Poseidon's Arrow (Dirk Pitt 22)

“His feet were tangled in fishing line,” Ann said. “I assume he panicked when he couldn’t get clear of the boat and ended up drowning.”

“Actually, the pathologist says he was dead before he hit the water.”

“Was he shot?”

“No—” Wyatt fumbled for the proper description. “His skin showed signs of severe burns. His death was attributed to trauma related to burn damage.”

Ann had seen his gruesome blackened limbs but assumed it had to do with his body’s submersion at such depth. “Why doesn’t the pathologist think he was killed by the explosion?”

“Because his surface burns were atypical of fire damage—and extended beneath the skin. In other words, he cooked from both inside and out.”

Ann shook her head. “From the inside?”

“The damage is consistent with acute microwave irradiation.”

Ann fell silent, trying to make sense of the report.

“Could it have anything to do with the equipment Heiland was testing?” Wyatt asked.

“I can’t imagine. It was still in its case.”

“Understood. It’s got everyone here stumped, too. I’ll send you the report, and we can talk again.”

“Thanks, Wyatt. And let me know if you hear any more from Mexico.”

Eberson’s death was an odd twist that didn’t make any sense. If Pablo’s crew was going to kill him, why didn’t they simply shoot him? And what could have caused the microwave irradiation?

Ann beat Wyatt in phoning the FBI’s Spokane field office—and confirmed what she’d already guessed. The two men killed in Bayview had also carried phony Colombian passports. They had arrived in Idaho on a private chartered flight, which accounted for their ability to bring in weapons. The charter operator was being investigated but had no apparent connection to the Colombians.

Ann opened her laptop and began scouring national law enforcement databases, searching for criminal acts in the U.S. by Colombian nationals. In the National Crime Information Center’s system, she assembled a list of such felonies prosecuted in the past five years. Aside from a few random murders and a bank robbery, the major crimes were primarily drug related, concentrated in Miami and New York. A search of the FBI’s Guardian Threat Tracking System also failed to trigger any obvious links.

Until the FBI completed DNA testing on the bodies in Idaho, she was only chasing ghosts anyway. So she turned her attention to potential internal leaks.

Fowler had given Ann detailed profiles of fifteen DARPA scientists and administrators assigned to the Sea Arrow project. She spent the next hour sifting through the reports, keeping an eye out for the three D’s of nonideological subversion: debt, drugs, and divorce. She made note for Fowler to check up on a female physicist who was undergoing a bitter divorce, as well as a lower-grade engineer who had recently acquired a new Corvette. But, on the surface, none of the employees fit the profile for a security risk.

“Got a second?”

Fowler appeared at her door, walked in and placed a thick folder on her desk. “Here are the staff reports on the DARPA subcontractors working on Sea Arrow. Groton obviously has their own subs under review, plus the Office of Naval Research has a number on their end.”

“What’s the damage locally?”

“Eight private defense contractors, not counting Heiland, plus three university research programs.”

“Enough to keep us busy a while. Thanks, Dan. Can you do me one more favor?”

“Sure, name it.”

“Can you pull the travel history of your DARPA team assigned to Sea Arrow? I want to check for any trips to the major hot spots: East Asia, Russia, and the Middle East.”

“No problem. By the way, here’s the security list for the President’s shipyard tour at Groton a few weeks ago.” He handed her a sheet, which she placed to the side of her desk.

“Interested in lunch?”

“No, I’m good,” she said, diving into the subcontractor data. “Thanks for the reports.”

As she dug into the files, Ann soon realized there was only a peripheral connection between the other contractors and Heiland. Most of the subcontracts focused on hull design and electronic systems, with little, if any, interplay with Heiland’s supercavitation system. Eberson had been the central conduit for all the systems Heiland was developing.

Ann stood and stretched before picking up the security list from the President’s Groton tour. There were only seven names, three from the White House and four from the Pentagon. She immediately noted Tom Cerny’s name. With only Fowler’s off-the-cuff remark as a basis, she phoned in the names to an NCIS colleague and requested an online background check. While she waited to receive an e-mail with the results, she thought of the rarity of a murder like Heiland’s.