value of Golden Adventurer? And he told her.
She was silent a moment as she checked his mental arithmetic.
That's six million dollars, she whispered in awe.
Give or take a few cents/ he agreed.
But there isn't that much money in the world! She turned and stared
back at the liner.
Duncan Alexander is going to agree with you. Nick smiled a little
grimly.
But, she shook her head, what would anybody do with that much money? I'm
asking for six - but I won't get it. I'll walk away with three or four
millions. Still, that's too much. Nobody could spend that much not if
they tried for a lifetime. It's spent already. It will just about
enable me to pay off my loans, launch my other tug, and to keep Ocean
Salvage going for another few months. You owe three or four million
dollars? She stared at him now in open wonder. I'd never sleep, not
one minute would I be able to sleep Money isn't for spending/he
explained. There is a limit to the amount of food you can eat, or
clothes you can wear.
Money is a game, the biggest most exciting game in town. She listened
attentively to it all, happy because tonight he was gay and excited with
grand designs and further plans, and because he shared them with her.
What we will do is this, we'll come down here with both tugs and catch
an iceberg. She laughed. Oh, come on! I'm not joking, he assured her,
but laughing also. We'll put tow-lines on a big berg. It may take a
week to build up tow speed, but once we get it moving nothing will stop
it.
We will guide it up into the middle forties, catch the roaring forties
and, just like the old wool clippers on the Australian passage, we will
run our castings down. He moved to the chart-table, selected a
large-scale chart of the Indian Ocean and beckoned her to join him.
You're serious. She stopped laughing, and stared at him again. You
really are serious, aren't you? He nodded, still smiling, and traced it
out with his finger.
Then we'll swing northwards, up into the Western Australian current,
letting the flow carry us north in a great circle, until we hit the
easterly monsoon and the north equatorial Elicuffent! He described the
circle, but she watched his face.
They stood very close, but still not touching and she felt herself
stiffed by the timbre of his voice, as though to the touch of fingers.
'We will cross the Indian Ocean to the east coast of Africa with the
current pushing all the way, just in time to catch the south-westerly
monsoon drift right into the Persian Gulf- He straightened up and smiled
again.
A hundred billion tons of fresh water delivered right into the dryest
and richest corner of the globe., But - but - she shook her head, it
would melt!
From a helicopter we spray it with a reflective polyurethane skin to
lessen the effect of the sun, and we moor it in a shallow specially
prepared dock where it will cool its own surrounds. Sure, it will melt,
but not for a year or two and then we'll just go out and catch another
