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"Not one hundred percent, no"
Giordino could feel the jerk on the line "I'd like a faint clue as to what's going on in your devious mind"
"We found no human bodies at the seal colony Sothe ship did not heave to for a shore excursion Follow me?"
"Thus far"
"Picture the ship steering north froue or whatever you want to call it, strikes before the crew has a chance to send the passengers ashore In these waters, with ice floes and bergs floating all around like ice cubes in a punch bowl, there is no way the captain would have set the ship on autoreat He would have taken the hel the ship fro consoles on the port and starboard bridge wings"
"Good as far as it goes," Giordino said mechanically "Then what?"
"The ship was cruising along the coast of Seymour Island when the creas stricken," Pitt explained
"Now take your chart and draw a line slightly north of east for two hundred kilometers and cross it with a thirty kilometer arc Then tell me where you are and what islands intersect the course"
Before Giordino complied, he stared at Pitt "Why didn't the computer come to the same conclusion?"
"Because as a ship's captain, Dempsey was more concerned inds and currents He also assuhtly so for acaptain would be to save his ship Thaton a rocky shore and steering her toward the relative safety of the sea and taking his chances with the icebergs"
"You don't think that was the way it was"
"Not after seeing the bodies at the research station Those poor souls hardly had time to react much less carry out a sound decision The captain of the cruise ship died in his own vomit while the ship was on a course parallel to the shore With the rest of the ship's officers and the engine room crew stricken, Polar Queen sailed on until she either beached on an island, struck a berg and sank, or steaines ran out of fuel and she beca derelict far off the known sea lanes"
The absence of reaction to Pitt's divination was almost total It was as if Giordino expected it "Have you ever thought seriously of beco a professional palm reader?"
"Not until five o," Pitt came back
Giordino sighed and drew the course Pitt requested on the chart After a few ainst the instrus "If your et, the only chance Polar Queen has for striking hard ground between here and the South Atlantic is on one of three small islands that are little more than pinnacles of exposed rock"