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"Then tell them!" Giordino said, his tone suddenly sharp. "No way." Sandecker's words came strained and hollow.
"There's a breakdown in voice transmission from the communications satellite."
"Make contact through the computers."
"Yes, yes," King murmured, a faint gleam of understanding in his eyes. "I still command their data input."
Giordino watched the screen, counting the remaining seconds of the torpedo's run as King spoke into a voice response unit that relayed the message to the Doodlebug.
"Pitt anticipated you," said Sandecker, nodding at the screen. They all felt a brief surge of relief as the forward speed of the submersible began to fall off.
"Ten seconds to contact," said Giordino.
Sandecker grabbed a telephone and bellowed at the shaken operator on duty. "Get me Admiral Joe Kemper, chief of naval operations!"
"Three seconds . . . two . . . one."
The room fell into hushed silence; all were afraid to speak, to be the first to utter the words that might become the epitaph of the submersible and its crew. The screen remained dark. Then the readout came on.
"A miss," King sighed heavily. "The torpedo passed astern with ninety meters to spare."
"The magnetic sensors can't get a firm lock-in on the Bug's aluminum hull," commented Sandecker.
Giordino had to grin at Pitt's reply.
Round one. Ahead on points.
Any bright ideas for round two?
"The torpedo's circling for another try," said King. "What's its trajectory?"
"Appears to be running a flat path."
"Have them turn the Doodlebug on her side, angling to a horizontal plane, keeping the keel toward the torpedo. That will reduce the strike area."
Sandecker got through to one of Kemper's aides, a -lieutenant commander who told him the chief of naval operations was asleep and couldn't be disturbed. The aide might as well have thrown a pie at a freight train.
"You listen to me, sonny," Sandecker said in the intimidating tone he was famous for. "I happen to be Admiral James Sandecker of NUMA and this is an emergency. I strongly suggest you put Joe on the phone or your next tour of duty will be at a weather station on Mount Everest. Now move it!"
In a few moments, Admiral Kemper's yawning voice slurred over the phone. "Jim? What in hell is the problem?"
"One of your subs has just attacked one of my research vessels, that's the problem." Kemper reacted as if he'd been shot. "Where?"
"Ten miles off the Button Islands in the Labrador Sea."
"That's in Canadian waters."
"I've no time for explanations," said Sandecker. "You've got to order your sub to self-destruct their torpedo before we have a senseless tragedy on our hands."
"Stay on the line," said Kemper. "I'll be right back to you."
"Five seconds," Giordino called out.
"The circle has narrowed," King noted.
"Three seconds . . . two . . . one."
The next interval seemed to drag by as if in molasses while they waited. Then King announced, "Another miss. Only ten meters above this time."
