Lamar Kaufmann is one of the
world’s wealthiest men. Some of the
money he inherited from his father, the rest he earned on his own. Like his father, he made most of his money in
the black-market, trafficking drugs and weapons of every kind. He launders the money through his four
casinos. He has everything money can
buy except a son to carry on his criminal dynasty—a youthful encounter with
gonorrhea has left him sterile. He decides that money buys power; and with
power, he can have the best son the world has to offer.
Anastasia Petrova is a
twenty-three-year-old Russian nuclear geneticist with an I.Q. too high to
measure. She is a member of the
Supererogatory Society, a secret subgroup of the Mensa Organization. There are only thirty-four members; all have
I.Q.s too high to measure. They are the
geniuses among geniuses. Kaufmann has
his chief of security, Pueblo Riviera (also known as the Spaniard), abduct
Petrova from the shores of the Black Sea.
Kaufmann imprisons her on the Chimera, his luxury yacht that never goes
to port. It is refueled and replenished
at sea and is his office of illegal affairs.
Kaufmann bribes a physician to obtain a sperm sample from Dorek
Dolinski, a Polish nuclear physicist, during a routine physical exam. Dolinski is a member of the Supererogatory
Society and Petrova’s lover. Using
Dolinski’s semen, a shipboard physician artificially inseminates Petrova to
produce the smartest and healthiest son Kaufmann’s money can buy.
Kaufmann confines Petrova to
the Chimera under the Spaniard’s watchful eye for nine months. When the baby is due, he takes her up the
St. Lawrence Seaway to Lake Superior.
He paralyzes her vocal cords with Botox so she can’t talk. He injects succinylcholine in her face,
paralyzing her facial muscles so she can’t whisper. Lastly, he places her right arm in a cast so she can’t write. He then flies her to Tamarack Memorial
Hospital for the delivery. Lamar
Kaufmann goes along as her doting husband to ensure she does not communicate
with hospital staff. Petrova is provided false I.D. in the name of Cordelia
Kaufmann, Lamar’s real wife. The baby
is born, and the hospital lists Lamar and Cordelia Kaufmann as biological
parents.
Petrova escapes from the
hospital and vows to reclaim her baby.
She realizes Kaufmann’s power stems from his vast wealth. The FBI and IRS would love to prosecute
Kaufmann but have always been thwarted by Kaufmann’s army of attorneys and
accountants. With the help of her
friends in the Supererogatory Society, Petrova plunders Kaufmann’s offshore
accounts and closes down his casinos.
Petrova tricks Kaufmann into thinking he has Chronic Lymphocytic
Leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow biopsy. To maintain a low profile, he
decides to have the biopsy at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center in American
Samoa. Late at night, he brings the
Chimera to what he thinks is fifteen miles south of American Samoa, well
outside U.S. jurisdictional waters. He
is unaware that Petrova and her boyfriend have overridden his GPS with a
stronger signal from a transmitter attached to a Chip-Scale Atomic Clock
“borrowed” from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology.)
Kaufmann discovers his
navigational error and heads toward international waters but is blocked by the
Hamilton, a 378 foot Coast Guard Cutter. Four Zodiac CZ7’s, each manned with
six-man SEAL teams, converge on the Chimera.
Using grappling hooks, they scale the ship’s sides. Kaufmann orders all computers with their
incriminating data thrown overboard. In
a vindictive fit, he orders the baby thrown overboard—he will not give Petrova
the pleasure of having the baby.
The Navy SEALs obtain
complete control of the Chimera, but not before Kaufmann’s crew destroy all
evidence, including the CD Petrova made from Kaufmann’s files. It appears Kaufmann will go free. The Spaniard escapes by helicopter but
crashes short of the runway at the Pago Pago International Airport. The
helicopter bursts into flames, and it’s assumed the Spaniard perished in the
flames.
With nothing more to be done
on the Chimera, Petrova and Dolinski catch a ride to the airport on the Coast
Guard helicopter. The Hawaiian Airlines
courtesy desk pages Dolinski. When they
respond to the page, the desk clerk gives them an envelope containing two
tickets to Warsaw, purchased by the Spaniard.
The tickets are in the name of Dorek and Anastasia Dolinski. The envelope also contains a forged Polish
passport for Anastasia Dolinski with Petrova’s picture on it. More importantly, there is a passport with a
picture of her son. The clerk lifts up
a child carrier from behind the counter. It contains her son—the Spaniard had
abandoned the infant at the courtesy desk.
They walk over to the window
where they see the Spaniard boarding the plane to Barcelona. Further exam of the envelope reveals the
missing CD with the incriminating evidence.
Petrova decides not to stop the Spaniard. Forged passports take over a month to make. The Spaniard had been planning this long
before her baby was born. Just before
boarding the plane, the Spaniard turns and nods to the couple looking out the
terminal window. She had been a worthy
adversary. Sometimes the adversary
deserves to win.