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Trout glanced up and his jaw dropped down to his knees The clouds seemed to be enveloped in a canopy of silver fire that pulsated in brilliant bursts of radiance He gazed, awestruck, at the heavenly display, and responded with a very unscientific observation

"Wow!" he said

The noise they had heard repeated itself, only it was louder this ti from the open sea away from the NOAA ship Trout wiped the drizzle out of his eyes and pointed at the ocean

"Sohth of a mile away," he said

A roughly circular patch of ocean was going dark as if a cloud were casting a shadow

"What is it?" Gamay said

"I don't know," Trout said "But it's getting bigger"

The dark patch was expanding, for, wrinkled water One hundred feet in dialittering band of white appeared at the edge of the dark circle and rapidly developed into a loall of spu out in pain

Then the center of the darkness dropped suddenly and ain size, and would reach them within seconds

Trout's hand instinctively reached for the throttle just as invisible fingers of current reached out froan to pull the black void

8

The great gaping cavity that had opened in the sea was visible only for an instant before it disappeared behind acircle of foam Tatters of spume flew off the top of the sudsy crest An intense, briny odor saturated the air as if the Zodiac were suddenly in the e school of fish

The NOAA ship wastoward the Zodiac People lined the rail They were pointing and waving their hands

The boat was on the verge of extricating itself fro sea broke over the blunt bow and they lost headway Trout's jaw tightened He cranked the throttle up as far as it would go and pointed the boay fro levels The boat lurched as if it had been given shock treatain by the powerful tentacles of current that were generated around the huge whirl

A rumble issued fro that it drowned out the desperate roar of the straining reat vibration as if hundreds of pipe organs were set on low end Thick,the scene even hts had changed in color from silver to blue and purple