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The electronic circuits throughout both ships shorted as cleanly as if a switch had been thrown The engines ceased to function and the electronics in the wheelhouse and beloent black Both ships slowed in the water just as a burst of wind and rain raked across the sea

“YEE-HA!” Adams SHOUTED as the wind hit the R-44

He was eighty feet back of the stern and twenty feet in the air when he initiated his flare Pulling up on the cyclic, he pitched the nose up using the drag on the powerless rotor to bleed off forward speed He was four feet above the pad when the forward speed ceased and the Robinson dropped down on the deck with a thud The foae as Ada Then he unlocked and pushed the door open Next, he began to unsnap his harness

Richard Truitt waded through the dissolving foam to the door as soon as the rotor stopped

“You okay?” he asked

“Shaken but not stirred” Adams smiled “What’s new?”

At just that instant the Oregon started ain

Truitt shrugged “We’re heading out”

“Open seas,” Ada from the cockpit, “here we come”

“Fill out a repair order,” Truitt said, “then ”

The two an to hose the foam over the side with a stream of seawater They brushed flecks off their pants as theyinside

“Do I need to bring anything special?” Adams asked

“High-altitude performance charts,” Truitt answered

34

THEOregon steae of the storm The time was 6 AM and the cafeteria aboard ss and cinna with Julia Huxley as Hanley walked t