The Rising Sea (with Graham Brown) by Clive Cussler

Author:Clive Cussler [Cussler, Clive]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
ISBN: 9780735215542
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons; Penguin Random House
Published: 2018-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

30

CNR FACTORY

HAN MADE IT from the ceremony to his office without further interruption. He shut the door firmly and took a seat at his desk. In silence, he contemplated the interruption he’d just dealt with. Something had to be done about the interference from Austin and NUMA.

He placed his finger on a scanner built into his desktop. After reading his fingerprint, it confirmed his identity and released the locks on his desk. From the second drawer down, he pulled out a special phone and plugged it into a dedicated jack in the side of his computer.

With a few taps of the keyboard, he initiated an encryption program and then placed a call. A yellow icon appeared on-screen as the initial connection was made. The symbol turned green once the encryption codes were accepted and matched.

“Secure line,” a voice said from the other end.

“Secure line,” Han repeated. “Connect me to the Minister.”

“Stand by.”

As he waited, Han loosened his tie, which had begun to feel constricting around his neck. That done, he poured himself a drink and took a large gulp from the glass.

The voice came over the computer speaker. “I have the Minister, sir. Go ahead.”

The line cleared and he was connected to Wen Li at his office in Beijing. “We have a problem,” Han said. “We need to call off the operation.”

There was a brief moment of static before Wen Li replied. “We have problems on several fronts,” Wen admitted, “but it’s too late for us to turn back. Things have been put in motion that cannot be stopped.”

“We’re facing risk of imminent exposure,” Han said. “Kurt Austin confronted me today regarding a geological anomaly on the bottom of the East China Sea.”

“That would not surprise me,” Wen said, “except that you told me Austin had been eliminated.”

Han had known they were alive since the incident at the casino, but he hadn’t reported that information back to Wen. “I was led to believe they’d been killed in the fire,” he said. “They must have falsified their deaths and continued to investigate. An amateurish ploy.”

“Which you seem to have fallen for.”

Han burned with indignation. “Maybe you’re not grasping the magnitude of what I’ve just said. Austin came here—to my place of business—he walked right up to me, only moments after I finished my appearance with the Japanese Prime Minister. That cannot be a coincidence. It means they’ve connected CNR and me to the events in the Serpent’s Jaw. They intend to survey the area. It will lead to the mining site.”

“A bluff,” Wen said.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because they’ve already surveyed it,” Wen explained, “and they found nothing.”

Han was stunned. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one keeping information to himself. “How and when did this occur?”

“Yesterday,” Wen replied. “We detected signals emanating from an ROV. Sonar was intermittent, due to the small size of the submersible, but we’re almost certain that they found the original mining site.”

Han put a hand to his temple and massaged away the growing pain. “How could this happen? I thought naval units of the PLA had that area locked down.

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