Raise the Titanic! (Dirk Pitt 4)

Kemper turned to Sandecker. "Are you in the game too, Jim?"

Sandecker nodded. "Let's just say that Mr. Seagram speaks softly and carries one hell of a big stick."

"Okay, Seagram, the podium is yours. Why the subterfuge and why the urgency to raise an old derelict?"

"First things first, Admiral. To begin with, I am head of a highly secret department of the government called Meta Section."

"Never heard of it," Kemper said.

"We are not listed in any journal on federal offices. Not even the CIA, the FBI, nor the NSA has any records of our operation."

"An undercover think-tank," Sandecker said curtly.

"We go beyond the ordinary think-tank," Seagram said. "Our people devise futuristic concepts and then attempt to construct them into successful functioning systems."

"That would cost millions of dollars," Kemper said.

"Modesty forbids me to mention the exact amount of our budget, Admiral, but ego compels me to admit that I have slightly over ten figures to play with."

"My Lord!" Kemper muttered under his breath. "Over a billion dollars to play with, you say. An organization of scientists that nobody knows exists. You stir my interest, Mr. Seagram."

"Mine too," Sandecker said acidly. "Up until now, you've sought NUMA's assistance through White House channels by passing yourself off as a Presidential aide. Why the Machiavellian Routine?"

"Because the President ordered strict security, Admiral, in the event of a leak to Capitol Hill. The last thing his administration needed was a congressional witch hunt into Meta Section's finances."

Kemper and Sandecker looked at each other and nodded. They looked at Seagram, waiting for the rest of it.

"Now then," he continued, "Meta Section has developed a defense system with the code name of the Sicilian Project . . . ."

"The Sicilian Project?"

"We named it after a chess strategy known as the Sicilian Defense. The project is devised around a variant of the maser principle. For example, if we push a sound wave of a certain frequency through a medium containing excited atoms, we can then stimulate the sound to an extremely high state of emission."

"Similar to a laser beam," Kemper commented.

"To some degree," Seagram answered. "Except a laser emits a narrow beam of light energy, while our device emits a broad, fanlike field of sound waves."

"Besides breaking a bevy of eardrums," Sandecker said, "what purpose does it serve?"

"As you recall from your elementary-school studies, Admiral, sound waves spread in circular waves much like ripples in a pond after a pebble is dropped in it. In the instance of the Sicilian Project, we can multiply the sound waves a million times over. Then, when this tremendous energy is released, it spreads out into the atmosphere, pushing air particles ahead of its unleashed force, condensing them until they combine to form a solid, impenetrable wall hundreds of square miles in diameter." Seagram paused to scratch his nose. "I won't bore you with equations and technical details concerning the actual instrumentation. The particulars are too complicated to discuss here, but you can easily see the potential. Any enemy missile launched against America coming into contact with this invisible protective barrier would smash itself into oblivion long before it entered the target area."

"Is . . . is this system for real?" Kemper asked hesitantly.

"Yes, Admiral. I assure you it can work. Even now, the required number of installations to stop an all-out missile attack are under construction."

"Jesus!" Sandecker burst out. "The ultimate weapon."

"The Sicilian Project is not a weapon. It is purely a scientific method of protecting our country."

"It's hard to visualize," Kemper said.

"Just imagine a sonic boom from a jet aircraft amplified ten million times."

Kemper seemed lost by it all. "But the sound-wouldn't it destroy everything on the ground?"

"No, the energy force is aimed into space and builds during its journey. To someone standing at sea level it would merely have the same harmless impact of distant thunder."

"What does all this have to do with the Titanic?"