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“Max, it’s the Chairman, for God’s sake!”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Hanley had a tenuous grip on his emotions
Across the gulf of water, the Golden Daas in her final th below her ed, and, with her back broken, she was settling deeper in the middle than at her bow or stern The two men watched silently as the ship continued to disappear
Air trapped within the hull started to vent explosively Windows shattered and doors were torn froes by the trean to clieysers of froth Froh the Golden Daas surrounded by boiling water
When the ocean reached the level of the Dawn’s bridge, it shattered the te free of the hulk—deck chairs, mostly, but one of her lifeboats had also broken free of its davits and drifted away upside down
Max wiped at his eyes when the top of the bridge vanished and all that remained above the water were the
ship’s communications masts and her funnel Gushes of air roiled the surface as the sea consumed more and more of the vessel
Eric Stone was in the Op Center, controlling the searchlights froht focused on the Dawn’s sold coins painted on it The sea bubbled like a ther while the Robinson hovered overhead
Max whispered Juan’s name and crossed hi completely A blast of air suddenly belched fro a yellow object as if fro in the air like a bird trying to take flight
“Holy sh—” He couldn’t believe what he was seeing
The yellow object was one of their biohazard suits and the flapping was Cabrillo’s ar Juan’s trajectory carried hi before he crashed back into the sea The impact must have stunned him, because he lay still for a couple of seconds before starting to say froht as Juan swam to the overturned lifeboat He heaved hion on his knees, and made a deep, theatrical bow
Eric saluted him with a blast from the ship’s horn
CHAPTER 9
DR HUXLEY WAS CONCENTRATING SO HARD THAT she didn’t hear Mark Murphy and Eric Stone rush into the lab adjacent to the medical bay Her mind was immersed in the minute realm revealed by her powerful microscope, and it wasn’t until Murph cleared his throat that she looked up from her co disturbed, but seeing the two rins she thrust aside her irritation
Behind them, her patient lay in isolation, shut off frolass enclosure whose air was puree furnace before being allowed to leave the ship Juan slouched in a chair by Janni’s bed, still wearing his yellow biohazard suit Until Julia knew if his brief exposure to the water in the engine rooen had killed the men and woh he were a carrier Her microscope, with its potentially infectious samples, was also in the isolation ward, and she could view theh a dedicated computer feed