Deep Six (1983) by Cussler Clive - Dirk Pitt 07

Author:Cussler, Clive - Dirk Pitt 07 [07, Cussler, Clive - Dirk Pitt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-20T02:01:41.015000+00:00

MERCURY IN GLASS

SUZAKA CHEMICAL COMPANY

KYOTO,JAPAN

"How are you coming?" Mangyai asked.

"I should have it all examined and crated by the time we reach port."

"How many gilded lead bars did the Russians slip in?"

"None," said Hong, shaking his head. "The count tallies, and every bar I've checked so far is pure."

"Strange they were so accommodating. The shipment arrived at the preset hour. Their dockworkers loaded it onboard without incinent.

And we were cleared to depart without the usual administrative hassle.

"I've never experienced such efficiency in any of my previous dealings with Soviet port authorities."

"Perhaps Madame Bougainville has great influence in the Kremlin."

"Perhaps," said Mangyai skeptically. He looked curiously at the piles of gleaming yellow metal. "I wonder what was behind the transaction?"

"I'm not about to ask," said Hong, carefully wrapping a bar in wanding and placing it in a crate.

Before Mangyai could answer, a voice came over the speaker.

"Captain, are you in there?"

He walked over and cracked the heavy door. The ship's communications officer was standing outside in the alleyway.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I thought you should know, Captain, someone is jamming our communications."

"You know this for a fact?"

"Yes, sir," said the young officer. "I managed to get a fix on it. The source is less than three miles off our port bow."

Mangyai excused himself to Hong and hurried to the bridge.

First Officer Chao was calmly sitting in a high swivel chair studying the instruments on the ship's computerized control panel.

"Do you have any ship contacts in, Mr. Chao?" asked Mangyai.

If Chao was surprised at the captain's sudden reappearance, he didn't show it. "Nothing visual, nothing on radar, sir."

"What is our depth?"

Chao checked the reading on the depth sounder. "Fifty meters, or about a hundred and sixty feet."

The awful truth struck Mangyai's mind like a hammer. He leaned over the chart table and plotted their course. The keel of the Venice was passing over the Tzonston Bank, one of many areas in the middle of the Aegean where the seabed rose to within a hundred feet of the surface. Deep enough for a ship's safe passage, but shallow enough for a routine salvage operation.

"Steer for deep water!" he shouted.

Chao stared at the captain, hesitating in bewilderment. "Sir?"

Mangyai opened his mouth to repeat the order but the words froze in his throat. At that instant, two sound-tracking torpedoes horned in on the freighter's engine room and exploded with devastating effect.

Her bottom torn in gaping holes, the sea rushed into her innards. The Venice shuddered and entered her death throes.

She took only eight minutes to die, going down by the stern and disappearing beneath the indifferent swells forever.

The Venice was hardly gone when a submarine surfaced nearby and began playing her searchlight on the fragmented floating wreckage. The pitifully few survivors, clinging to the flotsam, were coldly machine-gunned until their shredded bodies sank out of sight. Boats were sent out, guided by the darting shaft of light.

After searching for several hours until all the debris was pulled aboard, they returned to their ship.

Then the light was killed and the sub returned to the darkness.

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