Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [83]
“I handled her once before.”
Henderson nodded. “Yes, it was quite a fight, I’m told. But Sheila is a very good actress. I wouldn’t count on having such an easy time with her next go-around.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.” Annja pointed at him. “So, you’ve got an underwater colony of sorts and all this mechanical drilling equipment. What’s the deal? You trying to find some lost store of oil?”
“Oh, I’ve already found it, my dear. And we’re sitting on it right now.” He shrugged. “Well, not literally, of course.”
“Of course.”
“But under this part of the Atlantic there lies an incredible store of oil reserves. Enough to make what they’ve drawn from the sands of Saudi Arabia look like a wad of sputum.”
“Colorful.”
“Enough to turn me into the world’s first trillionaire.” Henderson clapped his hands together. “It’s never been done before, you know. When this is all said and done I will have more money than most of the nations on this planet.”
Annja frowned. “If there’s so much oil, then why hasn’t anyone else tried to tap into it yet?”
Henderson sighed. “Well, there’s the rub of it, you see. Some people apparently have the notion that drilling here would result in the destruction of this particular ecosystem. Some such silly notion like that. They’ve cited studies on the marine life in this area and make all these excuses that basically put the animals ahead of humans.”
“The nerve,” Annja said. “And of course, you couldn’t stand for that silly sentiment.”
“Exactly. So I had to take steps to liberate that conventional thinking from its prison.”
Annja frowned. “And how the hell did you do that?”
“Well, I haven’t yet, my dear. You see, that’s why I need this place to myself for a while. Can’t have any nosy people around wondering just what all these submarines and mechanical sharks are doing prowling in the waters up here. Do you know how difficult it is moving crew of workers around without anyone noticing? It’s quite the logistical feat, I’ll tell you.”
“But to what end? If you can extract the oil without anyone knowing, then why not just do that?”
“I need to get to the oil first. And it’s buried under several hundred feet of bedrock. The cost of drilling that far down would be prohibitive to the job at hand. After all, I’m a capitalist. I like my ventures to earn me money. If they get me some fame, then that’s nice, as well. But money is my main goal.”
“That’s great,” Annja said. “Another human being motivated solely by greed. Like we don’t have enough of those already.”
Henderson frowned. “There’s no need to be rude, young lady.”
“So what’s the plan,” Annja asked. “You going to drill or not?”
“I’m not going to drill for the oil,” Henderson said.
“But you just said—”
“I said that drilling for it was cost-prohibitive.” He leaned back in his chair. “There is an alternative that I personally find a lot more enjoyable.”
“That being?”
Henderson smiled. “Come over here, Annja.”
Annja hesitated but Henderson waved her on. “No tricks. I want to show you something. It’s easier this way than having me explain it. Come on, then.”
Annja walked over and stood next to Henderson. He smiled at her. “Now watch.” He turned in his seat and started typing on a keyboard close by. On the monitor attached to it, a map of the North Atlantic blossomed on the screen.
Henderson pointed at Nova Scotia. “Here’s where we are right now.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
Henderson clicked the mouse and the screen zoomed in to the exact spot where Annja figured the Seeker floated. Then the screen changed again, this time showing depths and lines like Annja had seen before on undersea charts.
“This is our position, here.” Henderson jabbed a stubby finger at the screen. “We’re currently in a cavern about three hundred feet down. Not bad, huh? Ordinarily, you would have been killed by the pressure by now, but one of our feats was to pressurize this cavern while we