Cabrillo retired to his teak-paneled cabin and removed a packet from a safe under the carpet mounted in the deck. It was their next contract. He pulled out the contents, studied them for nearly an hour, and then began planning the initial levels of tactics and strategy.

Two and a half days later, the Oregon sailed into the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and discharged the Cuban exiles. Before the sun set, the remarkable ship and its strange crew of corporate officials were once again at sea on a course toward their next a.s.signment. Before it was through, they would steal a priceless artifact, return a divine leader to power and free a nation. But when the Oregon left port, Cabrillo was not on board. He was winging his way east against a rising sun.

43.back in a Burberry toiletry bag, then left the room to get a midmorning meal. The art auction he was in Geneva for was due to start soon.

THE BURGUNDY FALCON 2000EX left Heathrow at just after six in the morning, arriving in Geneva around half past nine Swiss time. The jet aircraft cruised at Mach .80 with a 4,650-mile range; it cost $24 million. Winston Spenser was its sole occupant.

After arriving at Geneva International Airport in Cointrin, Spenser was met by a chauffeured Rolls-Royce that delivered him to the hotel.

There, he was immediately taken to a suite without having to register.

Once in his room, Spenser took a few minutes to freshen up. Standing in front of the beveled-edge mirror, he stared at his image. Spenser's nose was long and patrician, his eyes pale blue and distant and his skin in need of a tan. Neither his cheeks nor his chin were very defined. Truth be told, his image always appeared to be slightly out of focus, as if lacking character. His was not the face of a man others would follow.

It was the face of a high-priced minion.

When he finished his examination, he placed his expensive cologne WILL MR. SPENSER require anything else?" the waiter asked.

Spenser stared for a moment at the remains of his meal and said, "No, I think that will be all."

The waiter nodded, removed the plates, then took a brush from his ap.r.o.n and whisked up the few crumbs on the table. Then he silently retreated. No bill was presented, no money changed hands. The cost of the breakfast and the gratuity would appear on the room charge, which Spenser would never see.

In the far corner of the dining room, Michael Talbot stared toward Spenser. Talbot, an art dealer from San Francisco, had crossed paths with Spenser before. Three times in the last year, the stodgy Britisher had outbid Talbot's clients, for Spenser's own clients seemed to have unlimited resources.

Talbot could only hope today would be different.

Spenser was dressed in a gray suit over a sweater vest, a blue polka-dot bow tie around his neck. His black lace-up leather shoes were highly polished, as were his fingernails, and his neatly styled short hair was flecked with gray, as befitted his age, which Talbot estimated at close to sixty years.

Once, when Talbot had been in London on business, he'd tried to visit Spenser's shop. There was no telephone number available, the small stone building had had no name outside, and aside from an un.o.btrusive video camera above the buzzer, it could have been suspended in time from a hundred years before. Talbot had pushed the buzzer twice, but no one had answered.

Spenser sensed Talbot staring his way but only glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. Of the other seven men Spenser had determined had an interest in the artifact he'd come to purchase, the American would probably bid the highest. Talbot's buyer was a Silicon Valley 44 45.software billionaire with a penchant for Asian art and argumentation.

The billionaire's belligerency could only help Spenser. The man's ego might take him beyond his set price, but as the compet.i.tion stiffened, he traditionally became angry and dropped out. The new rich are so predictable, Spenser thought. He rose to return to his room. The auction was not until 1 p.m.

L;.

OF THIRTY-SEVEN," THE auctioneer said with reverence, "the 'Golden Buddha."

A large mahogany crate was wheeled onto the podium and the auctioneer reached for the clasp holding the door closed.

The audience of bidders was small. This was a highly secret auction and the invitations had only gone out to the select few who could afford to pay for art masterworks with somewhat shady histories.

