Sam shook his head. “They’ve created molecular manufacturing through free-foraging replicators!”
“Free-foraging replicators?” Senator Croft was the first to interject. “You mean they’re hunting for nutrients in the wild?”
“Yes,” Sam replied. “They need materials to replicate. Like sunlight, warmth, and organic nutrients required by their host phytoplankton, the nanobots would need materials such as silicone, gold, silver, and platinum along with a number of other trace elements. For conditions to be just right for these symbiotic creatures to proliferate in the numbers required, such as an algae bloom, both the nanobots and the phytoplankton would need to match the perfect conditions.”
“It wasn’t an accident it struck the Global Star — it was after the cargo,” Veyron said.
“What do you mean? It was carrying a shipment of German cars.”
Veyron placed a piece of paper in front of Sam. “Here’s the ship’s manifest for the Global Star. It was full of high end German cars. Audis, BMW, Mercedes. What are all of these filled with?”
“Leather seats and overly priced name badges,” Senator Croft replied, without hiding the sarcasm in her voice.
“Microchips,” Elise said.
Veyron looked at Sam. “Do you remember how the steel partitions which divided the hull of the Global Star were eaten away by something? The nanobots weren’t cannibalizing the steel, they were creating openings to get through to the storage hulls, which held the vehicles, and more importantly their microchips. We need to know what the other ships were carrying.”
Sam stood up. “I’ll make a call to my dad and get you the answers.”
He reached for his cell phone in his left cargo shorts pocket and walked up the stairs onto the back deck of the Maria Helena. He needed to be alone. He could hear the increased effort in the ship’s twin diesels. Sam looked behind the aft deck. The sea was calm and the supertanker, trailing from the tow rope, glided through the water.
He then pressed the call button.
His father, James, picked up on the first ring. “Hello Sam, have you found someone to pay for my damaged cargo ships yet?”
“No. It’s a long story, but I have found what’s caused the waves and I’m still looking for who created them. You were right though — they were manufactured by someone.”
“What do you need?” his father, quick to the point, replied.
Sam paced to the other side of the deck and stared into the clear water. It was a bad habit when he was stressed. “I need to know what the other two cargo ships were carrying.”
“Nothing important. Certainly nothing anyone was going to salvage after it was sunk, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“I’m not, but I need to know what exactly they were shipping,” Sam replied.
“The Tahila was carrying a shipment of microchips and the Arkansas had about two million smartphones on board.” James paused. “Say, do you think this was all to do with industrial terrorism? They weren’t targeting me. They were trying to manipulate the release of the new smartphone or tech shares.”
“No, I don’t. I’ll tell you exactly what this is about, as soon as I’ve stopped it.”
“Okay, please do. By the way, good work saving the Mississippi. I hear you got the owners to agree to Lloyds Open Form. That must have been quite a payday. Well done.”
“Thanks Dad. I’ve got to go.”
Sam ran back down the stairs, taking three at a time.
“You were right, Veyron.” Sam slid his phone back in his pocket. “They’re foraging, in order to increase their numbers so they can colonize. Their attacks have been calculated and precise. They knew which ships had the materials they needed.”
“What were they carrying?” Senator Croft asked.
“Microchips and smartphones!”
Elise smiled. “You all think these nanobots are targeting specific ships, and planning to overthrow the world. It’s just not possible.” Elise looked at Veyron, counting on his engineering mind to back her up. “We’re talking about basic programing and mathematical equations. Things like, tighten flagella, and relax flagella. Simple actions and pathways that lead to apparent decision making. We’re not talking about artificial intelligence.”
“They sunk ships carrying cars, microchips and smartphones. And you think they’re not intelligent?”
“They’re simply following basic programing. Besides, they just tried to sink an oil tanker. Tell me one reason that would benefit them? If anything, had they succeeded, the oil would have spilt into the ocean, destroying plankton and sea life for hundreds of miles.”
The room went quiet.
Elise was by far the youngest person on board, yet her exceptionally analytical mind was the first to point out the obvious flaw in their thinking.
Sam heard the hurried footsteps of someone coming down the stairs. It was Matthew. Sam took one look at his crestfallen face. “What is it?”
“The barge was just sunk two miles out from Bimini Road. There were no survivors.”
Chapter Seventy Four
Sam smashed one of the beakers of nanobots on the floor. It was a kneejerk reaction, and he regretted destroying it almost immediately. He had commissioned the barge to move the concrete blocks. He hadn’t even told the crew why he wanted the concrete blocks dumped out on the Bimini Road. Now they were dead and it was his fault.
“That settles it. They’re much more advanced than we gave them credit for. We have to destroy the Bimini Road and then we need to find their nest.”
“You think they murdered the crew of the barge to protect the Bimini Road?” Elise asked.
“Yes,” Sam replied.
Elise clicked on a satellite icon on her laptop. She scrolled down until the present time image showed South Bimini Island. She then increased the magnification until she could see the mangled remains of the barge in approximately twenty feet of water. “How could it have possibly known you had ordered it to block the Bimini Road?”
“I have no idea, but the evidence is clear.”
“Which means it’s formally declaring war.” Senator Croft immediately took on an air of authority. “I’m sick of this. I’m going to make a call to the Department of Defense. By the time the Bimini Road has been the recipient of about a thousand bunker busters, there will never be a rogue wave here again.”
Sam stood up. Opened his mouth to speak. Then closed it and sat down again, having thought better of his argument.
She smiled at him. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to take ownership of it. No one will ever know we just eradicated an ancient site in foreign waters. Besides, if it starts a war with our neighbors, at least they’re an opponent we can see with the naked eye. Anyone have a problem with that?”
“No, we need to destroy this before it gets any stronger and more lives are lost,” Sam agreed.
“Good.” Senator Croft stood up. “Mr. Reilly, once the Bimini Road is destroyed and I have removed the teeth from this beast, I would be most obliged if you could help me by locating its nest, so we can destroy it completely.”
Chapter Seventy Five
The next day, the Maria Helena approached the main harbor in Florida. Three tugboats moved towards them and took over the control of the damaged Mississippi supertanker. Released from her towing duties, the Maria Helena was taken into the local harbor for refueling and provisioning. Tom returned to the Maria Helena by a local runabout, after he’d overseen the towing of the Mississippi throughout the trip from the bridge of the stricken ship.
Sam stretched his legs with a walk to a diner at the end of the dock. Tom joined him for the walk. It was a greasy twenty-four- hour diner, used to servicing needs of dock workers and guaranteeing large amounts of fresh bacon, eggs, and rich coffee at all hours. They sat down at a booth. Sam ordered something big and greasy from the menu. Ignored the pot of coffee. He began to fill Tom in on their discovery about the nanobots, their theory about the symbiotic machines having a nest and preparing to colonize. Finally he finished by telling him that Senator Croft had arranged to have the Bimini Road bombed.