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Austin's cell phone started playing the blues He excused hi, and he sounded excited There was a round

"I can barely hear you," Austin said "What's that noise?"

"I always think better when I'ot it"

"Got what?"

"The nursery rhyot the formula for the antidote"

Austin couldn't believe his ears "Say that again"

"The antidote," Barrett yelled, thinking Austin was siot Lazlo Kovacs's antidote for polar shift"

37

Shortly after the hot Brazilian sun dropped below theexpedition vessel Polar Adventure slipped out of Rio de Janeiro harbor and headed on a southerly course toward the open waters of the Atlantic at its cruising speed of fifteen knots

The Polar Adventure had been built by Danish shipbuilders in the late 1990s, and had enjoyed a busy schedule that took it to the Mediterranean, Europe, Greenland and most recently on Antarctic cruises The ship had been purchased from its owners by a straw company set up expressly for that purpose by Gant's foundation

The acquisition was purely an accounting device On the books, the millions of dollars spent to acquire and refurbish the ship had been earo, Chile The Adventure had been designed as a sreat ocean liners The builders had lavishly decorated the decks and cabins with varnished wood and brass Passengers could enjoy their voyage fro rooe, observation and covered proe

As the ship plowed through the South Atlantic, Gant and Margrave stood on a balcony deep in the heart of the vessel It overlooked a vast open space A tall, cone-shaped metal structure, supported by extensive framework, rose from the center point of the space Thick cables snaked out from the cone to four massive dynamos, two on either side of the structure A covered moon pool below the cone allowed it to be lowered into the ocean

"We essentially gutted every nonessential space below the rave said with a sweep of his hand "After our initial crude experiments, we decided that we didn't need four ships One vessel, properly outfitted, could produce enough power to get the job done We had been concentrating the low-frequency transmissions to a central point from the four ships"

"Which, as I understand it," Gant said, "created a scattering of the electroet area, setting off unexpected waves and whirlpools like the ones that sank our transmitter ship and the Southern Belle"

"Right We solved that problele transmitter you see here, with an increase in the power level It also meant that we didn't have to build a new ship to replace the one destroyed in the initial experiments We simply moved dynamos from the other three ships and added one"