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"Sonar has a strange contact I'd like them to make a pass over it" Gunn looked at hiht be back?"

"The reading is doubtful," Pitt shrugged "But then, you never know"

As soon as he dropped over the side of the barge, Foss Gly swa an extra set of air tanks with him wasn't the easiest of chores, but he would need them for the return trip and the necessary decompression stops before he could resurface He leveled off and hugged the riverbed, kicking his flippers with a lazy rhytho and much to do

He had traveled only fiftyfro

The acoustics of the water scattered the sound and there was no way his ears could accurately detect the direction of the source Then his eyes distinguished a diht There was no uncertainty in hisin on him

There was no place to hide on the flat and barren riverbed, no rock formations, no forest of kelp to shield hih-intensity beam picked hi convict flattened against a prison wall under the harsh glare of a spotlight

He dropped the spare air tanks and pressed his body into the silt, i ports, eyes trying to pierce the unending darkness He held his breath so no telltale air bubbles would issue froulator

The craft passed behind hiratulate himself

He knew the creould double back and keep looking

Then he realized why he'd been ure He lashed out with his fins and watched with relief as the subreat swirl of sedirabbed up handfuls and waved the ooze about him Within seconds he was totally cloaked He switched on his diving light, but the floating muck reflected its ray If he was blind, so were the men inside the submersible

He groped around until his hands touched the spare air tanks He checked his luminous wrist compass for the direction of the E up the bottom in his wake

"Klinger reporting in from the Sappho," said Gunn

Pitt stepped back from the monitors "Let me talk to him"

Gunn pulled off the headset and held it out Pitt adjusted it to his head and spoke into the tiny microphone

"Klinger, this is Pitt What did you find?"