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.The valve’s padlocked.The padlock’s cut, proving it wasn’t an accident.”“Cassain found it?”“So he says.I don’t know if the pictures are fakes or what.That’s why I want to find the engine itself.You cut the padlock, then just turn the valve.Easy as pie.Engine can’t run without oil.You get a main bearing failure on the crankshaft, which destroys the engine.On an old ship like the Encounter, that’d be the end of her.”“But the engine’s safety features should kick in,” Straker pointed out.“Normally, yes.There’s an automatic shutdown panel.Alarm goes off when there’s a problem, the engine shuts down.It’s like the engine’s brain.” Emile spoke clinically, as he did in his documentaries.This unusual mix of intensity and unemotional stating of the facts, keeping his natural drama in check, had served him well over the decades.He was credible, believable, principled.“Disable the safety features, and the engine doesn’t know it has a problem.It doesn’t automatically shut down.It just keeps running.”“Did Cassain find evidence the shutdown panel was defeated?”“Jumper wire.A piece of wire with two alligator clips.It’d do the job.”“It wasn’t destroyed in the fire?”Emile shook his head.“I think our saboteur got more than he counted on.The crankcase explosion by itself probably wouldn’t sink the ship.When you open the lube oil drain and defeat the alarm panel, you also defeat the controls to the number-two fuel tank.It overflows into the bilge, and now you’ve set off a fatal chain reaction.”“Number-two fuel’s more flammable than lube oil.”“Yep.Lube oil draining into the bilge is a mess.Number-two fuel’s a catastrophe.Meanwhile, the engine runs dry without lubrication, it explodes and ruptures a disk on the side—”“How do you know that?”“Sam brought up the ruptured disk.It’s in the pictures.With the disk ruptured, flames can pour out of the engine and light the mix of fuel and oil in the bilge.”“Jesus,” Straker whispered.Emile was very still, his expression grim.“It was a huge, tremendously hot fire.Not much burns hotter than number-two fuel.It warped the bulkheads, fed on the fuel in the main tanks.The Encounter took on water.” He sighed, looking tired and old, except for his eyes, which were alert, gleaming with determination.“With that kind of fire and flooding, she didn’t stand a chance.”“It couldn’t have been an accident,” Straker said quietly.“No.”“Once the shutdown panel was disabled and the lube oil drain valve opened, an explosion was virtually guaranteed.It’s just a question of whether the saboteur realized how catastrophic the explosion would be—the chain reaction he’d cause.” Straker imagined Riley amid this chaos, the Encounter burning, flooding, her friends dying.“What about timing? If the engine had exploded closer to land, you might have had a better chance of getting the fire out, getting the crew out.On the open sea—”“On the open sea, we were doomed.Timing with this kind of sabotage would be hard to predict.An explosion was certain, but when…” He shrugged.“I don’t think that mattered.”“What did matter? What did the saboteur want to accomplish?” Straker narrowed his gaze on his old friend.“You have ideas, Emile.If the explosion was unpredictable, it’s unlikely a particular individual was the target—murder wasn’t the point.Our saboteur didn’t use this as a way, for example, to kill Bennett Granger.”“No,” Emile allowed.“You don’t believe the saboteur intended for the Encounter to burn and sink, killing five people.”“No, I don’t.”“Cassain?”“I need to find the engine.” Emile sprang up from the stool.“That’s why Sam’s place was burned down.Someone wanted to make sure the police didn’t find any evidence of what he’d been up to these past few months.Then they came up here and set my place on fire to throw suspicion on me.”Straker moved toward the old man.“If I found you, someone else can.Trust me, Emile.Let me get you the protection you need
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