Pia felt rather than heard an explosion down deep within the ship. Suddenly the whole ship careened sharply, turning radically to starboard.
Pia staggered, slammed into the captain’s chair, saw the Twins fall over onto their back.
The small Asian woman, Ling, lurched into the remaining marine.
Pia heard a strangled sound, dismissed it, then realized too late what it was. A knife was buried to the hilt in the marine’s throat.
The remaining crew bolted en masse.
Pia turned her pistol on Ling, fired, missed, and suddenly the smaller woman was on her, delivering sharp blows to Pia’s midsection, head and throat.
The blow to her throat stopped her breathing. It was like sucking air through a collapsed straw. She fired again and Ling spun and dropped.
Pia fell to her knees, dropped the gun and tried to squeeze her throat open, digging desperate fingers into her windpipe, but now blood was filling her mouth.
Min, shot but not dead, got up, whipped off her belt, stepped behind Pia, wrapped it around her throat and twisted.
Pia thought how unnecessary it was to strangle her when she was already choking.
That was not her last thought.
Her last thought, her very last thought, was that she hoped someone would take care of her cat back in Stockholm.
(ARTIFACT)
Council on Foreign Relations
Liquefied Natural Gas: A Potential Terrorist Target? an expanding “pool fire.” A 2004 study by the Sandia National Laboratory, a division of the Department of Energy, suggests that such a fire would be hot enough to melt steel at distances of 1,200 feet, and could result in second-degree burns on exposed skin a mile away.
Natural gas is at least 90 percent methane, which is combustible. Though in its liquid state natural gas is not explosive, spilled LNG will quickly evaporate, forming a vapor cloud, which if ignited can be very dangerous. Yet the likelihood of this happening is somewhat remote: in order for a vapor cloud to combust, the gas-to-air mixture must be within the narrow window of 5 percent to 15 percent. Furthermore, the vapor is lighter than air, and in the absence of an ignition source it will simply rise and dissipate. Under windy conditions, which frequently exist on the waters where LNG tankers sail, the likelihood of such a cloud forming is further lessened.
Nevertheless, should one of these vapor clouds catch fire, the results could be catastrophic, says James Fay, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Describing one scenario, he says that a hole in an LNG tanker could result in liquid leaking out of the storage vessel faster than it would burn off, resulting in
The most attractive terrorist targets are the boats: 1,000-foot tankers with double hulls and specially constructed storage tanks that keep the LNG cold. A report, put out by Good Harbor Consulting, assessing the risk of a proposed LNG terminal in Providence, Rhode Island, concluded that a successful terrorist attack on a tanker could result in as many as 8,000 deaths and upward of 20,000 injuries.
It is important to keep in mind that this is the worst-case scenario.
TWENTY-SIX
Admiral Edward Domville found the Swedish spy, Pia Valquist, dead. He had no time to mourn. Over the ship’s loudspeaker he said, “Attention. This is Admiral Domville, Royal Navy. This ship is sinking. Abandon ship. Abandon ship. There is no time to launch lifeboats, abandon ship immediately.”
Finally, he keyed the radio and called out to the Hong Kong Police, who were calling frantically for the ship to stop all engines immediately, “This is the Gemini. The rudder is blown. I’ve ordered the scuttles opened but I fear the ship won’t go down quickly enough. I’m ordering everyone over the port side. You must sink this ship. Repeat, this is Royal Navy Admiral Edward Domville in temporary command of this vessel. You must sink this ship if you are able.”
The Doll Ship was turning in a long, steep arc into Victoria Harbor, the heart of Hong Kong.
Domville had an informed layman’s understanding of the effects of an LNG leak and the likely results. The wind was dampened here, closer to land, which was unfortunate. Wind would be good.
The sim
ple fact was that if the Chinese could not sink the ship, it would hit land, very densely populated land. The LNG might not escape. Then again it might, and if it did it would expand through the streets and alleyways of Hong Kong until it was ignited.
The better alternative would be to ignite the gas at the source of the leak. The result would be a blowtorch, but that was better than an explosion.
Domville sighed. He reached inside his jacket to the buttoned inner pocket. He drew out a six-inch-long, pale yellow tube bearing the red logo of Montecristo cigars. He twisted off the red plastic cap and tapped the cigar into his hand.
“Pia,” he said, looking down at his friend, “if you’re in heaven this is good-bye. If you’re in hell, I’ll be seeing you shortly.”
He cut and lit the cigar, and strolled out onto the deck.