Valhalla Rising (Dirk Pitt 16)

Pitt sat down, trying desperately to put the pieces together. "It seems fantastic that Dr. Egan created a revolutionary dynamic engine in almost the same time span that he designed a working teleporter."

"The man was a genius," said Max. "No doubt about it. What makes him even more extraordinary is that he did it without an army of assistants or a huge government-sponsored laboratory."

"That's true," Pitt agreed. "He did it alone in a hidden lab ... the location of which we've yet to ferret out."

"I hope you find it," said Yaeger. "The significance of Egan's discovery has mind-boggling possibilities. Substances with basic molecular structures, such as oil, coal, iron or copper ore, and a great variety of other minerals, could be transported without the use of ships, trains and trucks. His teleportation system can rewrite the entire world of product transportation."

Pitt considered the immense potential for a few moments before staring at Max. "Tell me, Max, do you have enough data from Dr. Egan's case to re-create a teleporter device?"

Max shook her wraithlike head sadly. "No, I'm sorry to say. I do not have enough input to place me in the ballpark. Though I have Dr. Egan's receiving chamber as a model, the primary part of the system lies with the sending unit. I could work on the problem for years and not find a solution."

Yaeger laid a hand on Pitt's shoulder. "I wish Max and I could have given you a more detailed picture."

"You both did a remarkable job, and I'm grateful," said Pitt sincerely. "Now it's my turn to supply the answers."

Pitt stopped by his office before heading to the hangar to clear his desk, read his mail and answer voice messages. After an hour, he found himself fighting to stay awake, so he decided to call it a day. At that moment, his phone rang.

"Hello."

"Dirk!" thundered St. Julien Perlmutter's voice. "I'm glad I caught you."

"St. Julien. Where are you?"

"In Amiens, France. Dr. Hereoux has graciously allowed me to remain in Jules Verne's house and work through the night studying a notebook Hugo and I found hidden by Verne almost a hundred years ago."

"Did it supply you with answers?" asked Pitt, his curiosity kindled.

"You were on the right track. Captain Nemo truly existed, except his true name was Cameron Amherst. He was a captain in the Royal Navy."

"Not Dakar the Indian prince?"

"No," replied Perlmutter. "Apparently, Verne had a hatred against the British and changed Cameron's name and native country from En

gland to India."

"What was his story?"

"Amherst came from a wealthy family of shipbuilders and shipowners. He joined the Royal Navy and rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming a captain at age twenty-nine. Born in eighteen thirty and blessed with a brilliant mind, he was a child prodigy and became an engineering genius. He constandy came up with all sorts of inventive designs for ships and their propulsion systems. Unfortunately, he was a bit of a firebrand. When the old mossbacks in the admiralty refused to consider his proposals, he went to the newspapers and vilified them as ignorant men afraid of the future. He was then unceremoniously kicked out of the Navy for insubordination."

"Much like Billy Mitchell eighty years later."

"A fair comparison." Perlmutter continued, "Verne met Amherst on a voyage across the Adantic on the passenger liner Great Eastern. It was Amherst who regaled Verne with stories of his desire to build an underwater vessel capable of going anywhere beneath the oceans. He drew designs on Verne's notebook paper and described in detail the revolutionary propulsion system he had devised to power his radical submarine. Needless to say, Verne was enthralled. He kept up heavy correspondence with Amherst for four years. Then suddenly, the letters stopped coming. Verne went on to write imaginative tales and became famous, and put Amherst from his mind.

"Verne loved the sea, as you know, and he owned several yachts, which he sailed around Europe. It was on one of these voyages off Denmark that a great whalelike vessel rose out of the sea and drifted alongside Verne's sailboat. A stunned Verne, along with his son, Michel, who'd accompanied him, watched as Captain Amherst rose from a forward hatch tower and hailed him, inviting the writer to come aboard. Leaving his boat in Michel's command, Verne went aboard Amherst's astounding underwater vessel."

"So the Nautilus did exist."

Perlmutter nodded almost reverentiy on his end of the phone. "Verne learned that Amherst had secretly built his submarine in a great underwater cavern beneath the cliffs under his family estate in Scodand. When the vessel was completed and had successfully passed its trials, Amherst put together a crew of professional seamen who were unmarried and not bound to families. He then sailed the seas for thirty years."

"How long was Verne on board?" asked Pitt.

"Verne ordered his son to sail the yacht back to port and wait in the hotel there. He was flattered that his old friend had sought him out. He stayed on board the Nautilus, which was the actual name given the sub by Amherst, for nearly two weeks."

"Not two years, like the people in the novel?"

"It was more than ample time for Verne to study every inch of the vessel, which he exactingly recorded in his book, with a few writer's liberties here and there. A few years later, he produced Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea."

"What finally happened to Amherst?"