Poseidon's Arrow

“What exactly is it?” Ann asked.

“One of our NUMA geologists identified it as a mineral called monazite. I found it aboard an abandoned freighter that was barreling toward Valparaiso.”

“I heard about that,” Ann said. “You diverted the freighter from crashing into a crowded cruise ship.”

“More or less,” Pitt said. “The mystery is, what happened to the ship’s crew? And why did the ship end up thousands of miles off course?”

“Was it hijacked?”

“It was a bulk carrier, supposedly loaded with bauxite from a mine in Australia. By all appearances, the cargo was of limited value. We discovered that of the ship’s five holds, three contained bauxite, but the two aft were empty.” Pitt picked up the rock. “I found this chunk of monazite by one of the empty holds.”

“You think the monazite was stolen from the ship?” Ann asked.

“I do.”

“Why would someone steal that and not the bauxite?” Loren asked.

“I had the rock assayed, and the results were quite interesting. This particular monazite contains a high concentration of neodymium and lanthanum.”

Loren smiled. “Sounds like a disease.”

“They are actually two of the seventeen elements known as rare earth metals, several of which are in very high demand by industry.”

“Of course,” Loren said. “We held a congressional hearing on the limited supply of rare earth elements. They’re used in a large number of high-tech products, including hybrid cars and wind turbines.”

“And a few key defense technologies,” Pitt said.

“As I recall,” Loren said, “China is the dominant producer of rare earth elements. In fact, there’s only a handful of other active mines around the world.”

“Russia, India, Australia, and our own mine in California round out the bulk of global production,” Pitt said.

Ann shook her head. “I don’t see what this rock has to do with the Heiland case.”

“It may have absolutely nothing to do with it,” Pitt said, “but there are two interesting coincidences. The first is that clump of monazite in your hands. The neodymium it contains happens to be a key material in the Sea Arrow’s propulsion motors.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Ann asked.

“My information systems manager at NUMA found that several rare earth elements were critical components in the propulsion system of the new Zumwalt class of Navy destroyer. Some additional digging and guesswork led us to conclude they would be even more important to the Sea Arrow’s electric motors.”

“I’d have to verify that, but I don’t doubt that’s true,” Ann said. “Still, I don’t see a significant connection.”

“Maybe not,” Pitt said, “yet there is a second curious link—the DARPA scientist killed on the Cuttlefish, Joe Eberson. I’ll wager that he didn’t die by drowning but was killed by an acute dose of electromagnetic radiation.”

Ann dropped the rock, and her jaw followed suit. “How could you have known that? I just received a copy of his autopsy report this morning. It confirms exactly that.”

“It was on account of Eberson’s condition. His extremities were bloated, and his skin was blistered and blackened. The bloating isn’t unusual in a drowning victim, but the blackened skin was odd. We found a dead sailor aboard the freighter in Chile who exhibited even more extreme characteristics. Chilean authorities say he died from thermal damage believed to be caused by microwave irradiation.”

“The same cause,” Ann said. “Eberson’s pathologist failed to identify a possible source of the irradiation. How could they have died in that manner?”

“Aside from falling asleep on a microwave antenna dish, it’s hard to say. I asked a number of my scientists and we came up with a weak yet possible theory.”

“I’d like to hear it.”

“There’s been a number of crowd-control devices fielded in the past few years that use microwave beams to lightly burn the skin of people in its path. Our Army has deployed one they call the Active Denial System, or ADS, often referred to as the ‘pain ray.’ The systems are not meant to be lethal, but we’ve learned that simple modifications could make them deadly.”

“Could they be used at sea?” Loren asked.

“They are currently truck-mounted, so they could easily be placed on the deck of a ship. The ADS system has a range of up to seven hundred meters. People inside a ship would be immune, but anyone on deck or accessible through a window, such as on the bridge, would be susceptible. A powerful enough design might even damage the communications systems. It’s also possible they might simply use it against a larger vessel as cover for an armed boarding party.”

“You think something like that was used on both vessels?” Ann asked.

“They could have used it to stun the crew of the Tasmanian Star to steal its monazite,” Pitt said, “and against the Cuttlefish to kill Heiland, Manny, and Eberson in order to steal the Sea Arrow test model.”

“They would have obtained the model directly from the Cuttlefish if Heiland hadn’t blown up the boat,” Ann said. “Any clue to the attacking vessel?”

“We’re searching, but haven’t found anything yet.”

“Then we don’t seem to be any closer to identifying who these people are.”

Pitt gave her a sly look. “On the contrary, I intend to find out within the week.”

“But you have no idea where to find them,” Loren said.

“Actually,” Pitt said, “I intend to let them find me. Just like baiting a trap with cheese to lure the mouse, only our cheese is a rock called monazite.”

He pulled a world map out of his coat pocket and spread it on the table.

“Hiram Yaeger and I were intrigued by the Tasmanian Star’s hijacking, so we conducted a search of known shipwrecks and vessel disappearances over the last three years. Insurance records show that more than a dozen commercial vessels sank either with all hands or without a trace. Of those, no less than ten were carrying either rare earth elements or related ore.”

He pointed to the map. “Seven of the ships were lost in the vicinity of South Africa, while the remaining vessels disappeared in the eastern Pacific.”

Ann could see small shipwreck symbols had been marked on the map, a few near a small atoll marked Clipperton Island. “Why haven’t the insurance companies investigated this?”

“Many of the ships were aged freighters, independently owned and probably underinsured through multiple carriers. I can only guess, but it’s likely no single insurer has taken a large enough hit to detect the pattern.”

“Why would someone go to the trouble of sinking or hijacking these ships,” Loren said, “if they can buy the minerals on the open market?”

Pitt shrugged. “The global supply is very tight. Perhaps someone is trying to control the reserves and manipulate the market.”

“So what is your plan to identify these people?” Ann asked.

Pitt pointed to the clump of monazite. “That bit of ore came from a mine in western Australia called Mount Weld. The mine is being closed temporarily so they can expand production. We discovered that their last scheduled export shipment was loaded on an ore carrier last week bound for Long Beach.”

“You think she’s going to be hijacked?” Loren asked.

“She’s sailing on the same route where two other ships disappeared and the Tasmanian Star was attacked. It’s the last scheduled shipment of rare earth from Australia for at least six months. I’m willing to roll the dice and say she’s a pretty good target.”

“So that’s the cruise you invited me on?” Ann said with a twinkle in her eye.

Pitt nodded. “The freighter is owned by a shipping line whose CEO happens to be friends with Vice President Sandecker. He’s made arrangements for us and a Coast Guard SWAT team to rendezvous with the ship south of Hawaii.”