London. According to the report, the inference of sabotage was overwhelming.

  "This is a grave accusation," Farquharson said, returning to his seat. "A ship has gone down. Men have died. Because of sabotage? May God help us!"

  "Who could have done this?" the trade rep questioned.

  "I don't know," Whittenfeld replied. The gallery commotion grew.

  "Can we run our own analyses?" the Home Office rep asked.

  "Of course," Whittenfeld declared. "You can subject the material to any test you want. But I assure you, the results will be the same, and the decision of this committee will become patently obvious. It will allow Geminii to bring in a new drill ship and resume operations. It will allow us to institute the strictest security measures." He raised his voice, almost to a fury. "And it will recommend the Crown undertake a thorough investigation aimed at routing out the savages who
killed so many good men!"

  Droon suddenly leaned forward. "After the hose was recovered," he asked suspiciously, "what was done with it?"

  "It was placed under lock and key in Aberdeen."

  "Who examined it prior to the arrival of the structural team?"

  "I did."

  "Did anyone else get a close look at the exhibit other than you prior to the appearance of this structural team?"

  "My aides—Pierre Lefebre and Brian Girard." He paused, swallowing heavily. "And the diver who recovered the hose from the loch floor."

  Droon turned to Farquharson. "I would like the diver to testify."

  "Who was the diver?" Farquharson asked.

  Again, Whittenfeld swallowed heavily. "Messr. Furst," he replied.

  Farquharson pointed to the committee's counsel. "Would you please subpoena the diver?"

  "That will be impossible," Whittenfeld suddenly said.

  "Why's that?"

  "Furst and his diving mate Blasingame died two days ago during a compressed air dive in the Moray Firth."

  Stunned again, the committee adjourned. The gallery left the hearing room. However, Scotty remained behind, seated in the first row of the gallery, trembling, trying desperately to contain the fury that was racing through his body. He hadn't really seen the control hose specimen after it had been brought to the surface. But he had heard Furst's appraisal several times. Christ, Furst was a pro. He wasn't prone to exaggeration or whimsy. The hose lying on the exhibit table could not have been the hose Furst had recovered. The hose on the table had clearly been oxy-arced and indented with tool-face imprints. Furst surely knew the difference.

  Could a phony exhibit have been substituted for the real Specimen? Could Furst have been murdered?

  He didn't know, and he had no proof. He could only suspect. Suspect that something alive, powerful, and vindictive had chewed the hose, leading to the destruction of the Columbus. Suspect that someone, notably William Whittenfeld, had conspired to hide the truth.

  The committee reassembled for public inquiry the next morning at ten. The entire staff of Geminii was present. After the committee interviewed Lefebre and Girard, who verified the authenticity of the hose specimen, they began to review relevant testimony. They were stopped by an unexpected development.