55
IT WAS AFTER MIDNIGHT WHEN DIRK AND SUMMER staggered back into the NUMA computer center. Gunn and Yaeger were still examining images on the large viewing screen.
I didn’t realize you were taking time for a seven-course meal,” Gunn said. Then he noticed their appearance. Dirk’s hair was disheveled and his clothes damp, while Summer’s outfit sported a large stain, and she reeked of stale beer. “What on earth happened to you two?”
Summer related the series of events, including a two-hour interrogation by the District of Columbia police.
Any idea who would have tailed you?” Yaeger asked.
None,” Dirk said. “I suspect it may have something to do with Dad.”
Could be,” Gunn said, “especially if they saw you leave his hangar this morning. From a distance, there is a strong resemblance between the two of you.”
Summer handed Yaeger a slip of paper. “Here’s the van’s license number. The police wouldn’t tell us, but maybe you can identify the owner.”
With ease,” Yaeger said.
How’re things progressing with the Adelaide?” Dirk asked.
Not well,” Gunn said. “We’ve been in contact with every major port authority along the coast of North, South, and Central America. No one has a record of the Adelaide making an appearance in the past week.”
Guess that leaves two options,” Dirk said. “They either off-loaded at a private facility or they headed in another direction.” He neglected to mention a third option, that the ship had sunk.
We’ve been talking about those scenarios,” Yaeger said, “and we don’t believe they headed west. First, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to hijack a ship out of Australia in the eastern Pacific if you plan to take the cargo someplace in the western Pacific. The second problem is fuel. Fully loaded, the Adelaide would be stretching it to make a double crossing of the Pacific without refueling.”
Makes sense. That only leaves about a thousand other places she could have ducked into along the coast.”
Gunn and Yaeger nodded. They were searching for a transparent needle in a very large haystack. Gunn described the details of their port searches and the latest surveillance images while Yaeger grabbed the keyboard and began typing. A few minutes later, he called to the others.
Got something on your van,” he said, as a Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles registration form appeared on the screen. “The owner is SecureTek of Tysons Corner, Virginia.”
Yaeger brought up another site on his screen. “The state corporate commission describes their business as providing data encryption links for closed network computer systems. They have eight employees, and their primary customer is the U.S. government.”
Doesn’t sound like the type of security company that would be eavesdropping on people,” Summer said.
Unless,” Dirk said, “their declared business is a front.”
It doesn’t appear to be,” Yaeger said after some additional research. “They have a number of valid contracts with the Army and Navy for data line installations.”
Returning to the corporate commission’s site, he noted that SecureTek was a wholly owned subsidiary of Habsburg Industries. “It’s a privately held firm, so information is rather limited, but they’re based in Panama and have interests in mining and shipping.”
Yaeger performed several searches but found only brief mention of the firm. A shipping periodical displayed a photo of one of the firm’s bulk carriers, the Graz, dockside in Singapore.
Dirk glanced at the photo and sat up in his chair. “Hiram, can you enlarge that photo?”
Yaeger nodded, blowing up the image until it filled the entire screen.
What is it?” Summer asked.
The logo on the funnel.”
Everyone peered at the image of a white flower centered on the ship’s squat gold funnel.
I think that’s an edelweiss,” Summer said. “In keeping with the ship’s Austrian name, I imagine.”
I saw that same flower on the freighter docked in Madagascar,” Dirk said.
The computer room fell silent. Then Gunn asked, “Hiram, can you determine what kind of mining this Habsburg Industries is actually involved in?”
They operate a small gold mine in Panama near the Colombian border. The firm also has an active brokerage business in specialty ores, including samarium, lanthanum, and dysprosium.”
Rare earth elements?” Summer asked.
Gunn nodded. “Rare earth elements. Habsburg Industries suddenly looks very interesting.”
I’d wager the operation in Madagascar was stealing rare earth minerals,” Dirk said. “The reason they attacked our submersible was because we were working around the spot where they sank a hijacked ore ship.”
We found a pristine wreck in the area that had recently been sunk,” Summer said. “There was no apparent damage, and the ship’s name was intentionally obscured.”
