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While he took care of that, Max called Linda to find out what happened to Juan

—

Juan dug his fingers into the grating at the bottoht hi water

The dangling end of the catas near the vat-topped ay He couldn’t cli himself over and landed on the metal ay

He looked up and saw Linc and Murph still up on the catwalk

“Are you all right?” Linc called down over the rushing water’s roar

“Bumps and bruises! You?”

“We’re okay We’ll be down in a et you”

“No!” Juan yelled “Get off the ship now That’s an order!”

“Aye, Chairman See you on the Gator” He pushed Murph forward, and they ran toward the bow

That as blocked for Juan, the explosion taking out most of the vat he’d have to cross The water level was already three-quarters of the way up the sides of the vats

He raced for the stern About halfway there, his path was blocked by a huge pipe knocked off its base by a flying girder

Xavier Carlton was trapped underneath it, his legs pinned by the enormous metal cylinder He was still conscious, his face contorted in agony Juan tried lifting the pipe, but it was no use It had to weigh more than half a ton

When he saw Juan, he gritted his teeth and said, “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“I’ve kept you fro a deadly force that you couldn’t possibly hope to control”