Trojan Odyssey

'You believe he was murdered on orders from Odyssey officials?'

'Executed,' Lowenhardt corrected him. He smiled grimly and pointed up at the ceiling. 'Look for yourself, Mr. Pitt. Would that fixture, which is little more than a wire and lightbulb, support the weight of a man?'

'I see your point,' Pitt acknowledged.

'We do what we're told to do,' said Hilda quietly, 'whatever it takes to prevent harm from coming to our son and two daughters and five grandchildren. The others are in the same boat.'

'Have you and your fellow scientists made any progress in developing fuel cell technology?' asked Pitt.

Hilda and Claus turned and faced each other with quizzical expressions. Then Claus said, 'Hasn't the world learned of our success?'

'Success?'

'Along with our fellow scientists, we have developed an energy-generating source that combines nitrogen- producing ammonia and oxygen out of the atmosphere to create substantial amounts of electricity at a very low cost per unit, with pure water as its only waste product.'

'I thought practical and efficient fuel cells were decades away,' said Giordino.

'Fuel cells using hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, yes. Oxygen can come from the air. However, hydrogen is not readily available and must be stored as a fuel. But because of our fortunate and almost miraculous breakthrough, we have paved the way to nonpolluting energy that is available to millions of people as we speak.'

'You talk as if it is already in production,' said Giordino.

'It was perfected and tested with great success over a year ago.' Lowenhardt gave him the look of a man staring at a village idiot. 'Production began immediately after it was perfected. Surely you're familiar with it.'

They could read the expression of bafflement and incomprehension on Pitt's and Giordino's faces as genuine. 'That's news to us,' said Pitt skeptically. 'I'm not aware of a new miracle energy product sitting on store shelves or powering automobiles.'

'Nor I,' Giordino chimed in.

'We don't understand. We were told that millions of units had already been produced by a manufacturing facility in China.'

'Sorry to disappoint you, but your great achievement is still a secret,' Pitt said sympathetically. 'I can only guess that the Chinese are stockpiling your creation for some inexplicable purpose.'

'But what do they have to do with the tunnels?' Giordino muttered, confused at trying to put two and two together.

Pitt sat down in a chair and stared thoughtfully at the design in a throw rug. Finally, he looked up. 'The admiral said that Yaeger's computer concluded that the purpose behind the tunnels was to lower the temperature of the Gulf Stream and throw the eastern United States and Europe into eight months of frigid weather.' Then he turned to the Lowenhardts. 'Your cutting-edge power technology, is it designed for automobiles?'

'Not at the moment. But eventually, with more study and refinement, it will generate enough clean energy to power all vehicles, including aircraft and trains. We've gone beyond the design stage. Currently, we're working out the final phase of engineering before running tests.'

'What does the gadget in production accomplish?' asked Pitt.

Claus winced at the word gadget. 'The Macha is a self-sustaining generator that can provide cost-efficient electrical energy to every home, office, workplace and school in the world. It makes air pollution a nightmare of the past. Now a family home, no matter how large or small, located in the city or in the farthest reaches of the country, can have its own independent source of energy—'

'You call it the Macha?'

'Specter came up with the name himself when he saw the first operational unit. Macha, so he informed us, was the Celtic goddess of cunning, also known as the queen of phantoms.'

'The Celts again,' muttered Giordino.

'The plot thickens,' Pitt said philosophically.

'Guard approaching,' warned Giordino at his station by the door. 'Sounds like two of them.' He leaned his weight against it.

The room became so hushed that the guards' voices became quite audible as they approached down the hallway, checking the doors of the hostage scientists. Their footsteps stopped outside.

The Lowenhardts' eyes took on the look of frightened rabbits hearing the howl of coyotes, until they saw Pitt's and Giordino's automatics appear as if by magic, and they realized these were men who had command of the situation.

'Este puerta aparece danada.'

'He said the door looks damaged,' Pitt whispered.

One of the guards jiggled the latch and pushed against the door, but it did not move with Giordino's weight against it.

'Se parece seguro,' came another voice.

'It seems secure,' Pitt translated.

'Lo tendremos reparados por la manana.'

'They said they'll have it repaired in the morning.'

Then the footsteps and voices faded, as they continued on their rounds down the hallway.

Pitt turned and gave the Lowenhardts a long hard look. 'We're going to have to leave the island and you must come with us.'

'You think that's wise?' Giordino put to him.

'Expedient,' said Pitt. 'These people are the key to the mystery. Because of what they know, we don't have to take the chance of getting caught while we nose around the facility, nor would we learn a third of what the good doctors know.'

'No, no!' Hilda gasped. 'We don't dare leave. Once security learns we were missing, the fiends at Odyssey will retaliate and murder our children.'

Pitt took her hand and gently squeezed it. 'Your family will be protected. I promise you, no harm will be allowed to come to them.'

'I'm still not sure,' Giordino said, considering the circumstances and possible consequences. 'Once we abandoned the jet ski our only plan for escaping the island was to attempt to steal a boat or an airplane, since their security forces would stop any helicopter pickup. That plan won't come easy with a pair of senior citizens in tow.'

Pitt turned back to the Lowenhardts. 'What you haven't considered is that when your usefulness is over, you and the other hostage scientists will have to be eliminated. Specter cannot risk any of you revealing to the world what went on here.'

Total understanding flooded Claus Lowenhardt's face, but he still could not bring himself to fully accept Pitt's words. 'Not all of us. It's diabolical. They wouldn't dare kill us all. The outside world would discover the truth.'

'Not if a plane carrying you back to your homes mysteriously crashed in the sea. Except for an investigation into the crash, no one would be the wiser about what really happened.'

Claus looked at his wife and placed an arm around her shoulders. 'I'm afraid Mr. Pitt is right. Specter could not allow any of us to live.'

'Once you reveal everything to the news media, Specter would not dare kill the other members of your scientific team. Every law enforcement agency of your respective countries would band together and go after Specter and his Odyssey empire with every international legal means at their disposal. Believe me, leaving now and coming with us is the only way.'

'Can you guarantee that you'll get us off the island safely?' asked Hilda hesitantly.

Pitt looked singularly concerned. 'I can't promise what I can't predict with certainty. But you will surely die if you remain here.'

Claus squeezed his wife's shoulder. 'Well, Mother, this looks like our chance to see our loved ones again.'

She lifted her head and kissed him on the cheek. 'Then we go together.'

'They're coming back,' announced Giordino, with his ear to the door.