"There is no record of the Avarga Oil Company actually exporting any oil from Mongolia. But then, there isn't much to export. They are known to operate only a handful of active wells."
"So they are not pumping enough volume sufficient to make a dent in China's demand, or anybody else's, for that matter?"
"There is no evidence of it. Funny thing is, we uncovered a number of sizeable contracts with a couple of Western oil field equipment suppliers. With oil prices surging over one hundred fifty dollars a barrel, there has been a mad rush for new exploration and drilling. The oil equipment suppliers have huge backlogs. Yet Avarga was already at the front of the line. They have apparently been purchasing a massive amount of specialized drilling and pipeline equipment for the last three years, all shipped to Mongolia."
"We found some of it here in Ulaanbaatar."
"The only item that was amiss was the tunnel-boring device. We found only one record of that model being shipped out of the country and it was exported to Malaysia."
"Perhaps a front company for our friends at Avarga Oil?" Pitt ventured.
"Probably. The particular model you saw is designated for shallow earth pipeline installations. Perfect, in other words, for burying an oil pipeline in the soft sands of the Gobi Desert. What I haven't been able to decipher is how this Borjin has obtained the resources to acquire all this equipment without any visible revenue stream," Yaeger said.
"Genghis Khan is picking up the tab," Pitt replied.
"I don't get the joke."
"It's true," Giordino said. "He's parked in the guy's backyard."
While Giordino told Gunn and Yaeger about the existence of the tomb in Borjin's sanctuary and the later discovery of Hunt's diary in the crashed trimotor, Pitt pulled out a ten-page fax he had received back from Perlmutter.
"St. Julien has confirmed as much," Pitt said. "Sotheby's and the other major auction houses have had a steady stream of consignments for the past eight years of major twelfth- and thirteenth-century mainland Asian art and artifacts."
"Loot buried with Genghis Khan?" Gunn asked.
"To the tune of over one hundred million dollars. Perlmutter verified that the artifacts have all been consistent with the geographic regions of Genghis Khan's conquests up to the date of his death. The pattern fits, as does the source. The artifacts have all been consigned from a shadowy Malaysian company named the Buryat Trading Company."
"That's the same firm that purchased the tunnel borer," Yaeger exclaimed.
"Small world, eh? Hiram, when we are finished perhaps you and Max can take a closer look at this Malaysian front company."
"Sure thing. I guess we should also talk about that bit of German strudel you sent me."
"Ah yes, the documents written in German. Did you and Max come up with anything?"
"Not much on the documents per se. Just as you noted, they read like the first pages of a technical operator's manual. You found them with a large electrical device?"
"A room full of computing equipment, powering a three-legged tubular device that stands ten feet high. Any idea what it might be?"
"There wasn't enough data to determine its exact function. The pages were simply operator's instructions for an acoustic seismic array."
"Care to try that again in English?" Giordino asked.
"Mostly the stuff of lab experiments. Von Wachter evidently succeeded in taking the technology a leap forward."
"Who's von Wachter?" Pitt asked.
"Dr. Friedrich von Wachter. An eminent electrical engineering professor from the University of Heidelberg. Well known for his research in acoustics and seismic imagery. Max made the link between von Wachter and the acoustic seismic array. One of his last papers discussed the theoretical application of a parametric acoustic array for subsurface imagery."
Gunn helped himself to more coffee as the men in the hotel room listened attentively to Yaeger's voice on the speakerphone.
"Though the facts are murky, it appears that Dr. von Wachter developed a working model for acoustic seismic imagery," he said. "As you know, in the oil exploration business seismic imagery usually relies on a mechanical explosive, such as dynamite or a thumper truck, to send a shock wave into the earth. The refracted seismic waves are then recorded and processed by computer modeling to develop a subsurface image."
"Sure. The marine survey ships use an air gun to generate the shocks," Giordino said.
"Von Wachter apparently eliminated the explosives by developing an electronic means of producing the shock wave. The acoustic array, if I understand it correctly, transmits a high-frequency sound burst, which converts to seismic waves under the surface."
"Our experience with survey sonar systems is that high-frequency waves don't provide adequate penetration to 'see' very far beneath the surface," Giordino stated.