Pitt held up the glass and studied it under the light. 'I'd say about two hundred proof.'
North Americans never ceased to amaze Rojas. All business one moment, complete jesters the next. He often wondered how they built such a superpower.
Then Pitt laughed his infectious laugh. 'Only kidding. Tell your uncle if he ever exports it to the U.S., I'll be the first in line to distribute it.'
Flores threw down his dividers and tapped a penciled box on the chart.
'They were here at 03:10 yesterday morning.'
Everyone moved back to the table and hovered over the chart.
'All three were on converging courses all right,' observed Gunn. He took a small calculator from his pocket and began punching its buttons.
'If I make a rough estimate of speeds, say about thirty knots for the Lady Flamborough, eighteen for the Cabo Gallegos, and twenty-two for the General Bravo . . .' his voice trailed off as he made notations on the edge of the chart. After several moments he stood back and tapped the figures with a pencil. 'Not surprising the Chilean coal carrier didn't make visual contact. She would have crossed the cruise liner's bow a good sixty-four kilometers to the east.'
Pitt stared thoughtfully at the lines across the chart. 'The Mexican container ship, on the other hand, looks as if she missed the Lady Flamborough by no more than three or four kilometers.'
'Not surprising,' said Rojas, 'when you consider the cruise liner was running without lights.'
Pitt looked at Flores. 'Do you'recall the phase of the moon, Captain?'
'Yes, between new moon and first quarter, a crescent.'
Giordino shook his head. 'Not bright enough if the bridge watch wasn't looking in the right direction.'
'I assume you launched the search from this point,' said Pitt.
Flores nodded. 'Yes, the aircraft flew grids two hundred miles to the east, north and south.'
'And found no sign of her.'
'Only the container ship and the ore carrier.'
'She might have doubled back and then cut north or south,' suggested Gunn.
'We thought of that, too,' said Flores. 'The aircraft cleared all western approaches toward land when they returned for fuel and went out again.'
'Considering the facts,' said Gunn ominously, 'I fear the only place the Lady Flamborough could have gone is down.'
'Take her last position, Rudi, and figure how far she might have sailed before the search planes arrived.'
Rojas stared at Pitt with interest. 'May I ask what you intend to do?
Further search would be useless. The entire surface where she vanished has been swept.'
Pitt seemed to stare through Rojas as though the Colonel were transparent. 'Like the man just said, 'The only place she could have gone is down.' And that's precisely where we're going to look.'
'How can I be of service?'
'The Sounder, a NUMA deep-water research ship, should arrive in the general search area sometime this evening. We'd be grateful if you could spare a helicopter to shuttle us out to her. '
Rojas nodded. 'I will arrange to have one standing by.'
Then he added, 'You realize you n-light as well be hunting one particular fish in ten thousand square kilometers of sea. It could take you a lifetime.'
'No,' said Pitt confidently. 'Twenty hours on the outside.'
Rojas was a pragmatic man. Wishful thinking was foreign to him. He looked at Giordino and Gunn, expecting to see skepticism mirrored in their eyes. Instead, he saw only complete agreement.
'Surely, you can't believe such a fanciful time schedule?' he asked.
Giordino held up a hand and casually studied his fingernails. 'If experience is any judge,' he replied placidly, 'Dirk has overestimated.'
Exactly fourteen hours and forty-two minutes after the Uruguayan army helicopter set them on the landing pad of the Sounder, they found a shipwreck matching the Lady Flamborough's dimensions in 1,020 meters of water.
On the discovery pass the target showed up as a tiny dark speck on a flat plain below the continental slope. As the Sounder moved in closer, the sonar operator decreased the recording range until the shadowy image of a ship became a discernible shape.
The Sounder did not carry the five-million-dollar viewing system Pitt and Giordino had enjoyed on the Polar Explorer. No color video cameras were mounted on the trailing sonar sensor. The mission of her oceanographic scientists was purely to map large sections of the sea bottom. Her electronic gear was designed for distance and not closeup detail of manmade sunken objects.
'Same configuration all right,' said Gunn. 'Pretty vague. Could be my imagination but she appears to have a sweptback funnel on her stern superstructure. Her sides look high and straight. She's sitting upright, no more than a ten-degree list.'
Giordino held back. 'We'll have to get cameras on her to make a positive ID.'
Pitt said nothing. He kept watching the sonar recording long after the target slipped behind the Sounder's stern. any hope of finding his father alive was draining away. He felt as though he was staring at a coffin as dirt was being thrown on the lid.
