The Solomon Effect Read Online Free

went down with U-114. They consider it a gravesite and they didn’t want it disturbed.”
    “Looks like somebody disturbed it,” said Jax, studying the two photos.
    “The guys running the task force at Homeland Security think the terrorists must be planning to use the gold from the Nazi sub to finance their attack.”
    “That’s a stretch, isn’t it? I mean, there must be a lot of easier ways to get money than to salvage a sunken U-boat.”
    “All I know is what I’m told.”
    Jax reached for one of the books on the table, an old hardcover with a torn yellow-and-blue dust jacket that read, Iron Coffins: A personal account of the German U-boat battlesof World War II. He wasn’t exactly claustrophobic, but the thought of being trapped beneath the sea in an overblown sardine can wasn’t something he cared to dwell on too long. “Just how hard is it to raise one of these suckers, anyway?”
    “That depends on how deep it is, and whether or not it’s still in one piece. There’s a Monsoon lying in 500 feet of water off the coast of Norway with a cargo of weapons-grade mercury that’s started leaking. The Norwegians don’t know what the hell to do with it. It broke in half when it was sunk by a torpedo, and they’re afraid it’ll come apart completely if they try to lift it.”
    Jax nodded toward the photo of the missing U-boat. “This one looks like it’s in pretty good shape.” He squinted at the ghostly image. “Except for that raggedy bit at the end there.”
    “It is. And it was in fairly shallow water, so raising it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Back in 2002, the Brits let out a contract to salvage the captured U-boats they sank off Ireland and Scotland after the war as part of Operation Deadlight. Those are scuttled war prizes, so the subs technically belong to the Brits rather than the Germans. And of course, there aren’t any bodies.”
    Jax frowned. “I don’t get it. What do they want them for?”
    “The steel.”
    “Sounds like an expensive way to get steel.”
    “Yeah, but this isn’t just any steel. This is pre-1945 steel.”
    Jax shook his head. “Am I missing something? What difference does it make when the steel was manufactured?”
    “All steel manufactured since 1945 is radioactive.”
    “Radioactive?”
    “That’s right. Steel production involves a lot of air, and we’ve exploded so many nuclear bombs in the atmospherein the last sixty-odd years that the air is radioactive. Steel picks it up.”
    “Now that’s a scary thought.”
    “No shit. The problem is, we need clean steel for certain kinds of sensitive instruments. The only place to get it is from old ships.”
    “And subs,” said Jax, staring down at the book in his hands. “Maybe terrorists didn’t have anything to do with your missing U-boat. Maybe it was simply stolen by someone looking to make a quick buck salvaging the steel.”
    “You’re forgetting the NSA intercept.”
    Jax huffed a soft laugh. “Right. You know as well as I do that most of the linguists the NSA has translating their intercepts would have a hard time ordering a cup of coffee in Cairo.”
    “Maybe. But these guys were speaking English. Unaccented English. Which is why Homeland Security thinks this operation is homegrown.”
    Jax reached again for the image of the empty seabed, and frowned. “Our satellite photos don’t show anything?”
    Matt shook his head. “We weren’t targeting that area. It’s open water. We’re running computer checks to see if we might have picked something up by chance, but it’s gonna take time. And time is one thing we don’t have.”
    “What kind of timeline are we looking at here? Any idea yet?”
    “These guys were talking about a terrorist attack going down on Halloween.”
    “A week? Shit.” The administration hadn’t leaked that, either. Jax was silent for a moment. “How long has it been since anyone saw this sub on the ocean floor?”
    “It was there ten days ago.”
    “And Homeland