Cabrillo nodded. "You heard correct. All hell must have broken loose when the Chinese learned we sank one of their cruisers along with its crew. They'll use every arm-twisting scheme in the diplomatic book to have us arrested and the ship impounded the minute we sail into Manila."

"What then is our destination?"

"Guam," answered Cabrillo. "We'll be safe in American territory."

"I'm deeply sorry about the death and injuries to your crew and damage to your ship," said Pitt sincerely. "The blame belongs on my shoulders. If I hadn't insisted you delay your departure from Hong Kong to search inside the liner, the Oregon might have gotten clear."

"Blame?" Cabrillo said sharply. "You think you're the cause of all that's happened? Don't flatter yourself. I wasn't ordered by Dirk Pitt to covertly search the United States. I made a contract with the U.S. government to fulfill a mission. All decisions relating to the search were mine and mine alone."

"You and your crew paid a high price."

"Maybe so, but the corporation was damn well rewarded for it. In fact, we're already guaranteed a fat bonus."

"Still—"

"Still, hell. The mission would have been a bust if you and Giordino hadn't learned what you did. To someone, somewhere in the hallowed halls of our intelligence agencies the information will be considered vital to the nation's interest."

"All we really learned," said Pitt, "is that a former ocean liner, gutted of every nonessential piece of equipment and owned by a master criminal, is sailing without a crew to a port in the United States owned by the same master criminal."

"I'd say that's quite a store of information."

"What good is it if we've yet to fathom the motivation?"

"I have confidence you'll divine the answer when you get back to the States."

"We probably won't learn anything solid until Qin Shang tips his hand."

"The Ancient Mariner and the Hying Dutchman had ghostly crews."

"Yes, but they were works of classic fiction."

Cabrillo set his pipe in an ashtray; he was beginning to look tired. "My theory about the United States blowing up the Panama Canal might have held water if you'd found her bowels filled with high explosives."

"Like the old lend-lease destroyer during a commando raid at Saint-Nazaire, France, in World War II," said Pitt.

"The Campbeltown. I remember. The British packed her with several tons of explosives and rammed her into the big dry dock at the Saint-Nazaire shipyard so the Nazis couldn't use it to refit the Tirpitz. With the help of a timing device, she blew to pieces several hours later, destroying the dry dock and killing over a hundred Nazis who came to stare at her."

"You'd need several trainloads of explosives to blow a ship the size of the United States out of existence and everything within a mile around her."

"Qin Shang is capable of most anything. Could it be he got his hands on a nuclear bomb?"