Sea of Fire

Chapter Eleven

The RAN Iroquois helicopter carrying Female Naval Defence Technical Officer Monica Loh of COSCOM, the Coastal Command of the Republic of Singapore Navy, landed on the helipad at the Royal Darwin Hospital. The pad was typically used by the Rescue Birds — helicopters that brought patients from the regions surrounding Darwin. Formerly an officer with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group, the five-foot-seven-inch Loh walked several paces ahead of the two shorter male Naval Defence technicians who had accompanied her. The vessel to which Loh was attached, a 360-ton mine countermeasure vessel, was still at sea. Warrant Officer George Jelbart had dispatched the helicopter to get Major Loh to the Darwin hospital as quickly as possible.

Brian Ellsworth had sent a scanned photograph and fingerprints of an injured seaman to the Police Coast Guard at the Tanjong Pagar Complex in Singapore. Ellsworth had wanted any information the PCG might have on this individual. He was Lee Tong, a registered former seaman on the Lord of the Ocean container ship. The PCG wanted to know why Ellsworth needed this information. He told them, at the same time inviting someone from COSCOM to join the investigation. Since FNO Loh had experience in that area of the sea, as well as with explosive devices, she was sent to Darwin. The last time she had been involved with Australian officials was three years before. That was when the two nations had joined with Malaysian authorities to raid a warehouse on the Malaysian coast. They broke up a DVD pirating ring that the Australian Film and Video Security Office said was costing Hollywood producers over twenty-five million dollars a year in lost revenue.

Everyone wants to be in show business, she thought bitterly at the time. To carry out the raid, Loh's superiors had pulled her off a coinvestigation with the Home Affairs Ministry involving Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group recruiting Singaporean Muslims. These individuals were being used to spy on the American and Israeli embassies in Singapore. Fortunately, the Singaporean Muslims decided the risk was not worth the rewards. They quit the Lebanese terror unit before carrying out their mission.

Loh and her two aides were met by a pair of RAN leading seamen and escorted to the back of the hospital. They were informed that a service elevator would take them to where the "items" were being stored.

It felt strange to be on land. Loh was used to the rocking of the MCMV, where she spent much of her time. Even the helicopter had felt more comfortable than solid, unmoving asphalt. It was also unusual for Loh to be in the sunshine. While the bulk of the twenty-eight-person crew searched for mines, she conducted signal intelligence operations in a segregated area of the ship. She listened for communiques that might suggest smuggling operations. If she detected anything unusual, the appropriate police or military unit was sent to investigate.

The fact that just the opposite was happening here did not surprise her. The thirty-four-year-old Loh did not share the viewpoint of many of her fellow female naval officers. They regarded the RSN nomenclature as dismissive, since male naval officers were simply referred to as naval officers. Loh did not agree. She sincerely believed that men had created the distinction for a reason. So that they would have somewhere to turn when things got difficult. Like now. Loh's father, Vendesan, was an officer with Singapore's Criminal Investigation Department. His specialty was gathering intelligence on the powerful secret societies that ran the nation's gambling, prostitution, and drug rings. Her father was very smart. But whenever Vendesan was baffled, he discussed the situation with his wife. Monica would often lie in bed, listening to their conversations. Her mother, Nurdiyana, was a school-teacher. More often than not, the woman would have sensible solutions to her husband's problems. It was the same with the FNOs. When roaring and mane shaking failed, the RSN lions sent in the smarter, cagier lionesses.

Not that Loh's father was like that. He respected women. And he respected intellect. Chinese, Malay, Tamil, and English were all official languages in Singapore. He spoke them all. At his insistence, Loh had learned them in school. He himself had taught her Japanese.

"Arms can subdue, but often at great cost," her father had once told her. "But languages can infiltrate and control. If used correctly, they give you power over groups and individuals."

Her father had been proof of that. He had survived forty-five years with the CID before retiring.

The Singaporeans and their escorts entered the spacious elevator and rode down three floors. The doors opened on a metal desk with a security guard seated behind it. A senior member of the Darwin Police Force was standing beside him. The officer tipped his hat to Loh as she walked past. If she were out of uniform, she would have found that sweet. In uniform, it made her uncomfortable. She would have preferred a salute. They walked a few steps to the morgue. The hospital guard buzzed them in. The two leading seamen did not enter.

The morgue was about twenty by twenty feet. There were refrigerated cabinets with stainless steel doors on the left-hand side. On the right side were shelves with chemicals, tools, and electronic equipment. There were two doors in the rear. In the center of the room was a row of gurneys. Dark aprons covered several of them. Loh assumed that these were lead-lined and that the remains of the boat were beneath them.

