Page 86 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

“And how is that my concern, dear fellow?” Overholt tried to place the man’s accent. His English was excellent, but clearly not his mother tongue. There were hints of clipped German consonants and rounded Slavic vowels. Moravian? Upper Danube? Pannonia Plain? It was impossible to tell exactly.

“In exchange for your services, I will hand you the greatest intelligence coup of the twenty-first century.”

“That’s quite an offer, depending of course on what services you require. Care to tell me the nature of that intelligence?”

“All I can tell you for now is that the world as you have known it for the last fifty years is about to be radically changed, and not for the better—unless you can stop it.”

“That’s not much of a clue. Sounds more like the plot of a dime novel.”

“Your reputation precedes you, Mr.Overholt. Despite your slightly glistening skin, you are one cool customer. You know, I could havecontacted your counterparts in Moscow, Beijing, or even Tehran. They would eagerly pay enormous sums of money for the information I can provide.”

“Then why don’t you contact them?”

“Because I rather like America, and I would hate to see her destroyed.”

“You have my attention Mr., eh, what shall I call you?”

“You may call me Eidolon.”

47

Aboard theOregon

Cabrillo was in the armory loading semi-auto magazines for tomorrow’s security mission with President Olmedo when Eddie Seng burst into the room, his skin still pale from his recent bout with Zika.

“Got a sec?”

Cabrillo ripped another line of 9-millimeter slugs into place with his ETS speedloader.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“Dr.Huxley cleared me for duty.”

“Somehow I doubt that. What’s up?”

“You asked me to check out Murphy’s girlfriend.”

“Let’s have it.”

“Just got a text from one of my mainland sources. Linlin’s story checks out…mostly.”

“What do you mean, ‘mostly’?”

“The firm she said she worked for? Zephyron Dynamics? She was right, it is secretly owned, at least in part by the CCP. What she didn’t say was that the CCP had a controlling interest in it.”

“Sounds like an illegal tech transfer operation. We need to notify the DOJ and Europol.”

“Already have.”

“But that’s not your main concern.” Juan rammed home another string of bullets.

“What if Zephyron Dynamics is actually a full-blown Chicom intelligence operation?”

“You think Linlin’s deeper into it than she let on?”

“It crossed my mind. She was a project manager for her company’s AGI program.”

“Murph told us that.”