“Many of the cases reported by witnesses to the Soviet and American experiments said they saw an aurora borealis, or great burst of light caused by electromagnetic transmissions,” Hibbet said.

“Tell us more about these experiments,” Austin said.

“There's a great deal of controversy over a project called HAARP, short for the High Frequency Active Aural Research Program, being carried out by this country. The idea is to shoot a focused electromagnetic beam into the ionosphere. It's been billed as an academic program to improve worldwide communications. Some people speculate that it's mainly a military project aimed at a wide range of goals, from 'Star Wars' defense to mind control. I don't know what to believe, but the project has its roots in the Kovacs Theorems.”

“You said something about a Tesla coil,” said Austin. “What did you mean?”

“It was a simple type of resonant transformer made up of two coils, actually. Pulses of energy are transferred from one to the other to produce a lightninglike discharge. You've probably seen them in the movies, where they seem to be a common fixture in the lab of the mad scientist.”

Gamay had been listening intently to the discussion. She leaned forward. “We've talked about the transmission of these waves into solid ground or the atmosphere,” she said. “What would happen if you sent them into the bottom of the sea?”

Hibbet spread his palms wide apart. “I don't have a clue. Ocean geology isn't my area of expertise.”

“But it is mine,” Paul Trout said. “Let me ask you a question, Al. Could amplified electromagnetic waves penetrate deep into the earth's crust?”

“Without question.”

“In that case, it's possible that the transmissions could cause some anomalies in the earth's mantle in roughly the same way the HAARP program you talked about disturbed the atmosphere.”

“What sort of anomalies?” Adler asked.

“Whirlpools and eddies, possibly.”

“Could these create disturbances in the sea?” Austin asked.

Hibbet pinched his chin. “The swirling molten layer under the crust is what creates the magnetic field that surrounds the earth. Any disruption of the field has the potential to cause all sorts of disturbances.”

Professor Adler pounded his fist on the table. “I knew I was right! Someone has been monkeying around with my ocean.”

“But we're talking about vast distances and miles of surface material,” Trout said, temporarily squelching Adler's exuberance. “My sense of this discussion is that it's going back to Joe's big spark plug. Or Al's coil. Even if the device turned out enormous power, it would still be puny compared to the mass of the earth.”

Austin broke the brief silence that followed Trout's evaluation. “What if there were more than one device?”

He pushed the laptop to the center of the table and slowly spun it around so everyone could see the blips surrounding the disturbed area.

Trout grasped the significance right away. “Four ships, each concentrating its power on a small area. That might work.”