“We didn't consider the violent ocean disruptions that would be caused by the anomalies we created in the earth's electromagnetic field. From what you told me, the disruptions continued even after we stopped transmitting and moved the ships off. The magma under the earth's crust must continue to move even after the initial stimulus. It's like the secondary ripples that bounce around a pond when you throw a rock into the water. That's the dangerous part of the theorems. It's what worried Kovacs. The unpredictability of the whole thing.”

“What were you doing the day I saw you in Puget Sound?”

“After the Southern Belle sank, I went back to the drawing board. I was conducting a test, using a miniaturized version of the setup on the transmitter.”

“That's what drove the orcas into a frenzy?”

He nodded.

“What was the problem?”

“The waves were bouncing all over the place. We had made an educated guess, but even if it were off by a nanosecond the transmissions can go haywire.”

“So Kovacs was wrong?”

Barrett threw his arms wide apart. “He published his general theory as a warning to the world, but he withheld the information that would make it work. Look, it's like an atomic bomb. You can find plans for an A-bomb on the Internet, and you can even acquire the materials to put one together. But unless you have specific knowledge about the way things act, it's going to fail, and the best you can get is a dirty, radioactive bomb. That's what we've got here; the electromagnetic equivalent of a dirty bomb.”

“The loss of your ship must have stopped the project in its tracks,” Austin said.

“It only delayed it. We had a ship in reserve. It's being moved onto station for the big, major zapping.”

“Where is that going to be?”

“Tris never told me. There were a number of possible locations. The final choice is all in his head.”

“How did you get into this insanity?”

“In a very routine way. I first brought the Kovacs Theorems to Tris's attention. I thought there might be something there for our company, but he saw it as a way to advance his anarchist cause. He asked me to develop a system that would cause a temporary magnetic shift. I saw it as a technical challenge. Using Kovacs's work as a basis, I filled in the gaps.”

“Tell me about the attempt on your life.”