The Devil's Triangle (A Brit in the FBI 4)

“Where was the tracker’s last ping?” Nicholas asked, and Adam pointed to the screen. He’d been tracking Kitsune the old-fashioned way, like a submariner tracking a whale, with small Xs drawn on the chart to show her last known coordinates.

“You can see exactly where she went off the map. There’s nothing there. It’s ocean, miles and miles of empty ocean. No land, nothing.”

Nicholas watched as Adam pulled up another file and started running an algorithm on the previous geo-located marks. “What are you looking for?”

“This,” Adam said, pointing at his screen. They gathered around him to see he’d pulled up a map up on his tablet with Kitsune’s trajectory outlined in white. “From the velocity and speed the tracker was traveling, we know they were on a plane. But”—he swiped to a new image, and enlarged the map—“when the tracker started to move again, it was at a much slower pace. They flew into Preston, then put her on a boat.” He tapped his finger on the screen, which obligingly magnified the areas. “And this is where the signal abruptly stopped.”

Mike leaned down and used two fingers to enlarge the map, then minimize, enlarge, minimize. She traced the edge of the tablet with her finger. No matter what she did—there was still nothing in the spot Kitsune’s tracker disappeared, only miles and miles of blue water.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Mike said. “There’s simply nothing there, nothing to account for the tracker not working. And we’re sure she’s still with the Kohath twins? I wonder if they dumped her off somewhere.”

“Wouldn’t matter,” Nicholas said, “the tracker would still work. I think they’re with her and Grant, somewhere. But where? Not a clue.”

Adam looked at each of them, drew in a breath and said, “I’ve got a theory.”

“A theory? Okay, Mr. Hot Shot,” Louisa said. “Tell us what you’ve got.”

“The only thing is, it’s sort of out there.”

Nicholas laughed. “Everything on this case is ‘out there,’ Adam. Launch away.”

Adam said, “Remember Ben told us that way back at the beginning of the twentieth century, Appleton Kohath worked with Tesla, and they developed the Coil using all kinds of electromagnetic power, right?”

“Yes.”

“And now, they’ve managed to push the limits, create storms that are incredibly sophisticated, probably more advanced than we can imagine, right?”

“Spit it out, Adam,” Louisa said.

“Watch this.” He had a video queued. It was an animation of the GPS tracker, overlaying a map of Europe.

“Okay, this is the first time we lost her signal—she’s in the tunnels beneath the Kohath palazzo, then her signal magnifies, and then it simply goes silent. Remember, Nicholas, we were thinking maybe the EMP had knocked it out? And then, inexplicably, it came back on and stayed on?”

They watched the screen shift to the Caribbean. “Now we’re here, over an empty expanse of water, and her tracker signal’s strong. Watch this. The blip magnifies, just like the first time, and then it’s gone, totally gone.”

Adam ran the video three more times.

Louisa said, “This is seriously weird.”

“I would have agreed with you until I did some research on the ingestible GPS trackers, and guess what?” He gave them a maniacal grin. “The suckers can be affected by magnets.”

Nicholas said, “So if you hold a magnet near enough to the tracker, it will go offline.”

Adam nodded.

Louisa said, “You take the magnet away, the tracker comes back online.”

“Yep.”

Mike said, “Okay, it’s a glitch in the design, but who would imagine wearing a tracker next to a magnet? The designers probably didn’t even consider it.” She smacked Adam’s shoulder. “Good thinking, Adam. But what does it mean? Kitsune is sitting near a big-ass magnet?”

“It’s more than that.” Nicholas and Adam said together, both smiling like loons, “We’re talking about a cloaking device.”

Mike’s eyebrows shot up. “Come on, guys, what do you mean, a cloaking device? Like the Romulans on Star Trek? That sort of cloaking device?”

Adam said, “Yep, exactly that sort of cloaking device. Look here.” He tapped the screen, right where Kitsune’s tracker disappeared the first time. “I asked myself, if a physical magnet can make the tracker go offline, what would an electromagnetic field do to it?”

Nicholas said slowly, “You told me you never saw the Kohaths leave the mountain and you couldn’t explain it except with magic flying brooms, and you were watching like a hawk.”