his headphones.
Clear to roll. Nick adjusted the volume, and then shrugged into the
oxygen rebreathing set. They were not going deeper than thirty feet, so
Nick had decided to use oxygen rather than the bulky steel
compressed-air cylinders.
Let's go/ he said, and waddled to the ladder.
The Zodiac sixteen-foot inflatable dinghy swung overboard with the four
of them in it, two divers and two picked seamen to handle the boat. Vin
pushed one of them aside and primed the outboard himself.
Come on, beauty/he told it sternly, and the big Johnson Seahorse fired
at the first kick. Gingerly, they began to feel their way through an
open lead in the ice, with the two seamen poling away small sharp pieces
that would have ripped the fabric of the Zodiac.
In Nick's radio headset, David Allen's voice spoke suddenly.
Captain, this is the First Officer. Barometric pressure is 11 02 I - it
looks like it's going through the roof. The pressure was bouncing, as
Nick had predicted. What goes up, must come down - and the higher she
goes, the lower she falls.
Jules Levoisin had warned him it was going to be a screamer.
Did you read the last met from Gough Island?
They have 1005 falling, and the wind at 3200 and thirty-five knots.
Lovely/ said Nick. We've got a big blow coming. And through the visor
of his helmet he looked up at the pale and beautiful sun. It was not
bright enough to pain the eye, and now it wore a fine golden halo like
the head of a saint in a medieval painting.
Skipper, this is as close as we can get, Vin Baker told him, and slipped
the motor into neutral. The Zodiac coasted gently into a small open
pool in the ice-pack, fifty yards from Golden Adventurers stern.
A solid sheet of compacted ice separated them, and Nick studied it
carefully. He had not taken the chance of working Warlock in closer
until he could get a look at the bottom here. He wanted to know what
depth of water he had to manoeuvre in, and if there were hidden snags,
jagged rock to rip through the Warlock's hull, or flat shingle on which
he could risk a bump.
He wanted to know the slope of the bottom, and if there was good holding
for his ground-tackle, but most of all, he wanted to inspect the
underwater damage to Golden Adventurer's hull.
Okay, Chief? he asked, and Vin Baker grinned at him through the visor.
Hey, I just remembered - my mommy told me not to get my feet wet.
I'm going home. Nick knew just how he felt. There was thick sheet ice
between them and Adventurer, they had to go down and swim below it.
God alone knew what currents were running under the ice, and what
visibility was like down there.
A man in trouble could not surface immediately, but must find his way
back to open water. Nick felt a claustrophobic tightening of his belly
muscles, and he worked swiftly, checking out his gear, cracking the
valve on his oxygen tank to inflate the breathing bag, checking the
compass and Rolex Oyster on his wrist and clipping his buddy line on to
the Zodiac, a line to return along, like Theseus in the labyrinth of the
Minotaur.
