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showed a swift drop from four degrees Celsius to minus ten. By rights, the water through which Morgan was sinking now should be frozen into hard, saltwater ice. He watched the thermometer and saw that the temperature rose slightly as he settled deeper into the sea. The visibility was very poor. Morgan could see no more than two meters though the deepening green murk. The work of the airlift and the remotely piloted vehicle had continued throughout the night and morning, leaving the sediment stirred into solution. He should watch for antipersonnel mines here. Karmann had said two sailors had been killed by mine mishaps during the deployment. Goddamn it, Arkady, he thought angrily, why did you come so far, under such great difficulties, and desert me now? |
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Morgan kept to the agreed upon procedure exactly, following the anchor line of one of the flagged buoys that thrashed about in the sea and wind on the surface. |
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Now the bottom of the bay materialized out of the murk. Despite all the mud moved by the airlift, the sea bottom was littered with pallid, half-eaten dead fish. Close by was what looked like the rotting remains of an arctic seal. A small school of fish darted about in the semi-darkness, scavenging on the corpses. Morgan waved his arm, chasing them away. Welcome to your death, you simple creatures, Morgan thought. See what modern science has brought you. |
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Just as Morgan had begun to worry that Karmann had lied to him, the long, ominous shape of the Device began to materialize ahead, in the gloom of two dozen fathoms. It was like meeting a fabled enemy at last. |
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The elapsed time dial on his watch showed that he had been underwater for three minutes and seven seconds. He felt a stab of near panic. Time was slipping away, and he was just paddling around, doing nothing here in the icy depths. For a fleeting moment, he considered surfacing and demanding that Ave fly them all as far from here as he could manage in the time remaining. Too late, Morgan, he thought, even if you fry. Would the troops waiting above break and run? Morgan |
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