Valhalla Rising (Dirk Pitt 16)

The admiral's face took on a contented look. "Do I hear the sound of a jail door closing?"

Pitt's lips raised in a slight grin. "I believe that after he's convicted and sentenced, Curtis Merlin Zale will spend the rest of his days on death row."

Gunn nodded. "A fitting conclusion for a man who murdered hundreds of innocent people in the name of money and power."

"It won't be the last time we'll see the likes of Zale," said Pitt morbidly. "It's only a matter of time before another sociopath comes along."

"You'd better go on home and get some rest," said Sandecker charitably. "Then take a few days off for your research project on Elmore Egan."

"Which reminds me," Gunn said, "Hiram Yaeger wants to see you."

Pitt went down to the computer floor of NUMA and found Yaeger sitting in a small storeroom, staring at Egan's leather briefcase. He looked up as Pitt entered, held up his hand and pointed to the interior of the open case.

"Good timing. It should begin filling with oil in another thirty seconds."

"You have a timetable?" inquired Pitt.

"The fill goes in sequence. Every inflow takes place precisely fourteen hours after the last one."

"Any idea why it's always fourteen hours?"

"Max is working on it," answered Yaeger, closing a heavy, steel door that looked like one on a bank vault. "That's why I wanted you in the storeroom. It's a secure area with steel walls for the protection of important data in the event of fire. Radio waves, microwaves, sound, light-nothing can penetrate these walls."

"And it still fills with oil?"

"Watch and see." Yaeger studied his watch, then began to count down with his index finger. "Now!" he exclaimed.

Before Pitt's eyes, the interior of Egan's leather case began filling with oil as if poured by an unseen hand. "It has to be some kind of trick."

"No trick," said Yaeger, closing the lid.

"But how?"

"Max and I finally found the answer. Egan's case is a receiver."

"I'm drawing a blank," said Pitt, confused.

Yaeger opened the heavy steel door and led the way back to his sophisticated computer system. Max stood on her stage and smiled at their arrival. "Hello, Dirk. I missed you."

Pitt laughed. "I would have brought flowers, but you can't hold them."

"It's no fun not having substance, let me tell you."

"Max," said Yaeger, "tell Dirk what we've discovered about Dr. Egan's leather case."

"The solution took me less than an hour, once I put my circuit boards on the problem." Max gazed at Pitt as though she had feelings toward him. "Did Hiram tell you the case is a receiver?"

"Yes, but what kind of a receiver?"

"Quantum teleportation."

Pitt stared at Max. "That's not possible. Teleportation is beyond the realm of current physics."

"That's what Hiram and I thought when we began our analysis. But it's a fact. The oil that appears in the case is originally placed in a chamber somewhere that measures every atom and molecule. The oil is then altered to a quantum state that is sent and reconstructed in the receiving unit, down to the exact number of atoms and molecules, according to the measurements from the sending chamber. I have, of course, way oversimplified the process. What still mystifies me is how the oil can be sent through solid objects, and with the speed of light. I hope I can find the answer with time."

"Do you know what you're saying?" said Pitt, totally incredulous.

"Indeed we do," said Max confidently. "Though it presents an incredible scientific breakthrough, don't get your hopes up. There is no way a human could be teleported anytime in the future. Even if it were possible to send and receive a person thousands of miles away and then re-create his body, we wouldn't be able to teleport his mind and the data he has accumulated in a lifetime. He would step out of the receiving chamber with the brain pattern of a newborn baby. Oil, on the other hand, is made up of liquid hydrocarbons and other minerals. Compared with a human, its molecular makeup is far less complicated."