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“Right. And when they cleared their palazzo and their mountain, Kitsune’s tracker suddenly came back online. Actually, it came back online when they were exactly thirty miles away from Castel Rigone. It’s like they’ve managed to figure out how to use electromagnetic interference to hide themselves. And I’m not talking mirrors, stealth, reducing their radar signature, nothing like that. I’m thinking it’s something like a portable electromagnetic jammer they use whenever they want to get out of town unseen.”
Nicholas chewed this over, then said slowly, “So they drove away from their palazzo, flipped the switch, and poof—they’re invisible.”
Louisa said, “But that’d sure be dangerous, I mean, if you’re driving, and other drivers can’t see you?”
“And that’s why I think they were in a helicopter,” Adam said. He scrolled back on his tablet. “Look at the satellite shots. There’s nothing there. Then thirty miles away from their mountain, the signal appears, flying low. It had to be a helicopter. They transferred to a plane and headed south.”
Mike said, “So forget magic brooms, it’s more like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Imagine the technology to do that. I don’t know, Adam, it sounds like more than science fiction to me.”
“I wish I could find another explanation,” Adam said, shrugged. “But I can’t. Actually, the first time her tracker stopped, I chalked it up to a malfunction with my software until—”
“Until Kitsune disappeared again,” Nicholas said.
“Yeah, no explanation, same as the first time. Talk about science fiction—if the Kohaths can control the weather, why not extend their discoveries, it’s all along the same line, all based on electromagnetics. I gotta say though, a portable EM cloaking device is pretty impressive. Even cooler than your micro EMP, Nicholas.”
“But here in the middle of the ocean? And not a thing for miles? This isn’t a portable, Adam,” Louisa said. “This is something else entirely.”
Mike said, “You’re telling me we could be looking right at them and not see them? They’re cloaked?”
Adam nodded to Mike. “That’s it. Can they see us? Of course they can. We know Appleton Kohath worked extensively with Tesla for a number of years and Jason Kohath is supposed to be an über genius with electromagnetic fields.”
Louisa said, “I’ve always thought it kind of stupid, what Sherlock Holmes said, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ Now I’m not so sure.”
Nicholas was shaking his head. “It’s hard to get my brain around this, but if it’s true, which it appears to be, then it’s groundbreaking science. Imagine the applications—if it can be applied to moving objects as well as stationary, you could send squadrons and troops into place without anyone knowing they’re coming. It’s war-winning technology.”
Mike looked at the screen again, where Kitsune’s tracker had disappeared the second time. “So they’re hiding or cloaking something really big. Right here, in the middle of the ocean.”
Nicholas was looking off into the distance, past her left shoulder. She knew what that meant—he was making a big leap of logic. She grinned as she counted down in her head, Three, two, one, and Nicholas said, “Adam, pull up a map of the Bermuda Triangle.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Adam and Nicholas were bent over their laptops, maps at their elbows, their fingers typing rapidly, grunt
s, smiles, head shakes. Louisa and Mike were watching and listening as they cleaned their weapons, Mike’s in greater need since it had gone swimming in Lake Trasimeno.
Nicholas raised his fist, “Yes, it fits, Adam. It’s inside the lines. The Bermuda Triangle.”
“I think our team just scored,” Louisa said, and blew gently along the muzzle of her Glock. “It’s fun to watch them spark off each other.”
Mike called out, “What fits? What’s this about the Bermuda Triangle?”
Adam said, “Nicholas thinks they might be responsible for all the planes and ships lost in the Bermuda Triangle.”
“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” Nicholas said. “I think the Kohaths took advantage of the bizarre happenings attributed to this part of the ocean that have resulted in dozens of lost ships and planes. They knew people avoided the area. What better place than a mythical triangle of ocean to have their home base, where no one can find them or see them? But most important—they don’t have to worry all that much because people don’t want to come here in the first place.”
Louisa called out, “But if there’s something physical out there, surely people have come across them. Even if they didn’t see them, sooner or later, someone would run smack into them, right?”
Adam frowned at his laptop screen. “That would mean then that they had to develop a way to steer people away if they got too close.”
Mike jumped to her feet, felt a moment of dizziness, saw the sudden alarm on Nicholas’s face, and said quickly, “No, no, I’m fine. Look, guys, wherever they’re hiding must be near the spot Kitsune’s tracker disappeared, got to be.
“Nicholas, we need to get out there and find out where they’re hiding. And we need to yell for help.”
“Yes, but tell them what? First we have to find the Kohaths.”
Adam said, “But, dude, we don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
“Adam,” Nicholas said, “we can’t see anything from the surface, what about looking below the water? Is there any way we can do that?”
