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Bell grabbed a passing busboy, a lad who looked like he’d just seen a ghost

“What the devil is happening?” he demanded

“It’s news just co last night”

“Was anyone hurt?” Bell would forever re

“She sank, sir They’re saying half the passengers and crened” The boy pulled free and vanished into the kitchens

Bell and Marion exchanged a look, a look that only lance, they apologized for arguing, reaffirmed their love and commitment, and thanked the Fates that they hadn’t been aboard Neither would have left the other or taken a seat in a lifeboat that could have gone to a stranger

Bell sat heavily, his chin sunk to his chest Marion came to his side and rested a protective hand on his shoulder He knester wouldn’t leave the crates He’d have gone doith the Titanic as surely as her captain must have The last of the Coloradans was dead

Bell had spent that previous few days tidying up some details of the case He’d anonymously paid for the funeral of one of the victi now rested in the Catholic section of Birham’s Handsworth Cemetery He’d also reworked Joshua Hayes Brewster’s journal, expunging anya piece of fiction about an Aunboat under the coot that name from a childhood friend back in Boston who’d died of diphtheria He reed to with Brewster concerning his closest friend Vernon Hall ht have died as a tra

itor, but history would record him as a hero

One detail he couldn’t seas the derringer pistol he’d taken fro it into the waters off Southa with Marie Curie only to discover he no longer had it He assumed Brewster had taken it with hi foolish during the pande

Bell never once considered it would all end like this Thinking about the sacrifice and the hardship, the deprivation and ultiainst the injustice of their deaths but knew there was no solace to be had in that It had gone wrong from the very first, and no ht, the outcome seemed inevitable He supposed all that remained was to submit his report to Colonel Pat

Nine good men went into the Russian wilderness to pull off the impossible and not one survived to tell the tale It was all a senseless waste, he thought, and said under his breath, “Thank God for Southby”

EPILOGUE

Dirk Pitt reached the bottoht was an e silver body of an Ah-speed train

He smiled at the porter as he stepped aboard the first-class car and found his seat He stowed his bags in the overhead but kept the copy of Isaac Bell’s journal Despite his best efforts the previous night, he’d been unable to finish it before being overtaken by exhaustion