Devil's Gate

“Exactly,” Pitt said. “Basically, these superconducting magnets are essential to any high-intensity energy projects. Normal magnets create too much heat at high energy levels, but superconductors pass the energy through without creating any resistance at all.”

Joe spoke up. “Sounds like someone has adapted that technology for a military purpose.”

“Yaeger agrees with you,” Pitt said. “And Gamay’s tests on the samples from the Kinjara Maru are all but unequivocal.”

“Any idea who’s behind it?” Kurt asked.

“Not yet,” Pitt said. “Could be a terrorist group, or some rogue nation or faction. Last year we fought with the Chinese Triad over a bioweapon, so I guess anything’s possible.”

“What about a money trail?” Kurt said. “If this stuff is so expensive, there has to be some record of its purchase.”

“We’re looking into it,” Pitt said. “So far, we’ve been able to identify massive purchases of various superconducting materials spread around through several dozen companies that now appear to be dummies. It’s as if someone was trying to corner the market on the more powerful superconducting materials.”

Kurt looked at Joe and then the captain. Pitt continued to speak.

“The problem is, all the odd purchases lead to front companies, which in turn are operating as subsidiaries of other shell corporations. The funds come from unidentified sources, and the front closes up shop immediately after completing the deal. It makes for a hard path to follow. On the surface, it all seems legit. People get paid as they’re supposed to, no red flags go up. No one’s the wiser, at least until now.”

Kurt said, “If they’re cornering the market, why did they need to steal anything?”

“Titanium-doped YBCO is the most powerful superconductor made,” Pitt said. “It can operate effectively in field strengths of up to nine hundred teslas.”

“Aside from an excellent nineties rock group,” Joe asked, “what exactly is a tesla?”

“It’s a unit of power designed to measure magnetic field strengths,” Pitt said. “I can’t exactly tell you what nine hundred teslas means in numbers, but by comparison the superconductors used in levitating trains in Japan become overloaded at four teslas. So if four teslas can lift a train, nine hundred teslas can lift two hundred twenty-five of them.”

Captain Haynes exhaled slowly. “Arms race,” he said. “If you’re building a weapon, you might as well have the most powerful version you can find.”

Something still didn’t make sense to Kurt. “If all this was so clandestine, how’d the pirates know this YBCO was on the ship?”

“Despite all the secrecy,” Pitt said, “there were still three parties who knew about it.”

“The buyer, the seller, and the shipper,” Kurt said.

“And of the three of them,” Pitt said, “who had any reason to sink that ship and make the material disappear?”

“The seller,” Kurt said, realizing what Pitt was getting at. “So they get a good price, make all the arrangements to turn this superconducting material over to the Chinese, and then they raid the ship and take it back.”

“Pretty damn devious,” Haynes said. “Are we sure we’re not barking up the wrong tree?”

“I have the manifest of the Kinjara Maru,” Pitt said. “Along with the captain’s log and the loadmaster’s notes, which are transmitted to Shokara’s headquarters electronically when their ships leave port. I’d read them to you, but I’m driving, so here’s the gist of it. I think you’ll understand when I’m done.”

Pitt continued. “The ship docked in Freetown, Sierra Leone, three days before it went down. It picked up a standard bulk cargo of various ores bound for China and then received orders to hold in port for two days, awaiting one more delivery.”

“The YBCO,” Kurt guessed.

“Right,” Pitt said. “But when the shipment finally arrived, there were several things odd enough about it for the captain to note them in the log. First, the load was put aboard the ship by a group of men who were not regular dockworkers. A mixed group of white and black men did most of the loading. The captain remarked that they ‘resembled a military or paramilitary unit.’”

“I’ve heard rumors of mercenaries taking over mines out there and ru

“Only, YBCO isn’t mined,” Pitt said. “Beyond that, the leader of this group insisted that the YBCO absolutely had to be stored separately from the other ores in a specific temperature-controlled hold. A request that seemed odd enough to the loadmaster to risk an argument with these military men. An argument he lost.”

“Why would they do that?” Joe asked. “Does temperature affect it?”

“No,” Pitt said. “But the Kinjara Maru has only one small temperature-controlled hold.”

“Making the material easy to find and off-load,” Kurt said.

“That’s what it sounds like,” Pitt said.

“So the seller is also the pirate,” Captain Haynes summarized.

“And the pirate has the energy weapon,” Kurt added. “Which means the people who sold this YBCO — the same people who boarded the ship — are also the ones building the weapon out of it. So they must be the ones cornering the market.”

“Makes you wonder what they’re up to,” the captain said.

“Exactly,” Pitt said. “Whoever these people are, they need so much material for whatever they’re doing that they’re willing to anger the Chinese and risk exposure to get their hands on every ounce they can. Including some they’ve already sold.”

“Maybe that explains why they’re here on Santa Maria,” Kurt said. “I’ve tangled with one of them already, same guy we argued with as the KM went down. Now, I don’t know who took the core sample and murdered the French team, but one will get you ten it’s all linked together.”

“But we saw their boat explode,” Captain Haynes said. “We even found a few bodies.”

“A few sacrificial pawns,” Kurt said. “The others probably went over the side before the explosion. Left the suckers behind.”

“But we never spotted any other vessels in range to pick them up, or even a helicopter,” the captain said. “And they certainly didn’t swim to Africa.”

“No,” Kurt said. “But Paul and Gamay were attacked underneath the water. That means these people undoubtedly have a submarine of some kind.”

“So there was a mother ship,” the captain said. “Terrorists with a submarine. What’s the world coming to?”

“Much like space,” Pitt said, “the depths below are no longer just the domain of the world’s nations. We know of half a dozen Chinese subs that were supposed to go to the scrapyard and vanished instead. There are also other models out there for sale, and private builds as well.”

“Not to mention the Russian Typhoon-class subs that were turned into cargo haulers,” Kurt said. “We dealt with one of them last year.”

“And at least one of those is still unaccounted for,” Pitt added.

“Wonderful,” the captain said facetiously.

“So these thugs have a submarine,” Kurt noted. “Maybe a Typhoon-class boat converted into a cargo carrier. They have some type of lethal electromagnetic weapon that fries you before you even know something’s happening and they’re willing to risk exposure and the wrath of the Chinese to get more material. And right now the tower of rock we believe to be a naturally occurring superconductor is sitting out there, unattended and all by its lonesome.”

“The table is set,” Pitt said. “You think they’re going to show up for di

“Like St. Julien Perlmutter at an all-you-can-eat buffet,” Kurt said.

Haynes nodded. “Makes sense. They’ve effectively chased us from the scene by showing their ability to attack.”

“And they know that,” Kurt said, guessing they’d seen the Argo come into port just as he had.

“A Portuguese frigate with ASW capabilities will be on scene tomorrow afternoon,” Pitt said.

“I’m guessing they know or expect that too,” Kurt said. “That gives them twelve hours to act.”