Rhee began to sweat. "A ... a minor theft," he stammered. "Nothing we can't handle, Mr. President."

"Mr. Rhee. We've received calls this morning from the United States emba.s.sy, the head of the Chinese navy, and the vice president of Greece wanting to know why one of his ships was illegally stopped and boarded on your orders. That does not sound like a minor theft to me."

"There . . . has been some trouble here," Rhee admitted.

The telephone was silent for a few seconds. "Mr. Rhee," Jintao said coldly, "I want you to tell me everything that happened. Right now, from the start."

Slowly, Rhee began speaking.

GUNDERSON STARTED A long lumbering turn around the Oregon. As he stared out the c.o.c.kpit window, he could see a large balloon do a fast inflate, then head up in the air, towing a line.

On the stern deck of the Oregon, Kevin Nixon checked the straps around the crate containing the Golden Buddha again. The three-p.r.o.nged hook was duct-taped to the crate and would be used to yank .* 313.

Cabrillo aboard if they were successful getting the icon aboard the Antonov.

Hanley stood off to the side, checking the fit on the harness that wrapped around Cabrillo's chest and upper thighs. Satisfied it was properly attached, he snapped a smaller bag containing the sandwiches to one side of the harness.

"The old Fulton Recovery System," Cabrillo said. "You'd think with all our funds we'd have found a replacement by now."

"It's so rare we're this far offsh.o.r.e," Hanley said. "Past the point our amphibian or a helicopter can reach us."

"You ever ridden one of these?" Cabrillo asked.

"Never had the pleasure," Hanley said, smiling.

"It feels like a mule kicked you in the a.s.s," Cabrillo said.

"That's the least of your worries, the way I see it."

"How do you figure?" Cabrillo asked.

"The only winch we could find was designed for light trucks," Hanley noted. "I just hope they can reel you in fast enough before you strike the rear stabilizer."

"You make it all sound so appealing," Cabrillo said wryly.

The sound of the Antonov was growing louder.

"Clear the decks," Nixon shouted, "for the first approach."

GUNDERSON WAS NOTED for never becoming fl.u.s.tered. No matter what the situation, he always maintained his cool. Lowering the flaps on the Antonov, he slowed the speed to just above jtall, then lined up less than a hundred feet above the deck.

"Anybody got any gum?" he asked.

Michaels quickly peeled the foil off a piece and jammed it in his mouth.

"Head back to help Tracy," Gunderson said. "I'll hook the fatso on the first pa.s.s, then I'll shout back before I roll her over."

Inside the Oregon, the cameras on the deck relayed an image of the 314 315.

operation throughout the ship. Everyone watched as Gunderson steered closer.

In the cargo compartment, Pilston and Michaels were watching out the open door. The steel cable stretched backward, but the hook on the end was out of view. Gunderson was peering out the front window, then the side window, in a rapid ballet of visual Olympics. At the top of the cable leading to the Fulton Aerial Recovery System, just below the balloon, the cable spread into a Y shape. Gunderson chomped on the gum as he steered the Antonov closer.

"It's show time," he shouted.

The hook dangling back from the plane slid cleanly into the Y and snagged the cable. A split second later the crate containing the Golden Buddha was yanked from the deck as cleanly as ripping a bandage off a wound. Gunderson instantly felt the drag on the plane and shouted for Pilston to engage the winch.

She threw the lever forward and the package started to reel aboard, while at the same time Gunderson eased the biplane over on her side.

Hanley watched from the deck in amazement.

"Tell me when the load's within ten feet," Gunderson shouted.

A minute or so later, Michaels shouted, "Okay, Chuck."

Gunderson did a quick sideways dive to the ocean, now only some eighty feet away, and the crate went temporarily weightless from the g forces. The crate floated in the air for a second.

"Rolling flat," Gunderson shouted.

Pilston and Michaels moved away from the door, and the cable tightened and reeled the Golden Buddha aboard as easily as a book sliding into a bookcase. The crate slammed against the far inner wall of the fuselage and stopped. The crate was cracked, but not much. Pilston turned the winch motor off.

Gunderson stared back, quite happy with the results. He reached for the radio.

"Mr. Hanley," he said. "I scratched your box a little, but the cargo is safe and sound."

Hanley pushed the b.u.t.ton on his portable radio as Gunderson began to climb and bank around. "h.e.l.l of a job, Tiny. There's a different hook attached to the box. Attach that to the cable before you pull the chairman aboard."

