"Like in what way?"
"For example, the city has to have the five million it will take to fix it up, and the two million for maintenance each year. And the water in the harbor must be at least thirty feet deep. On the other hand, where the ship is moored, someone from NAVSEA, probably a civilian, is going to appear about once a month and inspect the work being done to the vessel."
"And this has been happening at the Inactive Ship Yard?" I asked.
"Well, right now, we're not sure of the civilian doing it." The general looked straight at me.
Then it was Wesley who spoke, "That's the problem.
There are civilians everywhere, some of them mercenaries who would buy or sell anything with absolute reckless disregard for national security. As you know, a civilian company runs the Inactive Yard. It inspects the ships being sold to cities or for salvage."
"What about the submarine in there now, the Exploiter?" I asked. "The one I saw when I recovered Eddings' body?"
"A Zulu V class ballistic missile sub. Ten torpedo tubes plus two missile tubes. It was made from 1955 to 1957," General Sessions said. "Since the sixties, all subs built in the U.S. are nuclear-powered."
"So the sub we're talking about is old," Marino said.
"It's not nuclear."
The general replied, "It couldn't be nuclear-powered.
But you can put any type of warhead on a missile or torpedo you want."
"Are you saying that the sub 1 dove near might be retrofitted to fire nuclear weapons?" I asked as this frightening specter just loomed bigger.
"Dr. Scarpetta," said the general as he leaned closer to me, "we're not assuming that sub has been retrofitted here in the United States. All that was needed was for it to be brought back up to speed and sent out to sea where it might be intercepted by a principality that should not have it.
Work could be done there. But what Iraq or Algeria cannot do for themselves on their own soil is produce weapons grade plutonium."
"And where is that going to come from?" Marino asked.
It's not like you can get that from a power plant. And if the terrorists think otherwise, then I guess we're dealing with a bunch of redneck dumb shits."
"it would be extremely hard, if not close to impossible, to get plutonium from Old Point," I agreed.
"An anarchist like Joel Hand doesn't think about how hard it might be," Wesley said.
"And it is possible," Sessions added. "For about two months after new fuel rods have been placed in a reactor, there is a window in which you can get plutonium."
"How often are the rods replaced?" Marino asked.
"Old Point replaces one-third of them every fifteen months. That's eighty assemblies, or about three atom bombs if you shut down the reactors and get the assemblies out during that two-month window."
"Then Hand had to know the schedule," I said.
"Oh, yes." I I thought of the telephone records of CP amp;L executives that someone like Eddings might have illegally accessed.
"So someone was on the take," I said.
"We think we know who. One high-ranking officer, really," Sessions said. "Someone who had a lot of say in the decision to locate the CP amp;L field office on property adjacent to Hand's farm."
"A farm belonging to Joshua Hayes?"
. "Yes." I
"Shit," Marino said. "Hand had to be planning this for years, and he sure as hell was getting a lot of bucks from somewhere."
"No question about either," the general agreed. "Something like this would have to be planned for years, and someone was paying for it."
"You need to remember that for a fanatic like Hand," Wesley said, "what he is engaged in is a religious war of eternal significance. He can afford to be patient."
"General Sessions," I went on, "if the submarine we're speaking of is destined for a distant port, might NAVSEA know that?"
"Absolutely."
"How?" Marino wanted to know.
"A number of things," he said. "For example, when ships are stored at the Inactive Yard, their missile and torpedo tubes are covered with steel plates outside the hull.
shaft inside the ship so the And a plate is welded over the screw is fixed. Obviously, all guns and communications are removed."
"Meaning that a violation of at least some of these regulations could be inspected from the outside," I said. "You could tell by looking at the vessel if you were near it in the water."
He looked at me and caught my meaning precisely.
"Yes, you could tell."
"You could dive around this sub and find that the torpedo tubes, for example, are not sealed. You might even be able to tell that the screw was not welded."
"Yes," he said again. "All of that you could tell."
"That's what Ted Eddings was doing."
"I'm afraid so." It was Wesley who spoke. "Divers recovered his camera and we've looked at the film, which had only three exposures. All blurred images of the Exploiter's screw. So it doesn't appear he was in the water long before he died."
"And where is that submarine now?" I asked.
CA USE of D EAT H 26i The general paused. "You might say that we're in subtle pursuit of it."
"Then it's gone."
"I'm afraid it left port about the same time the nuclear power plant was stormed."
I looked at the three men. "Well, I certainly think we know why Eddings had gotten increasingly paranoid about self-protection."
"Someone must have set him up," Marino said. "You can't just decide at the last minute to poison someone with cyanide gas."
"His was a premeditated murder committed by someone he must have trusted," Wesley said. "He wouldn't have told just anybody what he was doing that night."
I thought of another label in Eddings's fax machine. CPT could stand for captain, and I mentioned Captain Green's name to them.
"Well, Eddings must have had at least one inside source for his story," was Wesley's comment. "Someone was leaking information to him and I suspect this same someone set him up or at least assisted in it." He looked at me.
"And we know from his phone bills that over the past few months, he had quite a lot of communication with Green, by phone and fax, that seems to have begun last fall when Eddings did a rather harmless profile on the shipyard."
"Then he started digging too deep," I said.
"His curiosity was actually helpful to us," General Sessions said. "We started digging deeper, too. We've been investigating this situation longer than you might imagine."
He paused, and smiled a little. "In fact, Dr. Scarpetta, you have not been as alone at some points as you might have thought."
"I sincerely hope you'll thank Jerod and Ki Soo," I said, assuming they were SEALs.
But it was Wesley who replied, "I will, or perhaps you can yourself next time you visit HRT. "General Sessions," I moved on to what seemed a rather more mundane topic. "Would you happen to know if rats are a concern in decommissioned ships"
"Rats are always a worry in any ship," he said.
"One of the uses of cyanide is to exterminate rodents in the hulls of ships," I said. "The Inactive Yard may keep a supply of it."
As I've indicated, Captain Green is of great concern to us." He knew just what I meant. -Vis-vis the New Zionists?" I asked.
"No," Wesley answered for him. "Not as opposed to but as with. My speculation is that Green is the New Zionists' direct link to anything military, such as the shipyard, while Roche is simply his toady. Roche is the one who harasses, snoops and snitches."
"He didn't kill Danny," I said.
"Danny was killed by a psychopathic individual who blends well enough with normal society that he did not draw any attention to himself as he waited outside the Hill Cafe. I'd profile this individual as a white male, early thirties to early forties, experienced in hunting and in guns, in general."