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"I'm sailing alone," answered Cussler.
"On a motor yacht this large?"
Cussler smiled. "The Periwinkle isn't your average yacht. Between her automated systems and computers, she can sail herself, and usually does."
"May I take you up on your offer to use the boat's satellite phone?" Pitt inquired.
"Most certainly."
Cussler led the way up a stairway to the wheelhouse. None of the NUMA people had ever seen anything like it. The tinted windows ran in a 360-degree circle, providing vision on every horizon. There was nothing traditional about the layout. There were no conventional instruments or gauges, no wheel for a helm or throttle levers. A large overstaffed executive chair sat in front of seven LCD, liquid crystal display, screens. The chair's right arm held a computer trackball while the left armrest was fitted with a joystick. The screens were all encased in burled walnut cabinets. The helm station was more elegant than the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.
Cussler motioned for Pitt to sit in the helm chair. "The Globalstar phone is mounted in the panel to your right. Just press the blue button and you can all speak and listen to your party on the other end."
Pitt thanked him and dialed up Sandecker's private line at NUMA headquarters. The admiral, as always, answered on the first ring. "Sandecker."
"Admiral, this is Dirk."
There was a pregnant pause. Then the voice came slowly. "You're alive and well?"
"Hungry for solid food and a bit dehydrated, but otherwise healthy."
"And Al?"
"He and Misty Graham from the Deep Encounter are standing beside me."
Pitt could hear the admiral's sigh of pleasure through the earpiece. "I've got Rudi here in my office. I'll switch to the speaker."
"Dirk!" boomed Rudi Gunn's voice. "You don't know how happy I am to hear you're still with us. We've had every rescue unit from Australia and New Zealand out searching for you and the ship."
"We got lucky and were picked up by a passing yacht."
"You're not on Deep Encounter?" Sandecker asked sharply.
"After we spent several hours on the sea bottom investigating the wreck of the Emerald Dolphin, we ascended to the surface and found that the ship and everyone on it had vanished."
"Then you couldn't know?"
"Know what?"
"We can't be absolutely certain, but it's beginning to look like the Deep Encounter was hijacked."
"What gave you that idea?"
"It wasn't until this time yesterday that our security systems detected a difference in the speech pattern of Captain Burch's voice during his status reports to NUMA headquarters. Until then the reports were accepted as genuine. We had no cause for suspicion."
"When we left the ship, all was normal."
"The last report by the genuine Captain Burch said the Abyss Navigator was about to be lowered in the water. We know now the hijackers boarded while you were on the bottom."
"Do you have any idea where the ship was taken?" asked Giordino.
"No," Gunn said candidly.
"It couldn't have evaporated," said Misty. "It wasn't swept into space by aliens."
"Our worst fear," Sandecker said ominously, "is that she was intentionally sunk." He pulled back from suggesting that the entire crew might be lying under the sea.
"But why?" questioned Giordino. "What earthly good is an oceanographic survey ship to pirates? There is no treasure on board. The ship can't be used for smuggling. It's too slow and too recognizable. Where's the motive?"