Spenser had yet to bid on anything. Lot twenty-one, a Degas bronze that he knew had been stolen out of a museum twelve years ago, had appealed to him, but the bidding had gone higher than his South American client had authorized him to pay. More and more, Spenser was weaning himself away from clients on a budget, even if the stop price ran into the millions. The auction today was the first step in his plan for retirement. The auctioneer opened the door to the crate at the same time that Spenser pushed a b.u.t.ton on the miniaturized satellite telephone in his vest pocket. He spoke into the tiny microphone clasped to his lapel.

"Please tell your employer they have the object on display," he said to an aide thousands of miles away.

"He asks if it is everything you'd hoped," the aide asked.

Spenser stared at the ma.s.sive gold statue as a hush fell over the crowd.

"Everything and more," Spenser said quietly.

A few seconds pa.s.sed as the aide relayed the information. He said, "At all costs."

'It will be an honor," Spenser said as he thought back on the his tory.

THE dated from 1288, when the rulers of what would later become Vietnam commissioned the work to celebrate their victory over the forces of Kublai Khan. Five hundred and ninety-six pounds of solid gold mined in Laos had been formed into a six-foot likeness of the Enlightened One. Chunks of jade from Siam had formed the eyes, while a ring of Burmese rubies wound around the neck. Buddha's potbelly had been outlined in sapphires from Thailand and his belly b.u.t.ton was a large rounded opal that glowed iridescently. The icon had been given as a gift to the first Dalai Lama in the year 1372.

For 587 years, the Golden Buddha had remained in a monastery in Tibet and then accompanied the Dalai Lama into exile. While being transported with the Dalai Lama on a trip to the United States for display, however, it had disappeared from the airport in Manila.

President Ferdinand Marcos had always been the prime suspect.

Since then, the ownership had always remained cloudy, until suddenly it had mysteriously reappeared for the auction. The seller's ident.i.ty would remain an enigma.

While it was almost impossible to place a value on such a rare artifact, that was exactly what was about to happen. The preauction estimates had conservatively placed the value at between $100 million and $120 million.

W:.

rE WILL START the bidding at fifty million U.S. dollars," the auctioneer said.

A low starting point, Spenser thought. The gold alone was worth twice that. It was the history, not the beauty, that made it a priceless piece of art. Must be the weak world economic climate, Spenser concluded.

46.47."We have fifty million," the auctioneer said, "now sixty."

Talbot raised his paddle as the bid hit eighty.

"Eighty, now ninety," the auctioneer said in a monotone.

Spenser glanced across the room at Talbot. Typical American, ear on a satellite telephone, paddle in his hand, as if he were worried the auctioneer would miss his signal.

"Ninety, now a hundred," the auctioneer droned.

The hundred bid was from a South African dealer Spenser knew.

The dealer's patron had made his fortune in diamonds. Spenser admired the woman--they'd shared a gla.s.s of sherry more than once--but he also knew her patron's habits. When the value exceeded what he felt he could sell it for later, he'd drop out. The man loved art, but he only bought at his price and if he could someday make a profit.

One hundred ten million came from the rear of the room. Spenser turned to stare at the bidder. The man's age was hard to determine, but if Spenser had to hazard a guess, he'd pick the low side of sixty, based primarily on the bidder's flowing gray hair and beard. Two things were odd, though. Spenser knew practically everyone in the room at least by sight or reputation, but this man was an unknown. And he seemed totally unconcerned, as if he were bidding on a weekend trip to a spa at a local charity auction instead of tendering a bid in the amount of a small country's yearly budget. The man was obviously qualified--the auction company would have made sure of that--but who was he?

One hundred twenty from a German pharmaceutical magnate.

"One twenty, now one thirty."

Talbot again, waving his paddle like a landing semaph.o.r.e.

The bidding began to stall at $140 million, bid again by the gray-haired man. Spenser turned again and felt a touch of apprehension. The man was staring directly into his eyes. Then the man winked. A chill ran down Spenser's spine.

He turned to the side, where he could see Talbot talking animatedly into his telephone. He could sense then that the Silicon Valley billionaire was flagging.

