Page 127 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest
“I’m confining you to quarters until I can figure out what to do with you.”
“But, sir, I’m your best gunner. We’re heading into battle—you said so yourself.”
“I know. And that’s on you, too. When you screw up, it doesn’t just affect you.”
Murphy reddened with shame. “So I’ve put theOregonin double jeopardy?”
“When this is all over,” Max said, “you and me are gonna have a little talk about the birds and the bees and the Chinese double agents, capisce?”
Murphy nodded.
“Aye, sir.”
68
Murphy confined himself to his cabin while the rest of the crew made preparations for the mission ahead. TheBaktunhad proven itself a worthy opponent, deploying weapons they had never seen before. They had barely survived the last encounter. There was no telling what other techno-tricks the mystery ship had up its sleeve.
He had no interaction with the crew save for the knock on his cabin door preceding meal deliveries. Clearly nobody wanted to talk to him. And who could blame them? No doubt the scuttlebutt about him had flown fast and furiously. If he hadn’t been so stupid, they wouldn’t have anything to gossip about. Juan, Max, and Linda were his ranking officers, but also faithful friends. Though they would never say anything to damage his reputation he still felt overwhelmed with shame for having been played by Linlin and guilt for letting his friends down.
The only genuine kindness shown him so far came from Maurice, the ancient ship’s steward. When he delivered Murphy’s evening meal, he whispered with a knowing smile, “This, too, shall pass, m’lad” before departing.
Murphy’s aching fear was the very real possibility Cabrillo would fire him when the mission was over. He loved his work on theOregon, but the thought of losing his incredible friends was eating him alive. Worse, he couldn’t be at the weapons station deploying his unmatched skills to protect his friends. If any of them were killed in the upcoming combat, that would be on him, too.
Like many other high-IQ individuals, Murphy was plagued with aninability to stay still. Some people called it attention deficit disorder. One school counselor informed his mother that her gifted son was “on the spectrum.” All Murph knew was that his intense curiosity couldn’t rest without trying to solve the next puzzle his brilliant mind was always searching for.
And now that he had time on his hands, he decided to pick at the splinter that had been festering in his mind ever since he and Eric had cracked Eidolon’s code. He just couldn’t shake the idea that a premium hacker like Eidolon with his trickster-god reputation would be content with burying a simple ASCII-coded message inside of a mundane steganography matrix.
Murphy’s nagging intuition told him that there must be another code-within-the-code and he was determined to find it.
69
The Pacific Ocean
Senior Captain Zhao Meili stood on the bridge of her ship heaving beneath the heavy swells. She held the binoculars tightly to her eyes, scanning the windy skies until—there!—a chute fluttered open and the man beneath its canopy began his hazardous descent.
Zhao was the first woman in the People’s Liberation Army Navy to achieve full command of a surface combat vessel. The Dalian Naval Academy graduate was awarded not only the command of a combat vessel but also the distinction of conducting a round-the-world cruise with the newly commissionedFuzhou, the latest and most powerful version of China’s Type 055 destroyer. Like her crew and contingent of fire-breathing Marines, she wore her Navy’s iconic digital blue-gray naval combat uniform with cap, shoulder boards, and gold-trimmed insignia displaying her hard-won rank.
TheFuzhou’s last port of call was the remote Pacific island nation of Vanuatu and now she was steaming across the vast Pacific toward the Panama Canal. The passage of the Chinese warship through the canal would prove a symbolic repudiation of America’s outdated Monroe Doctrine. It would also demonstrate the strategic threat China’s blue-water Navy posed to the Western Hemisphere.
Zhao had been selected for this assignment because of her distinguished service record, her aggressive instincts and preternatural skill in tactical warfare. No one was better suited for this mission.
But now that mission had been interrupted by Admiral Qian’s urgent call ordering her to a new location on a matter of utmost national security. He told her in no uncertain terms that China’s future was at stake. To prove his point, he gave her permission to destroy any opposition to her mission, even if that meant taking on the Americans.
Nothing could have pleased her more.
Zhao’s star was swiftly rising, but even she could scarcely believe Qian’s promise of an early promotion to rear admiral upon successful completion of the emergency reassignment. He described this mission as the most important of her career, and perhaps in all of China’s history.
Zhao turned her binoculars to theFuzhou’s inflatable racing toward the landing zone. Spray blasted beneath its rigid hull with every strike of the rough sea’s high-rolling waves. Under the best of circumstances, a parachute jump like this was problematic. But in today’s weather conditions, the foolhardy decision could prove fatal to the man beneath the swinging canopy. Zhao had to admit the man had guts. It also spoke to his desperation to get to her ship.
Admiral Qian’s instructions were clear. The man coming out to her vessel would oversee the operation. She was to grant him every privilege as well as unwavering obedience to his every instruction. Zhao noted the underlying anxiety in her superior’s voice.
Of course she readily agreed despite deeply resenting the need for any kind of supervision. But she knew the interests of the Ministry of State Security took precedence over all else, including the plans of the proud and mighty Chinese Navy.
Zhao turned her glass back to the parachutist. She watched in horror as his chute thrashed in the high winds, hurling the man in all directions as he plummeted toward the ocean. He hit the water with a thunderous cannonball splash several hundred yards from the proposed landing zone.
The inflatable turned sharply and headed for the tangle of chute scabbing the surface. The captain panicked.
The man was nowhere to be seen.
