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The sea wasn't through with the Polar Queen yet Pitt ducked as a huge sheet of spray crashed over the bridge wing The next co with the backwash froeoned by the impact from two sides, the ship was tossed upward until her hull was visible al white water that reflected the sun like sparks of a fireworks pinwheel She hung suspended for a terrible h before she was struck by the next breaker in line The boas jerked to starboard, but the thruster battled her back on course

Again and again the cruise ship heeled over as the waves rolled against the sides of her hull There was no stopping her now She was through the worst of it and shook off the endless swells as though she were a dog shaking water off its coat The hungry sea ht take her another time, but more likely she would-end up at the scrappers thirty or more years from now But this day she still sailed the brutal waters

"You pulled it of! You really pulled it off!" shouted Giordino as though he didn't believe his eyes

Pitt sagged against the bridge-wing railing and felt suddenly tired It was then he beca against a stanchion that supported a night light when he was iiant wave He couldn't see under the dry suit but he knew that his skin was for a beautiful bruise

Only after he set the navigation controls for a straight course south into the Weddell Sea did he turn and gaze at the pile of rock that towered above the sea like a jagged black colury look about the cold face of the precipice, al cheated out of a victim

The barren island soon becaed rock as it receded in Polar Queen's wake

Pitt looked up as the turquoise helicopter hovered over the wheelhouse "How's your fuel?" he asked Giordino

"Enough to make Ice Hunter with a few liters to spare," Giordino answered

"You'd better be on your way, then"

"Did you ever stop to think that if you board and sail an abandoned ship into the nearest port you'd make a few e contract?"

Pitt laughed "Do you really think Adovernment would allow a poor but honest bureaucrat to keep the pay without screa?"

"Probably not Can I do anything for you?"

"Just give Dempsey my position and tell him I'll rendezvous at whatever position he chooses"

"See you soon," Giordino signed off He was te an entire cruise ship to himself, but the reality of the situation quickly set in There could be no joy at knowing you were the only one alive on a ship of the dead He did not envy Pitt for even one second as he swung the helicopter into a turn and set a course for the Ice Hunter

Pitt removed his helmet and watched as the turquoise helicopter fle across the blue ice-cold sea