Shit.

“Or, since we’re apparently now looking for a private yacht, you should also know that private vessels are allowed to sail through the Long Island Sound and down the East River or the Hudson as a route to New York Harbor. The good news is that would add hours to its sail time to New York—the bad news is that it more than doubles our search area.”

“Right… well, then we have to get the Sound covered.”

“I guess we do. So I’ll call my counterparts in Connecticut and also notify the Coast Guard in New Haven.” He asked, “How did I become the admiral?”

“Enjoy the moment. The Feds will soon throw you overboard. Meanwhile, you have intel they don’t have. A two-hundred-foot motorized yacht.”

“I will share that information with all agencies.”

“Don’t mention my name. That came from your conversation with Detective Penrose, who is going to call you. I’ve told her about Radiant Angel, so you can tell her everything you know.”

“Understood.” He added, “I hear that you know her.”

“We worked a case together.” I continued, “I’m assuming this yacht is Russian registry, so see if you can find out if a Russian yacht has requested a berth in New York Harbor.”

“I can ask. But if this yacht and its crew and passengers are up to no good, they’re not advertising their intentions.”

“But get ahead of the Feds and check it out.”

“Will do.” He also informed me, “There’s another possibility that we consider when we run these security scenarios in training sessions.”

“Is this bad news?”

“Well… not good news.” He told me, “This yacht could have already docked in New York Harbor, like yesterday or this morning, and if so it would have been cleared at Ambrose, then cleared by ICE at the pier. Then the captain can ask to go out on a short pleasure cruise.” He continued, “If that were the case, when the yacht returns to New York Harbor he can skip the checkpoint at Ambrose and proceed directly to his assigned pier. And sometimes the ship’s captain decides not to pick up a harbor pilot.”

“Sounds like a security lapse.”

Kalish explained, “It’s sort of a courtesy for pleasure craft so the ship doesn’t have to wait hours at Ambrose with all the cargo ships or wait for a pilot. Especially if it’s a pleasure craft from a friendly nation.”

I wasn’t sure Russia was a friendly nation, which gave me another thought, though it was stuck somewhere in the back of my mind.

Kalish continued, “Also, if the ship is just out for a short cruise, sometimes it isn’t re-boarded by ICE when it returns to the pier.”

“What if the ship picked up something at sea? Like drugs, or maybe a small suitcase nuke?”

“Well, they still have to go through Immigration and Customs if they leave the ship.”

I thought about all that and said, “I don’t think they intend to take the nuke ashore. In fact, they may not even dock. They could blow the nuke in the harbor.”

“Right… if there is a nuke.”

“Think worst case.” I asked, not altogether rhetorically, “How the hell could this happen?”

“Well, seaport security is not like airport security. Everyone involved with seaport security has to evaluate every situation and decide what level of security is appropriate for each ship, and for the ship’s passengers and crew.” He further added, “We have what we call trusted cargo carriers, and trusted pleasure craft flying the flag of friendly nations, and so forth. Otherwise, the boat traffic into New York Harbor would be backed up to Europe and South America.”

“Okay… I understand that.” And I also understood why the Russians would choose this method to deliver a nuke. I said to Kalish, “But in this case, if we’re looking for a radiation source—”

“Then it doesn’t matter if the ship is flying the flag of the Pope. If the detectors light up, all hell breaks loose.”

“Right.” I asked Kalish, “Do you think a ship can shield its radioactive signature?”

“The Feds tell me no.”

“Good answer.” But we both knew otherwise.

Kalish said, “I’ll check with the Coast Guard to see if they’ve got an inbound private yacht in the AIS system.” He assured me, “There are a lot fewer super yachts than cargo ships or tankers coming into New York, so if you’re right about a yacht, this narrows it down. Also, I’ll check with ICE to see if maybe a yacht put into New York Harbor, then went out on a cruise.”

“Right.” Well, I was feeling a bit more confident that someone would find that yacht. Assuming Dmitry was telling me the truth. But maybe Dmitry had been more interested in air than asylum. That’s the problem with enhanced interrogation.

But if Dmitry was telling me the truth, then the search was getting focused. The bigger picture, however, was still blurry. It didn’t make sense for Petrov to board a Russian yacht with a nuke onboard, because if he got stopped at sea and a Russian-made miniature nuke was found, Petrov and his government would have a lot of explaining to do. And if the nuke detonated in New York Harbor, there would be Russian fingerprints all over the explosion, and we’d be looking at World War III.

This made no sense when I’d first heard about a nuke from Buck, and it still made no sense. So I tried to put myself in Colonel Petrov’s head, and in the head of his SVR and Kremlin bosses, and I said to Kalish, “I’m thinking that this yacht is not Russian. As you suggested, it could be from a friendly country that would be extended some courtesies regarding security.”

“I don’t think friendly countries carry nukes into New York Harbor.”

“They probably don’t know they have a nuke onboard, Scott.”

“Right… lots of contraband is smuggled aboard trusted ship carriers—usually hidden in crates of provisions.” He added, “Or this yacht could rendezvous at sea with a Russian ship… and Petrov would tell his host that they’re taking aboard a hundred kilos of caviar or something, compliments of the Russian government.” He informed me, “Drug smugglers do stuff like that.”

There were a lot of possible scenarios, including Petrov and his killer Gorsky hijacking the yacht, then taking the nuke aboard, along with a Russian sea captain. I mean, piracy was not out of the question for a man like Petrov and his organization.

I said, “Look, Scott, we might be wrong about some of this, but what we know for sure is what I saw—Colonel Petrov, along with an SVR assassin named Gorsky and a nuclear weapons scientist named Urmanov and twelve ladies, took off in an amphibious craft out to sea. And now I just found out about a yacht.”

“And this is the first I’m hearing about a nuclear weapons scientist.”

“Now you know why I’m worried.”

“And now I’m worried.”

“And when you find the yacht, we’ll know if it’s a party ship or a nuclear weapon delivery system.”

He didn’t reply.

I told Kalish, “I’m about to interview Georgi Tamorov. If I get anything out of him, I’ll call you.”

“Hold his wallet underwater.”

I gave him Petrov’s cell phone number to try to locate the signal and said, “I’m sure it’s as dead as Tasha’s, but try.”

“Will do.”

“Okay, talk to you—”

“One more thing… look, if my guys find this ship or this yacht, and we attempt to board, and if there’s a nuke onboard, what stops somebody from getting desperate and lighting the fuse?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Say they don’t want to commit suicide.”

“I can’t say that.”

“Say something.”

“Okay. I don’t want that ship sailing into New York Harbor with a nuclear bomb onboard and the timer ticking.”

There was silence on the phone, then Scott said, “I need to let my people know what this is about.”

“If you do that, it will go viral and cause mass panic.”

He didn’t reply.

“We need to find that yacht while it’s still at sea.”

“Okay… If it’s still in my area of operation, I will find it. If it’s someplace else, someone will find it.”