Final Option (Oregon Files 14)

“Do we want to take that risk?”

“If he’s really going there, the Oregon has a nearly two-day head start on us. We’d never catch up in time.”

“Maybe we don’t have to. What if we reveal the location of the sub before they get there?”

“Then the U.S. Navy will rescue the sailors if they’re still alive.”

“But Cabrillo won’t have any access to them. They might as well be on Mars, as far as he is concerned.”

Tate nodded and smiled. “You see? That’s why I fell in love with you. Always thinking ahead.”

“Should we call the Navy?”

“No, I have a better plan. You and I will fly up there and take a helicopter out to drop the activated SEPIRB in the water right where the KC is. That’ll bring every warship in the area running. The Oregon won’t be able to get close.”

“We’re going personally?” Ballard asked.

“I’d send Farouk and Li alone, but no doubt they’d need some supervision. Besides, we have another task to complete in that region. The real key is keeping Juan from finding the Bremen. Since Jiménez knew where it was, someone else might locate it, too. You and I are going to find it first and wipe it out once and for all.”

They had some clues about the German U-boat’s location, but Tate had thought killing the Brazilian cousins who originally stumbled upon it would take care of the problem. Now he realized he needed to erase its existence.

Ballard grinned back at him. “Going back to wipe out the source of the sonic disruptor? I like it.”

“Once that’s done, we can spend all of our time locating Juan and destroying his ship.”

The germ of a plan for ambushing the Oregon was forming in Tate’s mind. But this time, he wanted the odds overwhelmingly in his favor. During the flight to northern Brazil, he’d call his friend in the Chinese Navy. The contact badly wanted to get his hands on the plans for the sonic disruptor after seeing what Tate had done to the Kansas City. Instead of money, Tate would ask for help in sinking the Oregon.

37

OFF THE COAST OF THE STATE OF PARÁ, BRAZIL

As Juan had feared, the U.S. Navy ignored Overholt’s plea to change their search grid, so the Oregon had rounded the eastern tip of Brazil and raced up the edge of the continental shelf. The trip took just fifty-four hours, from the time they left the coast of Argentina until they stopped just short of the Amazon River Delta. They started the sonar search for the Kansas City at a spot southeast of the small coastal town of Algodoal.

The Oregon’s sensors swept the shelf’s underwater cliff, focusing on a depth of two hundred fifty feet. For the first four hours, they found nothing, and Juan, who was seated in his command chair in the op center, was beginning to wonder whether this had all been an elaborate ruse planted by Tate.

When they were at nearly the same latitude as Algodoal, Linda called out from her spot at the radar station. Her Google glasses didn’t seem to be hindering her too much, especially because everyone in the op center was wearing a lavalier microphone to help Linda distinguish who was speaking.

“Chairman, I’m picking up a stationary vessel twenty miles dead ahead.”

Stationary? Juan frowned. Could it be the Portland lying in ambush?

“Tate couldn’t possibly have gotten here ahead of us, could he?” Max asked from his engineering post, echoing Juan’s concern.

“Slow to five knots,” Juan said.

“Five knots, aye,” Eric replied from the helm.

“What type of vessel is it?” Juan looked at Linda.

“It’s not broadcasting an AIS signal. Too small for a cargo vessel. Bigger than a fishing trawler. Might be a warship.”

Commercial vessels over three hundred tons were required to send out an Automatic Identification System signal to help prevent collisions. Although naval vessels also carried them, they tended to use them intermittently or only in poor conditions to prevent enemy ships from tracking them.

“Hail them,” Juan said to Hali.

&n

bsp; “Unknown vessel to the north,” Hali said into his headset mic, “this is the cargo vessel Anacapa. Please respond.”