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“Brilliant,” Zavala said with unabashed ad this size could vanish”

“The lab’s designpossible,” Austin said “As you can see, it was designed as a mobile undersea observatory Lieutenant Casey said that the Navy built the coned barges, then assembled the components and lowered the lab into place They built in flotation capability, and the spheres and connectors were reinforced structurally so the lab could beapart The lab also had a stabilization syste movement”

Zavala took a ballpoint pen frorams

“Ie subet it pumped up to neutral buoyancy, and tow it away”

“Great overn to sell off its fleet of Typhoons for use as cargo carriers in the Arctic Maybe they found a buyer”

“That solves only part of thesecret, how did the hijackers know Davy Jones’s Locker existed and where it was located?”

“The lab’s security was outsourced to a private contractor,” Austin said, “and that may have been the weak point The Navy talked to the support-ship survivors Lieutenant Casey said the crew got a request from their security company to shuttle a representative down to the lab a short while before the attack They said he was a friendly guy with a Southern accent Phelps, of course

“Phelps admitted he hijacked the lab,” Austin continued “What he didn’t say was that the company rep who authorized his visit was killed in a car crash My guess is, he was coerced into getting Phelps an ID, then was eliminated”

“A convenient coincidence,” Zavala said “What was the lab’s last position?”

Austin dug a map out of the pouch and spread it on the coffee table An area in the Pacific Ocean had been circled in black grease pencil near the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia

Zavala sat back and laced his hands behind his head

“Gee, that narrows it down,” he said with a sour expression on his face “It could take months to find the lab”

“Sandecker says we have to wrap it up in less than seventy-two hours,” Austin said

“I’ didn’t ask us to solve the probley crisis in our spare time”

“Don’t give him any ideas,” Austin said “He’ll want us to clean up the oceans on our coffee break”