There were four other people in the brightly lit room. One of them walked over briskly and introduced himself. He was Brian Ellsworth, a short, rotund, balding man. Dressed in a black three-piece suit, the pale official looked as though he were dressed for his own funeral. Ellsworth introduced Warrant Officer George Jelbart, attorney Lowell Coffey III of the National Crisis Management Center in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Maud Forvey, a physicist at the Northern Territory University.

Loh introduced herself and her two aides.

"I want to thank you all for coming," Ellsworth said. "Frankly, we aren't sure precisely what we've stumbled upon. We hope you can help."

"You received the data from the Police Coast Guard," Loh said.

"Yes. We did, just now, thank you," Ellsworth said. "We have people checking to see if there is additional information about Mr. Tong."

"I would like to visit him," Loh said.

"We'll take you to his room in a minute," Ellsworth said. "First, if you don't mind, we'd like to know if there is anything you can tell us about the wreckage. We understand you've been at sea for ten years."

"That's right," she said.

"Mr. Jelbart believes it's from a sampan, but we aren't certain," Ellsworth said. "By the way, Dr. Forvey has checked the flotsam for radioactivity. It is extremely low level, perfectly safe for a brief exposure. Just don't handle any of the pieces without the proper attire."

Loh walked over to the gurneys. Dr. Forvey put on thick yellow gloves. She raised the end of one of the lead covers. The Singaporean officer looked at the charred pieces of planking.

"That's Foochow pine," she said.

"Are you certain?" Ellsworth asked.

"Absolutely. The Chinese use it to make mu-chi sampans."

"Do you ever see these in Singapore?" Warrant Officer Jelbart asked.

"Occasionally," Loh said. "They're mostly used for river travel."

"Why is that?" Ellsworth asked.

"The mu-chi sampans have a very low profile and can pass easily under most bridges," Loh informed him.

"Are they motorized?" Jelbart asked.

"They can be," she replied.

"Obviously this one was," Ellsworth said. "The question is, why take one of them to the middle of the Celebes Sea at night?"

"Piracy," Loh replied. "That's what sampans are used for in the South China Sea."

"That would make sense," Jelbart said. "The low profile would make it extremely difficult to spot on the horizon and difficult to pick up on radar. If they waited for night-fall, they could quietly oar their way to a ship."

"That's exactly what they do," Loh told him.

"What about using the sampans for smuggling?" Ellsworth asked.

"That is uncommon," Loh said. "There is not a lot of storage capability. They would not be very efficient when weighted down. Doctor, could you raise the apron a little higher?"

Dr. Forvey did so. Loh examined the wreckage for a long moment.

"There is something else," Loh said. "I don't believe that the explosion of a diesel engine caused this wreckage."

"How can you tell?" Ellsworth asked.

"The engine would have been located in the rear," she said. "The curve of these planks suggests they came from the front section. Something would have had to explode close to the planks to do this kind of damage. Also, the foxing along the sides of the wood is unusual. Petrol explosions produce sharp, splintering cracks. This wood was pulverized."

"Suggesting what?" Jelbart asked.

"That a powerful explosive device was on board," Loh said. "There have been reports over the last few years about a band of pirates who place explosives on the hulls of ships. The pirates threaten to destroy the vessels unless they turn over their cargo."

"Do we know anything about these pirates?" Jelbart asked.

"No," Loh replied. "They always attacked in the dark and stayed out of range when making their demands. Any hostages they took were hooded or killed. It is conceivable they could have used a sampan for these attacks."

"How did they collect their plunder?" Jelbart asked.

"The cash and jewelry were put in a dinghy or sometimes a bag, which one of the pirates would swim over to collect," Loh replied.

"That would not have been a convenient way to move nuclear materials around," Dr. Forvey noted. Carefully, she lay the heavy apron back across the battered pieces of wood.

"That assumes this was the same group of pirates," Coffey said.

"The only way we're going to find that out is by talking to the survivor," Loh said. "I would like to do that as soon as possible."

"He's unconscious," Ellsworth told her.

"Then we'll have to wake him," Loh replied.

"Officer Loh, that's something we will have to discuss with his doctors," Ellsworth said.

Loh glared at him. "You can discuss it with his doctors," she suggested firmly. "I am here to find out why a sampan and one of its operators were exposed to radiation."

"We can try to do both," Coffey suggested diplomatically.

Loh turned and walked toward the door. There was nothing to hunt down here.

The lioness was moving on.