Poseidon's Arrow

As part of the mining conglomerate, he found himself ironically owning a small enterprise in America: a trucking firm, several commercial freighters, and a small security business. What began as a minor a

Every night the vision of his wife with the American officer haunted his dreams, replaying his childhood abandonment, and every morning he woke enraged. The perpetrators, though both long dead, remained targets of wrath, and, by association, their country of origin. The anger never left him. But rather than venting it through random violence, he turned down a new path of vengeance. Using the skills and knowledge from a lifetime of mining, he initiated his own economic war of retribution.

Bolcke’s joyless dark eyes, set in a lean, hardened face, probed his visitor while his hands flattened on the desk.

Pablo spoke uneasily. “I am not eager to return to America right away. My understanding was that I would remain in Panama City for several weeks before the next phase.”

“We had an outdated delivery schedule, and now the time line has been moved up. The shipment is being made in four days. You’ll need to return at once.”

Pablo didn’t balk. The ex–Colombian Special Forces commando never refused an order. He’d worked for the old Austrian for more than a dozen years, since first being hired to help quell a labor unrest at the mine. His unwavering loyalty had been well rewarded over the years, particularly as his boss drifted further over the line.

“I will need to assemble a new support team,” Pablo said.

“There is no time. You will be assisted by two American contractors.”

“Outside help ca

“We will have to take that chance,” Bolcke snapped. “You lost your entire team. I can give you some of Johansson’s men, but they are untrained in your line of work. My Washington representative assures me these contractors are reliable. And besides,” he said, looking Pablo in the eye, “they accomplished what your team could not. They recovered the supercavitation data.”

Bolcke slid Pablo a smaller envelope.

“The phone number of our man in Washington. Contact him when you get in and he will arrange a meeting with the contractors. All other arrangements are in place, so you simply need to make the acquisition and delivery.”

“It will be done.”

“The company jet will be standing by tomorrow to take you into the country. Any questions?”

“This female investigator and the people from NUMA—are they a problem?”

“The woman is of no concern.” Bolcke sat back in his chair and further contemplated the question. “I don’t know about the NUMA perso

His eyes grew darker as he leaned forward. “I have been working toward this moment for many years. Everything is in place. Do not fail me, Pablo.”

Pablo puffed out his chest. “Do not worry, Jefe. It will be like taking sweets from a baby.”

31

ANN HIT THE OFFICE RUNNING AT SEVEN IN THE morning, inspired to investigate Pitt’s potential link with the ship hijacking. Her first stop was Joe Eberson’s replacement as the DARPA director of Sea Platforms Technology, Dr. Roald Oswald. She had met the scientist a few days earlier and wasn’t surprised to find him already at his desk, working on a status report.

She poked her head through the doorway. “May I intrude on your morning silence?”

“Of course, Miss Be

“Please, call me A

“That’s our dilemma. The collective loss of Eberson and Heiland has put us back months—if not years. The vessel’s capabilities are cut to the bone without the device. There will still be merit in testing the propulsion system, I suppose, if we can ever complete the final assembly.”

“What’s holding you up?”

“Critical material delays, I’m told.”

“Would any of those materials include rare earth elements?”

Oswald took a draw from his coffee and probed A

“I’m exploring a possible link between Dr. Heiland’s death and a hijacked shipment of monazite ore containing high concentrations of neodymium and lanthanum. How important are those elements to the Sea Arrow?”

“Very. Our propulsion system relies upon a pair of highly advanced electric motors, which in turn power two external jet pumps, as well as the rest of the vessel’s operating systems. Both components contain rare earth elements, but especially the motors.” Oswald took another sip of coffee. “They utilize permanent high-intensity magnets to achieve a multigenerational leap in efficiency and output. These magnets are produced under exacting standards at the Ames National Laboratory, and they contain a mixture of several rare earths, most certainly including neodymium.” He hesitated a moment. “We believe that Heiland’s supercavitation system relies on some rare earth components as well. I suspect you may be onto something.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The Sea Arrow’s motors have yet to be installed. The first motor was just completed at the Naval Research Lab at Chesapeake Bay and is ready for shipment to Groton. The second has been delayed due to a disruption in the materials’ supply chain. I haven’t caught up with all the information, but I understand that a shortage of rare earth elements is holding us up.”

“Could you find out exactly which materials are involved?”

“I’ll make some calls and let you know.” He sat back in his chair with a look of introspection. “Joe Eberson was a friend of mine. We used to go fishing in Canada every summer. He was a good man. Make sure you find his killers.”

A

She had been back at her desk for only a few minutes when Oswald called with an alphabet soup list of elements whose short supplies were delaying the Sea Arrow: gadolinium, praseodymium, samarium, and dysprosium. At the top of the list was neodymium, the very element in Pitt’s monazite sample from Chile.

A quick online search revealed the market prices for those elements had recently skyrocketed. Commodity analysts cited two factors for the increase. One was a fire that had devastated the facilities at Mountain Pass, California, the site of the only active rare earth mine in the U.S. The second was something A

As she digested all this, A

Fowler appeared at the door and stepped into her office with a donut and coffee. “You’re rustling the leaves early. Where is the hunt taking you today?”

“Would you believe the South Pacific?” She told him of Pitt’s suspicions about the ore carrier in Chile and his plans to protect the ship inbound from Australia.

“It’s carrying rare earth elements?”

“Yes. I think he said she was called the Adelaide, sailing from Perth.”