Silent Thunder

was a sailor.'

He smiled. 'Your famous memory at work. Yes, my father loved the sea.'

'And his father before him?'

'A wagon maker. My father and I insisted that our love of adventure came from my grandmother.'

'Your father's first command was a supply vessel in the Aegean Sea, the Danitelvia.'

'Actually, that was his second. His first was another supply ship, the Lettenski, but his command only lasted about seventy-two hours. The ship developed engine problems and eventually had to be scuttled.' He cocked an eyebrow at her. 'I'm surprised you didn't know that, since I'm sure a copy of his service record was attached to mine. I suppose there's a limit to that memory of yours, eh?'

The bastard knew he was being tested, but she wasn't ready to make an issue of it yet. In any case, he'd passed with flying colors. If he was lying about being Ivanov, he'd certainly done his homework.

She shrugged. 'What are we waiting for now?'

'I'm waiting to hear back on a few inquiries I've made about McClary, and my computer is downloading the contents of that GPS device as we speak. By the way, how did your call with Cathy go?'

'Fine.'

'Was it?'

'Yes.'

His gaze held her own, and it was obvious he didn't believe her. Either he was extremely perceptive, or she was a bad liar. Both, she decided.

He didn't push it. 'Good,' he said gently. 'I know you're worried about her. Let's head back to my room. The GPS download should be finished anytime now.'

TWELVE

Hannah's gaze narrowed on Kirov's laptop screen, which was now divided into two distinct sections. One window featured a graphic representation of a GPS device, the other was littered with blue and white icons.

Kirov pointed to the icons. 'These are the various destination coordinates still lurking in the GPS unit's memory.'

'How were you able to do this on such short notice?'

'The Internet is a wonderful thing. I downloaded a recovery utility that people use when they accidentally delete addresses they need.'

He double-clicked an icon, and a map appeared on the on-screen GPS device. 'This is the Docklands area of London.'

'Whoever owned this has been to that address?'

'Most likely.' Kirov pulled up on online telephone directory and keyed in the address. 'Club Oasis' came up on the screen.

Hannah nodded in recognition. 'That's a dance club.'

'Frequent the place, do you?'

'Some of the guys in my crew have been there. It wasn't easy getting them back to work after a night in that place.'

'Fairly innocuous,' Kirov said. 'And we already know this man has a fondness for European pop music.'

Kirov turned his attention back to the destination icons. One by one, he clicked them and checked the locations against his online telephone directory.

After he was finished, Hannah checked the notes she had taken. 'Fourteen locations, all in either England, Scotland, or Ireland. All public addresses-restaurants, pubs, dance clubs, a racquet club. On their own, they don't mean very much.'

'I agree. Perhaps we should just give it a rest until I hear something back about McClary.'

'Fine.' Hannah picked up the digital music player and earphones.

'What do you want with that?'

'Maybe it'll help me get to know the person who owns it better.' She headed for the adjoining door. 'Besides, I might like it. Just because you don't like anything recorded since 1970 doesn't mean I don't.'

Static. Shrill, earsplitting static.

Hannah sat bolt upright in her bed and yanked out the earphones. At first she thought it was nothing more than the opening refrain of a bit of obnoxious techno pop, but there was no way this could be considered music. She had been listening to the player for over an hour, and while the songs certainly weren't to her taste, she didn't detest them the way Kirov did.

This number was entirely another matter.

She checked out the tiny LCD screen and saw that the song was entitled 'Waterbridge.' She held the earphones up and still heard only static. She jumped to the next tune and heard guitars, synth drums, and heavily processed vocals, just like almost every other song on the player.

Back to 'Waterbridge.' More static.

Then, nothing.

She looked at the LCD screen again. It now read: INVALID FILE.

Invalid file.

She went rigid. Christ almighty.

She picked up the phone and punched Kirov's extension. 'Get your laptop and bring it down to my room. Now.'

'I'll be there in three minutes.'

Two minutes later Hannah opened her door to Kirov's knock. He was carrying his laptop and cables. 'What is it?'

'You can set up the laptop on my desk.'

He crossed the room to the desk. 'The iPod?'

Hannah nodded. 'We were on the right track, but concentrating on the wrong device. Upload the song 'Waterbridge' into your laptop and tell me what you get.'

Kirov uploaded the file and double-clicked it. An 'invalid or unknown file' error message came up on the screen. 'That's strange,' he murmured. 'It has an MP3 extension, which would indicate it's an audio file.'

'But it's not,' Hannah said. 'It was given an MP3 extension so that it could be downloaded to the music player and appear in the directory. We need to rename it.'

'Rename it to what?' Kirov said.

'I don't know. I'll just start trying extensions and see what works.'

Hannah sat next to Kirov and tried several of the more common file extensions, assignable to popular word- processing and graphic file formats. None opened the file.

Until she tried the.wmv extension.

'It's opening,' Kirov said as the Windows Media Player appeared on the screen.

The video was a crudely animated map that showed a set of coordinates that Hannah quickly identified as a point off the New England coast.

The 'camera' then plunged underwater to show four red cylinders at a depth reading of 1625 feet.

'What the hell is that?' she asked. 'Is that what Pavski has been looking for?'

'I don't think so,' Kirov said. 'If he really knew the location, he wouldn't be bothering with the Silent Thunder, you, your brother, and with reinforcements from the motherland. This has to be something else.'

'Like what?'

'I don't know.' He stared at the crudely rendered red cylinders. 'Those could represent training torpedoes we used during military exercises.'

'Why would they be on the bottom of the ocean?'

'Actually, they were made to float. But it's possible that there's something placed inside to weigh them