“Not yet, but they’ll be able to figure it out with enough research. Admiral Tsai’s drawing was pretty specific. A good computer program and Google Earth should do it. But here’s the thing: even if they don’t find it, they can still claim the ship visited Antarctica. Who’s to stop them?”

“We are.”

“What’s the official White House position?”

“Events are unfolding too fast. They haven’t said much, beyond the usual condemnation.”

“What does your gut tell you?”

“I honestly don’t know. China currently holds the lion’s share of our national debt, so they have us over a barrel in that respect. Also, logically, are we willing to go to war over a part of the world only a handful of people care about?”

“This is about principles,” Juan pointed out. “Do we stick to our ideals and risk lives for a bunch of penguins and a forty-year-old treaty or do we let them get away with it?”

“That’s it in a nutshell, and I don’t know what the President will do. Hell, I don’t know how I feel. Part of me says to kick the bastards back to Beijing and Buenos Aires, but what’s the point? Let them have the oil and the penguins. It’s not worth putting our military personnel in harm’s way.”

“Dicey call,” Juan agreed, though in his mind the decision was a no-brainer. Argentina broke a binding international treaty by invading neighboring territory that didn’t belong to them. They deserved the full wrath of the United States, and any other signatory to the Antarctic Treaty. He suddenly remembered something. “Has NASA had a chance to analyze the power cell we recovered from their downed satellite?”

“Yes, and it is possible it was shot down, like your guy suggested, though they hedged and said the cause was indeterminate.”

“Why would they risk it?” Cabrillo mused. “Why, with everything at stake, would they take the chance and intentionally shoot down one of our birds?”

“If you want a real head-scratcher, it wasn’t a spy satellite and was never rumored to be one. It was designed to monitor carbon dioxide emissions and was going to be used to make sure countries stay within their targets when and if a new treaty is implemented to replace the Kyoto Protocol.”

Juan remained quiet for a moment, thinking. “Of course,” he said. “They can hide the thermal signature of their Antarctic activities using sea water, but oil-and-gas exploration would produce a dense plume of carbon dioxide in a place that shouldn’t have any. Once that satellite went active, we’d have known exactly what they were up to.”

“If they were going to annex the peninsula only a week after shooting down the satellite, why bother?” Overholt asked.