"I come from the old school," he said quietly. "You never know when you may encounter a blue lady."
She gave him a very strange look and smiled faintly. "I haven't met anyone quite like you."
"My type has never developed a herd instinct." He returned to the subject at hand. "Can you describe this officer?"
"Yes, he was a tall black man, African-American I suppose, since the ship belonged to a domestic shipping line and most of the crew were from the United States."
"Odd that they waited until a ship's fire to make their move."
"It wasn't the first time Dad was harassed," she said angrily. "He told me of being threatened on several different occasions."
"So what is so important that your father had to die for it?" said Pitt, gesturing at the case sitting on the deck at her feet.
"My father is"-she paused-"was Dr. Elmore Egan, a brilliant man. He was both a mechanical and a chemical engineer."
"I'm aware of the name," said Pitt. "Dr. Egan was a widely respected inventor, wasn't he? The creator of several different types of water propulsion engines? As I recall, he also formulated a highly efficient diesel fuel that is widely used in the transportation industry."
"You know that?" she asked, impressed.
"I'm a marine engineer," he admitted. "I'd get an F on the test if I hadn't heard of your father."
"Dad's latest project was the development of magnetohydrody-namic engines."
"Like the propulsion units in the Emerald Dolphin."
She nodded silently.
"I must confess my ignorance about magnetohydrodynamic engines. What little I've read suggested the technology was still thirty years away. That's why I was surprised to read they had been installed in the Emerald Dolphin."
"Everybody was surprised. But Dad created a breakthrough, a revolutionary design. He compounded the electricity found in seawater before running it through a highly magnetic core tube kept at absolute zero by liquid helium. The electrical current that is produced then sets up an energy force that pumps the water through thrusters for propulsion."
Pitt was listening attentively, and her words caused him to stiffen. "Are you saying that his engine's only outside fuel source is seawater?"
"Saline has a very small electrical field. My father discovered a method of intensifying it to an incredible degree to produce energy."
"It's hard to envision a means of propulsion with an inexhaustible source of fuel."
Kelly's face reflected pride in her father. "As he explained to me-"
"You don't work with him?" Pitt cut in.
"Hardly." She laughed for the first time. "He was terribly disappointed in me, I'm afraid. I can't think in abstract terms. I never had it in me to conquer algebra. Solving equations was a hopeless cause for me. I majored in business at Yale, where I received my master's. I work as a merchandise analyst for a firm of consultants-our clients are department stores and discount houses."
Pitt's lips spread slightly in a grin. "Not as exciting as creating new forms of energy."
"Perhaps not," she said, with a toss of the head that sent her light brown hair swirling in a cloud around her neck and shoulders, "but I make a good income."
"What breakthrough led your father to perfect the technology of magnetohydrodynamic engines?"
"Early in his research and development, he reached a roadblock when his experimental engine exceeded power and energy expectations but experienced extreme friction problems. The engines only had a life span of a few hours at high rpm before grinding to a halt. He and a close associate and family friend, Josh Thomas, a chemical engineer, then formulated a new oil that was a hundred times more efficient than any commercial oil available on the market today. Now Dad had a new power source that could run indefinitely without measurable wear for years."
"So the super oil was the element that advanced your father's magnetohydrodynamics engine from the drawing board to reality."
"True," she acknowledged. "After the pilot model's successful test program, the Blue Seas Cruise Lines directors approached Dad about constructing and installing his engines in the Emerald Dolphin, which was then under construction at the shipbuilders in Singapore. They were also building an underwater luxury submarine passenger liner, but I forget the name. They gave him an exclusive license to build the engines."
"Can't the oil formula be duplicated?"
"Formula, yes. Process, no. There is no way of repeating the exact production process."