“I'll have someone pick it up,” Austin said, taking him by the arm. “Too dangerous.”

Karla grabbed Barrett by the other arm, and they steered him to the Jeep. On the way back to Washington, Austin got on his cell phone, called Zavala and said he had an important job for him to do.

“I'll get right on it,” Zavala said after hearing the details. “I talked to the Trouts. Good news. They traced the transmitter ship to Rio via satellite and are on their way.”

LESS THAN an hour later, Austin pulled into the NUMA parking garage with Barrett and Karla and they took the elevator to the third floor. The corridors were silent and dark except for a shaft of light coming from the study next to the conference room. Zavala had brought Hibbet in as Austin had requested.

Austin said, “Thanks for coming, Alan. Sorry for yanking you here a second time, but we need your help.”

“I meant it when I told you to call night or day if you needed me. Is there anything new since we talked the last time?”

“We've confirmed that the whirlpool and giant waves were side effects of an experiment in causing a polar reversal. And that the magnetic reversal could trigger a geologic reversal with catastrophic implications for the world.”

Hibbet's face turned ashen. “Is there any way to stop this from happening?”

Austin's lips tightened in a thin smile. “I'm hoping that you can tell us.”

“Me? I don't understand.”

“This is Spider Barrett,” Austin said. “He designed the mechanism to trigger a polar reversal.”

Hibbet glanced at the sad-faced Barrett and his tattooed head. He'd been around long enough to know that the sciences attracted its share of oddballs. He extended his hand. “Brilliant work.”

Barrett beamed at the professional recognition. “Thanks.”

Austin sensed an instant synergy between the two men. “We want you to work with Spider, Joe and Karla to build an antenna capable of neutralizing the low-level electromagnetic waves that are being used to create a polar shift.”

“Building the antenna won't be a problem. It's nothing but metal and wire. But you could use it to hang laundry, for all the good it would do without the correct frequencies that would act to buffer those being used to stir things up.”

Karla smiled and slipped a folded sheet of paper from her blouse. Using infinite care, she unfolded the paper and slid it across the table to Hibbet. He picked the napkin up and frowned as he read the equation written on it. Then the light of understanding dawned in his eyes.

“Where did you get this?” he said in a whisper.

“My grandfather,” Karla said.

“Karla's grandfather was Lazlo Kovacs,” Austin said. “He encoded his work before he passed it down. Thanks to Spider, we've figured it out. Now that we've done all the hard work, can you build us an antenna?”

“Yes,” Hibbet said. “At least, I think I can.”