“Come in,” Coffey blurted. The attorney sat up slowly on the edge of the bed. Even so, he had to stop and prop himself on an elbow as his stomach remained horizontal.

A young sailor entered carrying a large radio handset. “Sir, there’s a call for you.”

“Thank you,” Coffey said weakly as he extended his free hand.

The young seaman gave him the unit, then left and shut the door. Coffey lay back down.

“Yes?” he said.

“Lowell, it’s Paul.”

“Hey, Paul,” Coffey said weakly.

“Wow,” Hood said. “It sounds like I’m waking everyone today.”

“No, you didn’t wake me,” Coffey said. “I’m just trying not to make any excessive moves. That includes my vocal chords.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Whatever the opposite of water baby is, that’s me.”

“I see,” Hood said.

“What’s been happening?” Coffey asked.

“Your ships are being watched,” Hood said.

That opened Coffey’s eyes. The attorney rolled onto his side. He ignored the complaints from his belly. “How? By whom?”

“By a Chinese satellite,” Hood told the attorney. “It’s apparently being time-shared by the North Koreans. We have an idea who may be running the actual surveillance, though we don’t know who may have ordered it. Bob is looking into that now.”

“You know, it could be nothing at all,” Coffey said. “It may be a planned reconnaissance. I’m sure the North Koreans routinely watch the military activities of other nations in this region.”

“They do, but military traffic is uncommon in that sector,” Hood said. “This is not someplace they would have targeted without a reason.”

“That reason being we may have been seen or heard or ratted out,” Coffey suggested.

“In a manner of speaking,” Hood replied. “We don’t know yet how it happened. What’s the latest over there?”

“Jelbart and Loh are still trying to find the ship that made the drop-off here,” Coffey replied. “The only thing we’re sure of is that it did not leave the way it was supposed to.”

“How do you know that?”

“The ships that come here are required to file an itinerary with the International Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” Coffey told him. “FNO Loh called Paya Lebar Airbase and asked for an air force F5 Tiger II flyover of the route. The jet didn’t find any ship there. Jelbart informed the INRC and asked for their help. They were useless.”

“What do you mean?”

“Roughly half the ships are spot-checked on their way to this site, when they are carrying nuclear materials,” Coffey told him. “They are boarded and checked for radiation leaks, security, general seaworthiness. The ships are not checked after they leave the site.”

“So no one knows if they have even made the drop,” Hood said.

“Correct.”

“That’s insane,” Hood said.