Polar Shift

and cause general economic chaos.'

'The Kovacs Theorems.'

Barrett stared at Austin as if he had just sprouted a second head. 'You've been doing your homework. What do you know about the theorems?'

'Not much. I know that Kovacs was a genius who came up with a way to use extra-low-frequency electromagnetic transmissions to disrupt the natural order of things. He was worried that in the wrong hands, his theorems could be used to alter weather, cause earthquakes and other sorts of mischief. From what you've told me about your Lucifer pals, his fears seem to have been borne out.'

Barrett winced at the mention of 'pals,' but he nodded in agreement. 'That's about right, as far as it goes.'

'How far does it go?'

'We were trying to cause a polar reversal.'

'A shifting of the north and south poles?'

'The magnetic poles. We wanted to knock out communications satellites. Mess up commerce, and throw a scare into the Elites. Strictly low-end stuff.'

Austin's jaw hardened. 'Since when are killer waves, ship-swallowing whirlpools and the loss of a cargo ship and crew considered low-end?'

Barrett seemed to draw into himself. Austin feared his sharp comment may have shut off further communication. But then Barrett nodded in agreement.

'You're right, of course. We didn't think of the consequences, only the means.'

'What were the means?'

'We built a fleet of four ships, each carrying a device modeled on the Kovacs Theorems. We concentrated the beam at an oblique angle into a vulnerable spot on the ocean floor. The power in each ship is enough to light a small city, but it's feeble when compared to the great mass of the earth. That's where the theorems come in. Kovacs said that at the proper frequency, the transmissions would be amplified by the very mass they were trying to penetrate, in the way a tuba amplifies the sound of air being blown through pursed lips.'

'I saw the giant whirlpool you created. That was more than a set of pursed lips.'

'A whirlpool!'

Austin gave him a condensed version of the maelstrom and the disaster it nearly caused.

Barrett whistled. 'I knew about the giant waves we created with one of our field tests. The kickback sunk a cargo ship and one of our transmitter vessels.'

'Sometimes the sea gives back what it takes. The whirlpool churned up your transmitter ship. I managed to board her before she sank.'

Barrett looked stunned at the revelation.

'What's going on, Spider?'

The question shocked Barrett out of his daze.

'We didn't consider the violent ocean disruptions that would be caused by the anomalies we created in the earth's electromagnetic field. From what you told me, the disruptions continued even after we stopped transmitting and moved the ships off. The magma under the earth's crust must continue to move even after the initial stimulus. It's like the secondary ripples that bounce around a pond when you throw a rock into the water. That's the dangerous part of the theorems. It's what worried Kovacs. The unpredictability of the whole thing.'

'What were you doing the day I saw you in Puget Sound?'

'After the Southern Belle sank, I went back to the drawing board. I was conducting a test, using a miniaturized version of the setup on the transmitter.'

'That's what drove the orcas into a frenzy?'

He nodded.

'What was the problem?'

'The waves were bouncing all over the place. We had made an educated guess, but even if it were off by a nanosecond the transmissions can go haywire.'

'So Kovacs was wrong?'

Barrett threw his arms wide apart. 'He published his general theory as a warning to the world, but he withheld the information that would make it work. Look, it's like an atomic bomb. You can find plans for an A-bomb on the Internet, and you can even acquire the materials to put one together. But unless you have specific knowledge about the way things act, it's going to fail, and the best you can get is a dirty, radioactive bomb. That's what we've got here; the electromagnetic equivalent of a dirty bomb.'

'The loss of your ship must have stopped the project in its tracks,' Austin said.

'It only delayed it. We had a ship in reserve. It's being moved onto station for the big, major zapping.'

'Where is that going to be?'

'Tris never told me. There were a number of possible locations. The final choice is all in his head.'

'How did you get into this insanity?'

'In a very routine way. I first brought the Kovacs Theorems to Tris's attention. I thought there might be something there for our company, but he saw it as a way to advance his anarchist cause. He asked me to develop a system that would cause a temporary magnetic shift. I saw it as a technical challenge. Using Kovacs's work as a basis, I filled in the gaps.'

'Tell me about the attempt on your life.'

Barrett gingerly touched the side of his head. 'I was visiting Tris on his island in Maine. Mickey Doyle, who flies Tris's private plane, tried to kill me. He faked engine trouble and landed on a lake. His bullet grazed my head and caused a lot of blood. I was rescued by a couple of fishermen from Boston. One of them happened to be a doctor. I gave him a fake name, and took off as soon as I got the chance. That's why I was doing the Rasta thing. I don't want anyone to find out I'm still alive or I will be dead!'

'Was Doyle acting on Margrave's orders?'

'I don't think Tris was behind it. He's gone ultraweird on me. He's become a megalomaniac. He's hired his own army, guys he says are around for security. But when I told Tris I was pulling out of the project after the Southern Belle sank and the orcas went crazy, he said he would put things off until I had a chance to go through some new material he'd come across. Just before he shot me, I asked Mickey if Tris was behind it. He said he was working for someone else. I don't think he was lying.'

'That begs the question. Who would want to take you out?'

'Mickey was trying to warn me against going public. When I refused, he tried to kill me. Whoever he was working for didn't want the project stopped.'

'Wouldn't the project screech to a halt if you were dead?'

'Not anymore,' Barrett said with a sad smile. 'The way I've got this thing set up, Tris can direct the ships and unleash their power with a minimum of personnel and equipment.'

'Who else has an interest in seeing this scheme succeed?'

'There's only one other person I know who's got the inside track. Jordan Gant. He runs Global Interests Network. GIN for short. It's a foundation out of Washington that lobbies for many of the same causes as Lucifer. Abuse of corporate power. Tariff policies that hurt the environment. Arms buildups in developing countries. Tris says Gant's foundation is like Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Party. They can keep their hands clean, more or less, while the IRA is the secret organization that uses the muscle.'

'Then a threat to Tris's project would be a threat to Gant's goals as well.'

'That's a logical conclusion.'

'What's Gant's background?'

'He's an apostate from the corporate world. He was working for some of the same groups we're fighting until he saw the light. He's pretty much a front man. Smooth talker. Lots of oily charm. I can't picture him behind a murder plot, but you never know.'

'It's a trail worth following. You say Margrave gave you some material, hoping it would change you mind.'

'He said that Kovacs had come up with a way to stop a polar reversal even after it had been started. I said I wouldn't pull out if he could come up with a fail-safe plan.'

'Where would he begin to find something like that?'

'There's evidence that Kovacs survived after the war, and that he moved to the U.S., where he remarried. I