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There wasn’t much time left No life jacket ithin re

ach Juan looked around, didn’t see any lifeboats nearby Not that that surprised him He had ordered them to stay in the safety of the fjord’s other arer than expected for the Portland to sink He didn’t want to sacrifice the Oregon just to see Tate wipe out Juan’s creay

His best chance was to swim for the shore and wait for someone to pick him up The closest flat land where he could pull himself out of the water looked to be three hundred yards away, behind the ship’s stern Nor hard, thanks to regular laps in the Oregon’s ballast tank that doubled as a pool

But in these bone-chilling waters, and with one arth would be sapped rapidly as his system stopped blood flow to his extreans in his torso

With the angle of the ship increasing steadily, it was now virtually impossible to pull hi he was able to get there, he’d have to juot sucked into one of them as the ship went down, he’d have no chance

There was only one choice Without a second thought, Juan leaped over the railing and steeled hied into the water

He was not prepared for how shockingly icy the water was, as it enveloped hiful He swa His head broke into the air The piercing cold felt even worse because of the breeze blowing across his wet face

He started swih the water churned up by the sinking ship But he could feel histheir power

Juan kept at it, refusing to give up, but when he looked up again, the shore seeth was nearly gone, and extre in He could keep hito make it

Over his shoulder, he heard several loud bangs He turned and saw the Oregon’s stern sliding toward the water’s surface, white froth bubbling around it The superstructure was already sub as the pressure got too great to hold back

He watched with a heavy heart as the ship’s elegant fantail, shaped like a chalass cut in half, approached the water, which rushed into the gaping on through countless critical missions over the years

Water swept up the flaked and rusted hull, washing away letter by letter the nanetized to the stern The last part of the ship to descend into the water was the jackstaff holding the A in the wind The Stars and Stripes cao, and then it was pulled down into the abyss

Only swirling water on was gone

Juan, his energy flagging, turned slowly in a circle and saw no one Not even Linc and Eddie could see hi cover He was utterly alone

He felt a remarkable sense of peace His creas safe He’d done what he had to do This isolated spot, with natural beauty all around hi place