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"I'm sure you will be more than pleased with the interior as well," said Morton in a patronizing tone. "If you will please follow me, I will give you the grand tour before escorting you to the royal penthouse suite."
Specter merely nodded in reply, and began trundling across the deck to the hotel with his retinue bringing up the rear.
In the communications room across a wide hallway from the executive offices, an operator was monitoring and relaying the satellite calls that were coming in from Specter's main headquarters at his company-built city in Laguna, Brazil, and offices around the world. A light blinked on his console and he answered the call.
"Ocean Wanderer, how may I direct your call?"
"This is Heidi Lisherness from the NUMA Hurricane Center in Key West. May I speak to the director of your resort?"
"I'm sorry, but he is busy escorting the owner and founder of Ocean Wanderer on a private tour of the hotel."
"This is extremely urgent. Let me talk to his assistant."
"Everyone in the executive office is on the tour also."
"Then will you please," Heidi pleaded, "please, inform them that a Category Five hurricane is headed in the direction of the Ocean Wanderer. It is traveling at incredible speed and could strike the hotel as soon as dawn tomorrow. You must, I repeat, you must begin evacuating your hotel. I will give you frequent updates and will stand by at this number for any questions your director may have."
The operator dutifully jotted down the Hurricane Center's number and then answered several other calls that came in while he was talking with Heidi. Not taking the warning seriously, he waited until he was relieved two hours later before he tracked down Morton and relayed the message.
Morton stared at the message typed out by the operator's voice printer and reread it thoughtfully before handing it to Specter. "A weather warning from Key West. They report that a hurricane is heading in our direction and suggest we evacuate everyone in the hotel."
Specter scanned the warning message and lumbered to a large view window and gazed toward the east across the sea. The sky was free of clouds and the water surface looked quite calm, the wave crests reaching no more than a foot or two in height. "We'll make no hasty decisions. If the storm follows the usual hurricane track, it should veer north and miss us by hundreds of miles."
Morton was not so sure. A cautious and conscientious man, he preferred to be safe rather than sorry. "I do not believe, sir, it would be in our best interest to risk the lives of our guests or employees. I respectfully suggest that we instruct everyone to begin evacuation procedures and arrange transportation to a safe haven in the Dominican Republic as soon as possible. We should also alert the tugboats to launch an operation to tow us from the worst of the storm."
Specter stared out the window again at the serene weather as if reassuring himself. "We'll wait another three hours. I do not wish to harm the image of Ocean Wanderer with stories of a mass flight the news media will blow out of proportion and compare to the abandonment of a sinking ship. Besides," he said, throwing up his arms as if embracing the magnificent floating edifice like a balloon with long thin ears, "my hotel was built to resist any violence the sea can throw at her."
Morton briefly considered mentioning the Titanic, but thought better of it. He left Specter in the penthouse suite and returned to his office to begin preparations for the evacuation he was sure would come.
Fifty miles north of Ocean Wanderer, Captain Barnum studied the meteorological reports coming in from Heidi Lisherness and unconsciously stared toward the east the way Specter had. Unlike landsmen, Barnum was wily to the ways of the sea. He was aware of the slowly increasing breeze and the rising waves. He had weathered many storms during his long career at sea and knew how they could creep up on an unsuspecting ship and crew and engulf them in less than an hour.
He picked up the phone and hailed Pisces. An indistinct, garbled voice answered from under the water. "Summer?"
"No, this is the brother," Dirk replied humorously as he adjusted the frequency. "What can I do for you, Captain?"
"Is Summer inside Pisces with you?"
"No, she's outside, checking the hydrolab oxygen tanks."
"We have a storm warning from Key West. A Category Five hurricane is coming down our throats."
"Category Five? That's a brutal one."
"As ferocious as they come. I saw a Category Four in the Pacific twenty years ago. I can't imagine anything worse."
"I low much time do we have before it's on us?" asked Dirk.
"The center predicted six in the morning. But updates show it's coming on much faster. We have to get you and Summer out of Pisces .and onto Sea Sprite as soon as possible."
"I don't have to tell you about saturation dives, Captain. My sister and I have been down here four days. It will take us at least fifteen hours of decompression before we can be recompressed to ambient water pressure and come to the surface. We'll never make it before the hurricane is on us."
Barnum was well aware of the threatening situation. "We may have to terminate our topside support and run for it."
"At this depth, we should be able to weather the storm comfortably," Dirk said confidently.
"I don't like leaving you," Barnum spoke grimly.
"We may have to go on a diet, but we have generating power and enough oxygen to last us four days. By then the worst of the storm should have passed."
