Deep Six (Dirk Pitt 7)

Yaeger scratched his head with both hands and yawned. "You have any Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger Tea?"

"Only yesterday's warmed-over coffee."

Yaeger clicked his lips sourly. "The caffeine will kill you."

"Caffeine, pollution, booze, women-what's the difference?"

"By the way, I got it."

"Got what?"

"I nailed it, your cagey shipping company."

"Jesus!" Pitt said, coming alive. "Where?"

"Right in our own backyard," Yaeger said with a great grin.

"New York."

"How did you do it?"

"Your bunch about Korean involvement was the key, but not the answer. I attacked it from that angle, probing all the shipping and export lines that were based in Korea or sailed under their registry.

There were over fifty of them, but none led to the trail of banks we checked earlier. With nowhere else to go, I let the computer fly on its own. My ego is shattered. It proved a better sleuth than I am.

The kicker was in the name. Not Korean, but French."

"French."

"Based in the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, their fleet of legitimate ships flies the flag of the Somali Republic. How does that grab you?"

"Go on."

"A first-rate company, no rust-bucket operation, rated lily-white by Fortune, Forbes and Dun and Bradstreet. So damned pure that their annual report comes accompanied with harp music. Scratch the surface deep enough though, and you find more phony front men and dummy subsidiary companies than gays in San Francisco. Documentary ship fraud, bogus insurance claims, chartering phantom ships with nonexistent cargoes, substitution of worthless cargoes for ones of great value. And always beyond the jurisdiction of the private outfits and governments they screw."

"What's their name?"

"Bougainville Maritime," answered Yaeger. "Ever heard of it?"

"Min Koryo Bougainville-the'Steel Lotus'?" said Pitt, impressed.

"Who hasn't? She's right up there with the celebrity British and Greek shipping tycoons."

"She is your Korean connection."

"Your data are conclusive? No chance of error?"

"Solid stuff," Yaeger replied adamantly. "Take my word for it.

Everything triple-checks. Once I tuned in on Bougainville as the source, it became a simple chore of working backwards. It all came together; bank accounts, letters of credit-you wouldn't believe how the banks turn their backs on these frauds. The old broad reminds me of one of those East Indian statues with twenty arms, sitting there with a holy look on her face while the hands are making obscene gestures."

"You did it," Pitt said enthusiastically. "You actually pinned Sosan Trading, the San Marino and the Pilottown on the Bougainvihe shipping empire."

"Like a stake through the heart."

"How far back did you go?"

"I can give you the old girl's biography almost to when she spit out the tit. A tough old bird. Started from scratch and a lot of guts after World War Two. Slowly anded old tramp ships to her fleet, crewed by Koreans who were glad to work for a bowl of rice and pennies a day.