Flood Tide (Dirk Pitt 14)

"I remember her well. I sailed on her with my mother and father to Singapore when I was a young boy. She was a fine ship. As I recall, she was owned by Canton Lines. I searched for clues to her disappearance myself some years ago. What is her connection with the lost art treasures?"

"Shortly after Chiang Kai-shek looted the national museums and plundered the private collections of our ancestors' art treasures, the Princess Dou Wan sailed for an unknown destination. She never reached it. My agents have failed to trace any eyewitnesses. It seems many of them also disappeared under mysterious circumstances. No doubt lying in unmarked graves, courtesy of Chiang Kai-shek, who wanted no secrets about the ship to leak to the Communists."

"You think Chiang Kai-shek tried to smuggle the treasures away on the Princess Dou Wan ? "

"The coincidence and odd events lead me to believe so."

"That would answer many questions. The only records I could find on the Princess Dou Wan suggested that she was lost on the way to the scrappers at Singapore."

"Actually, her trail ends somewhere in the sea west of Chile, where a distress signal was reported received from a ship calling herself the Princess Dou Wan before she sank with all hands in a violent storm."

"You have done well, Qin Shang," said Zhu Kwan. "

erhaps now you can solve the puzzle?"

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Qin Shang shook his head dejectedly. "Easier said than done. She could have gone down anywhere within a four-hundred-square-mile area. An American would compare it to looking for a needle in a field of haystacks."

"This is not a quest to cast aside as too difficult. A search must be conducted. Our most priceless national treasures must be recovered." "I agree. That's why I built a search-and-survey ship precisely for that purpose. My salvage crew has been crisscrossing the site for six months and has seen no indication of a hulk on the seabed matching the size and description of the Princess Dou Wan."

"I pray you do not give up," Zhu Kwan said solemnly. "To discover and return the artifacts for display in the People's museums and galleries would make you immortal."

"The reason I've asked you here tonight. I wish for you to put forth your greatest effort in finding a clue to the ship's final whereabouts. I will pay you well for any new information you discover."

"You are a great patriot, Qin Shang."

But any expectation Zhu Kwan had that Qin Shang was on a noble quest for the people of China was quickly dashed. Qin Shang looked at him and smiled. "I have achieved great wealth and power in my lifetime. I do not search for immortality. I do it because I cannot die unfulfilled. I shall never rest until the treasures are found and retrieved."

The veil shrouding Qin Shang's evil intentions was ripped away. The billionaire was no moralist. If he was fortunate enough to find the Princess and her priceless cargo, he had every intention of keeping it for himself. Every piece, no matter how large or small, would become part of a hidden collection that only Qin Shang would enjoy.

Qin Shang was lying in bed studying financial reports on his far-flung business empire when the phone beside his bed chimed softly. Unlike most unmarried men in his position, he usually slept alone. He admired women and summoned one when he occasionally felt desire, but business and finance were his passion. He thought smoking and drinking wasted time, as did seduction. He was too disciplined for a common affair. He felt only disgust for men of power and wealth who wasted themselves with dissipation and debauchery.

He picked up the phone. "Yes?"

"You asked me to call you regardless of time of night," came the voice of his secretary, Su Zhong.

"Yes, yes," he said impatiently, his train of thought interrupted. "What is the latest report on the United States?"

"She left her dock at seven o'clock this evening. All automated systems are functioning normally. Unless she encounters heavy storms at sea, she should make Panama in record time."

"Is a crew standing by to board and to take her through the canal?"

"Preparations have been made," answered Su Zhong. "Once the ship enters the Caribbean, the crew will reengage the automated systems for her journey to Sungari and disembark."

"Any word on the intruders at the shipyard?"

"Only that it was a very professional operation using a highly sophisticated submersible."

"And my underwater security team?"

"Their bodies have been recovered. None survived. Most appear to have died from concussion. The patrol boat was found at the Harbor Authority dock, but the crew has vanished."

"The Iranian-registered freighter that was moored nearby the shipyard-has she been boarded and investigated?"

"Her name is the Oregon. She departed slightly ahead of the United States. According to our sources at Naval Command, it was overtaken at your request by Captain Yu Tien of the cruiser Chengdo. His last message said that the freighter had heaved to and he was sending a boarding party of marines to inspect her."

"Nothing from Captain Yu Tien since then?" asked Qin Shang.