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“Not les and helped Michaels into position to jump

“I think she’s sweet on you,” Pilston said as she moved into place next to Michaels

“There’s so about,” Gunderson said, “an Aqua Velva man”

At that instant, the signal was received froan to vibrate Gunderson took one lady under each arm Then he ran off the end of the ramp and, once he was clear, pushed them away

PLODDING through the South China Sea, the heler noticed the sky was finally clearing He noticed it because the sky overhead was suddenly filled with a pair of Chinese antisube heavy-lift helicopter The Kalia Challenger had originally been built in 1962 for the United States Line as one of an eleven-ship class of express cargo cruisers Later sold to a Greek shipping concern, she plied the seas on a regular schedule from Asia to the west coast of the United States

At just over five hundred feet with a seventy-foot bea and unloading of cargo Her lower hull was a rusty red with a black band along the gunwales She was a work ship who had served a long and useful life, and the wear and tear showed Still functional, though dated, she was possessed of one major flaw

Froon

She was far out in international waters when the antisube It landed a hundred yards ahead of the bow and exploded with a cascade of water that reached eighty feet into the air

“Heave to!” the captain shouted

The alert reached the engine rooer slowed, then stopped in the water

It would be nearly an hour before a Chinese boarding party climbed across her decks

The illegal stop was never explained

DELBERT Chiglack stared up at the sky in as in the fourteen years he had worked on offshore oil rigs: strange sea creatures that defied explanation, unidentified flying objects, weird weather phenomena But in all the years he had drilled offshore, he had yet to see a trio of parachutists co Gunderson, Michaels and Pilston had leapt from the 737 at an altitude of fifteen thousand feet, just above a cloud layer that hid the airplane froen bottles as they et before directing their parachutes in arcing corkscrews until they lined up above the helicopter pad on the offshore rig

The rig enty ht hundred miles from Macau, and owned by Zapata Petroleue Herbert Walker Bush owned the coinia had asked him for a favor

Tracy Pilston landed nearly dead center on the X in the center of the pad, Judy Michaels only six feet away It was Chuck Gunderson who had the worst landing He alit on the side of the elevated pad The breeze tugged at his parachute before he could cut it away, and had Del Chiglack not grabbed hione over the side