"Roger that," Gunderson said.

Then he shouted back to Michaels to attach the other hook to the end of the line. By the time Gunderson had pa.s.sed over the top of the Oregon again and was starting his turn to line up, the hook was attached and Pilston started to reel out the cable once again. Gunderson adjusted his flight controls, they set the speed of the Antonov to right at stall.

"Once I hook the boss man," Gunderson shouted, "you reel him in as fast as possible. When he's next to the door, reach out and pull him inside."

"Got it," Pilston shouted.

"Here I come, boss," Gunderson said into the radio, "ready or not."

Cabrillo had moved onto the rear deck and Nixon inflated the balloon.

It shot in the air when the Antonov was only a hundred yards off the bow.

"Clear the decks," Nixon shouted as he sprinted away.

Juan Cabrillo stood quietly. There was really no way to prepare for what was about to happen. In a few seconds, he would be yanked from the safety of the Oregon and into the air over the ocean. From the known to the unknown in a split second. So Cabrillo simply cleared his mind and waited, Gunderson chewed his gum, watched the line carefully, and then put the three-p.r.o.nged hook directly into the center of the Y once again.

Bam! One second Cabrillo's feet were on the deck, the next second he was yanked into the air. He moved his feet back and forth like he was trying to run. The wind crept past the goggles he was wearing and his eyes began to weep as the Antonov grew larger. Cabrillo could see hands reaching out of the door as he rose, closer to safety. He tilted his head 316 back and looked. Every few seconds the cable was b.u.mping against the rear stabilizer and he prepared to push himself off as he grew closer.

"He's going to hit the tail," Pilston shouted to Gunderson.

Cabrillo put his feet in the air to push against the stabilizer. He was only a few feet away when Gunderson pulled back on the controls and pitched the nose of the Antonov up. Cabrillo, hanging from the cable like a pendulum, dropped a few feet and slid past the tail. A few seconds later he was next to the door; Michaels and Pilston grabbed his arms and pulled him inside.

Gunderson started the Antonov climbing, then glanced back into the cargo area.

"Hey, boss," he yelled, "how was the ride?"

MICHAEL HALPERT FLICKED on the computer in the Oregon's library. Working the party in Macau had been exciting--the element of danger involved in operations ensured that. Even so, Halpert's forte was the arcane accounting and banking network he had constructed for the Corporation's activities. In that, Halpert was a master.

The twisted matrix of corporate law and structure was exciting to him--he loved to hide the Corporation's a.s.sets like a penny under a glacier, and shield its ownership in companies through complex structures that would take teams of accountants years to unravel.

Today he would need to use all his skills.

Halpert was building what he liked to call a skeleton. A skeleton was a series of corporations forming the bones to support the skull that held the nerve center of an operation. Each would need to be structured, funded and interlinked until the actual source of ownership and control was as cloudy as a London morning.

318.

319.

He scanned a database of available existing companies.

First would come the skull itself--the eventual owner of the a.s.sets that would soon be created. For that he chose a corporation based in the tiny country of Andorra. The company, Cataluna Esteme, had been founded in 1972 with the purpose of mining and trading of lead.

Andorra, all 181 square miles of territory, is perched in the Pyrenees Mountains, with Spain to the south and France to the north. The population of Andorra is some sixty-five thousand people, and the primary industry is tourism, with an emphasis on snow skiing. The country had been in existence since 1278 and was modern and progressive, plus Halpert had never used it before.

Cataluna Esteme itself had been active in the lead business until 1998, when the aging owner had been felled by heart trouble while on a visit to Paris. Over the next year or so, the a.s.sets of the corporation had been distributed to the owner's heirs, and the company itself had gone dormant. Cataluna Esteme existed in the desk drawer of a lawyer in Andorra's capital city of Andorra la Vella.

Halpert scanned the history and found it ideal. The company had perfect credit, a past history of large sums pa.s.sing through the corporation coffers, as well as the shield of privacy offered by Andorran law.

The remaining stock in the company was available for the equivalent of $50,000. This sum would give them complete control of a corporation that had existed for over thirty years, had a charter similar to the intended use, and was completely untraceable.

Halpert decided to buy Cataluna Esteme.

