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“What’s ?”

“Four electric torpedoes iland”

The waiter approached Bell waved him off

“I thought everything burned up in the fire”

“So did the Navy They loaded all the junk on a barge to dump it offshore I said to this Wheeler character, ‘Why don’t we count torpedoes? ’ Long story short, ent through the debris with a fine-tooth co electrics”

Bell stared at his old friend “By any chance were they the ones armed with TNT?”

“Wheeler is certain that those with TNT warheads are the ones ”

“Do you agree?”

“He had serial nus Found them all except those four-they’d been set aside for a torpedo boat to fire on the Test Range It would have been too much of a coincidence if they’d been the only ones blown completely to smithereens”

“And you’re sure the explosion wasn’t an accident?”

“I talked to the Navy-found an Annapolis man I knew at prep school Our specialist confirmed Riley from Boston, you know him There is no doubt”

“They are the Holy Grail of torpedoes,” Bell said, grie, silent propulsion married to immensely more powerful warheads”

“The spy got the best The only good news is that Wheeler can lish are livid They won’t sell us any more, but I learned that Ron Wheeler and his boys already startedunauthorized copies for the Navy In the ot himself the latest British propulsion armed with the latest Ahest bidder”

“Or deadly weapons to attack”

“Attack? Hoould he fire theet his hands on a battleship”