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"Here's another inconsistency You and I and Rudi Gunn went over NUMA's scheduled research project, and assigned personnel before we left for the Antarctic"

"So?"

"Our friend up front not only has a bogus Texas accent, but he clailer's film crew Get the picture?"

"I do," Pitt o on the project Only sonar technicians and a teaeophysicists went on board, to survey the ocean floor"

"And this character is driving us straight into hell," said Giordino, looking out theand toward a dockside warehouse just ahead with a large sign across a pair of doors that read: DORSETT CONSOLIDATED MINING LTD

True to their fears, the driver swung the bus through the gaping doors and between two uards The guards quickly followed the bus inside and pushed the switch to close the warehouse doors

"In the final analysis, I'd have to say we've been had," said Pitt

"What's the plan of attack?" asked Giordino, no longer speaking in a hushed voice

There wasn't ti deeper into the darkened warehouse "Dump our buddy Carl and let's bust out of here"

Giordino did not wait for a countdown Four quick steps and he had a chokehold on the man who called hi thewheel, opened the entry door of the bus and heaved him out

As if they had rehearsed, Pitt jumped into the driver's seat and jammed the accelerator to the carpeted floorboard Not an instant too soon, the bus surged forward through a knot of ar the cardboard boxes of electrical kitchen appliances froave no hint that he are of the approaching impact Boxes, bits and pieces of toasters, blenders and coffeeh they were shrapnel fro howitzer shell

Pitt swung a broadside turn doide aisle separating tiers of stacked crates of ewheel With a s, the Toyota bus roared out of the warehouse onto the loading dock, Pitt twisting the wheel rapidly to keep fro crane

This part of the dockyard was deserted No ships were o holds A party of workers repairing a section of the pier were taking a break, sitting elbow to elbow in a row on a long wooden barricade that stretched across an access road leading from the pier as they ate their lunch Pitt lay on the horn, spinning the wheel violently to avoid striking the workers, who froze at the sight of the vehicle bearing down on them As the bus slewed around the barricade, Pitt alht a vertical support and spun the barricade around, slinging the dockworkers about the pier as if they were on the end of a cracked whip

"Sorry about that!" Pitt yelled out theas he sped past

He regretted not having been more observant, and belatedly realized the phony driver had purposely taken a roundabout route to confuse them A ploy that worked all too well He had no idea which way to turn for the entrance to the highway leading into the city