Sea of Greed

“Front gate of the Kirya coming up,” the driver said.

He was soon passing through the outer gate. From there, he quickly reached central reception, where Rudi’s NUMA ID was enough to get him in front of a receptionist from the Office of Naval Records.

“I’m here to see Admiral Natal,” he said, holding out his credentials yet again.

The uniformed aide checked his computer screen. “There’s nothing on the Admiral’s calendar about a visitor from NUMA.”

“I’m an old friend,” Rudi said. “Please, just give the Admiral my name.”

“He’s very busy.”

“As he should be,” Rudi said. “But tell him I’ll wait. All day, if I have to.”

Rudi’s patience was not required. He would cool his heels for no more than five minutes before the aide returned and escorted him to Admiral Natal’s office. There, the two men shook hands warmly and sized each other up after several years without face-to-face contact.

“Wait all day, would you?” the Admiral said. “You’ve used that trick on me before.”

Admiral Natal was thirty years Rudi’s senior, nearly the same height and pure gray on top. He’d spent two years as a visiting professor at Annapolis back when Rudi was a student at the Naval Academy. They’d seen each other occasionally at functions since then and had even worked together on a project several years back.

“You’d misgraded my test,” Rudi reminded him.

“I misgraded everyone’s exam,” the Admiral said. “The true test was seeing who would come in and argue their score. You were the only one who waited for me to return. And all for a few meaningless extra points that wouldn’t affect your A plus.”

“I like getting things right,” Rudi said. “Which is why I’m here. To make something right and to ask you several questions.”

“Somehow, I didn’t think it would be a personal visit. What’s on your mind?”

“NUMA has a crew diving on the Dakar,” Rudi said.

The Admiral’s face tensed. “That boat is a tomb, Rudi. Of all people, I would expect you to understand that. What possible reason could you have for disturbing it?”

Rudi didn’t offer any reasons just yet. “We’ve recovered personal artifacts that we’d like to return to the families of the men who were lost. I assume I can have them delivered here, to you?”

“Of course,” Natal said, leaning back in his chair and staring at Rudi as if trying to gauge him. “But I’m sure you haven’t come all this way just to ask me that.”

“No, I didn’t,” Rudi said. “I came to ask you about the Dakar’s cargo. I need to know what she was carrying when she went down.”

“Carrying?”

“I have good reason to believe there was a biological weapon on board,” Rudi said. “A strain of bacteria that feasts on hydrocarbons, destroying the productive capacity of oil fields and creating dangerous toxic gases that cannot be safely handled.”

The Admiral seemed unmoved. “Rudi, this sounds like fantasy.”

Rudi had expected some pushback. “It cannot have escaped you what’s going on around the world right now. It started right after someone else dived on the Dakar and cut that ship apart.”

For the first time, Natal appeared unnerved. “Cut it apart?”

“It’s sitting on the bottom in three sections,” Rudi said. “It’s been ransacked and cleaned out. We’ve found equipment and personal effects strewn all over the seafloor. We also found this.”

Rudi reached into his pocket and pulled out the French naval pin that Kurt had recovered. He placed it on the Admiral’s desk, pausing and then sliding it over to him.

The Admiral picked it up and looked it over, front and back.

Rudi gave him time to process what he was holding. “We’ve found the remnants of three separate uniforms belonging not to the INS sailors but to crewmen from La Royale.”

La Royale was the nickname of the French Navy. He looked at the pin once more, shook his head softly and sighed.

“We know there was a weapon,” Rudi said. “We know it was developed in conjunction with the French. We assume this pin came from a sailor working with your people before the weapon was stolen.”

“It was stolen,” Natal insisted, “but by the French, not by us.”

“Then what was it doing on board the Dakar?” Rudi asked. “And why would the French Air Force sink a vessel partially crewed by their own personnel?”

The Admiral turned the pin over in his hand several more times. “I had a feeling someone would come to ask that question one day. I suppose I should be thankful it’s you.” He slid the pin back to Rudi. “This is not something my country can admit to. We have enough enemies in this world already. And, in all honesty, we assumed the weapon had been destroyed by the effects of time.”

“I understand Israel’s position in the world,” Rudi said. “That’s why I’m here in person. Nothing needs to be disclosed, but we need the antidote, the counteragent. Or at least the scientific data showing us how it was created.”

“Don’t you think we’d have already given it to you if we had it?”

“I would hope so.”