Page 53 of Flood Tide

"Scout's honor."

  "Can I ask what this is all about?"

  "You may," replied Perlmutter, and then he hung up.

  Within minutes after he began his probe of Captain Leigh Hunt of the Princess Dou Wan, Yaeger found the old seaman mentioned in various references in maritime journals listing ships and their crews that sailed the China Sea between 1925 and 1945, in Royal Navy historical documents and old newspaper accounts describing the rescue of eighty passengers and crew from a sinking tramp steamer off the Philippines by a ship captained by Hunt in 1936. Hunt's final mention came from a Hong Kong maritime register, a short paragraph stating that the Princess Dou Wan had failed to arrive at the scrappers in Singapore. After 1948 it was as if Hunt had vanished from the face of the earth.

  Yaeger then concentrated on Ian Gallagher, smiling when his search ran across remarks in an Australian marine engineer's journal telling of Gallagher's colorful testimony during an investigation into a shipwreck he had survived that had gone aground near Darwin. "Hong Kong" Gallagher, as he was referred to, had little good to say about his captain and fellow crewmen, blaming them for the disaster and claiming he had never seen any of them sober during the entire voyage. The final mention of the Irishman was a brief account of his service with Canton Lines, with a footnote on the disappearance of the Princess Dou Wan.

  Then, to cover all bases, Yaeger programmed his vast computer complex to conduct a search of all worldwide records pertaining to commercial engineering officers. This would take some time, so he wandered down to the NUMA building's cafeteria and had a light breakfast. Upon his return, he worked on two other marine geological projects for the agency before finally returning to see if anything turned up on his monitor.

  He stared fascinated at what he saw, not willing to accept it. For several seconds the information did not register in his brain. Now suddenly out of the blue he had a hard hit. He spread the search in several different directions. Several hours later, he finally sat back in his chair, shaking his head. Feeling supremely self-satisfied, he called Perlmutter.

  "St. Julien Perlmutter here," came the familiar voice.

  "Hiram Yaeger here," the computer genius mimicked.

  "Did you find anything of interest?"

  "Nothing you can use on Captain Hunt."

  "What about his chief engineer?

  "Are you sitting down?"

  "Why?" Perlmutter asked cautiously.

  "lan 'Hong Kong' Gallagher did not go down on the Princess Dou Wan."

  "What are you saying?" demanded Perlmutter.

  "lan Gallagher became a citizen of the United States in nineteen fifty."

  "Not possible. It must be another Ian Gallagher."

  "It's a fact," said Yaeger, enjoying his triumph. "As we speak, I'm looking at a copy of his engineering papers, which he renewed with the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation shortly after he became a citizen. He then hired on for the next twenty-seven years as chief engineer with the Ingram Line out of New York. He married one Katrina Garin in nineteen forty-nine and raised five kids."

  "Is he still alive?" asked a dazed Perlmutter.

  "According to the records, he draws his pension and Social Security checks."

  "Can it be he survived the sinking of the Princess?"

  "Providing Gallagher was on it when she went down," replied Yaeger. "Do you still want me to see if the Princess Dou Wan arrived in an eastern seaboard port during the dates you gave me?"

  "By all means," answered Perlmutter. "And scan the shipping-port arrival records for a ship called the Princess Yung T'ai, also owned by the Canton Lines."

  "You got something going?"

  "Crazy intuition," replied Perlmutter. "Nothing more."

  The border of the puzzle is in place, thought Perlmutter. Now he had to fit the inside pieces. Exhaustion finally caught up with him, and he allowed himself the extravagance of a short two-hour sleep. He awoke to the sound of his phone ringing. He allowed it to ring five times while his mind came back on track before answering.

  "St. Julien, Juan Mercado from Panama."

  "Juan, thank you for calling. Did you turn up anything?"

  "Nothing, I'm afraid, on the Princess Dou Wan."

  "I'm sorry to hear it. I'd hoped by chance she might have made passage through the canal."

  "I did, however, find an interesting coincidence."

  "Oh?"

  "A Canton Lines ship, the Princess Yung T'ai, passed through on December first, nineteen forty-eight."

  Perlmutter's fingers and hands tightened around the receiver. "What direction was her passage?"

  "West to east," answered Mercado. "From the Pacific into the Caribbean."

  Perlmutter said nothing, soaking up a wave of jubilation. Several pieces were still missing in the puzzle, but a visible pattern was slowly emerging. "I owe you a great debt, Juan. You've just made my day."

  "Happy to have been of service," said Mercado. "But do me a favor next time, will you?"

  "Anything."

  "Call me during daylight hours. Any time my wife thinks I'm awake after we've gone to bed, she gets amorous."

  48

  WHEN PITT RETURNED to his hangar in Washington, he was pleasantly surprised to find Julia waiting in his apartment above the car collection. After a hug and a kiss, she presented him with a margarita on the rocks made the right way-without the sweet mix and crushed ice popular in most restaurants.

  "You are so nice to come home to," he said happily.

  "I couldn't think of a more comfortable and secure place to stay," she said, smiling seductively. She was wearing a blue leather miniskirt with a tan nylon mesh one-shoulder top.

