Polar Shift (NUMA Files 6)

"I promise," Austin said.

Schroeder glanced at the bustling activity in and around the plane. "When do you expect to leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," Austin said.

"This is one old dinosaur who knows when he's extinct," Schroeder said. "I'll be at the hospital waiting for your call. Good luck." He embraced Karla, shook hands with Austin and hobbled back to his car. They watched the car's taillights until they were out of sight, then Austin turned to Karla.

"We've got lots of work to do."

She nodded. Walking arm in arm, they made their way toward the huge aircraft.

While Austin's NUMA crew was in a frantic race to achieve the impossible, Tris Margrave was having no doubts about the imminent success of his project. Doubt was something foreign to him, and would never have entered his mind.

As the Polar Adventure plowed through the South Atlantic, he sat in his comfortable ergonomic chair behind a control panel built into the forward observation platform. His long fingers played over the controls like an organist in a great cathedral. He had started the dynamos as soon as the ship left port. Each generator was represented on the large computer monitor by a red symbol and number, which meant that it was active at a low level.

Red lines ran from the dynamos to the image of a cone. The cone was green except for its red point, indicating that a minimum amount of power was flowing into the huge coil lodged deep in the ship's hold. Margrave thought of it as the equivalent of idling a car motor.

On another screen, the console displayed a cutaway diagram of the earth that showed its layers. Special sensors in the ship's hull would be able to detect the electromagnetic penetration and the extent of ripple effect.

Gant had been on a tour of the ship talking with his security people. Ever the perfectionist, Gant wanted to be sure that when Margrave had outlived his usefulness he would be quickly disposed of. As he entered the observation platform, Gant smiled and said, "Not much longer?"

Margrave glanced at his GPS. "We'll be on target in the morning. It will take another hour to position the ship and deploy the coil. The sea is calm, so it might not be that long."

Gant went over to the bar and poured two tall flutes of champagne. He gave one glass to Margrave.

"A toast would be appropriate."

"Here's to the defeat of the Elites," Margrave said. "To a new world."

Gant raised his glass. "And new world order."

41

Zavala left the 747's cockpit and made his way back to the plane's abbreviated passenger section where Austin was working on a laptop computer. Zavala was smiling as if he had heard a joke.

"Pilots are funny people," Zavala said with a shake of his head. "The cockpit crew would be pleased if you could tell them where to fly the plane."

"I'll have a definite position soon," Austin said. "For now, you can tell them to head in the general direction of the mid-South Atlantic."

"That narrows it down," Zavala said.

"This is the area we're looking at." Austin pointed to the glowing computer screen. "That's a NASA diagram showing data collected by the ROSAT spacecraft. That blob you see extending from Brazil to South Africa is our hunting ground, the South Atlantic Anomaly." He tapped the keyboard and zoomed in on a cluster of rectangles. "This area has the most pronounced dip in the magnetosphere."

"Which means it would be the logical point to start a polar shift," Zavala said.

"Yes and no. Here's where I think we should go." He tapped the screen at a different location. "The earth's crust is thinner here, allowing for maximum penetration with the Kovacs waves."

Zavala puffed his cheeks out. "That's still a lot of ocean to cover. A couple of hundred square miles at least."

"It's a start," Austin said.

He cocked his ear at the sound of an electrical hum coming from the cargo section. A moment later, Karla and Barrett came through the door. Karla's golden hair was in straggles, and she had dark circles under her large eyes. Barrett's hands and face were covered with grease.

Austin thought that even in her disheveled state, Karla could put the most pampered fashion model to shame with her graceful beauty. She raised the screwdriver in her hand like the torch on the Statue of Liberty.

"Ta-dum!" she said. "Time for trumpets and drumroll. We're done."

"The dynamos are all on track and running," Barrett said.