Polar Shift

'What's the good news?' asked Hibbet.

Austin grinned. 'Necessity is the mother of invention.'

The phone rang just then and Austin picked it up. Pitt must have pulled some major strings. The Pentagon was sending a car over to pick him up.

The earth seemed to be on fire in a hundred different places. Volcanoes erupted like a virulent disease, spewing forth huge, glowing lava fields whose smoke cast a thick pall over the planet. Wind storms of unimaginable power whipped the massive cloud into twisting vortexes that ranged across continents. Tsunamis slammed into the North American coastline on the east and the west and created a narrow continent squeezed by two angry oceans.

Then the image of the ravaged planet disappeared. The large screen in the Pentagon screening room went blank. Lights that had been dimmed for the presentation went back on, to reveal Austin and the stunned faces of a dozen or so military brass and political people who were sitting around a long conference table.

'The computer simulation you just saw was prepared by Dr. Paul Trout, a computer graphics expert at NUMA,' Austin said. 'It presents a reasonably accurate picture of the consequences of a geologic polar shift.'

A four-star general sitting across from Austin said, 'I would be the first to admit that was a frightening picture, if it's true. But as you say, it's a computer simulation, and could just as well be based on imagination as fact.'

'I wish it were imagination, General. We didn't have time to prepare a written summary, so you'll have to bear with me while I lay out the main points of what we're dealing with here. The first link in the chain of events that led to this meeting was forged more than sixty years ago with the work of a brilliant electrical engineer named Lazlo Kovacs.'

For more than an hour, Austin laid out the timeline, touching on Tesla, Kovacs's escape from East Prussia and the electromagnetic warfare experiments conducted by the U.S. and the Soviets. He described his meeting with Barrett, the man who had translated the theorems into reality, the ship-sinking ocean disturbances and the plans to initiate a polar shift. Austin was aware of the fantastic nature of his story, so he left out a few details. Had he not seen them with his eyes he would never have believed in the existence of dwarf mammoths in a crystal city locked in an ancient volcano.

Even without the more unbelievable details, he faced a wall of skepticism. Austin made his case with the skill of a powerhouse attorney talking to a jury, but he knew he would be peppered with questions. An assistant secretary representing the Department of Defense cut Austin short when he was describing Jordan Gant's involvement with Margrave.

'You'll have to excuse me if I find it hard to believe that the head of a nonprofit organization and the billionaire owner of a respected software company are in cahoots to cause this so-called polar shift over some vague neo- anarchist cause.'

'You can argue about specifics,' Austin said, 'but this is far from a vague cause. Lucifer used the bright lights of Broadway to send its message to the world and shut down New York City as a warning. I think 9/11 proved that you ignore seemingly lunatic warnings at your peril.'

'Where are these so-called transmitter ships?' asked a naval officer.

'Rio de Janeiro,' Austin replied.

'You said there were four ships earlier but one sank?'

'That's right. We assumed that a replacement ship would be built, but we found no sign of it, so we're assuming they're going ahead with the trio.'

'This should be a slam dunk,' the assistant secretary said. 'I suggest we send the closest submarine to keep track of these ships, and if they engage in suspicious behavior we sink them.'

'What about diplomatic considerations?' the four-star general asked. 'Shoot first and ask questions later on the high seas?'

'It would be no different than shooting down a civilian airliner targeting the White House or Congress,' the secretary said. 'Can we do it?' he asked the naval officer.

'The navy likes a challenge,' he said.

'Then that's the plan. I'll run it by the secretary of defense and we can get the ball rolling. He'll brief the president when he gets back tomorrow.' He turned to Austin. 'Thanks for bringing this to our attention.'

'I'm not through,' Austin said. 'There's reason to believe we have something that will neutralize the polar shift. We may have found an antidote.'

Every eye in the room stared at him.

'What sort of antidote?' the general asked more out of politeness than interest.

'It's a set of electromagnetic frequencies that we think will counter the polar reversal.'

'How do you plan to administer this 'antidote'?' the assistant secretary said, 'with a big spoon?'

'I've got a few ideas.'

'The only antidote I'd like to use is a torpedo right up their butt,' the naval officer said.

Everyone in the room except for Austin roared with laughter.

'Don't mean to be impolite,' the assistant secretary said. 'Why don't you work your ideas into a report and get it to my secretary.'

The meeting was over. As Austin was ushered through the labyrinth of corridors, he remembered his meeting with Gant, and his impression that he was not someone whose duplicity should be underestimated.

Slam dunk, my ass, he thought.

39

The Trouts had booked a beachside hotel room with a balcony that overlooked the harbor and offered an unimpeded view of the distant shipping docks. Since arriving in Rio, they had taken turns sitting on the balcony watching the transmitter ships.

Trout brought Gamay a cold glass of orange juice and pulled up a chair beside her. 'Anything happening?'

Gamay raised the binoculars to her eyes and studied a long shipping dock on the other side of the harbor. 'The transmitter ships haven't moved an inch since we got here.'

Trout borrowed the binoculars and inspected three ships tied up parallel to the dock.

'Did you notice that the liner is gone?'

'It was there yesterday. They must have left before we got up this morning.'

Gamay had wondered what a passenger ship was doing in a cargo vessel area. They had read the name painted on the stern: Polar Adventure. But neither one of them had given the vessel much thought. They had been more interested in the three cargo ships, which were named Polaris I, II and III, after the northern pole star.

'I think we should take a closer look,' Paul said.

'My thoughts exactly. I'm about ready to go for a ride.'

Minutes later, they were driving along the edge of the harbor. The resort hotels thinned out, and the neighborhood they were passing through became more commercial. Eventually, they came to a concentration of warehouses, shipping company offices and maritime buildings. They passed several containerships, and went by the empty berth formerly occupied by the ocean liner. A guardhouse had been set up near the three vessels they had seen from the hotel.

Standing outside the structure was a beefy guard who carried a side arm and a rifle. He was smoking a cigarette and talking to a longshoreman. Paul kept the car at the same speed so he wouldn't attract attention, but he drove slowly enough for Gamay to give the ships a quick but thorough inspection.

'Any other guards?' Trout said.

'Only the one, that I could see. There may be more on board.'

'Maybe not. They wouldn't want to attract attention by having too many security guys hanging around. This could be a golden opportunity to snoop around.'

'Yes, but he had a very big gun. How do you propose to get past that?'

Trout gave Gamay a lopsided grin. 'I was thinking that a beautiful woman could provide a, uh, diversion.'

'Here we go again. Cherchez la femme. The oldest trick in the book. Do you think he'd fall for a ruse like that?'