Final Option (The Oregon Files) by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison

Author:Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison [Cussler, Clive]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-11-05T06:00:00+00:00

33

ARGENTINA

The next morning at the port of Mar del Plata, Eddie stood on the dock as the Oregon’s lone functional crane lowered a truck taken out of the ship’s cargo hold. The boxy-looking vehicle with the large four-person cab and oversized tires looked as rusted and junky as the vessel it was removed from. Its side bore the faded words VERTEGAS OIL EXPLORATION. The PIG, which stood for “Powered Investigator, Ground,” looked completely unremarkable, just as intended.

The customs inspector watched it coming down with a faintly repulsed expression.

“This thing actually is working?” he asked in heavily accented English as he checked his clipboard.

Eddie nodded. “You’d be surprised.”

“I am surprised. Show me.”

When it reached the ground, Raven and Linc detached the cables while Eddie took the inspector on a quick tour of the truck. He opened the rear doors and revealed that the cargo bay was stacked floor to ceiling with six steel drums.

“What are these?” the inspector asked.

“Spare fuel,” Eddie replied. “We plan to be exploring some remote regions in the south.”

The inspector knocked on one of the barrels and heard the distinctive sound of a full container of liquid echoing back.

“If you want, I can take one out for you to look inside,” Eddie offered.

The inspector thought about it, then glanced at his watch.

“You’re probably in a hurry,” Eddie said, flashing a few hundred American dollars he was holding in his hand. “Maybe we can both get out of here sooner.”

The inspector eyed the money and slowly nodded. “I think that is best.”

He handed over the clipboard so that Eddie could sign the customs form. He tucked the bills under the paper and gave it back with a smile.

“Thank you, señor.”

“De nada.”

As the inspector walked off, tucking the money in his pocket, Raven said, “Have you ever had to show an inspector that there really is fuel in those drums?”

Eddie shook his head. “But I always offer, which makes them think that we aren’t hiding anything.”

Although the six drums were actually full of spare fuel, the ones behind them, that would be exposed by their removal, were simply half shells concealing the real cargo bay.

The PIG was Max’s brainchild, and he had designed it from the ground up. The beefed-up Mercedes Unimog chassis was fitted with an armored body strong enough to withstand rifle fire, and the self-sealing tires were driven by an eight-hundred-horsepower turbo-diesel that could be nitrous-boosted for short periods up to one thousand horses.

A .30 caliber machine gun was hidden in the front bumper, and rockets could be fired from racks that swung down from the PIG’s sides. A seamless hatch in the roof would slide back to allow the launch of mortar rounds, and a smoke generator could lay down a thick screen of fumes behind the truck.

Eric and Murph had persuaded Max to add a feature to the drive-by-wire system that would let someone operate the PIG remotely with a handheld control. Raven had it in her pocket.

Although the cargo bay could hold up

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