The Emperor's Revenge by Cussler Clive & Morrison Boyd

Author:Cussler, Clive & Morrison, Boyd [Cussler, Clive & Morrison, Boyd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Historical
Amazon: B015X7GRBA
Goodreads: 27384556
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2016-05-31T07:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

MALTA

In the waiting area outside the harbormaster’s office, Linda Ross watched the bustling activity of cranes off-loading containers from three giant ships. Even at six in the morning, Manwel Alessi made her and Eric Stone cool their heels while he took care of port matters.

Under the guise of the fake IDs they’d used in Monaco, she had explained that they were insurance investigators looking into the theft at the museum warehouse. Alessi had readily agreed to meet with them, as curious about the normally tranquil island’s unusual events as he was eager to assist the investigation.

He swung the door open and waved them inside. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” He was a trim man in his fifties, wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

“Not at all,” Linda said. “Thank you for meeting with us. We know how busy you must be.”

“Sit, please. Of course, when I heard that you needed information, I was happy to help. The museum director and I are old friends.”

“Then you’ll be glad to know he’s made a full recovery,” Eric said.

“That’s good to hear. Strange what happened. Did they catch anyone?”

Linda shook her head. “No suspects as yet. And some items were stolen, which is why we’re here.”

“Yes, I heard about it. Such a tragedy. Have you tracked any of the pieces down?”

“That’s what we’re trying to do. One of the items was something called the Jaffa Column. It’s a stone obelisk from Syria taken by Napoleon during his Egyptian campaign.”

Alessi leaned back as soon as he understood the implication. “You think someone’s trying to smuggle it out of the Freeport.”

“That’s a possibility,” Eric said. “The Maltese police are following leads on the island in case it’s being stored somewhere here. Smuggling is the other option.”

“The problem is its size,” Linda said. “The column weighs thirty tons. It’s unlikely they would have attempted to fly it off the island. Besides, we checked into that prospect and no cargo planes large enough to carry it have taken off in the last three days, which is the last time anyone saw it.”

“Well, I’m afraid it may be long gone by now,” Alessi said. “We’ve had eight ships leave in that time. Almost all of them were as big as those.” He pointed at the gigantic ships framed in the window overlooking the harbor. Each of them was large enough to carry more than five thousand containers.

“I know that we’re sailing into the wind here, Mr. Alessi,” Linda said. “But we need to follow any possible leads. The museum is desperate to recover what could be a cornerstone of their collection.”

“I’m happy to give you a list of the ships that have already sailed and the ones that are scheduled to leave in the next two weeks, but you’ll have to contact each of the lines yourselves to request an inspection of their cargo. Of course, any containers that originated in Malta we will check before they leave.”

He printed out the list and handed it to Linda. The ships were listed,

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