Jack Dahlgren did some digging and thinks it was a bulk carrier called the Norseman,” Dirk said. “She was lost in the Indian Ocean four months ago, carrying bastnasite ore from Malaysia. In case you hadn’t guessed, bastnasite contains rare earth elements.”
Could the Habsburg ship in Madagascar have been hijacked, too?” Summer asked.
Yaeger checked the Panamanian ship registry. “Habsburg owns four ships, all dry bulk carriers, named Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, and Salzburg.”
What’s the Austrian connection?” Dirk asked.
The company is owned by Edward Bolcke, a mining engineer originally from Austria,” Yaeger said. “I can’t find mention of any of the four ships reported missing.”
Then that makes Habsburg a likely suspect in the disappearance of the Adelaide,” Summer said.
The key,” Gunn said, “will be their four ships.”
Yaeger flexed his fingers over the keyboard. “Let’s see what we can find.”
Summer found coffee for everyone while Yaeger taxed his mainframe’s circuitry, pursuing inquiries on the four ships and their recent whereabouts. It took the better part of an hour before he could narrow their locations. He displayed a map of the world on which a multitude of colored dots shone, signifying the ships’ recent ports of call.
The blue lights represent the Graz,” Yaeger said. “She is currently believed to be in or about Malaysia. Over the last three weeks, she was seen in Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.”
So she’s not in play,” Gunn said.
The yellow lights represent the Innsbruck. She made a transit through the Panama Canal three weeks ago and was seen in Cape Town, South Africa, eight days ago.”
Dollars to donuts, that’s the ship I saw in Madagascar,” Dirk said.
Likely so. That leaves the Linz and Salzburg. The Linz was reported in a Jakarta dry dock ten days ago, and is believed to still be there for repairs.”
So the green lights are the Salzburg?” Summer asked.
Yes. She appeared in Manila a month ago, then in the Panama Canal, making a northerly crossing, four days ago. Homeland Security port surveillance indicates she was docked in New Orleans just yesterday.”
Yaeger drew a line on the map across the Pacific from Manila to Panama. Then he inserted a red triangle at a spot in the eastern part of the ocean. “The red mark is our last known position of the Adelaide, about six days ago.”
The track of the Salzburg passed within two hundred miles of the Adelaide’s mark.
Wouldn’t have needed much of a course deviation to cross paths,” Dirk said.
The timing is about right,” Gunn said. “The Salzburg would have been in that area five or six days before reaching the canal, which is when the Adelaide went quiet.”
Yaeger returned to an earlier database. “Panama Canal Authority records show she made the transit last Friday, entering the Pacific locks at three in the afternoon. I might be able to find archival video of her.”
A few minutes later, he projected a clip from one of the locks. It showed, in grainy black-and-white footage, a midsized freighter waiting for the lock to flood. An edelweiss flower clearly showed on its funnel.
Dirk looked at the image with a sense of hope. “Look at her Plimsoll mark. She’s riding high in the water. Her holds must be empty.”
You’re right,” Gunn said. “If she hijacked the Adelaide, she didn’t transfer the cargo aboard.”
Yaeger pulled up a profile of the Salzburg. “The Adelaide is a hundred feet longer. They’d have to leave a large chunk of her cargo behind if they ransacked and sank her.”
The rare earth ore she was carrying was too valuable for that,” Gunn said. “No, she must still be afloat. I’m starting to believe she was taken to a place where her cargo could be off-loaded.”
But where?” Summer asked. “You checked all the major ports.”
She could easily slip into a private facility without our knowledge.”
There’s another possibility,” Dirk said, rising from his chair. “The wreck we ran across in Madagascar, the Norseman. She had had her identity scrubbed from the hull. What if they did the same with the Adelaide only they passed her off for another vessel?”
Yaeger and Gunn both nodded, and Dirk began gathering up his things. When he began moving toward the door, Summer called out to him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Panama. And you’re coming with me.”
Panama?”
Sure. If the Salzburg is behind the Adelaide’s disappearance, then someone at Habsburg Industries has to know something about it.”
Maybe, but we don’t know anything about Habsburg Industries or even where they’re located.”
That’s true,” Dirk replied, shooting Gunn and Yaeger an expectant look. “But we will by the time we get there.”