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The President looked at Oates "Doug, I leave it to you to handle any sovereignty issues with the Chilean and Argentine governments"

"I'll see to it"

"The Lady Flah will have to be found before the Special Forces can launch a rescue atteic

"We're up the creek on this one" There was a curious acceptance in Brogan's voice "The closest carrier fleet is almost five thousand miles away No way a full-scale air and sea search can be mounted"

Schiller stared at the table thoughtfully "any rescue atteh in a the Antarctic coast line Fog, mist and low overcast wouldn't help matters either"

"Satellite surveillance is our only tool," said Nichols "The predicaion of the earth"

"Dale is right," Schiller agreed "The far southern seas are not high on the strategic surveillance list If ere turn northern heery gear to tune in conversations on board the ship and read a newspaper on deck"

"What's available?" the President asked

"The Landsat," answered Brogan, "a few Defense ical satellites, and a Seasat used by NUMA for Antarctic ice and sea current surveys But our best bet is the SR-90 Casper

"Do we have SR-90 reconnaissance aircraft in Latin America?"

"A tight security airfield in Texas is as close as we come"

"How long to fly one down and back?"

"A Casper is capable of reaching mach five, or just under five thousand kilometers per hour One can fly to the tip of Antarctica, make a photo run and have the film back in five hours"

The President slowly shook his head in disovernht with our pants down? I swear to God, nobody screws up like we do We build the most sophisticated detection systems the world has ever known, and e need the time"

Nobody spoke, nobody moved The President's men avoided his eyes and stared uncomfortably at the table,