They were driving along the empty dockside now. Odin looked to her. “They must have just loaded it. If we find out where that shipment was going, we might be able to intercept it. Jot down those bay numbers, Mort. And tell the driver to bring us to the shipping office.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later they were standing in a tiny cubicle in a grungy office that smelled of cigarettes and cheap aftershave. They were crowded around Wun’s dusty computer screen, looking at a map of the vast container yard with thousands of little squares moving on it.
Wun changed some dates on the edge of the screen, and the pattern changed.
Odin pointed. “They were in Bays three thirty-six through five fifty-two.”
Wun spoke with a thick accent. “Container IDs?”
“No container IDs, Wun. Just give a printout of all the containers that went on that ship—and the name of the ship. That’s all we need.”
“Probably more than one ship.” Wun swept his hand across the yard map. “Big area.” He clicked through a few command menus, and then snorted. “Ah . . . big ship too.”
“Big ship—you mean they all went on one ship?”
Wun nodded. “Fourteen thousand two hundred forty-two container.” He held up his index finger. “One ship. Ebba Maersk—biggest ship there is.” A printer somewhere started spitting out paper.
McKinney leaned in. “The Ebba Maersk. That’s the name of the ship?”
Wun nodded. “Big, big ship. Half kilometer long.” He then scrolled through the list of containers in the manifest, shaking his head. “Different companies, same product and same weight. Machine tools. Six thousand two hundred three container machine tools.”
McKinney was puzzled.
Odin pointed at the description line: Machine Tools. “Kind of unusual to have so many of one thing from different companies, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Never see before.”
Odin narrowed his eyes. “Where’s the ship heading?”
Wun ran his finger along the screen, then stopped on one line. “Singapore.”
“You have Internet access?”
Wun rolled his eyes and gave Odin a dirty look.
“Okay, fine, Wun. Can I use this for a second?”
Wun pushed back and Odin leaned in to open a Web browser. He quickly typed into the URL line as McKinney and Evans watched.
She leaned in again. “What are you looking for?”
“Commercial marine traffic is carefully tracked. Retailers and other clients need to gauge arrival times.”
Evan pushed in as well. “Ah, cool, what do you use?”
“Marinetraffic.com.”
Odin entered the name Ebba Maersk in the ship name box, then clicked SEARCH. Moments later a Google map appeared showing a line of waypoints leading away from Hong Kong and forging out into the center of the South China Sea.
Odin stared at the screen without moving for several moments.
McKinney watched him. “What’s wrong?”
“The route.” He stood up, looking straight into McKinney’s eyes.
She stared back. “You think all those containers are carrying ship-cutting drones.”
“Eighty racks per container. Six thousand two hundred containers. What is that?”
Evans answered with a nervous laugh. “That’s nearly half a million drones, Odin.”
“Okay, so, what if they don’t all contain drones? What if some contain fuel or pheromone chemicals, weapons—whatever; that could still leave a hundred thousand or more ship-cutters.”
“But what would they be cutting? The Ebba Maersk?”
Odin shook his head. “It didn’t make sense until I saw this.” He pointed at the map. “Heading through the South China Sea.” Odin opened another browser window and Googled the words U.S. aircraft carriers South China Sea.
Wun threw up his hands. “Why you search on my computer, asshole?”
Moments later the search results came up and Odin clicked on the first link from a recent article on the BBC News website. It was headlined, U.S. AND VIETNAM STAGE JOINT NAVAL EXERCISES.
Odin stood up. “USS George Washington carrier strike group out of Yokosuka. They’ve been operating here for a while. Joint naval exercises with Vietnam and the Philippines just south of the Paracel Islands. It’s a geopolitical chess game with the Chinese.”
“But why would China attack a U.S. carrier? It would start a war.”
Wun looked up at her, both shocked and offended.
Odin paused, grabbed the thick stack of printouts from the printer, and then nodded to Wun. “Thanks a lot, Wun. We’ll find our own way back to the dock. Give my best to your dad, okay?” He pulled McKinney away and started heading to the exit.