Wired Kingdom Read online

  The GPS and the hard disc drive components of the telemetry device, buried deep within the titanium housing as they were, had withstood the pressures of the deep—only the exposed camera and sensor elements of the device had been destroyed. So Herb Shock in the Imaging lab had been able to recover the original video recorded on the high-capacity disc drive.

  Now Tara brought up the original murder video. She hunched forward over her desk, watching intently.

  Then she let out an exasperated sigh.

  Where there was static in the broadcast version, this original video showed only blue sky, a few clouds, expanses of empty ocean, and some glimpses of the sun—nothing incriminating. The clip revealed nothing significant that hadn’t been seen on the web. The killer could not have been deduced from this video. George Reed might still be in jail had Anastasia not confessed to the crime.

  Tara shook her head in amazement. How much deceit, destruction, and death had resulted from the race to obtain these images, which, in the end, revealed nothing new at all?

  For the last time, Tara watched Crystal Wilkinson struggle in vain for her life. Then she killed the video and headed for the door. Outside it was a beautiful day, and she had recently purchased a new toy.

  She drove her Crown Vic down to Marina del Rey, where she used her key card to gain entry to Dolphin Basin, where her new ketch waited in its slip. No, not Anastasia’s. Tara had learned that the Reeds would be putting it up for sale—it held too many bad memories—after it was released from the forensic lab, and the Reeds’ divorce was finalized. But she had purchased one just like it, painted sky blue.

  Tara decided to permanently conquer her fear of water, once and for all. She wanted to take Michael out on it soon, so today she would practice her first solo sail.

  Stepping onto her new boat, she smiled at the name painted on the transom.

  Dot Calm.

  FURTHER READING /

  SUGGESTED RESOURCES

  Books

  Bortolotti, Dan. Wild Blue: A Natural History of the World's Largest Animal. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008.

  Calambokidis, John and Gretchen Steiger. Blue Whales. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1997.

  Scientific Literature

  Calambokidis, J., J. Barlow, J.K.B. Ford, T.E. Chandler, and A.B. Douglas. 2009. Insights into the population structure of blue whales in the eastern North Pacific from recent sightings and photographic identifications. Marine Mammal Science 25:816-832.

  Calambokidis, J., G.S. Schorr, G.H. Steiger, J. Francis, M. Bakhtiari, G. Marshall, E. Oleson, D. Gendron and K. Robertson. 2008. Insights into the underwater diving, feeding, and calling behavior of blue whales from a suction-cup attached video-imaging tag (CRITTERCAM). Marine Technology Society Journal 41(4):19-29.

  Lord-Castillo, B.K., Wright, D.J., Mate, B.R., and Follett, T. (2009). A customization of the Arc Marine data model to support whale tracking via satellite telemetry. Transactions in GIS 13(s1): 63-83.

  Mate, B., R. Mesecar and B. Lagerquist. 2007. The evolution of satellite-monitored radio tags for large whales: One laboratory's experience. Deep-Sea Research II. 54: 224-247.

  Other

  American Cetacean Society blue whale fact sheet:

  http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/bluewhl.htm

  National Geographic, March 2009 issue.

  National Geographic documentary, “Kingdom of the Blue Whale”:

  http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/kingdom-of-the-blue-whale-3302#tab-blue-whale-facts

  Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, Whale Telemetry Group:

  http://mmi.oregonstate.edu/wtg

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Epilogue