Havana Storm (Dirk Pitt 23)

After the war’s end, the genesis for the conflict was oddly forgotten. The mangled remains of the Maine sat mired in the silt of Havana Harbor for more than a decade, her rusting main mast standing forlornly above the waves. Commemorative interest, and a desire to clear a harbor obstruction, finally prompted Congress to approve funds to raise the vessel.

In an engineering feat that many predicted would fail, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed a cofferdam around the wreck and pumped away the water. The mud-covered ship that emerged was a devastated mass of twisted metal. The engineers cut away the damage and sealed the breach. In March of 1912, the ship was refloated and towed offshore, where she was sunk with her colors flying.

Sitting on the bridge of the Sargasso Sea, Pitt studied the hundred-year-old coordinates of the wreck site, marked on a digital map of the Cuban coastline.

“They sank her about four miles from shore. That may have been considered the high seas in 1912, but today the territorial limit is twelve miles. We dally around the site and we’re liable to become permanent guests of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.”

Giordino exhaled a cloud of blue smoke from a lit cigar. “I wonder if they allow smoking in their prisons.”

Summer stood near the helm with her brother, staring at a calm expanse of blue water. “We could survey the wreck remotely,” she said.

Giordino nodded. “Shouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings if we sent an AUV to find the wreck and take a few passes. Depending on how the ship struck the bottom, we might get some good looks at her.”

“Okay,” Pitt said. “But we’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment. I’ll give you twelve hours, then we’re off to the Alta’s wreck site. And just don’t let the Cubans end up with my AUV.”

Dirk paused. “What about your Creepy Crawler, Al? If we get a fix on the wreck with the AUV, couldn’t we send in one of your crawlers to investigate?”

“With a transponder in the water, we can operate it in real time from the ship. It would be a good test of its abilities.” Giordino sat upright, setting aside his cigar. “I might even be able to rig a deployment device so the AUV could drop it over the site and save time.”

Pitt knew an American-flagged ship lingering near Cuban waters, especially near Havana, was liable to attract unwanted attention. As soon as Giordino had his AUV launched an hour later, he repositioned the Sargasso Sea several miles outside Cuba’s territorial limit.

Under Giordino’s programming, the yellow AUV sped to the Maine’s last-known coordinates and dove to the bottom, initiating a survey grid with its sensors on alert for a large magnetic object.

After six hours, the AUV completed its survey and made a beeline for the NUMA research ship. The vehicle was hoisted aboard and its data pack removed. With the Pitt family crowded around him, Giordino reviewed the results. A square diagram filled with vertical lines appeared on the monitor, sprinkled with amoeba-shaped bubbles.

“We’ve got a handful of small magnetic anomalies. And a large one in lane 14.” Giordino pointed to a large red splotch.

“Let’s take a look at the sonar images,” Pitt said.

Giordino brought up the sonar record and scrolled rapidly until a data table in the corner indicated lane 14. “The magnetic target was near the top of the lane,” he said, slowing the video to its recorded speed.

A gold-tinted rendition of the seafloor appeared. The sonar system created shadowy images of rocks, mounds, and other features that rose from the seabed. The record scrolled a short distance when a dark trapezoidal shape appeared on one side of the screen. Giordino froze the image. “There she is.”

Summer and Dirk leaned in for a closer look. There was no mistaking the elegant tapered stern of the ancient warship. The opposite end was oddly blunt where the Army Corps had cut and inserted a flat bulkhead to refloat the ship. The Maine appeared to be sitting upright on her keel with just a negligible list.

The sight sent a chill up Summer’s spine. “She looks intact and quite accessible. Al, do you think you can get a Creepy Crawler on her?”

“Problem solved,” Giordino grinned. “While the AUV was running its grid, I had the machine shop fabricate a harness with a timed release. The AUV can carry the crawler to the site and circle a few minutes until the timer activates. The crawler will deploy a transponder when she bails out, which will allow us to walk all over the Maine. If your stone was left on the ship, we just might find it.”

“How do you know,” Pitt asked, “that it wasn’t blown to bits in the explosion or ended up in the harbor?”

“The fact is, we don’t know if it was destroyed in the explosion,” Summer said. “As for it ending up in the harbor, Perlmutter told us the refloating of the Maine was very well documented. They even dredged all around the wreck site. There was no indication of its recovery.”

“So what makes you think it’s still on the ship?” Giordino asked.

“Two items give cause for hope. First, the recovery team was focused on refloating the ship. The Maine’s powder magazines were located forward, so the bow section suffered the worst damage. The engineers spent the bulk of their effort there, cutting away the damage and installing a bulkhead. The work crews in the stern just cleared away mud in the search for human remains. I’d like to think they would have left in place a heavy old stone.”

“Assuming,” Pitt said, “it was carried on the stern of the ship.”

“Our second point of hope there is the archeologist, Ellsworth Boyd,” Summer said. “Though he died in the blast, his body was recovered intact, indicating he wasn’t near the epicenter. As a guest, he would have had a stateroom in the stern. If he wasn’t near the worst of the explosion, there’s hope that the stone wasn’t either.”

“I think I like my odds in Las Vegas better,” Pitt said, shaking his head. “All right, you might as well get to it.”

Giordino chuckled. “Don’t worry, boss. I have a good feeling that Herbert won’t let us down.”

34

Giordino’s release system worked as advertised. Two hours later, they were watching in fascination as the Creepy Crawler scurried up a rise of sand and clawed its way onto the deck of the Maine. The crawler’s video camera showed a bare metal hulk, covered in only a light blanket of marine growth.