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“I hear you’ve got problems,” said Pitt.
Gu
Pitt’s eyebrows went up in surprise. This sudden harshness did not fit Gu
Gu
“I'm sorry, Dirk, it’s just that I’ve never seen so many things go wrong at one time. It’s highly frustrating after all the pla
Pitt placed an arm on the shorter man’s shoulders and gri
Gu
Pitt followed Gu
Gu
“I only heard that the First Attempt was researching the Mediterranean for zoological purposes.”
Gu
Pitt lit another cigarette. “What makes you think that I came straight from the Capital?”
“I don’t know,” Gu
Pitt stopped him with a grin. “I haven’t been anywhere near the States in over four months.” He exhaled a puff of smoke toward the ventilator and watched the blue haze swirl into nothingness. “Sandecker’s message to you simply stated that he was sending me directly to Thasos. He obviously neglected to mention where I was coming from and when I would arrive. Therefore, you expected me to come soaring out of the blue sky four days ago.”
“Again, I’m sorry,” Gu
“It couldn’t be helped. Giordino and I were ordered to airlift supplies into an ice probe station, camped on an ice floe north of Spitzbergen. Right after we landed, a blizzard hit and grounded us for over seventy-two hours.”
Gu
Gu
Pitt looked down at the drawings. Most of them were different artist’s conceptions of the same fish, and yet each varied in details. The first was an ancient Greek illustration on the side of a vase. Another had obviously been part of a Roman fresco. He noted that two of them were more modern. stylized drawings, depicting the fish in a series of movements. The last was a photograph of a fossil imbedded in sandstone. Pitt looked up at Gu
Gu
He whistled softly. “This is a weird specimen, Rudi. What do you call it?” “I can’t pronounce the Latin name, but the scientists aboard the First Attempt have affectionately nicknamed it the Teaser.”
“Why is that?”
“Because, by every law of nature that fish should have become extinct over two hundred million years ago. But as you can see by the drawings. men still claim they have seen it. Every fifty or sixty years there’s a rash of sightings, but unfortunately for science, a Teaser has yet to be caught.” Gu
Pitt mashed out his cigarette in an ashtray. “What makes this particular fish so important?”
Gu
“True, but if the skin were smooth you’d have nothing more than an early reptile. The earth was covered with them back in those days.”
Gu
“So what does that prove?” asked Pitt.
“Nothing solid, but since primitive mammal life survives better in milder climates, it lends a little support to the possibility that they might have survived to the present.”
Pitt stared at Gu
“I knew you were a hard head,” said Gu
“That’s why I left the most interesting part till last.” He paused and removed his glasses and rubbed the lenses With a piece of Kleenex. Then he replaced the black rims over his hawkish nose. He continued speaking as if lost in a dream. “During the Triassic Period in geological time, and before the Himalayas and the Alps rose, a great sea swept over what is now Tibet and India. It also extended over Central Europe and ended in the North Sea. Geologists call this once great body of water, the Sea of Tethys. All that remains of it today is the Black, the Caspian and the Mediterranean Seas.”
“You’ll have to pardon my ignorance of geological time eras,” Pitt interrupted, “but when did the Triassic Period take place?”
“Between one hundred eighty and two hundred thirty million years ago,” replied Gu