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Max rolled her eyes "Spare me"

Yaeger's index finger touched a key, and Max slowly disappeared as though she was in a state of vaporization while the urn sank into a receptacle beneath the floor of the tube

In that instant the blue phone aer held the earpiece against his ear as he continued typing on his keyboard "Yes, Admiral"

"Hiram," came the voice of Ad monstrosity that's moored off Cabo San Rafael in the Dominican Republic"

"I'll bring it right up to your office"

Jaer was ushered into the office by the admiral's secretary A short man a few inches over five feet, he had a thick carpet of red hair h cool assertive blue eyes A health addict, he jogged every yetarian His only vice was a penchant for huge custotime member of the Beltway crowd, he had built NUMA into the hterm as director of NUMA did not find him a team player, his iress assured him of a lifetime job

He literally juer to a chair across froed in the captain's cabin of the French luxury liner Normandie before it burned in New York Harbor in 1942

They were joined by Rudi Gunn, Sandecker's deputy director of the agency Gunn was less than an inch taller than the adent individual and a former commander in the navy who had served under Sandecker, Gunn stared at the world through thick-lensed horn-rilasses Gunn's main job was to oversee NUMA'saround the world He nodded at Hiram and sat down in an adjacent chair

Yaeger half stood and laid a thick folder in front of the ad we have on the Ocean Wanderer"

Sandecker opened the folder and stared at the plans for the luxury hotel that was designed and constructed as a floating resort Self-contained, it could be towed to any one of several exotic locations throughout the world, where it would be moored for a month until it was hauled to its next picturesque site After a er, his expression gri to happen"

"I have to agree," said Gunn "Our engineering staff carefully scrutinized the interior structure and caned to survive a violent storm"

"What brought you to that conclusion?" asked Yaeger innocently

Gunn stood and leaned over the desk, unrolling plans of the anchor cables that were attached to pilings driven into the seabed to anchor the hotel He pointed with a pencil at the cables where they were secured to huge fasteners beneath the lower floors of the hotel "A strong hurricane could rip it off its s"

"According to the specs, it's built to withstand one-hundred-and-fifty-er

"Not the winds we're concerned about," said Sandecker "Because the hotel is round, it's at the h waves that could build up as they approach shalloater and beat the structure to pieces, along with all the guests and employees inside"