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Giordino gave Pitt a sour look indeed "Intelligence is a weird business," he said "The crew on the other side of these bulkheads has no idea of e're up to, yet Soviet agents in Washington so The only reason they haven't interfered is because our undersea technology is better and they want us to lead the way to their sub"

"Won't be easy to deceive the our every move since we left port"

"So have their surveillance satellites," added Giordino

Pitt said, "All reasons why I asked the bridge to run out our last track before co about for a closer look"

"Good try, but the Russians will pick up our track rerun"

"No doubt, except once we pass over the sub we go on and Turn onto the next lane, continuing as before Then I'll radio our engineers in Washington to complain of equipment problems and ask for maintenance instructions Every couple of miles we'll rerun a lane to reinforce the ruse"

Giordino looked at Knight "They h"

Knight considered that "Okay, on't hang around This will be our last look at the target Then we continue on, acting as if we've found nothing"

"And after we've finished this grid," Pitt said, "we can start a new one thirty miles away and fake a discovery"

"A nice added touch," Giordino said approvingly "Drop a red herring across our trail"

Knight so for it"

The ship rolled and the deck canted slightly to starboard as the helht her around on a reverse course Far behind the stern, like an obstinate dog on a long leash, a robot submersible called Sherlock automatically refocused its twoto send out probing sonar waves Presuner after the fictional detective, Sherlock revealed detailed features of the seafloor previously unseen by man

Minutes ticked by with the slowness of hours until at last the crest of the crater began slipping across the sidescan The Polar Explorer's course towed Sherlock along the plunging slope of the crater's interior

Three pairs of eyes locked on the sidescan recorder

"Here she comes," Giordino said with the barest tremor of excitement