“You're not impressed with it.”
“As a shipping terminus, I find it about as useful as a second belly button on my forehead.”
“Hard to believe Qin Shang got the necessary approval and permits for such a vast project with no profitable future,” said Gunn.
“He submitted a comprehensive development plan that was approved by the Louisiana state legislature. Naturally, politicians will jump on any industrial development they think will increase employment and revenue that won't tap the taxpayers' pockets. With no obvious downside, who can blame them? The Army Corps also approved their permits for dredging because we saw no interruption in the natural flow of the Atchafalaya River. The environmentalists raised hell, of course, because of the virtual destruction of a vast area of wetlands. But all their objections and those of my own engineers concerning the future alteration of the Atchafalaya Delta were quickly brushed aside when Qin Shang's lobbyists sweet-talked Congress into fully authorizing the project. I've yet to meet a financial analyst or port-district commissioner who did not think Sungari was a failure before its plans came out of the computers.”
“And yet, all permits were approved,” said Gunn. “Blessings were given by high officials in Washington, including President Wallace, who greased the path,” conceded Montaigne. “Much of the acceptance was based around the new trade deals with China. Congress didn't want to upset the apple cart when Chinese trade reps threw Sungari into their proposals. And to be sure, there must have been heavy payoffs under the table by Qin Shang Maritime up and down the line.” Gunn moved around the three-dimensional projection and stared through a porthole at the actual complex two miles upriver from the Marine Denizen, The golden buildings were turning orange with the setting sun. But for two ships, the long docks were empty. “We're not dealing with a man who bets on a horse with long odds. There has to be a method to the madness for Shang to spend over a billion dollars to develop a terminus for overseas trade in such an impractical location.”
“I wish someone would enlighten me as to what it is,” Montaigne said cynically, “because I haven't a clue.”
“And yet, Sungari does have access to State Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific rail line,” Gunn pointed out.
“Wrong,” snorted Montaigne. “Presently, there is no access. Qin Shang has refused to build a link to the main rail line and a paved thoroughfare to the highway. He says he's done enough. He insists that it is up to the state and federal governments to build access to his transportation network. But because of voter unrest and new budget restrictions, state bureaucrats are balking.”
Gunn turned and looked at Montaigne, puzzled. “No means of ground transportation in and out of Sungari? That's insane.” Montaigne nodded at the holographic image. “Take a good look at your fancy display. Do you see an arterial roadway traveling north to Highway 90 or rail spurs connecting with the Southern Pacific tracks? The Intracoastal Waterway runs past a few miles north, but it's used mostly by pleasure craft and limited barge traffic.”
Gunn studied the image closely and saw that the only access for freight up the Atchafalaya River to the north was by barge traffic. The entire port was surrounded by marshland. “This is crazy. How did he build and develop such a vast complex without construction materials trucked or shipped in by rail?” “No materials came out of the United States. Virtually everything you see was shipped in from overseas on Qin Shang Maritime ships. The building materials, the construction equipment, all came from China, as did the engineers, supervisors and workmen. No American, Japanese or European had a hand in Sungari's development. The only material that didn't arrive from China was the landfill that came from an excavation sixty miles up the Atchafalaya.”
“Couldn't he find landfill closer to the development?” asked Gunn.
“A mystery,” replied Montaigne. “Qin Shang's builders barged millions of cubic yards of fill downriver by excavating a canal through the marshlands that goes nowhere.”
Gunn sighed in exasperation. “How in the world does he expect to ever show a profit?”
“Until now, the cargoes of the few Chinese merchant ships that dock at Sungari have been carried inland by barge and towboat,” explained Montaigne. “Even if he gave in and built a transportation system in and out of his dream port, who but the Chinese would come? Terminal facilities on the Mississippi have far superior access to major highways, rail links and an international airport. No shipping-company CEO with half a brain would divert vessels of his merchant fleet from New Orleans to Sungari.”
“Could he barge cargo up and down the Atchafalaya and Red rivers to a transportation center farther north?”
“A losing proposition,” Montaigne replied. “The Atchafalaya may be an inland navigable waterway, but it doesn't contain half the flow of the Mississippi. It's considered a shallow-draft artery and barge traffic is limited, unlike the Mississippi, which can accommodate great towboats with ten thousand horsepower pushing as many as fifty barges tied together in rows like a marching column stretching nearly a third of a mile. The Atchafalaya is a treacherous river. It may look calm and peaceful, but that is a mask that hides its true, ugly face. It waits like a gator with only its eyes and nostrils showing, ready to strike the unwary river pilot or pleasure-boat operator out for a weekend cruise. If Qin Shang thought he could build a commercial waterborne empire to support freight traffic up and down the Atchafalaya or across the Intracoastal Waterway, he was sadly mistaken. Neither channel has been improved to handle heavy barge traffic.”
“The White House and Immigration Service suspect the chief purpose behind the building of Sungari is for a dispersal point for smuggling illegal immigrants, drugs and illegal weapons.”
Montaigne shrugged. “So I was told. But why sink tons of money into a facility capable of handling millions of tons of ship cargoes and then use it only to smuggle illicit contraband? I fail to see the logic.”
“There is big money in alien smuggling alone,” said Gunn. “One thousand illegals brought in on one boat and ferried across the country at thirty thousand dollars a head, and you're talking real money.”
“Ah” right, if Sungari is a front for immigrant smuggling,“ said Montaigne, ”I'd be interested in knowing how Qin Shang is going to get the immigrants and goods from point A to point B without some sort of underground transportation system. U.S. Customs and Immigration comb every ship docking at Sungari. All barge traffic inland is carefully monitored. It would be impossible for undocumented aliens to slip through their fingers."
“The reason NUMA is here.” Gunn picked up a metal pointer and tapped the point inside the image of the Atchafa-laya River that divided Sungari East from Sungari West. “Because there is no way for him to send human and drug cargo over land and water, he must be shipping them under the surface.”
Montaigne sat erect and stared at Gunn through skeptical eyes. “By submarine?”
“Submarines capable of carrying large numbers of passengers and cargo are a possibility we can't ignore.”
“Forgive me for saying so, but there is no way in hell you can get a submarine up the Atchafalaya River. The shoals and bends are a nightmare for experienced river pilots. Navigating below the surface upriver against the current is unthinkable.”
“Then perhaps Shang's engineers have carved out hidden underwater-passage systems that we're not aware of.”
Montaigne gave a negative shake of his head. “No way they could have excavated a tunnel network without discovery. Government building experts scrutinized every square inch of the site during construction to make sure the approved plans were followed to the letter. Qin Shang's contractors were incredibly cooperative and either complied with our criticisms or took as gospel any and all suggested changes without argument. In the end it was almost as if we had all been in on the design stage. If Qin Shang dug a tunnel under the noses of men and women whom I consider the best engineering and structural inspectors in the South, he could get himself elected Pope.”