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“Beautiful,” was all Sam could say

CHAPTER 20

With a reverberating gong that both Salanced over another boulder, tipped hard to port, then snapped upright and nosed over, plunging back into the river’sSam’s view for a few ht and shined it over the bow, but could see only rock walls flashing past on either side and ater crashing over the nose cone The deadly seriousness of the experience notwithstanding, it was a lot like a ride at Disney World, Sam decided

“You okay back there?” he called

Reainst the hull, shouted back, “Peachy! How long have we been going?”

Sam checked his watch “Twenty minutes”

“My God, is that all?”

After recovering from the mild shock that their plan had actually worked, Sa fro the nose a fewthe rest of the water to drain out Remi had then crawled inside and closed both scuttles

From there they’d had little work to do: check the sub for leaks and shore up the inside with a few carefully positioned planks froallon ballast tanks—a four-inch pipe running lengthwise down the port and the starboard side—were full and nicely balanced the sub

Satisfied they were as prepared as possible, they’d caught four hours of sleep huddled together on the pier in a circle of lanterns At dawn, they’d risen, eaten a breakfast of tepid water and damp beef jerky, then piled a few essentials into the sub and cli a catwalk plank, Sam had paddled the sub to the mouth of the river tunnel, then closed the hatch and held on

So far the sub’s reinforced aluy was also on their side: While the tunnel walls were still jagged, the rocks and boulders in the channel itself had long ago been ses to rip the hull

“Brace yourself!” Sa rock!”

The sub’s nose slammed squarely into the boulder, rose up and over the crest, then veered left The current caught the tail section and spun it around, slaainst the wall

“Ouch!” Remi shouted over the rush

“Okay?”