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"It can't be done!" Pitt's expression was incredulous, his voice still the same hoarse murmur "Even if it we
re technically possible, and it isn't, it would take hundreds of al entangleinal owners and the insurance cohts"
"There are over two hundred engineers and scientists working on the technical proble will be arranged through secret governet it Under international law, once a vessel is lost with no hope of recovery, it becoame for anybody ishes to spend the e operation" He turned and stared out the windshield again "You can't know, Pitt, how i is The Titanic representsdeep within its cargo holds that is vital to the security of our nation"
"You'll forgive me if I say that sounds a bit farfetched"
"Perhaps, but underneath the flag-waving, the facts hold true"
Pitt shook his head "You're talking sheer fantasy The Titanic lies in nearly two and a half miles of water The pressure at those depths runs several thousand pounds to the square inch, Mr Seagram; not square foot or square yard, but square inch The difficulties and barriers are staggering No one has ever seriously attempted to raise the Andrea Doria or the Lusitania from the bottomand they both lie only three hundred feet from the surface"
"If we can put ht again," Seagraued
"There's no comparison It took a decade to set a four-ton capsule on lunar soil Lifting forty-five thousand tons of steel is a different proposition It may take months just to find her"
"The search is already under way"
"I heard nothing-"
"About a search effort?" Seagram finished "Not likely that you should Until the operation becomes unwieldy in terms of security, it will remain secret Even your assistant special projects director, Albert Giordano-"
"Giordino"
"Yes, Giordino, thank you He is at this verya search probe across the Atlantic sea floor in total ignorance of his true mission"
"But the Lorelei Current Expeditionthe Sappho I's original mission was to trace a deep ocean current"
"A timely coincidence Admiral Sandecker was able to order the submersible into the area of the Titanic's last known position barely hours before the sub was scheduled to surface"