Flood Tide - Cussler Clive - Страница 55

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“That is most gracious of you, but I am not a man who asks for favors without compensation.”

“I will accept no money, but there is one provision.”

“You have but to name it.”

“I humbly ask that you use your enormous resources in an attempt to locate the lost treasures so they can be returned to the people of China.”

Qin Shang nodded solemnly. “I promise to use every source at my command. Though I have only spent fifteen years to your thirty on the search, I regret to say I have made little progress. The mystery is as deep as the disappearance of the bones of the Peking man.”

“You have found no leads either?” inquired Zhu Kwan.

“The only key to a possible solution my own agents have turned up is a ship called the Princess Dou Wan.”

“I remember her well. I sailed on her with my mother and father to Singapore when I was a young boy. She was a fine ship. As I recall, she was owned by Canton Lines. I searched for clues to her disappearance myself some years ago. What is her connection with the lost art treasures?”

“Shortly after Chiang Kai-shek looted the national museums and plundered the private collections of our ancestors' art treasures, the Princess Dou Wan sailed for an unknown destination. She never reached it. My agents have failed to trace any eyewitnesses. It seems many of them also disappeared under mysterious circumstances. No doubt lying in unmarked graves, courtesy of Chiang Kai-shek, who wanted no secrets about the ship to leak to the Communists.”

“You think Chiang Kai-shek tried to smuggle the treasures away on the Princess Dou Wan?”

“The coincidence and odd events lead me to believe so.”

“That would answer many questions. The only records I could find on the Princess Dou Wan suggested that she was lost on the way to the scrappers at Singapore.”

“Actually, her trail ends somewhere in the sea west of Chile, where a distress signal was reported received from a ship calling herself the Princess Dou Wan before she sank with all hands in a violent storm.”

“You have done well, Qin Shang,” said Zhu Kwan. “Perhaps now you can solve the puzzle?”

Qin Shang shook his head dejectedly. “Easier said than done. She could have gone down anywhere within a four-hundred-square-mile area. An American would compare it to looking for a needle in a field of haystacks.”

“This is not a quest to cast aside as too difficult. A search must be conducted. Our most priceless national treasures must be recovered.”

“I agree. That's why I built a search-and-survey ship precisely for that purpose. My salvage crew has been crisscrossing the site for six months and has seen no indication of a hulk on the seabed matching the size and description of the Princess Dou Wan.”

“I pray you do not give up,” Zhu Kwan said solemnly. “To discover and return the artifacts for display in the People's museums and galleries would make you immortal.”

“The reason I've asked you here tonight. I wish for you to put forth your greatest effort in finding a clue to the ship's final whereabouts. I will pay you well for any new information you discover.”

“You are a great patriot, Qin Shang.”

But any expectation Zhu Kwan had that Qin Shang was on a noble quest for the people of China was quickly dashed. Qin Shang looked at him and smiled. “I have achieved great wealth and power in my lifetime. I do not search for immortality. I do it because I cannot die unfulfilled. I shall never rest until the treasures are found and retrieved.”

The veil shrouding Qin Shang's evil intentions was ripped away. The billionaire was no moralist. If he was fortunate enough to find the Princess and her priceless cargo, he had every intention of keeping it for himself. Every piece, no matter how large or small, would become part of a hidden collection that only Qin Shang would enjoy.

Qin Shang was lying in bed studying financial reports on his far-flung business empire when the phone beside his bed chimed softly. Unlike most unmarried men in his position, he usually slept alone. He admired women and summoned one when he occasionally felt desire, but business and finance were his passion. He thought smoking and drinking wasted time, as did seduction. He was too disciplined for a common affair. He felt only disgust for men of power and wealth who wasted themselves with dissipation and debauchery. He picked up the phone. “Yes?”

“You asked me to call you regardless of time of night,” came the voice of his secretary, Su Zhong.

“Yes, yes,” he said impatiently, his train of thought interrupted. “What is the latest report on the United States?”

“She left her dock at seven o'clock this evening. All automated systems are functioning normally. Unless she encounters heavy storms at sea, she should make Panama in record time.” “Is a crew standing by to board and to take her through the canal?”

“Preparations have been made,” answered Su Zhong. “Once the ship enters the Caribbean, the crew will reengage the automated systems for her journey to Sungari and disembark.”

“Any word on the intruders at the shipyard?” “Only that it was a very professional operation using a highly sophisticated submersible.” “And my underwater security team?” “Their bodies have been recovered. None survived. Most appear to have died from concussion. The patrol boat was found at the Harbor Authority dock, but the crew has vanished.”

“The Iranian-registered freighter that was moored nearby the shipyard—has she been boarded and investigated?”

“Her name is the Oregon. She departed slightly ahead of the United States. According to our sources at Naval Command, it was overtaken at your request by Captain Yu Tien of the cruiser Chengdo. His last message said that the freighter had heaved to and he was sending a boarding party of marines to inspect her.”

“Nothing from Captain Yu Tien since then?” asked Qin Shang. “Only silence.”

“Perhaps his boarding party found incriminating evidence and he has seized the ship and disposed of the crew under strict secrecy.”

“No doubt that is the situation,” agreed Su Zhong.

“What else do you have for me?”

“Your agents are also questioning the guard at the main gate who claimed that three men, one of them wearing the uniform of a security officer, presented stolen credentials and entered the shipyard in a Rolls-Royce. It was thought they drove directly to the United States, but this cannot be verified since all guards were ordered off the dock just prior to her sailing.”

“I want answers,” Qin Shang said angrily. “I want to know what organization is responsible for spying on my operations. I want to know who is behind the intrusion and the deaths of our security people.”

“Do you wish Pavel Gavrovich to head up the investigation?” asked Su Zhong.

Qin Shang thought a moment. “No, I want him to concentrate on eliminating Dirk Pitt.”

“At last report, Pitt was in Manila.”

“The Philippines?” Qin Shang said, his composure slipping away. “Pitt was in the Philippines, just two hours away from Hong Kong by air? Why wasn't I told of this?”

“Word only came hi from Gavrovich an hour ago. He trailed Pitt to a dockyard in Manila, where he and his partner, Albert Giordino, were observed being taken aboard an Iranian cargo ship.”

Qin Shang's voice became quiet and vicious. “The same Iranian freighter that stood off the United States?”

“A positive match has not yet been confirmed,” said Su Zhong. “But every indication suggests that they are one and the same.”

“Somehow, Pitt is mixed up in this affair. As the National Underwater and Marine Agency's special projects director, it stands to reason he can operate and pilot a submersible. But what possible interest can NUMA have in my operations?”

“His involvement at Orion Lake appears to be accidental,” said Su Zhong. “But perhaps he is now working with another United States investigative agency such as the INS or CIA?”

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