Page 50 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

Kasim mashed a toggle. “Translating to English.”

“—before it’s too late, Captain Diogo! Or you will all perish in flames! Turn around now! Turn around!”

“Kill the transmission.”

Hali tapped the toggle, cutting off the witch mid-rant.

“Well, looky there,” Linda said, pointing at the bridge-eye camera. She zoomed in on the image. A quadcopter camera drone hovered outside the filthy windows.

“Stoney, grab a close-up of our witchy friend. Her demons, too.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Seconds later, Eric Stone grabbed extreme closeup images of a dozen projector drones perched in the rigging and other locations, each ablaze with fine light.

“Holographic drones,” Stone said. “Cool.”

“Linda, let’s hit ’em with an electromagnetic pulse cannon. See what happens.”

“I’d rather you and me grab a couple of Benellis and put some double-aught buck in their bellies,” Max said. He and Juan busted clay targets off the stern of theOregononce a month in friendly competition. They were equally matched.

“You might still get your chance if the EMP cannons don’t work.” Cabrillo wasn’t worried about an electromagnetic pulse harming theOregon. Once he and Max decided to upgrade to electromagnetic pulse cannons, they had to harden all of theOregon’s electronic systems to protect her gear from their own weapons system. The bonus was they were now protected from everyone else’s EMP attacks as well.

“Firing pulse cannon,” Linda said. One of the domes on top of the superstructure spun on its axis as the cannon raised and lowered under Linda’s direction, fire-hosing the drones in a bath of electromagnetic radiation. One by one, the holographic images snuffed out like blown birthday candles, the witch being the last to go.

“Too bad. I really had a hankerin’ to pull out the boom sticks,” Max said.

“Chairman,” Linda shouted as she pointed at the starboard-forward wall monitor.

In the far distance, the holographic pirate ship had turned broadside, and her banks of spectral guns cut loose in a fiery cannonade.

Boom!

TheOregonshuddered with an eruption beneath her waterline.

27

TheBaktun’s combat crew cheered when their drone torpedo shadowing theAgua Lindaexploded.

Captain Stokes fixated on the weapons monitor. His eyelids lifted with the rising geyser of water erupting against theAgua Linda’s hull spewing up into the night air. It was a glorious sight, but—

“Something’s amiss,” Stokes murmured as he loomed over the weapons station.

“Sir?” the Russian weapons officer said.

The geyser of water fell back with a crash, and theAgua Lindarocked slightly with the blast. The torpedo drone’s carbon-fiber body was nearly impossible to detect, which made it quite dangerous. It carried a relatively small warhead, but its charge was ample enough to sink any commercial vessel.

“TheAgua Lindaisn’t sinking. Why?” Stokes demanded. His first officer now stood beside him as well.

“She doesn’t even appear damaged,” the first officer said.

The Russian checked his monitor. “Perfect explosion.”

“Two explosions,” the sonarman said. He was a former South Korean naval officer.

“Two?” the first officer said. “How?”

“Reactive armor,” Stokes said. He grinned broadly. “This is not a commercial vessel. It’s a decoy, like an old Q-ship.”

The Russian’s face broke into a wide smile. “A combat vessel in disguise.”