Silent Thunder

pretense of finding an undetonated classified missile. After he found it, he redirected my vessel from the testing trials to launch a recovery operation. We brought it aboard without much trouble.'

'When did you realize it wasn't a weapon?'

'Almost immediately, but most of the crew still didn't know. The captain was furious that we'd been forced to go hundreds of miles out of our way with an unstable bacteriological agent aboard-all for Pavski's personal quest. Captain Vladzar, the first officer, I, and a few other senior officers made a stand against him and we were promptly relieved of our commands and placed under arrest. Some Pavski loyalists had been transferred in just before the mission, so I suspect Pavski knew we wouldn't be happy. We were boarded, taken off the sub, and placed into the brig of a destroyer.'

'Along with the treasure?'

'No, Pavski had other plans. He brought in a Captain Heiser to take command, and Heiser headed for coordinates that Pavski gave him. Heiser was brilliant at navigation and a computer genius, but his main qualification for Pavski was that he always obeyed without question.' His lips twisted. 'But the crewmen whom Pavski had brought on board with Heiser weren't familiar with bacteria containment, and they screwed up.' He added bitterly, 'Damn them to hell. The capsule drum was ruptured and the bacteria were released. The crew became infected.'

'My God.'

'Heiser radioed the fleet commander for assistance, but all ships in the area were ordered to stand down. They couldn't risk spreading the infection.'

She shuddered at the thought. Alone and sick and no one to help them. 'It reminds me of the Kursk.'

'Yes,' he said harshly. 'And those were my men, my friends, on that sub. Their only crime was trusting their government and believing in their commanding officers. Then Heiser did something smart; he discharged the capsule and tried to use its location as a bargaining chip against the fleet commander. I have transcripts of the radio communications, and it was obvious that Pavski was trying to persuade Heiser to disclose where he'd hidden the cradle. Heiser wouldn't tell him. He was trying to leverage his knowledge for a rescue attempt that never came. The bacteriological agent did its work quickly, as it was designed to do. Everyone aboard was dead within twenty-four hours. The strain was engineered to die quickly without live hosts, so after a brief period of quarantine, the Silent Thunder was boarded and searched. None of the logs or journals or the captain's personal books gave any indication of where the cradle was hidden, and time ran out for Pavski. The outbreak of disease on the sub made the government very nervous. They were in the process of denying they had such weapons to the U.S. Solution: Cover up. Silent Thunder had to disappear quickly. They insisted the sub be immediately decommissioned and taken to the shipyards in Helsinki to be scrapped.'

'Which would have happened if it hadn't been for a corrupt Russian bureaucrat.'

'Yes, and our Fleet Commander Pavski scrambled to cover up his involvement in the crew's deaths. It was difficult to do. But fear and bribes can accomplish miracles. He kept his post and was soon busy climbing higher.'

'With all those deaths at his door?'

'He had power. Anyway, in the intervening years, there was a persistent rumor that Heiser might have hidden the location of his prize somewhere on the Silent Thunder. It was based on something he said to his father on the radio in the last hours of his life. He quoted an obscure Polish writer, which people later traced to a poem in which the narrator hides the key to his treasure in the room where he lay dying. And at one point he told his father how he'd like to go back with him to the Rioni River, where they'd gone when he was a child. There were a few other references that might have been clues, but no one could make the connection. No one really thought that much of it, since the sub was thought to have been scrapped.'

'But then it was rediscovered…'

Kirov nodded. 'Then everything changed. I was skeptical that there was really any hidden treasure map, but I knew the mere possibility would draw the players out of the woodwork. I'd been looking for them for years, and this was finally my chance.'

'Who are the players?'

'Pavski and his committee of vultures who killed the officers and crew of the Silent Thunder.' His lips twisted. 'I won't give you all the names. It would be a waste of time. Most of them are dead.'

'I'm sure you've seen to that. How many are left?'

'Just one, but he's the central figure, Igor Pavski. He thinks he's indomitable. He almost proved it. He was well on his way to putting himself beyond my reach.'

She remembered something Bradworth had said. 'You went to Bradworth and offered him information that would bring Pavski down. The deaths on the Silent Thunder?'

'Yes. Bradworth arranged for rumors to flood Moscow that caused Pavski's position to become too dangerous. He knew that if the full story was known, he'd be put before a firing squad. So he disappeared from view.'

'And surfaced here.'

'He'll do anything to get the cradle. He'd walk on the edge of hell for a chance at it. He's still well connected, and there are certainly an abundance of unemployed KGB and shore patrol officers who would gladly join him for a tiny sliver of that fortune.'

'And kill Conner and me without a second thought.' Her hands tightened on the cup. 'Pavski did do it.'

'You believe me?'

'Yes,' she said unevenly. 'I believe you. I don't think even you would have been able to concoct such an ugly, depressing story.'

'You would have had to live through it to realize just how ugly it was.'

'How many crewmen were on board the sub?'

'One hundred and four,' Kirov said. 'Ninety-two were under thirty years of age.'

'Terrible,' she whispered. 'I can see how you'd want to make Pavski pay for their deaths.'

'And your Conner means as much or more to you than those men do to me. I'm not downplaying your loss. A hundred men or a single loved individual, the pain can be the same.'

'Yes, it can.' She paused. 'You said Pavski had an obsession about the cradle from childhood? Why?'

'He thinks the cradle was meant to herald his rise to glory. He believes he needs to reclaim it to reach his destiny.'

'He believes the legend? Why?'

'Pavski is half-Russian, half-Czech. His mother belonged to a noble family and married into a family whose castle was located on the Vitava River. She claimed to be a descendent of the princess who threw the cradle into the river. I don't know if she was nuts or just trying to raise her social status among her peers, but she raised Pavski to think he had a special destiny. When he rose to power in the fleet, it confirmed that belief. All he needed was the cradle, and he could rule the world.'

'Christ.'

'And when he was forced to disappear from Moscow after the loss of the cradle, and rumors of his actions began to be circulated, it reinforced that belief. It seemed proof to him that he had to have it to succeed.'

'It's crazy.'

'No one said he was particularly stable.' His lips tightened. 'It takes a special madness to kill over a hundred men.' He poured another cup of coffee. 'Now, unless you have more questions for me, I think we should not discuss this any longer. It's better if I don't dwell on that time. I have a tendency to lose perspective and go a little berserk.'

'One would never guess it. You're one of the coolest men I've ever met.'

He shook his head. 'Training,' he added lightly. 'Inside I'm a veritable seething volcano. Ask Bradworth.'

'I make my own judgments.'

He studied her expression. 'And at the moment that judgment is leaning a little in my direction.' He smiled. 'Then suppose you make another judgment about what topping you want on your pizza. I'm about to call Domino's for dinner.'