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Sandecker went back behind his desk "You will asse at our Key West port facility the day after tomorrow The Pelhol tests on the submersible, so you need only concern yourselves with familiarization of the equip the expedition"

Spencer whistled through his teeth "An aircraft co a deep-sea submersible?"

"For your peace of mind," Sandecker said patiently, "Pelholo Since then, they've constructed four underwater environmental laboratories and two extremely successful submersibles for the Navy"

"They'd best have built this one good," Merker said "I'd be most distressed to find that it leaked at fourteen thousand feet"

"Scared shitless, you mean," Giordino mumbled

Munk rubbed his eyes, then stared at the floor, as though he saw the bottom of the sea in the carpet When he spoke, his words came very slowly "Is this trip really necessary, Admiral?"

Sandecker nodded soleraphers need a picture of the structure of the Lorelei's flow pattern to ie of deep-ocean circulation Believe me, this mission is as important as the firstthe world'sand et your doubts The Sappho I has every safety feature built into her hull that science can devise You have e"

That's easy for hiht idly He won't be there

24

Henry Munk shifted hisvinyl pad, stifled a yawn, and continued to stare out the Sappho I's aft viewport The flat, unending sedies, but Munk took delight in the knowledge that every tiny mound, every rock or occasional denizen of the deep that passed beneath the thick plexiglas had never before been seen byhours he'd spent scanning an array of detection instruments mounted on both sides above the pad

Reluctantly, he forced his eyes from the viewport and focused the constantly during thethe outside salinity, tenetic tape; the sub-bottom profiler that acoustically determined the depth of the top sedi structure of the sea floor's surface; the gravis every quarter mile; the current sensor that kept its sensitive eye on the speed of the Lorelei Current and direction; and thethe botto any deviations caused by localized metal deposits

Munk alnetoht, barely a tiny millimeter of a squibble, that he would have missed it co ht ainst the viewport and peered at the sea floor Then he turned and yelled at Giordino, who sat at the pilot's console only ten feet away "All stop!"

Giordino spun around and stared aft All he could see were Munk's legs; the rest of hi the instruments "What do you read?"

"We just passed over so that's metallic Back her up for a closer look"

"Easing her back," Giordino said loudly so Munk could hear