"Tell him," Spenser whispered in his phone, "it's slowed at one fifty, with maybe one more bid still forthcoming."

"He wants to know if you've bid yet."

"No," Spenser said, "but they know I'm here."

Spenser had bought from the auctioneer many times; the man had been watching him like a hawk. Any smile, flinch or gesture of his would be taken as a bid.

"He asks that you bid two hundred," the aide relayed, "and blow them out."

"Acknowledged," Spenser said.

Then in almost slow motion, he placed two spread-apart fingers to his lips.

"The bid is two hundred million," the auctioneer said emotionlessly.

A raise of fifty million when the auctioneer was begging for ten.

"I have two hundred million in the room," the auctioneer said quietly, "anyone in for two hundred ten?"

The room was as silent as a tomb. Spenser turned to the rear of the room. The gray-haired man had vanished.

"Two hundred going once," the auctioneer said. "Going twice, fair warning." He paused again. "Sold! Two hundred million, plus buyer's premium, a stunning buy it is."

The room, which had been silent, now rippled with contained applause.

Spenser stayed another half hour to arrange the crating and security to the airport, and by five that night he was flying east for delivery. For security purposes, Spenser had chartered a plane that could not be traced to the Macau billionaire who was his client. The company was full service--it would both transport him to Asia as well as facilitate the delivery of the artifact to its new home by armored car. He was almost home free.

49."So does this," Lincoln said, "and it barely uses any computer power."

A buzzer sounded, then the ship slowed and went dead in the water.

>From the north, a black amphibious plane approached, made a pa.s.s over the Oregon to check the direction of the wind by the flag on the flagstaff, then gracefully dropped into the water and taxied alongside.

"The chairman has arrived," Kasim noted.

SIX DAYS AFTER depositing the Cubans in San Juan, the Oregon had rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Inside the control room, the seas beyond the bow were projected on a high-definition four-byeight-foot screen. There was little to see. The sun was dipping in the west, and the Oregon was in an empty part of the Indian Ocean where few cargo ships steamed. Twenty minutes ago, Hali Kasim had caught the glimpse of a blue whale. Triggering the underwater sensors, Kasim made a record of the ma.s.s of the beast, then began to scan his data banks for a match.

"She's a new one," Kasim said.

Franklin Lincoln, the huge pitch-black man who was sharing duties in the control room, stared up from his game of computer solitaire.

"You need to find a different hobby."

"It pa.s.ses the time," Kasim noted.

ONCE SAFELY ABOARD the Oregon, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo made his way to his stateroom. Walking inside, he shut the door, tossed the bag containing his gray wig and fake beard on the bed, then kicked off his shoes and started unb.u.t.toning his shirt as he made his way to the head.

Unlike most ships, where the bathroom facilities are almost an afterthought, his was large and opulent. A sunken copper tub with jets sat against the side of the hull, with a bra.s.s-lined rectangular porthole giving a view of the water outside. Angled next to the tub was a separate shower decorated with Mexican tile. Along the bulkhead toward the bow was a cabinet containing a copper sink, with drawers beneath.

The floor was dark hardwood with thick cotton throw rugs. A recessed toilet was set back in the bulkhead across from the sink and a Philippine carved mahogany sitting bench graced one wall.

Cabrillo stared at his image in the mirror above the sink.

His blond crew-cut hair was in need of a trim and he made a mental note to schedule an appointment with the ship's barber, who also doubled as a ma.s.seuse. His skin had a light pallor, the result of stress, he knew, and his eyes showed red from the strain. He was tired and his joints felt stiff.

Sitting on the mahogany bench, he slid off his trousers and stared down at his prosthetic leg. The leg was the third he had owned since he had lost it in a naval battle with the Chinese destroyer Chengdo, 50 The leg was the third he had owned since he had lost it in a naval battle with the Chinese destroyer Chengdo, 50 51.when the Corporation had been covering a NUMA operation in Hong Kong. But it was a good one--it worked almost as well as the one he had lost.

