Valhalla Rising (Dirk Pitt 16)

"Motive . . ." Pitt let the word slide off his tongue and hang in the air. "The same people who torched the cruise ship and then sank her wanted to prevent us from discovering evidence of arson."

"Were you able to survey the wreck?" asked Gunn.

He nodded. "There's no doubt about it, the bottom was blown out of the Emerald Dolphin in at least six places, sending her to the bottom of the Tonga Trench."

"From what I've heard," said Sandecker, "she came within a hair of taking the tugboat with her."

Giordino said slowly, "Twenty thousand feet deep in the ocean makes for a pretty effective hiding place."

Gunn said, "The murderous scum never figured on a NUMA survey ship working in the area, one with a pair of submersibles that could go down twenty thousand feet."

Misty's eyes suddenly looked stricken. "Which brings us to the horrible possibility that everyone on the Deep Encounter has been killed in the cover-up."

There was silence on the yacht and ten thousand miles away in Washington. They were all loath to consider the prospect. There was no doubt in their minds that anyone who lacked a conscience about burning alive or drowning everyone on board a cruise liner would have any hesitation about sending the survey ship and its crew to the bottom of the sea.

Pitt's perspective began to focus. He considered every avenue and gambled that the pirates had not yet set their murderous plan in gear. "Rudi?"

Gunn removed his glasses and began polishing the lenses. "Yes."

"The pirates could have just as easily sunk the Deep Encounter after they captured it. But you say they faked voice transmissions of Burch giving his scheduled reports. Why would they have bothered to stall off any suspicion if the ship was already sunk?"

"We don't know that it wasn't sunk," said Gunn.

"Perhaps, but we saw no sign of an oil slick or debris after we broke

the surface. Nor did we hear the acoustic sounds of a ship breaking up under great pressure on its passage through the extreme pressures of the deep. My guess, my fervent hope, is that they took the ship and everyone on board and hid them as bargaining chips should their plans go wrong."

"And when it begins to look like they're in the clear and not hunted," Gunn continued, "will they dispose of the proof of their crimes?"

"We can't let that happen," said Misty, distressed. "If what Dirk suggests is accurate, we only have a little time to save our friends."

"The problem is where to look," said Sandecker.

"There is no trace of it anywhere?" asked Misty.

"None."

"Not even the hijacker's vessel?"

"No," Sandecker replied helplessly.

"I'll bet I know how to find both ships," said Pitt confidently.

In Washington, Sandecker and Gunn stared at each other. "In what waters are you fishing?" the admiral inquired cautiously.

"We expand our search grid," Pitt replied.

"I don't follow," said Gunn.

"Suppose the pirate ship and our survey vessel were out of the range of the satellite cameras that were focused on a narrow path."

"I can safely say that's a given," Sandecker conceded.

"I'm assuming you widened the path on the next orbit."

"We did," Gunn admitted.

"And found no sign of either ship."