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volver and fired two shots at him. Both missed, and Karmann threw himself onto the closed hatch, pounding for it to be opened. |
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Suddenly, there was a booming, muffled sound from below, as though an immense drum had been struck. A shock went through the submarine. It slewed, lost weigh, went dead in the water, but with a listing to port. The high stern wave smashed up and over the afterdeck, dislodging Karmann from his perch and washing him overboard. |
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There were more explosions inside. The deck bulged, the pressure hull opened. |
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A raft was thrown into the sea from the sail. Krasny followed it into the water. |
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A final, violent explosion broke open the hull and the sea surged into the vessel. It rolled and expelled great breaths of air, like some strange creature from the depths. For a long moment, the submarine was vertical, screws still rotating high in the air. Karmann heard screams as pistons of seawater drove through the plunging hull. Then the submarine was gone in a bubbling eructation of air and debris. Arkady Karmann was pulled down into the blood-warm sea. |
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The flotation vest the petty officer had insisted he wear on deck sustained Karmann. All around him the sea roiled with farts of air and debris from the submarine. Pieces of wood and plastic erupted from the water into the air. Great bubbles of oil surfaced and spread over the refuse from the plunging hull. Karmann was struck from below by a thick piece of the soundproofing material that had once formed part of the wardroom overhead. It was large and buoyant and he held onto it desperately. |
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At some distanceit was difficult to see clearly because his eyes were only inches from the surface of the waterhe could spot the boat that had signaled to the Pravda. It was either stopped or moving very slowly through the littered waves. Were the Cubans searching for survivors? Some atavistic sense |
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