Polar Shift (NUMA Files 6)

Paul and Gamay perused one of the booklets. The dense text was written in Hungarian, and was heavy on long, incomprehensible mathematical equations. Trout gave his wife a "That's it" grin and leaned forward, preparing to launch his tall body from the chair and out the door. Sensing his impatience, Gamay touched his arm.

"The books I see on the shelves are highly technical, and you said you were a physicist with the lab, so we'd value your opinion. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you must know that there has been a great deal of controversy over Kovacs and his theories. Was Kovacs nothing but a brilliant quack? Or did he have something?"

"He definitely had something."

"But he never proved it by experiment, and refused to release details of his findings to the public."

"That's because he knew the information was too dangerous."

Gamay smiled. "Forgive me, but that sounds like an excuse to hide his failure."

"Not at all. It was a respect for mankind."

Trout sensed that Gamay had a plan, and went along with it.

"If he cared about mankind, why did he work for the Nazis?" Trout said.

"He had to work for the Nazis. They threatened to kill his family."

"I understand that's exactly what happened," Gamay said. "It's all such a shame, don't you think? The man's wife and children died for this." She slapped her knee with the brochure. "An empty theory about deadly extra-low-frequency electromagnetic waves."

Frobisher's pale cheeks turned the color of boiled lobster. After a moment, the frown on his face dissolved into his big-toothed smile.

"That was a skillful job of baiting me." He looked from face to face. "Now, please tell me who you really are."

Gamay glanced at Paul, who nodded his head.

"We're with NUMA's Special Assignments Team," she said. "Would you like to see some ID?"

"I believe you. What are a couple of people from the world's largest ocean studies organization doing in Los Alamos, far from the Atlantic and the Pacific?"

"We think that the key that will unlock the mystery of some unusual ocean disturbances can be found here in New Mexico."

He furrowed his brow. "What sort of disturbances?"

"Whirlpools and giant waves big enough to sink ships."

"Please excuse me, but I still don't know what you're talking about."

"One of the NUMA scientists we talked to suggested that the disturbances could have been caused by disruptions in the earth's electromagnetic flow. He brought up the Kovacs Theorems."

"Go on," Frobisher said.

Taking turns, they told him about the ocean disturbances, and the speculation that they were man-made.

"Dear God," Frobisher said, his voice hoarse. "It's happening."

"What's happening?" Trout said.

"NUMA or not, you've blundered into something much larger than anything you could imagine."

"We do that a lot," Trout said. "It's part of the NUMA job description."

Frobisher stared at Trout and Gamay. Their calm expressions brought him back to earth, and he got a grip on himself. He went into the kitchen and returned with three cold bottles of beer, which he offered around.

"We've told you who we are," Gamay said with her beguiling smile. "Now perhaps you'd tell us who you are."

"Fair enough." He gulped down half his beer. "Let me start with a little history. Most everyone knows about the letter Einstein wrote President Roosevelt."