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Zavala helped Kane sit up and handed hied down a couple of gulps, then said, “What do you remember, Doc?”

Kane pursed his lips in thought “I was looking out the , broadcasting lanced at his headset

“Don’t bother,” Zavala said “The headsets don’t work”

Kane’s face turned the color of oatmeal “We’re not connected to the surface?”

“Te”

Kane took a deep breath “We saw so for the moon Then blotto What about you?”

Zavala jerked a thuainst the roof I put ot for the effort was a sore arot a hard head”

“From the sounds of it, the cable probably slipped on the winch drum”

Zavala said nothing

“I don’t get it,” Kane said “Why haven’t they winched us up by now?” He noticed that the bathysphere was perfectly still, and he see, Joe What’s happened to us?”

Zavala wanted to avoid panic, but there was no sugarcoating their situation “We see on the bottom, Doc”

Kane looked at the instru on batteries “If ere still attached, we’d have power Oh, hell! The cable must have snapped”

“That’s almost impossible And there could be other reasons for the breakdown We’re talking about hthe bathysphere to a pea on a cobweb? No man-made system is flawless, but this isn’t the Titanic Even if ere no longer connected to the surface, we’ve got other options”

Kane brightened “Duh, of course! Your flotation system”

Zavala e and aritas?”