Juan snapped his fingers. “Tate revealed something else to me as well. He said the sub was somewhere off the coast of Algodoal.”
Juan tapped on his tablet and put a map of Brazil on his HD wall screen. He pointed to a small town near the mouth of the Amazon River.
“There. The Kansas City has to be somewhere off the coast of that region.”
“That’s a lot of ocean to cover,” Overholt said.
“Three thousand square miles, depending on how far out the KC was when she sank. The search could still take weeks. And if she bottomed out deeper than two thousand feet, the hull would definitely be crushed.”
“No,” Overholt said, “Tate mentioned that the depth he told you was accurate. The Oregon was just looking two thousand miles from the right place.”
“So the KC really is lying in two hundred fifty feet of water?”
Overholt nodded. “Is that significant?”
Juan didn’t answer. Instead, he put up the Atlantic Ocean depth chart on the screen and then zoomed in on the Brazilian coast. He stood and went over to the monitor.
“Here’s the edge of the continental shelf,” he said, tracing a line vaguely mirroring the coastline. “The seafloor averages about a hundred feet in depth until it gets to this ledge. Then it drops rapidly to the abyssal plain. The edge of the shelf is the only place where the ocean is two hundred fifty feet deep.”
“Do you think the Kansas City came to rest on a ledge?” Overholt asked.
“That’s what Tate is implying. All the Navy would have to do is follow this line and they’d find the KC in a day.”
“We have to call the U.S. Navy and tell them they need to alter their search grid.”
“Do you think they’d believe you?”
“I doubt it,” Overholt said. “I’ve used up most of my governmental favors.”
“To rescue me?” Juan asked ruefully.
“It was worth it, my boy.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll see what I can do with the Navy.”
Juan looked at the map and did some calculations in his head. “In case they don’t believe you, we have the capability to dive on the sub at that depth.” He picked up the phone and dialed the op center. “Hali, have Eric set course for Algodoal, Brazil, maximum speed.”
“Algodoal, Brazil,” Hali replied. “Aye, Chairman.”
Juan hung up and looked at Overholt. “We’ll be there in a little more than two days.”
Not only did they have to hope that someone among the Kansas City’s crew was still alive, they also needed an answer for why Zachariah Tate wanted so badly to sink it.
36
MONTEVIDEO
The soundproof chamber inside the Portland was one of the few features that she didn’t share with the Oregon. The room was designed to test the effects of the sonic disruptor without harming the rest of the crew. Now thirty-six hours after the unsuccessful attack on the Oregon, it was activated again, with two men in it this time. Today, it was being used for punishment. Each man was in a straitjacket.
From the observation room, Tate watched the men, who were tied to chairs, struggle to get loose from the bindings. The cameras provided a panoramic view of the room and a close-up of Abdel Farouk’s and Li Quon’s faces. Both of them were terrified by the gruesome visions
that the disruptor was creating in their minds.
Tate turned to the operator and said, “How long until they succumb to a psychotic break?”
“Hard to say,” the man replied. “Could be in as little as ten more minutes. They’ve been in there for twenty already.”