  "I can see why. The grounds outside are crawling with security guards."

  "Courtesy of the INS."

  "I hope they're more alert than the last group," he said, sipping the margarita and giving an approving nod.

  "Did you fly in from Louisiana alone?"

  Pitt nodded. "Al is in a local hospital having a cast put on his broken leg. Admiral Sandecker and Rudi Gunn came in earlier to make a report directly to the President."

  "Peter Harper filled me in about your heroics on the Mississippi. You prevented a national disaster and saved countless lives. The newspapers and TV news programs are filled with stories of terrorists blowing up the levee and the battle between the United States and the National Guard. The whole country was rocked by the event. Strangely, there was no mention of you or Al."

  "Just the way we like it." He raised his head and sniffed the air. "What's that appetizing aroma I smell?"

  "My Chinese dinner for the party tonight."

  "What's the occasion?"

  "St. Julien Perlmutter called just before you returned and said he thinks he and Hiram Yaeger have the inside track on a solution to the disappearance of Qin Shang's treasure ship. He said he intensely dislikes meeting in government buildings, so I invited him for dinner to hear his revelations. Peter Harper is coming, and I also sent invitations to Admiral Sandecker and Rudi Gunn. I hope they can find time to come.""They're fans of St. Julien," said Pitt, smiling. "They'll be here."

  "They'd better, or you'll be eating leftovers for two weeks."

  "I couldn't have had a nicer homecoming," said Pitt, embracing Julia and squeezing the breath out of her.

  "Phew!" she said, wrinkling her nose. "When was the last time you bathed?"

  "It's been a few days. Except for diving in swamp water I haven't had the opportunity to jump in a shower since I last saw you on the Weehawken."

  Julia rubbed the reddish blush on one of her cheeks. "Your beard is like sandpaper. Hurry and pretty up. Everyone will be showing up in another hour."

  "Your presentation is magnificent," said Perlmutter, eyeing the array of delectable dishes Julia had prepared buffet-style and set out on an antique credenza in Pitt's dining room.

  "It looks absolutely scrumptious," said Sandecker.

  "I couldn't have described it better," added
Gunn.

  "My mother took special pains to teach me to cook, and my father was a lover of fine Chinese food prepared with a French influence," said Julia, basking in the flattery. She had changed into a red Lycra jersey tube dress and looked stunning amid the room full of five men.

  "I hope you don't leave INS to open a restaurant," joked Harper.

  "Not much chance of that. I have a sister who owns a restaurant in San Francisco, and it's a hard job with long hours in a small, hot kitchen. I'd rather have freedom of movement."

  Helping themselves and gathering around a table built from a cabin roof off a nineteenth-century sailing ship, they dug into Julia's feast with great anticipation. She didn't disappoint them. The compliments flowed and bubbled like fine champagne.

  During dinner, the talk purposely skirted Perlmutter's findings and centered instead around the events on the Mystic Canal levee and the Army Corps efforts to repair the damage. All hated the idea of the United States being scrapped as she lay, and expressed the hope that necessary funding would be found to save and refit her, if not for voyaging then as a floating hotel and casino, as originally proposed. Harper filled them in on the indictments being handed down against Qin Shang. Despite his influence and the reluctance of the President and some congressmen, the charges of criminal conduct rolled over any opposition.

  For dessert, Julia served fried apples with syrup. After dinner was finished and Pitt had helped Julia clear the dishes and load them in the dishwasher, everyone settled in his living room filled with nautical antiques, maritime paintings and ship models. Sandecker lit up one of his big cigars without asking permission while Pitt poured them all a glass of forty-year-old port.

  "Well, St. Julien," said Sandecker, "what is this great discovery Pitt tells me you made?"

  "I'm also interested in hearing how you think it concerns the INS," Harper said to Pitt.

  Pitt held up his port and stared at the dark liquid as if it was a crystal ball. "If St. Julien puts us on the wreck of a ship called the Princess Don Wan, it will alter the relationship between the U.S. and China for decades to come."

  "Forgive me if I say that sounds wildly improbable," said Harper.

  Pitt grinned. "Wait, and you shall see."

  Perlmutter eased his bulk into a big chair and opened his briefcase, retrieving several files. "First, a little history to enlighten those of you who don't yet know exactly what it is we're talking about." He paused to open the first file and pull out several papers. "Let me begin by saying that rumors concerning the passenger ship Princess Dou Wan as leaving Shanghai with a vast cargo of historical Chinese art treasures in November of nineteen-forty-eight are true."

  "What was your source?" asked Sandecker.

  "Name is Hui Wiay, a former Nationalist Army colonel who served under Chiang Kai-shek. Wiay now lives in Taipei. He fought the Communists until forced to flee to Taiwan when it was called Formosa. He's ninety-two years old but with a memory sharp as a razor. He vividly recalled following orders by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to empty the museums and palaces of every art treasure they could lay their hands on. Private collections belonging to the rich were' also seized, along with any and all wealth found in bank vaults. All of it was packed in wooden crates and trucked to the Shanghai docks. There it was loaded on board an old passenger liner that was commandeered by one of Chiang Kai-shek's generals, whose name was Kung Hui. He seems to have dropped off the face of the earth the same time as the Princess Dou Wan, so there is every reason to believe he was on her.

