“Are you telling me, if I sail overnight, statistically I’m going to be struck by 3 rogue waves?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. So, if the average wave heights are 10 feet, you might be struck by a 20-foot rogue wave.”
“All right, so on the night Luke died, the significant wave height was just 4 feet. So, based on that theory, how in world could he have been struck by a 100-foot wave?”
Sam grinned. He was genuinely surprised by the sudden disclosure. There was something else, too. He was excited by the prospect. “You’re telling me Luke was struck by a 100-foot wave, just off North Bimini Island?”
“Yes, didn’t I mention that?”
Sam looked at the bill. Unfolded two tens and a five and placed them on the table. “All right Mr. White. Now I’m fascinated. I’ll see what I can find and let you know.”
Chapter Five
Sam pushed the pedal of his Rolls Royce Phantom to the floor and its powerful 6.75 Liter V12 purred to life. Having just rounded another hairpin bend Sam was accelerating down the narrow straight, he picked up speed as he climbed the Vail Pass, headed towards the Continental Divide. Hundreds of miles from any ocean, his thoughts should have been far from oceanography.
In the passenger seat, perfectly at ease with her environment, sat Aliana Wolfgang. Her long, tanned legs reached seductively downwards, the slight cut in her skirt revealed little, but filled him with desire. He swung the car around the distinct V shaped bend, he was about to accelerate up the next straight.
That’s when he saw the plume of smoke.
It rose up like a funnel. Dark and ominous in the snow-covered mountain, it appeared out of place. Then he saw the skid marks, and the broken guardrail.
Aliana looked at him. “It appears someone’s just had a pretty bad day.”
He put his foot on the brake and stopped the car, hard. Pulling the Rolls Royce over next to the missing guardrail. “Come on, let’s see if anyone survived the crash.”
“Sure,” she said. Her eyes telling him what he already knew. The occupants were already dead.
He put the hazard lights on in his car, and left it running while he walked to the edge of the road. Looking down, he could see the tangled mess of a car still burning. His eyes scanned the edge of the road and cliff to see if the driver had been thrown, and miraculously escaped.
There was nothing.
“Oh my!” Aliana said. “I believe that was Mr. White’s car.”
“Really? How can you be sure?” There was little left that visibly resembled the original car. It was impossible to determine its color, or even the make.
Aliana pointed at the license plate lodged into the decimated guardrail. “DRSIX9 — I remember thinking what kind of shmuck would drive a sports car with that sort of number plate!”
“Doctor? I thought he said he was a life insurance broker?” Sam lost interest in his trailing thought process. He had just spotted the second set of tire marks. “Look. Someone else was here. Another car struck White, sending him over the edge.”
“The question is did they do so accidentally or did they intentionally come after White because of what he knows?”
“The coincidence seems highly unlikely. So, now we have one of the four leading scientists from New World Industries and a life insurance broker who knew about Luke’s alleged murder, dead.”
“I wouldn’t want to be the other three scientists.”
“No, I think it’s time I pay them a visit — before we run out of people to question.”
Chapter Six
Sam spun the wheel round and returned towards the direction they had come from. Aliana looked at him. Softly, she said, “Where are we headed?”
“Denver International Airport.”
She held to the side of the door for balance. “We just passed it eighty miles back, why are we heading there now?”
“Because living scientists provide better answers. And that means we’ve got to get to them before THEY do.”
She looked at the billowing smoke behind them. “Shouldn’t we report this to the authorities?”
“Leave it for somebody else. We have to get going if we want to beat them to the remaining scientists.”
Aliana smiled. It was slightly coquettish, while at the same time implied he’d done something wrong. “You don’t even know who the other scientists are. Let alone, where they can be found.”
“Good point. Call Elise. Tell her to find out what Luke was working on. Tell her we’ll need to know who the other three scientists were, and their current location.”
“She’s that good?”
“Elise?” He smiled at her. “She’s better. She’s probably the best computer geek on the planet. And her specialty is data mining and extrapolation at the extreme level. She was brought in to the CIA when she was still a kid for her unique skills. Then, when she didn’t agree with the way they ran the system. She tried to resign. They didn’t like the idea of losing their best weapon, so they tried to refuse.”
“Where is she now?”
“She left. Created a new identity for herself. Lived in Europe for a while — and now works for me. On her own terms.”
“Wow, smart kid.” Aliana picked up her phone. Copied the number off Sam’s cell and called. “Elise. Sam needs your help.”
Sam accelerated up the gears quickly.
The Rolls Royce Phantom increasing speed like a champion racehorse released from the gate. He pressed the car phone symbol on the steering wheel. Scrolled down to the third last phone call received. And pressed call.
“Hey Sam, how’s your vacation going?” Tom asked.
Sam changed down to second gear as he came into the next sharp corner. “You know damn well how my vacation’s been!”
“Oh right, Benjamin White. Sorry about that but he seemed insistent that you could help him out, and he said that it really was important.” Tom didn’t sound apologetic. “How is Mr. White?”
Sam threw the car back into third and accelerated hard. “He’s dead.”
“Really, how?”
“His car was rammed off the road. One of those unforgiving edges on Vail Pass. His car was a fireball by the time we found it. There’s no way anyone could have survived.”
“But why would someone want to kill him?” Tom asked.
Sam looked at his speedometer. He was doing nearly sixty miles an hour. He came over the crest and saw the red logging truck. It was in low gear, slowly making its way down the pass. Sam pulled into the middle of the road to see if he could overtake. An oncoming Winnebago blocked him. He looked to the breakdown lane on his right. A yellow pickup was stopped, blocking it too.
He slammed his foot on the brake and shifted down the gears until he was right behind the logging truck. “I don’t know yet. Look. I’ll explain it all to you when I see you. How soon until you can meet me at Denver International Airport?”
“If I take the Sea King, I can be there inside an hour.”
“Good. Do it. I’ll explain everything when we get there. My father’s jet will be waiting for us.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, and Tom. I think this might just be connected to those mysterious rogue waves which have been damaging my father’s fleet.”
“Really? There’s been another one?”
“Yes. A scientist name Luke Eldridge. Apparently he was assassinated by one.”
“That sounds pretty farfetched.”
Sam saw an opening and pushed his foot right to the floor, accelerating past the logging truck. “I agree. He was one of four scientists working on a secret project. Apparently someone just made them an offer for their breakthrough. It appears the offer was nonnegotiable. Those who weren’t interested were killed. And the one person who knew anything about it, Benjamin White, just got killed.”