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"I sent it on to Kunghit Island after I debarked in Honolulu and flew home My chief of security there has infor suspicious They've been flying over the island, taking photographs and asking questions of the nearby inhabitants With your pereophysicists are also predicting another convergence approximately five hundred kilo by to reation by the American Coast Guard"

"Take the company jet and return as soon as possible"

"You knohere the deaths will occur next?" Maeve demanded in dismay "You must warn ships to stay out of the area"

"Not a practical idea," Boudicca answered, "letting the world in on our secret Besides, Daddy's scientists can only give rough estimates for where and when the sound waves will strike"

Maeve stared at her sister, her lips slowly tightening "You had a pretty good idea when you put Deirdre on the Polar Queen to save my life"

Boudicca laughed "Is that what you think?"

"That's what she told me"

"I lied to keep you fro the NUMA people," said Deirdre "Sorry, sister dear, father's engineers ue was estimated to strike the ship three hours earlier"

"Three hours earlier" Maeve murmured as the awful truth slowly dawned on her "I would have been on the ship"

"And you would have died with the others," said Deirdre as if disappointed

"You asped, contempt and horror in her expression

Her father looked at her as if he were exa a stone he'd picked up at his mine "You turned your back on your sisters and er existed You still don't"

A strawberry-red floatplane with Chinook Cargo Carriers painted in white block letters on the side of the fuselage rocked gently in the water beside a refueling dock near the Shearwater Airport in British Colu face, dressed in an old-fashioned leather flight suit, was holding a gas nozzle in one of the wing tanks He looked down and exa a backpack and a large black case He was dressed in jeans with a skier's down vest A cowboy hat was set square on his head When the stranger stopped beside the aircraft and looked up, the pilot nodded at the widebrimmed hat

"A Stetson?"

"No, it was custoe out of Austin, Texas"