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"Tie two hundred-yard lengths of the Falcron line to each end of the cables"

"I understand using the Falcron lines to pull the heavy cables to your ship, but how do you intend to get them there?"

Pitt and Giordino exchanged knowing glances

"That will be our chore," said Pitt with a grim smile

"I hope it won't take long," Morton said darkly, pointing out the"Time is a commodity we've little left"

As if they were spectators at a tennisshoreline was little more than two miles away And as far as they could see in either direction, an ie of rocks

Just inside an air-conditioning equipment room in one corner of the hotel, Pitt spread the contents of his large bundle across the floor First he slipped on his custom shorty neoprene wet suit He preferred this abbreviated suit for the job at hand because the water was blessed with tropical temperatures and he saw no need for a heavy suit, wet or dry He also enjoyed the ease of s below the knees were open Then came his buoyancy compensator, followed by a ScubaPro dive ht belt and checked the quick-release safety snap

Next he sat down as one of the hotel maintenance men helped mount a closed-circuit rebreather on his back He and Giordino agreed that a coreater freedoular scuba gear, the diver inhales through a regulator, breathing coas from a tank But then the expired air is saved and recycled back through canisters that reen in the tank The SIVA-55 unit they were using was developed for military underwater covert operations

His final check was the underwater coy Systems A receiver was attached to the strap of his mask "Al, do you hear me?"

Giordino, as going through the same procedure on the opposite corner of the hotel, answered in a voice that seemed wrapped in cotton "Every word"

"You sound unusually coherent"

"Give n and head up to the cocktail lounge"

Pitt smiled at his friend's ever-constant sense of humor If he could rely on anyone in the world, it was Giordino "Ready when you are"

"Say when"

"Mr Brown"