"You are."
"What are you doing that's not worth repeating?" asked Yaeger facetiously. Yet his voice betrayed a trace of concern. He knew Pitt was still recovering from injuries suffered during a volcanic eruption on an island off Australia only the month before.
"I haven't time to leave you breathless with my daring adventures in the north woods. But I do need a favor."
"I'm drooling with anticipation."
"See what you can dig up on a Qin Shang."
"How's it spelled?"
"Probably like it sounds. If my limited knowledge of Chinese menus serves me correctly, the first name begins with a Q. Shang is a Chinese shipping magnate who operates out of Hong Kong. He also owns a private retreat on Orion Lake in Washington State."
"Is that where you're at?" asked Yaeger. "You never told anyone where you were going when you up and disappeared."
"I'd just as soon Admiral Sandecker was kept in the dark."
"He'll find out anyway. He always does. Just what is it that intrigues you about Shang?"
"You might say I'm irritated by nosy neighbors," replied Pitt.
"Why don't you go over and borrow a cup of sugar, have a few laughs and challenge him to a fast game of mah-jongg."
"According to the locals, no one can get within ten city blocks of his place. And at that, I doubt if he's at home. If Shang is like most wealthy celebrities, he has several different houses around the world."
"Why does this guy consume you with curiosity?"
"No upstanding citizen has a mania about security unless he has something to hide," said Pitt.
"Sounds to me like you're bored, lying around the primeval forest, watching moss grow on the rocks. You've missed one of life's pleasures if you haven't tried to outstare a moose for forty-five minutes."
"I've never been turned on by apathy."
"Any other requests while I'm in the mood?" asked Yaeger.
"Now that you mention it, I do have a wish list of Christmas goodies I'd like boxed and sent out tonight so I can have them no later than tomorrow afternoon."
"Fire away," said Yaeger. "I've turned on the recorder and will print them out when you're finished."
Pitt described the articles and equipment he required. When he finished, he added, "Throw in a Department of Natural Resources chart of Orion Lake showing bathymetric data and fish species, underwater wrecks and obstructions."
"The plot thickens. For a guy who was battered to a pulp and just released from a hospital, don't you think you're overdoing it?"
"Play along with me and I'll mail you five pounds of smoked salmon."
"I hate being a weenie," Yaeger sighed. "Okay, I'll take care of your toys before I make inquiries through proper and unproper channels on Qin Shang. With luck, I'll give you his blood type."
Pitt knew from experience that data buried and secreted in classified files was not immune to Yaeger's ferretlike talents. "Set those fat little fingers flying over your keyboard and call me at my Iridium number when you turn up something."
Yaeger hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling for several moments. Yaeger looked more like a street-corner panhandler than he did a brilliant computer-systems analyst. He kept his graying hair in a ponytail and dressed like an aging hippie, which he was. Yaeger was head of NUMA's computer-data network, which contained a vast library on every book, article and thesis, whether scientific, historical fact or theory, ever recorded on the world's oceans.
Yaeger's computer domain took up the entire tenth floor of the NUMA building. It had taken years to put together the massive library. His boss had given him a free hand and unlimited funding for accumulating every recorded bit of knowledge on ocean science and technology so it could be available to ocean-science students, professional oceanographers, marine engineers and underwater archaeologists around the world. The job carried enormous responsibility, but it was a job Yaeger loved with a passion.
He turned his gaze on the expansive computer he had designed and built himself. "Fat fingers on a keyboard, hah!" There was no keyboard and no monitor. As with virtual reality, images were projected in three dimensions in front of the user. Instead of typing on keys, commands were spoken. A caricature of Yaeger, enhanced and fleshed out, stared back at him.
"Well, Max, you ready to go cruising?" Yaeger asked the image.
"I am prime," replied a disembodied voice.