Havana Storm (Dirk Pitt 23)

Juan Díaz put his feet on a large mahogany desk and looked down his nose at the mining operations manager seated across from him. Despite his own time in the Revolutionary Army, Díaz had an open disdain for the military.

“Comandante, you always stated that the mining operation is to be conducted with absolute secrecy,” Lieutenant Silvio Molina said. Though Díaz no longer held military rank, the militia on-site addressed him in deference to his powerful family connections.

“Yes, of course,” Díaz said. “You and your men were handpicked to oversee the operation on account of your loyalty to the general.”

“During our excavations last night, we had an intrusion at the Domingo 1 site.”

Díaz glanced at an oversized map of the Florida Straits pinned to one wall. An irregular circle, drawn in green and denoted Domingo 1, was marked northeast of Havana. “Go on.”

“An American marine research ship named the Sargasso Sea arrived at dusk and moored near the wellhead site—”

“The Sargasso Sea?” Díaz said. “Wasn’t that the vessel that was nosing around after the drill ship was sunk?”

“Yes, it is a vessel of the National Underwater and Marine Agency. They were the ones that picked up the survivors of the Alta.”

“What are they doing back at the site?”

“I don’t know.” Molina shrugged. “Perhaps they are performing an inspection for the Norwegian owners of the ship. Or perhaps they are CIA.”

“The destruction of the drill ship was made to look like an accident,” Díaz said. “Those were your orders.”

“And it was so accomplished. But I warned you it could attract unwanted attention.”

“We’re on a schedule, and we needed more time to complete the excavation. If the late Minister Ortiz hadn’t given them that sector, of all places, to drill in, we would never have had a problem. We had no choice but to remove them from the site.” Díaz scowled. “I see that the barge is offloading a new shipment. What are our latest stockpile figures?”

“Including the current barge load, we estimate a total of two hundred and eighty tons in readied stockpile. The customer supply ship is arriving in the morning to collect the first half order of two hundred and fifty tons.”

Díaz stood and approached the wall map. In addition to the green circle, there were two red circles twenty and thirty miles farther north into the Florida Straits. He motioned toward them. “The thermal vents at Domingo 2 and Domingo 3 are each ten times the size of Domingo 1. They will easily provide the balance of our delivery, if our yield percentages are accurate.”

“Domingo 1 has proven better than anticipated,” Molina said. “We’ve seen uranium oxide content in excess of fifty percent, which far exceeds the highest known yields from any terra firma mines, even those in Athabasca, Canada.”

“The very reason we pursued the high-cost operations of undersea mining. When will the Sea Raker be finished at the current field?”

Molina looked at the floor. “That’s uncertain. They had completed eighty-five percent of the field operations but are standing by at the moment while repairing damage to the ship.”

“What damage?” Díaz asked.

“It was the American research vessel. While we were conducting excavation operations, they sent down a submersible that approached our bulk cutter machine. We were able to remotely acquire the submersible and bring it aboard the ship.”

“You what!” Díaz said, flying out of his chair.

“It was recording our operation. Calzado, on the Sea Raker, reported that his men concealed the submersible on the ship and sent its two pilots ashore this morning with the barge. A short time later, two men from the NUMA ship boarded the Sea Raker, apparently in search of their comrades. They were discovered but escaped. And they caused some damage with the bulk cutter before they got away.”

Díaz’s face had turned red. “So this NUMA ship is aware of our operation and knows we captured their submersible?”

“Calzado reports that he and an armed party have taken control of the American ship. He doesn’t believe they had a chance to issue a call for help.”

Díaz stared at him. “You did all this without my authorization?”

“It was an urgent military operation and the hour was late. I did wake the general and obtained his approval.”

Díaz glared at the lieutenant. “You don’t think the Americans will miss their research ship?”

“The vessel has been relocated closer to shore. If they raise trouble, we can accuse them of spying in our waters.”

“This has endangered the entire operation just as we are in the final stretch.” He stared at Molina with cold determination. “We must accelerate the excavations at Domingo 2 and 3 at once. I will see if our customer will make early acceptance of the second delivery.”

“The Sea Raker can proceed to the next two fields and set the explosives while the bulk cutter is repaired.”