Temple of Fire Read Free Page B

sense for danger.  He had several hunches as to what might have happened at Camp 12A , and none of them made him feel safe.
    He was going to move in closer before the day was out.  Was it wise to do so?
    No, but he had his motives.
     

Bridge
Aboard the Alamiranta
     
    Catherine Caine stood next to Captain Nikos Papagantis .
    “The typhoon has changed direction since yesterday,” said Papagantis .  “The Proteus 9 probe and other data from the weather lab suggest that it has begun to move northwest.”
    “In other words,” said Caine , “straight for us.”
    “I’m afraid so.  Until an hour ago, our forecast models showed it impacting Baja.”
    “Let’s get under way,” said Caine .  “Due west.”
    “I’m afraid we can’t outrun it,” said the Captain.  “Beatrice can move faster than the ship.”
    “That’s absurd,” said Caine .
    “I’m afraid not, ma’am.  I just got word that the engine room’s main reactor is offline indefinitely.  It has accumulated the maximum amount of radiation that specs call for, and we need to purge the rads at our next layover.  We can move under auxiliary diesel power, but the storm is going to overtake us within three hours.  We don’t want to be caught in one of the storm’s main feeder bands for any length of time.”
    “Any ideas, Captain?”
    “Actually, yes.   We move very slowly to the northwest, letting Beatrice overtake us.  We then cruise at best possible speed, trying to stay in the eye of the typhoon, where seas are calm.”
    The attractive, slender CEO of Titan Global folded her arms and looked at the Pacific from the ship’s ultra-modern bridge.  “The word is given,” said Caine .  “Let’s do it.”
     
    Titan Six
    Above the Pacific Ocean
    Titan Six was aboard a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk stealth helicopter.  It had flown south during the early hours of the morning to avoid Beatrice, but was now veering east towards Mexico .  It would shortly loop northeast to Titan’s airbase.
    “Sorry about the detour, ladies and gentlemen,” said the pilot.  “Flying through hurricanes is not recommended, as you can well imagine.  We’ll be landing at Airstrip BC in about sixty minutes.”
    BC was Titan code for Bravo Cantina.
    “I’ve got Mrs. Caine on the COM,” said the pilot.  “She’d like to brief you on your assignment now.”
    “Put it on speaker,” said Hawkeye.  “We don’t have our helmets on.”
    “Roger that,” said the pilot.
    Hawkeye sat with his team for the mission: Tank, Shooter, and Gator.  David Denton, nicknamed Quiz, had taken the place of Pyro because of the young man’s in-depth knowledge of geology.  He’d also performed admirably on the team’s mission to Mont St. Michel to rescue his grandfather, the wealthy and eccentric scientist Charles Whittingon .  Dr. Christian Madison was on the team to help provide scientific support.
    “Our client for this mission is U.S. Petroleum,” Caine began.  “They’ve been drilling for oil in northeast Nevada in what is known as the Great Basin Desert .  They’re looking for abiogenic petroleum.”
    Christian Madison let out a low whistle.  “That’s radical. I didn’t know that anybody but the Russians were interested in the theory of abiogenic crude oil.”
    “Fill them in, Doctor,” said Caine .
    “Most scientists believe that oil is made from organic compounds — plankton and algae, for instance — subjected to intense heat and pressure.  Some scientists, however, such as Nikolai Kudryavtsev , have believeded for quite some time that petroleum is too rich in hydrocarbons to be formed anywhere else except deep in the earth.  They advocate the theory that carbon-rich fluids migrate up from the earth’s mantle.  This model predicts that far more oil is available than geologists have heretofore believed to be the case.  Present estimates say that we have enough petroleum for no more than another hundred years.  If the abiogenic theory is