Monroe shook his head. "Ten years ago she was sold to a Turkish millionaire who advertised that he was going to refit and put her into service as a floating university."

"Not a practical scheme," Sandecker said bluntly. "No matter how she's refitted, by today's standards she's too large and too expensive to operate and maintain."

"A deception." For the first time Monroe grinned. "The rich

Turk turned out to be our friend Qin Shang. The United States was towed from Norfolk across the sea into the Mediterranean, past Istanbul and into the Black Sea to Sevastopol. The Chinese do not have a dry dock that can take a ship that size. Shang hired the Russians to convert her into a modern cruise ship."

"It makes no sense. He'll lose his shirt, he must know that."

"It makes a lot of sense if Shang intends to use the United States as a cover to move illegal aliens," said Ferguson. "The CIA also thinks the People's Republic bankrolled Shang. The Chinese have a small navy. If they should ever get serious about invading Taiwan, they'll need troop transports. The United States could transport an entire division, including then-heavy arms and equipment."

"I fully understand that sinister threats call for urgent measures." Sandecker paused and massaged his temples with his fingertips for a few moments. Then he announced, "The resources of NUMA are at your command. We'll give it our best effort."

The President nodded as though he had expected that. "Thank you, Admiral. I'm sure Mr. Monroe and Admiral Ferguson join me in expressing our gratitude."

Gunn's thoughts were already on the job ahead. "It would be most helpful," he said, his eyes on Monroe and Harper, "if you had agents on the inside of Shang's organization to feed us information."

Monroe made a helpless gesture with his hands. "Shang's security is incredibly tight. He's hired a top group of former Russian KGB agents to form an impenetrable ring that even the CIA has yet to infiltrate. They have a computerized personnel identification and investigation system that is second to none. There is no one within Shang's own management circles who is not under constant surveillance."

"To date," added Harper, "we've lost two special agents who attempted to penetrate Shang's organization. Except for one of our agents who posed as an immigrant and bought her passage on board one of Shang's smuggling ships, our undercover missions are in shambles. I hate to admit such failure, but those are the hard facts."

"Your agent is a woman?" asked Sandecker. "Comes from a wealthy Chinese family. She's one of our best."

"Any idea where the smugglers will put your agent ashore?" asked Gunn.

Harper shook his head. "We're not in contact with her. They could drop her and the rest of the illegal immigrants anywhere between San Francisco and Anchorage."

"How do you know Shang's security people haven't already caught on to her as they did your other two agents?"