Tom met him at the door and shook his hand. “Where are we headed?”
“Boston, Massachusetts.”
“Why, what do you want to find there?”
“A man named Timothy Locke.”
Chapter Ten
The twin jet engines of the Gulfstream G650 screamed as the pilot released the brakes and the jet leapt forward down the runway. Utilizing less than half of the runway, they were in the air.
Sam sank comfortably into the leather chair. He sat in the study with Tom at the other end of the large mahogany desk. The jet finished climbing to its cruising altitude, and then banked to the left before settling on a direct course towards Massachusetts.
“Where were we?” Sam asked.
“Timothy Locke.”
“That’s right. According to Elise, he lectures occasionally at MIT in exchange for regular use of one of their super computers. He also just happens to be the third scientist who was working on a secret project named Elixir Eight.”
“Let me get this straight. Luke was killed for his refusal to accept their offer. Benjamin White, we can only guess was taken out for coming to you with information about the offer —”
“Actually, Benjamin was the second scientist. Elise did some searching and found the names of the four leading scientists who worked for New World Energies. Amongst them, was Benjamin White. I’ve seen the photos, and it’s the same man I met earlier today.”
Tom looked at him. “So why go to the trouble of making up a story about Luke’s life insurance broker?”
“That’s what I said. So Elise looked into it. Turns out, Luke’s life insurance broker received a text regarding Luke’s murder. Of course, he never got the chance to read it or investigate it. On his way home from a bar he was mugged. Not just mugged. Stabbed multiple times. Must have died within minutes. Randomly, his license and cell phone were the only two things taken from him. They left a fifty and two twenties in his wallet.”
“The buyers had Luke’s life insurance broker’s cell phone bugged?” Tom asked.
“It looks like they weren’t taking any chances. When they discovered what Luke had sent the poor man, they had him killed too. Then, they sent Benjamin to go and find out if I knew anything. Once I showed my ignorance Benjamin probably assumed they’d kill me. He had no idea his life was about to be sacrificed too.”
Tom shook his head. “What makes you think Mr. Locke is going to talk to you?”
“Because only I can offer him protection.”
“What about the fourth person?”
“Peter Flaherty? He doesn’t exist.”
“You mean, no one’s seen or heard from him since he arrived back stateside? He’s probably done the only smart thing, and run for his life with all that money.”
“No, I mean Elise couldn’t find any record of him — other than on paper.”
“Maybe he removed it all before he fled?” Tom suggested.
“Elise would have known. No, they made him up. I’m sure of it.”
“Or, he’s already dead?”
“The first one to fall?” Sam thought about it for a minute.
Tom persisted. “Maybe they killed him and then tried to remove his name from ever existing.”
Sam stared out the window. “You’re right. That’s a more likely option.”
Sam poured two glasses of whiskey, and then leaned back in the luxurious armchair within his conference room. Handing one of them to Tom, who was seated next to him with the vacant expression of man preparing to sleep for the flight, Sam said, “Now, shall we discuss the rogue wave?”
Tom took a large sip of his drink. “What about the rogue wave?”
“I think it’s fair to at least entertain the possibility that someone’s telling the truth.”
“You think they exist?” Tom replied.
“Of course they do. That was never in doubt. You and I have both spent enough time on the ocean to know that these things do occur naturally.”
“Yes, but what they’re talking about isn’t a random set of events. They’re talking about creating one and targeting ships with it like a weapon.”
“Perhaps they’re not creating them. Maybe they’re merely controlling the movements once they form naturally?” Sam said.
“Even if they could control them, the likelihood that they happened to be near enough to identify the rogue wave when it naturally formed, is so small, that they would be better off leaving the entire thing to chance and hoping that a real rogue wave would form and kill their target. No, they must know how to produce them and control the rogue wave for it to work.”
“Okay, so we have to at least examine the possibility the technology is feasible, even if no else has ever done so before.”
Tom nodded his head.
“All right,” Sam said. “Tell me. Why would someone go to all the effort of researching, producing and then using a rogue wave to kill someone like Luke Eldridge?”
“What do you mean? I thought you said they were after this guy because he’d refused an offer to sell the rights to his discovery?”
“Yes, but why not just kill him the old fashioned way?”
Tom shrugged his shoulders. “With a gun? And then dump his body in the ocean?”
“Yeah.”
“According to Elise, Luke had real time satellite imaging monitoring his progress twenty-four hours a day. Someone knew that he was being watched.”
Sam thought about it for a moment. “There’s more to it than that. Whoever was trying to blackmail Luke knew that they couldn’t just have him killed. Somewhere within Luke’s will, he advised that if the circumstances pertaining to his death were deemed suspicious, meaning murder was a possibility, his entire wealth and current research lines were to be given back to the state.”
“And so they needed to devise of a way to kill him, without any chance of suspicion. A naturally occurring freak event that killed him?”
“Yes. In this case, it was the perfect crime because Luke yacht, the Mirabelle, had a continuous electronic recording for promotional purposes. Meaning, the entire event of his death was recorded. Undisputed evidence it was an accident.”
“Then who has access to that tape?”
“Several people would have access to it by now. But Elise is in the process of hacking into the coastguard’s database to gain a copy. And then we’ll have some answers.”
Chapter Eleven
Sam switched his laptop on and downloaded the most recent file regarding the series of rogue waves. His father had complained someone was targeting cargo ships from his fleet with rogue waves and had asked him to investigate it. Sam shook his head, recalling at the time that he didn’t believe a word his father had said about the attacks. He then clicked the on button of his remote and the large flat screen TV in front of him turned on. In a crystal clear image, a large cargo ship came into focus. On its side were the words: Global Star.
His father owned Global Shipping, the largest shipping company in the world. Global Star was the biggest in his fleet. At 1405 feet in length, she had a gross tonnage that just surpassed the 200 000 mark, making her one of the largest cargo vessels afloat.
At first examination the image appeared to show nothing more than the gargantuan cargo ship. The sort of thing that could sail through a battleship without noticing the collision. Then Sam saw what he was looking for. It was small enough to be easily overlooked by most people, with the exception of a naval engineer.
The enormous steel chine which ran along the hull of the ship was bent inwards. It looked so small that it could be mistaken as purposeful change in the ship’s shape. But on closer examination, Sam realized he was looking at a slightly concertinaed hull.