Austin nodded. “I'll show you something else that's interesting.” He called up the image taken shortly after the Belle sank. “My guess is that one of these ships became a victim of the sea disturbances it created.”

There was a murmur of agreement around the table.

“That might explain how,” Zavala said. “What I can't figure is why?”

“Before we answer that question,” Austin said, “maybe we should concentrate on who. This isn't a case of someone making waves in a bathtub. Nameless and faceless people have gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to stir up the ocean. They have killed the crews of two ships, that we know of, and caused the loss of millions of dollars in property, in their quest for some nameless goal.” He looked around the table. “Are we all ready to get down to work?”

Hibbet started to rise.

“I hope you're going to get more coffee?” Austin said with a grin.

Hibbet looked embarrassed. “No, actually, I was about to head into my office at NUMA. I assumed that you had all you need.”

“Joe, tell Al about our 'Hotel California' rule.”

“Glad to. It's like the old Eagles song, Al. Once you've been recruited into the Special Assignments Team, you can check out but you can never leave.”

“We need your expertise in electromagnetism,” Austin said. “It would be a great help if you could see from a technical point of view if these pipe dreams have any basis in reality. Where can we learn more about the Kovacs Theorems?”

“My best advice is to go right to the source. The research in this country was done in Los Alamos. There's even a Kovacs Society out there that's a repository for his work and documents. I've contacted them from time to time with questions.”

Austin turned to Adler. “Could you work with Al and come up with a paper? Joe, building a fleet of floating power plants is a pretty big deal. Those dynamos were probably commercially built.”

“I'll see if I can come up with a point of origin,” Zavala said.

“We could be in New Mexico this afternoon and back here tomorrow,” Gamay said.

Austin nodded. “Find out how far those experiments went and if they're still going on. We'll work up everything ever written about Kovacs. Maybe we'll find a nugget that will make it worth our while.”

He thanked everyone for coming, and suggested they meet the same time the next day. He and Zavala would get together in a few hours at NUMA headquarters. On his way back into the house, Austin passed his bookcase and noticed the volume on Plato.

Shadows and echoes.Echoes and shadows.

He wondered what Plato would have made of this new enigma.

NUMA 6 - Polar Shift

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