For the feet of the skeleton, he used two companies the Corporation already owned. The first was Gizo Properties, based in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. The second was Paisen Industries, based in San Marino, a country on the Adriatic coast completely surrounded by Italy. Accessing the companies' accounts over the computer, Halpert deposited $874,000 in Gizo Properties and $418,000 in Paisen Industries.

In the blink of an eye, Halpert had moved $1.292 million into already existing accounts. The money would not remain there long.

Next, Gizo Properties and Paisen Industries, through a special shareholders'

resolution that Halpert drafted and pa.s.sed, each agreed to buy stock in two more companies. The first was Alcato, based in Lisbon, the second, Tellemedics of Asuncion, Paraguay. Both of these companies were operating concerns--Alcato built specialized marine electronics, Tellemedics made telemetry equipment used in hospitals throughout South America. The Portuguese company had a book value of $3 million U.S.; the Paraguayan, nearly $10 million.

Both had been secretly owned by the Corporation for nearly a decade.

Halpert pulled up the corporate records of both and found sufficient cash reserves for his plan.

With the legs now in place, he looked for the torso.

He would need a recognizable and stable platform that would appeal to the Corporation's soon-to-be partners. For this he could only use Central Europe. Halpert needed a company based in a country with rock-solid political stability, iron-clad currency and worldwide recognition of financial wherewithal. He scanned his database and found he had three companies to choose from--the first was based in Basel, Switzerland; the second in Luxembourg; the third, which he favored, in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

Liechtenstein it was.

Albertinian Investments S.A. was a currency-and-gold-trading concern that had proved widely successful since the recent upward move in precious metals prices. The company, secretly controlled by the Corporation, owned a beautiful six-story building in Vaduz, where it occupied the top two stories, had a cash balance in accounts amounting to over $18 million U.S., and frequently invested in other companies that showed promise.

Next, Alcato and Tellemedics pa.s.sed corporate resolutions making loans of $1.25 million each to Albertinian Investments. These were composed of the monies transferred from Gizo Properties and Paisen Industries, plus some cash from the coffers of each. Albertinian Invest 320 321.

"Anything else?"

"If there is," Halpert said, "I'll contact you when you reach An -- '5.

ments agreed to pay each company 7 percent interest for the loans, as well as an option to convert the loans to stock at a set price for the next five years. The trail of money was becoming cloudier by the minute.

There was now an extra $5 million of washed and clean funds in Albertinian Investments.

Halpert sipped from a gla.s.s of iced tea. Then he entered the commands into the computer and Albertinian Investments offered to buy Cataluna Esteme for the $50,000 asking price. The transaction would take several hours for the attorney in Andorra to complete.

Next, Halpert scanned a base of lawyers the Corporation had used in the past in Spain. Finding one in Madrid, he dialed the telephone and waited.

"Carlos the Second, please," he said in Spanish when the receptionist answered. "Mr. Halpert calling."

Exactly forty-two seconds later, the lawyer came on the line.

"Sorry for the wait, Mr. Halpert," the lawyer said. "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to fly to Andorra, immediately," Halpert said. "We are buying another company."

"Standard protocol?" the lawyer asked. "Open bank accounts, rent offices and such?"

"That's the idea," Halpert said, "and we need it done yesterday."

"I'll need to charter a plane, then," the lawyer said. "I doubt there are commercial flights available at this late hour."

"We will approve the costs," Halpert said.

"How big are you looking, sir?"

"The initial funding will be ten million," Halpert said. "Five will be a direct loan from one of our divisions in Liechtenstein, the second five will be in the form of a line of credit, available immediately."

"I understand, sir," the lawyer said. "I'll leave right away."

"One more thing," Halpert said. "Find us a public relations firm in Andorra--I have a feeling what we are planning will garner some press interest."

dorra."

"Very good," the lawyer said as he hung up the telephone.

com- Then the lawyer sat back in his chair and smiled. He knew his rather excessive fees would be paid in cash--which he would fail to report to the tax authorities. Reaching for the telephone, he called a local pany to charter a prop-jet for the trip north.

LIKE BEING KICKED by a mule," Cabrillo said over the noise of the droning engine.

Pilston was closing the side door of the Antonov. She wrestled it in place and held it closed while Michaels locked it down. Cabrillo placed his hand on the Golden Buddha to stabilize himself, and then removed the package of papers and the satchel of food. He placed them on the floor, then unsnapped the harness and set it aside. He stared around the cargo bay of the Antonov before walking forward to the c.o.c.kpit.