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Pitt leaned back and stretched his legs. “I thought that the era of the dinosaurs occurred much later.”
Gu
“Where does your freak fish fit into the picture?”
“Imagine, if you will, a three foot Teaser fish who lived, cavorted, made love and finally died somewhere in the Sea of Tethys. Nothing and no one took notice as this obscure creature’s body slowly sank to the red mud of the seabed. The unmarked grave was covered over with sediments which hardened into sandstone and left a thin film of carbon. It was this trace of carbon that etched and outlined the Teaser’s tissue and bone structure into the surrounding strata.” The years passed and turned into mille
Pitt studied the photograph of the fossil again. “It doesn’t seem possible that any living thing could survive this long without going through drastic evolutionary changes.”
“Incredible? Yes; but it has happened before. The shark has been with us for three hundred and fifty million years. The Horseshoe Crab has existed virtually unchanged over two hundred million years. Then, of course, we have the classic example; the Coelacanth.”
“Yes, I heard of it,” said Pitt. “That was the fish believed extinct for seventy million years until they began to be found off the coast of east Africa.”
Gu
Pitt idly glanced at the pictures again. “If this so called living fossil is still floating around in its original form, how could it evolve into an advanced stage?”
“Any plant or animal species is like a related family,” Gu
Pitt was getting restless. He opened the door and walked out onto the deck. The hot air struck him like a cloud of steam and he winced. All this expense and all these men sweating their asses off to catch a stinking fish, he thought. Who the hell cares if our ancestors were apes or fish — what difference did it make? At the rate mankind was racing toward self-destruction, it would probably be extinct in another thousand years or less anyway. He turned back to the darkened doorway and faced Gu
“Ok,” Pitt said slowly. “I know what you and your boatload of academic brains are searching for. Now the only question in my mind is where do I come in? If you’re having trouble with broken cables, faulty generators or missing tools, you don’t need me, you need a good mechanic who knows how to take care of his equipment.”
Gu
“Dr. Knight?”
“Yes, Ken Knight, the young fellow who picked you up in the whaleboat this morning. He’s quite a brilliant marine geophysicist.”
“That’s an impressive description,” said Pitt. “He seemed friendly enough during the boat ride, but he hardly struck me as brilliant.”
The heat outside was becoming unbearable and the metal railing gleamed ominously. Pitt. not thinking, put his hand on the metal and instantly cursed as a burning sting etched his palm. Suddenly the pain set off an immense feeling of irritation Within him and he returned to the cabin, slamming the door. “Let’s skip all this crap,” Pitt snapped sharply. “Just tell me what miracle I’m supposed to perform that puts a Teaser over your fireplace and I’ll get to work.” He stretched out in Gu
Gu
Gu
“Have you any proof of tampering or sabotage?” asked Pitt.
“None whatsoever.”
“The broken cable that Knight mentioned, was it cut?" Gu
Lives are more important to us than scientific discovery. Underwater exploration is a risky business and the list is long with the names of men before us who have died trying to pry new secrets from the seas.”
“What was the safety margin when your cable Parted?”
“I was getting to that. It was nearly six-to-one. We Only had a four thousand pound stress on it at the time. It was extremely fortunate that no one was injured from the whiplash of the cable when it snapped”
“May I see the cable?”
“Yes, I’ve had the parted ends cut from the main sections and saved for your arrival.”
A loud knock echoed from the door and a young red-haired boy, no more than eighteen or nineteen, entered the cabin, carrying a small bucket of ice. He sat it on the desk and turned and faced Gu
“Yes sir.” The boy did an abrupt about-face and hurried from the cabin.