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He was so deeply involved with the search for the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion that he did not notice nor hear Admiral James Sandecker step into his sanctum sanctorum and sit down in a chair behind him

The founder and first director of NUMA was sh testosterone to fuel the offensive line of the Dallas Cowboys A triht, and a fitness addict, he ran five lass building that housed two of the five thousand engineers, scientists, and other employees that forency NASA His head was covered by straight fla at the temples and parted in the nificent Vandyke beard Despite his addiction to health and nutrition, he was never without a huge cigar made from tobacco personally selected and rolled for him by the owner of a plantation in Jamaica

Under his direction NUMA had taken the field of oceanography and made it as popular as space science His persuasive pleas to Congress for funding, supported by twenty top universities with schools in thein underwater projects, had enabled NUMA to take, great strides in deep sea geology and ical studies of sea life, and studies of the effects of oceans on the earth's clireatest contributions, perhaps, was supporting Hiraest archive of ocean sciences in the world

Sandecker was not universally adton's bureaucracy, but he was respected as a hard driving, dedicated, and honest man, and his relationship with the man in the Oval Office of the White House arm and friendly

"Making any progress?" he asked Yaeger

"Sorry, Ad around "I didn't see you co data on the water currents off Ecuador"

"Don't stroke me, Hiram," Sandecker said, with the look of a ferret on a hunt "I knohat you're up to"

"Sir?"

"You're searching for a stretch of coastline where a tidal wave struck in 1578"

"A tidal wave?"

"Yes, you know, a big wall of water that barreled in froalleon over a beach and into a jungle" The admiral puffed out a cloud of noxious smoke and went on "I wasn't aware that I had authorized a treasure hunt on NUMA's tiet"

Yaeger paused and swiveled around in his chair "You know?"

"The word is knew Right fro"

"Do you knohat you are, Admiral?"

"A canny old bastard who can read minds," he said with some satisfaction