Medusa

“Couldn’t miss it!” she said. “Brimmer forgot his Mr. Friendly impersonation.”

Paul let his eye wander to the marble tablets hung on the wall that were inscribed with the names of captains and crews lost in the far corners of the world.

“Those old whalers were tough as nails,” he said.

“Some were tougher than others,” she said, “if you can believe Song Lee’s story about the New Bedford pod.”

Paul pursed his lips.

“That medical phenomenon is a link between the past and the present. I’d love to read the paper that Lee wrote at Harvard.”

Gamay slipped her BlackBerry out of her handbag. “Do you remember the name of Lee’s professor?”

“How could I forget?” Paul said with a smile. “His name was Codman.”

“Trout . . . Cod . . . Why are practically all you New Englanders named after fish?”

“Because we didn’t have wine connoisseurs for fathers.”

“Touche,” she said.

She called up the Harvard Medical School on her BlackBerry, thumb-typed Codman’s name into a person finder, and called the number shown on the screen. A man who identified himself as Lysander Codman answered the call.

“Hello, Dr. Codman? My name is Dr. Gamay Morgan-Trout. I’m a friend of Dr. Song Lee. I’m hoping that you remember her.”

“Dr. Lee? How could I forget that brilliant young woman? How is she these days?”

“We saw her yesterday, and she’s fine. She’s working with some NUMA colleagues of mine, but she mentioned a paper she had done at Harvard and submitted to you. It has something to do with a medical phenomenon called the New Bedford anomaly.”

“Oh, yes,” Codman said. Gamay could hear him chuckling. “It was an unusual subject.”

“We told Song Lee we’d be in the neighborhood, and she asked if my husband and I could swing by and pick up a copy for her. She’s lost the original.”

The professor had no reason to have kept a paper from one of hundreds of students who had passed through his classroom, but he said, “Normally, I wouldn’t hold on to a student’s paper, but the subject was so bizarre I kept it in what I call the Book of the Dead, as Charles Fort termed subjects that can be neither proven nor disproven. I’m sure I can put my hands on it.”

Gamy gave Paul a thumbs-up.

“Thank you very much, Professor. We’ll be there in a little over an hour, if that’s convenient.”

She jotted down directions to Codman’s office in her BlackBerry, and then she and Paul walked from the whaling chapel to the car. Minutes later, they were heading north out of the city.

CHAPTER 34

THE VOICE OF THE PILOT CRACKLED OVER THE CITATION X’s cabin intercom.

“Sorry to wake you folks up, but we’re making our approach to Pohnpei and will be on the ground in a few minutes. Please make sure your seat belts are buckled.”

Austin yawned once and looked over at Zavala, who could sleep through an earthquake. Then he glanced out the window at the landing strip on Deketik Island and the mile-long causeway that connected it to the main island. The sky was clear except for scattered clouds.

“Welcome to Bali Ha’i,” Austin said to Song Lee, who was rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Lee furrowed her brow, confused by Austin’s reference to the mystical island that figured in South Pacific. She pressed her nose against the Plexiglas window. The island below was roughly circular, surrounded by a thin barrier reef enclosing a vast lagoon of intense blue. Luxuriant green forests laced with waterfalls covered the soaring peak towering over the island.

“It’s beautiful,” she said.

“I stopped here on a NUMA research ship a couple of years ago,” Austin said. “The tall volcanic peak is Mount Nahna Laud. It inspired European explorers to call the place Ascension Island. It seemed to to them to rise right up to heaven.”

“Is there any place in the world that you haven’t been to?” Lee asked.

“If it touches an ocean, I’ve been there,” Austin said. “Look, you can see the ruins of the old city at Nan Madol on the southeast coast of the island. They call it the Venice of the Pacific. Maybe we can explore the place after we’re through with our other business. Tell you what, I’ll take you out to dinner with a water view and introduce you to sakau. It’s the local firewater that the locals make from pepper plants.”

Song gazed with curiosity at Kurt’s rugged face. He was as excited as a schoolboy at the prospect of returning to Nan Madol. The fact that he faced a Herculean task and held the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in his hands didn’t seem to faze him. His self-assurance must be catching, she thought, because she said, “Yes, I’d like that. Perhaps we could make that visit to Nan Madol sooner than later. I’ve been thinking that it might have a bearing on this other ‘business,’ as you called it.”

“In what way, Dr. Lee?”

“It’s a strange little story from the first mate of the Princess. The island the ship sailed to when the crew became sick was known to be unfriendly to whalers. So, after dropping anchor, he and the captain went ashore briefly to see if there were any natives there. They didn’t see anybody, but they did come across some ruins. The captain remarked on the strange carvings, and said they were similar to those he’d seen on a temple at Nan Madol.”

“So if we can find an island that has ruins like Nan Madol,” Austin said, “then there’s a chance the Princess stopped there.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Lee said.

“How does that help us find the lab? Don’t forget, Dr. Lee, that’s our primary reason for being in Micronesia.”

“Yes, I know. But when I was at Bonefish Key, I heard that the field lab was running short of blue medusae and that a new supply had to be found.”

“Kane said that a mutant strain had been developed,” Austin said. “Why would they need more of the original species?”

“There was no assurance at the time that the mutant would be the answer,” Lee said, “in which case other avenues would have to be explored. There was a plan to collect medusae from a newfound source. If the lab is still working on the vaccine, it would need medusae. Which means that if we find that source, the lab may be nearby.”

“Wouldn’t Dr. Kane know where this new source was located?”

“Not necessarily. He had pretty much left the day-to-day operations to Dr. Mitchell.”

Austin thought about it for a moment, then said, “I know a guide named Jeremiah Whittles who lives in Kolonia, which is the capital of Pohnpei and the biggest town on the island. Whittles took me out to the ruins the last time I was here. He’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of Nan Madol. I think it might be worth talking to him to see if he knows anything that might help.”

The Citation X circled one last time, then glided in for a perfect landing, hitting the single strip for landings and takeoffs with a soft jounce. Near the end of the strip, the jet made a U-turn, using the strip to taxi up to the terminal.

The moveable staircase thumped against the fuselage. Austin pushed the door open and stepped out of the plane, filling his lungs with warm air laden with the heavy scent of tropical flowers. It was like stepping into a steam room, but nobody complained about the heat or humidity after being cooped up for so many hours in the temperature-controlled cabin.

The pleasant-mannered customs officer stamped their passports and welcomed them to the Federated States of Micronesia. Lee had left her passport back on Bonefish Key, but a State Department call ahead to Honolulu had produced temporary paperwork that would get her in and out of Micronesia.