Poseidon's Arrow (Dirk Pitt 22)

Yaeger checked the Panamanian ship registry. “Habsburg owns four ships, all dry bulk carriers, named Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, and Salzburg.”

“What’s the Austrian connection?” Dirk asked.

“The company is owned by Edward Bolcke, a mining engineer originally from Austria,” Yaeger said. “I can’t find mention of any of the four ships reported missing.”

“Then that makes Habsburg a likely suspect in the disappearance of the Adelaide,” Summer said.

“The key,” Gunn said, “will be their four ships.”

Yaeger flexed his fingers over the keyboard. “Let’s see what we can find.”

Summer found coffee for everyone while Yaeger taxed his mainframe’s circuitry, pursuing inquiries on the four ships and their recent whereabouts. It took the better part of an hour before he could narrow their locations. He displayed a map of the world on which a multitude of colored dots shone, signifying the ships’ recent ports of call.

“The blue lights represent the Graz,” Yaeger said. “She is currently believed to be in or about Malaysia. Over the last three weeks, she was seen in Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.”

“So she’s not in play,” Gunn said.

“The yellow lights represent the Innsbruck. She made a transit through the Panama Canal three weeks ago and was seen in Cape Town, South Africa, eight days ago.”

“Dollars to donuts, that’s the ship I saw in Madagascar,” Dirk said.

“Likely so. That leaves the Linz and Salzburg. The Linz was reported in a Jakarta dry dock ten days ago, and is believed to still be there for repairs.”

“So the green lights are the Salzburg?” Summer asked.

“Yes. She appeared in Manila a month ago, then in the Panama Canal, making a northerly crossing, four days ago. Homeland Security port surveillance indicates she was docked in New Orleans just yesterday.”

Yaeger drew a line on the map across the Pacific from Manila to Panama. Then he inserted a red triangle at a spot in the eastern part of the ocean. “The red mark is our last known position of the Adelaide, about six days ago.”

The track of the Salzburg passed within two hundred miles of the Adelaide’s mark.

“Wouldn’t have needed much of a course deviation to cross paths,” Dirk said.

“The timing is about right,” Gunn said. “The Salzburg would have been in that area five or six days before reaching the canal, which is when the Adelaide went quiet.”

Yaeger returned to an earlier database. “Panama Canal Authority records show she made the transit last Friday, entering the Pacific locks at three in the afternoon. I might be able to find archival video of her.”

A few minutes later, he projected a clip from one of the locks. It showed, in grainy black-and-white footage, a midsized freighter waiting for the lock to flood. An edelweiss flower clearly showed on its funnel.

Dirk looked at the image with a sense of hope. “Look at her Plimsoll mark. She’s riding high in the water. Her holds must be empty.”

“You’re right,” Gunn said. “If she hijacked the Adelaide, she didn’t transfer the cargo aboard.”

Yaeger pulled up a profile of the Salzburg. “The Adelaide is a hundred feet longer. They’d have to leave a large chunk of her cargo behind if they ransacked and sank her.”

“The rare earth ore she was carrying was too valuable for that,” Gunn said. “No, she must still be afloat. I’m starting to believe she was taken to a place where her cargo could be off-loaded.”

“But where?” Summer asked. “You checked all the major ports.”

“She could easily slip into a private facility without our knowledge.”

“There’s another possibility,” Dirk said, rising from his chair. “The wreck we ran across in Madagascar, the Norseman. She had had her identity scrubbed from the hull. What if they did the same with the Adelaide only they passed her off for another vessel?”

Yaeger and Gunn both nodded, and Dirk began gathering up his things. When he began moving toward the door, Summer called out to him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Panama. And you’re coming with me.”

“Panama?”