Part 34 (2/2)

”It's no good, Father. You've had to kill to maintain our sanctuary. But that was outside in the sea. You must not bring death into your own house.”

Delphi hesitated and slowly dropped the gun.

”You're quite right, Daughter.” He smiled, ”Death from a bullet is too quick, too merciful, and too unclean. We'll set them free on the surface. We'll give them a chance to survive.”

”Fat chance,” Pitt growled. ”Hundreds of miles to the nearest land. Man-eaters waiting for a bite of human flesh. You're all heart.”

”Enough of this morbid talk.” The gianfs face wore a sardonic expression. ”I still wish to hear how you came to be here, and I haven't time for any more of your wit.”

Pitt casually studied his watch. ”About thirty-one minutes to be exact.”

”Thirty-one minutes?”

”Yes, that's when your precious sanctuary caves in.”

”Back with the jokes again, are we, my friend?” He walked over to the portal, staring at the moray eel, before turning abruptly. ”How many other men were in your aircraft?”

Pitt snapped another question back. ”What became of Lavella, Roblemann, and Moran?”

”You persist in toying with me.”

”No, I'm dead serious,” Pitt said. ”You answer a couple of questions and I'll tell you what you want to know. My word.”

Delphi thoughtfully looked at the gun. Then he laid it on the desk ”I believe you.”

To begin with, Major, my name really is Moran.”

”Frederick Moran would have to be in his eighties to be alive now!”

”I am his son,” Delphi said slowly. ”I was a young man when he set out with Dr. Lavella and Dr. Roble-mann to find the lost island of Kanoli. You see, my father was a pacifist. After the second world war had ended in the inferno of the atomic bomb, he knew it would only be a question of time before mankind destroyed itself in a nuclear holocaust. When countries arm for war, the arms never go unused, he once said. He began researching areas that would be safe from radiation and far from target sectors, eventually discovering that a base under the sea provided the ideal retreat. When the island of Kanoli sank into the sea many centuries ago, it dropped suddenly, without volcanic activity or major cataclysm. This indicated that the ceremonial caves and tunnels recorded in the legends might still be intact. Lavella and Roblemann sympathized with my father; they joined him in his search for the lost isle. After nearly three months of sounding the seafloor, they found it, and immediately began plans for pumping the pa.s.sages dry. It took them nearly a year before they were able to set up quarters within the seamount.”

”How was it possible to work so long in secret?” Pitt asked. ”The records list the expedition's s.h.i.+p as missing only a few months after it left port.”

”Secrecy was no great problem,” Delphi continued. The s.h.i.+p's hull had been modified so that divers and equipment would be able to pa.s.s in and out of the sea. A few alterations like changing the name on the bow, and painting the superstructure, and the s.h.i.+p simply became another unnoticed steamer plying the Western trade route. Not secrecy, but financing, became the major problem.”

” The rest I know,” Pitt said with an unnerving degree of certainty.

Delphi looked up. Summer took a step forward, the identical expression of doubt showing in their faces.

”How odd you didn't catch onto the fact that the entire 101st Fleet, the entire Navy Department, discovered your setup.”

”What purpose do you serve by lying?” Delphi demanded.

”You should have guessed, Delphi. Remember when you left my apartment? I mentioned Kanoli, yet you hardly batted an eye. Probably because you knew I was about to die so my little revelation was of no consequence.”

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