  "More treasure was seized than the ship could ordinarily hold. But since the Princess Dou Wan had been stripped of her furnishings and fixtures in preparation for her final voyage to the scrappers in Singapore, Kung Hui managed to cram over a thousand crates into the cargo holds and empty passenger staterooms. Most of the crates with large sculptures were tied down on the open decks. Then on November second, nineteen forty-eight, the Princess Dou Wan sailed from Shanghai into oblivion."

  "Vanished?" said Gunn.

  "Like a midnight ghost."

  "When you say historical art treasures," said Rudi Gunn, "is it known exactly what pieces were seized?"

  "The ship's manifest, if there was one," answered Perlmutter, "would make every curator in every museum of the world mad with envy and desire. A brief catalog would include the monumental designs of Shang-dynasty bronze weapons and vases. From sixteen hundred until eleven hundred B.C., Shang artists were advanced in the carving of stone, jade, marble, bone and ivory. There were the writings of Confucius inscribed in wood in his own hand from the Chou dynasty that reigned from eleven hundred to two hundred B.C.; magnificent bronze sculptures, incense burners inlaid with rubies, sapphires and gold, life-size chariots with drivers and six horses and beautifully lacquered dishes from the Han dynasty, two-oh-six B.C. to two twenty A.D.; exotic ceramics, books from China's classical poets and paintings by their masters living in the T'ang dynasty, six eighteen to nine-oh-seven A.D.; beautifully created artifacts from the Sung, Yuan, and the famous Ming dynasty, whose artisans were masters at sculptures and carvings. Their workmanship is widely known for the decorative arts, including cloisonne, furniture and pottery, and of course, we're all familiar with their famous blue- and white-porcelain."

  Sandecker studied the smoke that curled from his cigar. "You make it sound more valuable than the Inca treasure Dirk found in the Sonoran Desert."

  "Like comparing a cup of rubies to a carload of emeralds," Perlmutter said, sipping his port. "Impossible to set a value on such a grand hoard. Moneywise, you're talking billions of dollars, but as historical treasure, the word priceless becomes inadequate."

  "I can't imagine riches of such magnitude," said Julia wonderingly.

  "There's more," Perlmutter said quietly, adding to the spell. "The icing on the cake. What the Chinese would consider as their crown jewels."

  "More precious than rubies and sapphires," said Julia, "or diamonds and pearls?"

  "Something far more rare than mere baubles," Perlmutter said softly. "The bones of Peking man."

  "Good lord!" Sandecker expelled a breath. "You're not suggesting that the Peking man was on the Princess Dou Wan."

  "I am," Perlmutter nodded. "Colonel Hui Wiay swore that an iron box containing the long-lost remains were placed on board the Princess Dou Wan in the captain's cabin minutes before the ship sailed."

  "My father often spoke of the missing bones," said Julia. "Chinese adoration of our ancestors made them more meaningful than tombs still containing early emperors."

  Sandecker sat up and gazed at Perlmutter. "The saga behind the loss of the Peking man's fossilized bones remains one of the great unexplained enigmas of the twentieth century."

  "You're familiar with the story, Admiral?" asked Gunn.

  "I once wrote a paper on the missing bones of Peking man at the Naval Academy. I thought they vanished in nineteen forty-one and were never found. But St. Julien is now saying they were seen seven years later on the Princess Dou Wan before she set sail."

  "Where did they come from?" asked Harper.

  Perlmutter nodded at Sandecker and deferred. "You wrote the paper, Admiral."

  "Sinanthropus pekinensis," Sandecker spoke the words almost reverently. "Chinese man of Peking, a very ancient and primitive human who walked upright on two feet. In nineteen twenty-nine the discovery of his skull was announced by a Canadian anatomist, Dr. Davidson Black, who directed the excavation and was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Over the next several years, digging in a quarry that had once been a hill with limestone caves near the village of Choukoutien, Black found thousands of chipped-stone tools and evidence of hearths, which indicated Peking man had mastered fire. Excavations carried out over the next ten years found the partial remains of another forty individuals, both juveniles and adults, and what has been acknowledged as the largest hominid fossil collection ever assembled."

  "Any relation to Java man, who was found thirty years sooner?" asked Gunn.

  "W
hen the Java and Peking skulls were compared in nineteen thirty-nine, they were seen to be very similar, with Java man arriving on the scene a shade earlier and not as sophisticated in toolmaking as Peking man."

  "Since scientific dating techniques didn't come into play until much later," said Harper, "is there any idea as to how old Peking man is?"

  "Because he cannot be scientifically dated until he's refound, the best guess to his age is between seven hundred thousand and one million years. New discoveries in China, however, indicate that Homo erectus, an early species of human, is now thought to have migrated out of Africa to Asia two million years ago. Naturally, Chinese paleoanthropologists hope to prove that early man evolved in Asia and migrated to Africa instead of the accepted other way around."