Page 126 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

Really bad.

He dashed out the door and headed to his lab to figure out what it was.

?

Thirty minutes later, Cabrillo, Max, and Linda stood in Murphy’s research lab. Cabrillo was in a set of silk pajamas and deerskin slippers, while Max wore a ratty old terry-cloth robe over a faded SEAL T-shirt and flip-flops, scratching his large belly and yawning like a hippo. Linda in her duty uniform was the night watch officer on deck.

“What’s the emergency?” Juan asked, clearly agitated.

Murphy pointed to the pen clip on the desktop, stripped down to its component parts. The three officers leaned over to examine it.

“You want to show us some trash you found?” Max asked. “I’m heading back to my rack.”

Murphy pointed at the curved strip of silver. “This is a high-gain antenna filament.” He then pointed at the miniature magnet, now removed. “And this little speck is a magnetic contact point, used to attach to a micro transmitter.”

“Transmitter?” Linda asked. “Like for a radio?”

“A radio, or a computer.”

“Where’d you find this, son?” Juan asked.

“Linlin’s cabin, about half an hour ago. I brought it down here to examine it. I’m positive it’s for some kind of device she must have smuggled on board.”

“We checked her things,” Linda said. “All she had in that bag was a few personal items, an e-reader, and a bunch of pens. And of course, we had her phone until we gave it back to her today.”

Murphy shrugged. “If she’s with the MSS, they might have figured out a way to hide the component parts in ordinary things like pens. And I sure didn’t examine that e-reader. No telling what kind of motherboard or CPU it was hiding.”

“What could she do with a computer?” Max asked. “Isn’t our mainframe protected from all of that?”

“I already contacted Stoney. He’s checking computer logs now. If it was anybody else, I’d say she couldn’t have hacked our system. But Linlin Zhang is top drawer, and if she’s working for the Chicoms, she’s got the best in the business backing her up.”

“What are the chances she erased her logs to cover her tracks?” Linda asked.

“About one hundred percent,” Murphy admitted.

“So your little China doll is a spy,” Max said. He turned to Linda. “We should call the American embassy in San Salvador and have them pick her up.”

“I’ll call the Hilton first,” Linda said. “If she didn’t check in, we’llknow she’s flown the coop. If she’s still there, then we’ll have the CIA station chief pay her a little visit.”

“She’s the least of our problems right now,” Cabrillo said. “We have to assume she did hack the system, if she’s half as good as lover boy here thinks she is.”

“That means she knows what we know,” Max said.

Linda frowned. “And so do the Chinese.”

Murph shook his head. “I’m such an idiot. She played me.”

“Played you? That girl Jimi Hendrix’d your Stratocaster, son,” Max said. “With prejudice.”

Murphy turned toward Juan, his voice cracking with emotion. “I’m so sorry.”

“Your poor judgment has put our mission and our ship at risk.”

Max glowered at Murphy. “Too bad we never built a brig.”

“Never thought we needed one,” Linda said.

Cabrillo laid a hand on one of Murphy’s slumping shoulders.