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"The speed of our latest nuclear carriers is still classified, but Pentagon leaks indicate they can cut the water at fifty knots A between San Francisco and Honolulu before the deadline"

"Seventy-two hours," said Gunn, "from departure to deployment at the site"

Sandecker stared at a desk calendar with the previous dates crossed out "That leaves exactly five days to find a reflector, get it to San Francisco and deploy it at the convergence zone"

"A tight schedule, even if you had a reflector in hand," said Ames steadily

"How deep does it have to be rigged?" Yaeger asked Ae

Almost as if she were cued, a pretty woman in her mid-twenties handed Ames a pocket calculator He punched a few nu for the overlapping convergence zones to meet and surface, you should place the center of the reflector at a depth of 170

meters"

"Current is our nu to keep the reflector in place long enough to bounce the sound waves"

"Put our best engineers on the problen so system to keep the reflector stable"

"How can we be sure that by refocusing the converging sound waves we can return them on a direct channel back to the source on Gladiator Island?" Yaeger asked Ames

Ames impassively twisted th

e ends of the mustache that extended beyond his beard "If the factors that propagated the original sound wave, such as salinity, water temperature and the sound speed, rey should return to the source along its original path"

Sandecker turned to Yaeger "How many people are on Gladiator Island?"

Yaeger consulted his coest a population of around 650 people, mostly miners"

"Slave labor imported from China," muttered Gunn