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Juan eased the door up far enough for Linc to crawl inside. Juan followed him in and pulled the door down behind them. They both turned on the flashlights mounted on their weapons. There was only about two feet of space between the door and the cargo.
“It’s good I’m not claustrophobic,” said Linc, who could barely turn his massive frame.
“Let’s try to get a look at the cargo without leaving any trace we were here,” Juan said. He climbed up to the top of the crates, which were stacked to within a yard of the roof. According to the photo translator on Juan’s phone, the crate in the middle was marked with Chinese characters that read Machine Parts.
He took a small crowbar from his pack and jammed it under the top. After pulling it off, he rummaged through the packing material until he’d pushed enough of it aside to see what was inside.
“What is it?” Linc asked. “Drugs?”
Juan ran his hand over the gleaming stainless steel propeller mounted inside a cylindrical housing. “It’s an impeller.”
“Like for an oil pump?”
“I don’t think so. This one looks like the high-speed kind that powers a Jet Ski.”
Linc snorted at that. “They’re building Jet Skis? That might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of someone smuggling.”
“It definitely raises some interesting questions about what they’re up to. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble to keep this cargo from going through a commercial port.”
He looked at the crates on either side of him. One was labeled Machine Parts, just like the first one, but the other had characters that read Fragile and Handle With Care. There was no mention about what might be inside.
Juan opened the crate and dug into it until he felt a brick wrapped in plastic. He took it out and saw what was printed on the side. With a sinking feeling, he looked around him and saw that at least half a dozen of the crates that stretched toward the front of the truck were also labeled Fragile.
“I think I know why they couldn’t go through customs with this cargo,” Juan said, holding up the brick for Linc to see.
“Oh, wonderful,” Linc said
, shaking his head. “Is that what I think it is?”
Juan nodded, sharing Linc’s uneasiness about what he was sitting on. “It’s Semtex. Given that they have fourteen more trucks being loaded, it looks like they have enough plastic explosives to put the Oregon on the moon.”
35
So far, none of the Magellan Sun crewmen had noticed the missing lock on the equipment room door when they passed, but Eddie assumed their luck wouldn’t last much longer.
“Time until you finish?” he asked Murph.
“Got it,” Murph said, closing up his tablet and putting it in his bag.
“Where has the ship been?” MacD asked.
“Don’t know yet. It’ll take some time to analyze the data.”
Eddie kept an eye on the radar image of the door. No one was outside. “What about the ship’s armaments?”
“All I could see was that there were three linked fire control systems. They looked like guns, not missiles, but I’ve got no clue on caliber or location on the ship. I could keep looking if you want more details.”
“We don’t have time. They must have installed them to protect the cargo from pirates.”
“Or the Coast Guard,” MacD added.
“Another reason to get out of here quietly,” Eddie said. “Gomez, anyone come inside lately?”
“Not that I’ve seen,” Gomez replied. “You’re clear on drone view.”
Eddie nodded to MacD and Murph. “Okay, let’s go.”
MacD put up a hand. “Hold up. We’ve got movement out in the corridor.”