Rising, he walked over and began to draw a bath in the copper tub.

While the bath filled, he shaved at the sink and brushed his teeth, then removed the prosthetic limb and climbed into the water. As he soaked, his thoughts drifted back. . . .

CABRILLO CAME FROM a family that had descended from the first explorer to discover California, but despite his Spanish surname, he looked more like a Malibu surf rat than a conquistador. He'd been raised in Orange County by an upper-middle-cla.s.s family. California in the 1970s had seen wild times, filled with s.e.x and drugs, but Cabrillo had never drifted that way. By his nature, he'd been both conservative and patriotic, almost a throwback. When everyone he knew was growing long hair, he'd kept his short and well groomed. When clothing tastes had run toward torn denim and T-shirts, his wardrobe had remained neat and presentable. But this had not been his own form of protest against the time, it was just who he was.

And even today he was still a bit of a clotheshorse.

In college he'd majored in political science, and had been an active member of his university's ROTC program. So it was not a surprise when the CIA had offered him a job at graduation. Juan Cabrillo was just what they were seeking in new agents. He was bright without being bookish, stable without being boring, and flexible without being outlandish.

Trained in Spanish, Russian, and Arabic, he'd proved a master at disguise and stealth. Inserted into a country, he could read the pulse of the people instinctively. Fearless but controlled, within a few short years he'd become a valuable a.s.set.

Then came Nicaragua.

Teamed with another agent, he and his partner had been ordered to stem the growth of the pro-communist Sandinistas, and at first Cabrillo had made inroads. But within a year the situation had spun out of control. It was the oldest story in the world--too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Chiefs in Washington calling the shots, native Indians in Nicaragua paying the price. And when bombs had burst, the fallout had blown back in their faces.

Cabrillo had been one of the fall guys, and he'd taken the hit for his partner.

Now the partner, high up the ladder at the CIA, was repaying the favor. The man had been funneling jobs to the Corporation almost since their inception, but he'd yet to offer one with a potential payday this large.

And all Cabrillo and his team needed to do was to accomplish the impossible.

WHILE CABRILLO FINISHED his bath and got dressed, Kasim and Lincoln continued their watch. By the time they were relieved at midnight, Kasim would log one more whale, Lincoln would have played thirty-two games of Klondike, and both men would have read three of the magazines that had been loaded aboard in San Juan. Lincoln tended to aviation periodicals, Kasim automobile digests.

Quite frankly, there was little work for the two men--the Oregon ran herself.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER--clean and dressed in tan slacks, a starched white shirt and a Bill Bla.s.s blazer--Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was sitting at the large mahogany conference table in the corporate meeting room. Linda Ross was across the table, sipping a Diet c.o.ke. Eddie Seng sat next to Ross, flipping through a stack of papers.

Mark Murphy was farther down the table, stroking a throwing knife 52 53.against a leather strap. Murphy found the action relaxing and he tested the edge against a piece of paper.

"How did the auction go?" Max Hanley asked.

"The target brought two hundred million," Cabrillo said easily.

"Wow," Ross said, "that's a hefty price."

At the end of the table, in front of a bank of floor-to-ceiling monitors that were currently blank, Michael Halpert turned on a laser pointer, then pressed the remote for the monitors. He waited for Cabrillo, who nodded for him to start.

"The job came from Washington to our lawyer in Vaduz, Liechtenstein: a standard performance contract, half now, half on delivery. Five million of the ten-million-dollar fee has already been received. It was washed through our bank in Vanuatu, then transferred to South Africa and used to purchase gold bullion, as we all agreed."

"It seems," Murphy said, shaving off a sliver of paper with the knife, "that after all those machinations, we should just steal the Golden Buddha for ourselves. It would save us a h.e.l.l of a lot of time and effort.

Either way, we end up with the gold."