Blue Gold

Hanley's frown deepened. Then he smiled again, rose from his desk, and showed them to the door.

Back in the elevator, Austin said, "We'll call Hiram Yaeger. Hanley's bound to censor the stuff he gives us, so we might want to conduct our own investigation into this Mulholland Group." Hiram Yaeger was NUMA's computer whiz. The tenth-floor computer complex he called Max was plugged into a vast data base of oceanic knowledge from every source in the world. Max routinely hacked into outside databases.

They stepped out of the building lobby into the Southern California sun. As Zavala walked to the curb to hail a cab there was a loud whup-whup sound from directly overhead. A green helicopter hovered over the street, about a hundred feet from the glass face of the building. Like the other pedestrians they stared at the aircraft with curiosity. Then recognition flashed in Austin's mind.

He grabbed Zavala's arm. "We've got to go back."

Zavala glanced at the helicopter and bolted for the revolving door behind Austin.

They dashed into an open elevator and punched the button for the lawyer's floor. Halfway up there was a dull thud, and the elevator's sides rattled in the shaft. Austin hit the stop button for the floor below Hanley's office. They ran past startled office workers and raced up the stairway to the next level.

Acrid black smoke filled the stairwell. Austin felt the door to the law-office floor. Unable to detect heat that would indicate a fierce blaze on the other side, he opened the door a crack. More smoke poured out. They opened the door wide enough to pass through, got down on their hands and knees, and crawled through the choking fumes into the receptionist's area. The sprinkler system had been set off, and they were drenched under a cooling spray. The receptionist lay on the rug next to her desk.

"What about Hanley?" Joe shouted. Smoke was billowing from the office door.

"Don't bother. He's gone."

They dragged the receptionist to the stairwell and got her

limp body down to the floor below. She came around after a few minutes of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Soon firemen pounded onto the floor, and they turned her over to an EMT. They walked down rather than take an elevator where they would be stuck if the power went off. More firemen poured into the lobby. The police had arrived and were evacuating the building. They joined the crowd milling around outside, but seeing there was nothing they could do, they walked a couple of blocks and hailed a cab.

The driver, a Senegalese from the looks of his ID card, glanced at their soot-covered faces. "You in there? Man, I just heard over the radio. Some kind of explosion."

Zavala looked out the back window at the confusion outside the building where police were stopping traffic and setting up a fire line.

Zavala wiped the soot from his cheek. "How did you know that was going to happen?"

"I didn't. But I noticed the helicopter going back and forth across the harbor when we were talking to Hanley."

"I saw it, too, but didn't pay much attention. I figured it was a traffic chopper."

"I had the same reaction at first. Then we saw it up close, and something clicked. The same chopper or one very much like it did a fly-by after the explosion at the tortilla plant."

"I remember. Dark green. It buzzed the cove, then flew off." Zavala pondered the implication. "Whoever owned that chopper wanted Hanley dead in a bad way."

"Hanley ran with a pretty rough crowd."

"You think it was Enrico?"

"It's possible. He knew we would talk to Hanley. I was surprised he didn't call Hanley to warn him we were coming."

"I've been thinking about Mr. Jones, the guy who brokered the deal," Zavala said thoughtfully. "Maybe his mouth was shut for him as well."

"It would fit in with the Enrico theory until something better comes along," Austin said.

Something better did come along back at the hotel. While Austin went in to clean up and change, Zavala flipped to the TV news. The camera showed shots of smoke belching from the office and fire trucks outside. The fire department spokesman said a number of people were treated for smoke inhalation, but there was apparently only one death. The name would be released pending notice of next of kin. Cause of the explosion was un known. The report ended, and Zavala was about to turn the TV off when a familiar face appeared on the screen.

"Kurt, you've got to see this," he called.

Austin emerged in time to hear the blow-dried a

"This just in. Alleged Mexican mafia drug figure Enrico Pe dralez was killed today when his car exploded in Tijuana. Two men who may have been bodyguards also died in the explosion."

The a

"Looks like our green chopper people don't like loose ends," Austin observed.

The phone rang, and Zavala picked it up. He listened for a moment, muttered "You're welcome," and replaced the phone in its cradle. "That was FBI Agent Miguel Gomez," he said.

"What did he want?"

Zavala's mouth puckered in a wry smile. "He just wanted to say thanks for making his job a little easier."

Chapter 16

Brunhild Sigurd ran her far-flung empire from a turret office high above the sprawling Viking edifice she called Valhalla. The windowless room was built in an exact circle, the geometric form closest to perfection. The walls were stark white and unadorned by paintings or wall hangings. She sat in front of a flat-screen monitor and a telephone console of white plastic. It was all she needed to be in instant touch with her operations around the world. The temperature was kept at a cool thirty-eight degrees summer and winter. The few who had been allowed into this aerie compared it to being in a walk-in refrigerator, but it suited her fine.

As a girl growing up on an isolated farm in Mi

She was talking on the speaker phone: "Thank you for your

support of the Colorado River legislation, Senator Barnes. Your state stands to gain quite handsomely for your key vote, especially when your brother's firm starts picking up contracts for the work we have pla

"Yes, ma'am, I have, thank you. I've had to avoid the conflict-of-interest thing, of course, but my brother and I are quite close, if you know what I mean."

"I do, Senator. Have you talked to the president?"

"Just got off the phone with his chief of staff. The White House will veto any bill that seeks to overturn the privatization legislation we passed. The president is a firm believer that the private sector can always do a better job than government, whether it's ru

"What sort of backing does the Kinkaid bill have?"

"Only a scattering of votes, nothing serious. Damned shame about Kinkaid having that accident. I always liked the man. But without him around to whip up the troops, an override is bound to fail."