Final Option (Oregon Files 14)

“What is?”

“You share something in common with everyone else in the organization. Do you know what I used to do?”

Li shook his head.

“I received a degree in acoustical engineering from the University of Southampton in England. Then I went on to become the chief sonar engineer for the Egyptian Navy. While I was there, I worked on a plan to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier in the middle of the Suez Canal.”

Li raised an eyebrow. “I think I would have heard if that had happened.”

“It obviously didn’t,” Farouk said with an exasperated sigh. “When the scheme failed, I just barely got away. Like you, I can never return to my homeland. Our plan was foiled by the crew of a ship called the Oregon.”

That got Li’s attention. He sat bolt upright. “The Oregon? You mean the stealth ship? I thought she was a myth.”

“She’s very real,” Farouk said. “In fact, you can see her right now from where you’re sitting.”

Li gaped in surprise before swiveling his head around. There were at least two dozen ships docked at the port, anchored in the bay, or in transit.

“Which one is it??

??

“Guess.”

Li thought for a moment, then pointed at a containership being loaded by three cranes at the port. “That one?”

“No, but you’re on the right track.”

“I know it can’t be any of the Brazilian Navy ships.” He turned and looked at a modern tanker passing under the bridge.

“I bet it’s that one.”

“You’d lose that bet,” Farouk said. “Too bright and clean and noticeable. Your eyes have passed over it multiple times without giving it a second glance. Exactly as they want you to.”

Li’s gaze settled on the one ship he’d never suspect. It was an ancient cargo vessel anchored in the middle of the bay. Its paint was peeling, and patches of rust dotted the hull. The crumbling superstructure matched the piles of junk that served as cranes.

“That thing?” Li asked in amazement. “I thought they were waiting for a tug to haul it to the scrapyard.”

Farouk smiled. He’d thought the same thing the first time he’d seen it.

“What if I told you that ship is faster than virtually every other ship or boat in Guanabara Bay?”

Li scoffed and pointed at a speedboat zipping away from the yacht. “Faster than that?”

“Much.”

“Come on!” He turned back to the Oregon and waved his hand at it dismissively. “That scow has to be more than five hundred feet long. I’d be shocked if she could move under her own power.”

“The Oregon doesn’t have normal diesels. She’s propelled by magnetohydrodynamic engines.”

Li furrowed his brows. “What are those?”

“Tubes running the length of the ship take seawater in through the front, strip the free electrons for power, and then pump the water out using supercooled electromagnets so that it shoots out through vector nozzles in the stern like air from a jet engine. Not only does it make the ship exceptionally fast but she’s also highly maneuverable.”

Li looked at the ship with new appreciation. “Her capabilities are hidden well.”

“That’s not all that’s hidden. She’s also a sophisticated warship. Offensive armaments include torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, and a 120mm cannon like the one found on an Abrams tank. Defensively, she features anti-aircraft missiles, three 20mm Gatling guns with explosive, armor-piercing rounds potent enough to sink a ship, and a hundred-barreled Metal Storm gun that has an effective firing rate of a million rounds a minute.”

“A million rounds a minute? You’re joking.”