Black wind

southwest of Japan?”
    “The Sea Rover. Yes, we are. How did you know about that?” Summer asked.
    “It was all over CNN. I saw them interview the captain. Told how the crew was rescued by a Japanese freighter following an explosion in the engine room.”
    Dirk and Summer stared at each other in disbelief.
    “Captain Morgan and the crew are alive?” she finally blurted.
    “Yes, that was the fellow’s name. I thought he said the whole crew was rescued.”
    Summer retold the story of their attack on the ship and abduction by Kang’s men and their uncertainty over the fate of their crew members.
    “I suspect there’s more than a few people out there looking for you,” Cussler said. “You’re safe for now. There’s some sandwiches and beer in the galley. Why don’t you two grab a bite and get some rest. I’ll wake you when we reach Inchon.”
    “Thank you. I’ll take you up on that,” Summer replied, heading belowdecks.
    Dirk lingered a moment, standing at the rail and watching the first glimmer of daybreak attempt to paint the eastern horizon. As he contemplated the events of the past three days, a hardened resolve surged through his exhausted body. By some miracle, the Sea Rover’s crew had survived the sinking of the NUMA research ship. But Kang still had blood on his hands, and the stakes were now dramatically higher. If what Kang had told them was true, then millions of lives were at risk. The madman would have to be stopped, he knew, and quick.

on
    Sea Launch platform Odyssey and airship Icarus
    June 16, 2007 Long Beach, California
    Though it was A cool, damp Southern California morning, Danny Stamp could feel the sweat beginning to drip from his underarms. The veteran engineer was as nervous as a teenager on prom night awaiting his first make-out session. But as those who knew him could affirm, he always felt this way when his baby was on the move.
    No diaper-clad infant, his baby today was a 209-foot Zenit-3SL liquid-fuel rocket that was in the delicate process of being transferred to its launch platform. The roundish and slightly balding launch vehicle director peered purposefully over the railing of a large ship’s superstructure as the $90 million rocket he was responsible for inched into view below his feet. As the huge white cylinder rolled slowly out of its horizontal berth on a centipede like cradle, Stamp’s eyes were drawn to the large blue letters emblazoned on the rocket’s housing that read sea launch.
    Incorporated in the nineteen nineties, Sea Launch was an international commercial venture formed to provide rocket-launch services a *
    geared primarily for satellite telecommunications operators. The American aerospace giant Boeing was the prime founder, signing on to handle launch operations as well as integrating the customer’s satellite payloads into the rocket housing. Turning swords into rubles, a pair of Russian companies joined the consortium by providing the actual rockets, or “launch vehicles,” as they are known in the parlance. Ex-military rockets that once carried nuclear warheads, the Zenits were tried-and-true launch vehicles that were perfectly suited to commercial applications. But it was a Norwegian firm, Kvaerner, that provided perhaps the most unique asset to the venture. Starting with a used North Sea oil platform, the Oslo firm constructed a self-propelled floating launchpad that could be positioned for launching in almost any ocean waters of the world.
    Though an interesting selling point, practicality dictates that there is only one area on the globe worth launching from and that is the equator. For a geosynchronous satellite, which remains in a fixed relative orbital position following the earth’s rotation, there is no more direct path to orbit than from the equator. Less rocket fuel burned in pushing a satellite to orbit can allow for a heavier satellite payload. Satellite owners, seeking to maximize revenues from their multimillion-dollar investments, can thus add more capacity to their satellites or additional operating fuel to extend the satellite’s life. Integrating the satellites into the launch vehicle in Long Beach, then sailing the rocket to the equator for launch had grown from an intriguing idea to an efficient business model in the high-stakes, high-risk game of commercial space operations.
    A handheld Motorola radio fastened to Stamp’s belt suddenly cackled with static. “Rollout complete. Ready for crane hook-up,” barked the