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"I've picked up another one," Gunn said "No, waitthe pulse is getting stronger Here coth One hundred feettwo"
"Keep co, sweetheart," Pitt prayed
"Five hundredseveneight hundred feet We got her! We've got her!"
"What course?" Pitt's mouth was as dry as sand
"Bearing zero-nine-seven," Gunn replied in a whisper
They spoke noclosed the distance Their faces were pale and strained with anticipation Pitt's heart was pounding painfully in his chest, and his stoe hand crushing it fro the submersible to creep too close to the ooze He pulled back the controls and kept his eyes trained -through the viewport What would they find? A rusty old hulk far beyond hope of salvaging? A shattered, broken hull buried to its superstructure in the ht of aup ominously in the darkness
"Christ alhty!" Giordino mumbled in awe "We've struck her fair on the bow"
As the range narrowed to fifty feet, Pitt slowed theon a parallel course with the ill-fated liner's waterline The side her steel plates was a staggering sight Even after nearly eighty years, the sunken ship proved to be surprisingly free of corrosion; the gold band that encoh-intensity lights Pitt eased the subht-ton portside anchor until they could all clearly olden letters that still proudly proclaimed her as the Titanic
Spellbound, Pitt picked up the microphone from its cradle and pressed the transdo you read?"
The radio operator on the Modoc answered al We read you Over"
Pitt adjusted the voluround crackle "Modoc, notify NUMA headquarters that we have found the Big T Repeat, we have found the Big T Depth twelve thousand three hundred and forty feet Time, eleven-forty-two hours"
"Eleven-forty-two?" Giordino echoed "You cocky bastard You only missed by two minutes"
REGENESIS
The Titanic lay cloaked by the eerie stillness of the black deep and bore the gried wound fro stretched from the starboard forepeak to the No 5 boiler room nearly three hundred feet down her hull, while the
gaping holes in her bow below the waterline betrayed the shattering impact made by her boilers when they tore froh bulkhead after bulkhead until they plunged free into the sea