Iceberg

"The final course of the Lax," Koski said firmly.

"Nothing strange about that," Pitt offered. "It was in all the newspapers. Fyrie with his crew and passengers left Reykjavik on the morning of April tenth of last year and laid a direct heading for New York. He was last sighted by a Standard Oil tanker six hundred miles off Cape Farewell, Greenland. After that, nothing more was seen or heard of the Lax again."

"That's fine as far as it goes." Koski pulled his coat collar around his ears and fought to keep his teeth from chattering. "Except the sighting took place — near the fiftieth parallel-too far south of the iceberg limit."

"I would like to remind you, Commander," Hu

"And I'd like to remind you, Dog" Koski persisted, "that during the year in question the number of iceberg sightings below the forty-eighth parallel came to zero."

Hu

"It would be most helpful, Dr. Hu

"I can't," Hu

"You can't?" Koski's face went blank with disbelief. He looked at Hu

"That's pretty salty terminology, Commander," Pitt said harshly.

"What in hell do you expect? You're both highly intelligent people, yet you act like a pair of mongoloids.

Take Dr. Hu

"Nobody's perfect," Hu

"No courtesy, no honest answer, is that it?"

"It's not a question of honesty," Pitt said. "We've our orders just as you have yours. Up to an hour ago Hu

"Uh-huh. And the next move in our game of charades?"

"The problem is, we can't explain everything," Pitt said. "Damned little in reality. I'll tell you what Dr. Hu

"You could have leveled with me sooner."

"Hardly," Pitt said. "As captain of your ship you have full authority. You even have the power to disregard or challenge orders from your Commandant if you feel they endanger your crew and ship. I couldn't take a chance. We had to give you a snow job so you'd cooperate fully. Besides, we were not to confide in anyone. I'm going against those orders right now."

"Could be another snow job?"

"Could be," Pitt said, gri

"You're dropping all this in my lap?"

"Why not? Abandoned and drifting derelicts are your bag. Remember your motto, Semper paratus, always prepared, Coast Guard to the rescue and all that."

The twisted look on Koski's face was priceless. "I would appreciate it if you just stuck to the facts without benefit of tawdry remarks."

"Very well," Pitt said calmly. "The story I concocted on the Catawaba was true up to a point-the point where I substituted the Novgorod for the Lax. Fyrie's yacht, of course, wasnt carrying classified electronic equipment, or any other clandestine mechanical devices for that matter. The cargo actually consisted of eight major-league engineers and scientists from Fyrie Mining Limited, who were on their way to New York to open secret negotiations with two of our government's largest defense contractors. Somewhere on board-probably in this room-was a file of documents containing a geological survey of the ocean floor. What Fyrie's research team bad discovered under the sea or where remains a mystery. This information was vitally important to a great number of people; our own defense department desperately yearned to get their hands on it.

And so did the Russians; they pulled out all stops to grab it."

"The last statement explains a great deal," said Koski.

"Meaning?"

Koski exchanged knowing looks with Dover. "We were one of the ships that searched for the Lax-it was the Catawaba's first patrol. Every time we blinked our eyes, we found ourselves crossing the wake of a Russian vessel. We were just egotistical enough to think they were observing our search patterns. Now it turns out that they were nosing after the Lax too."

"It also neatly ties in with the reason we butted in on your show" said Dover. "Ten minutes after you and Dr. Hu

"Small wonder," Pitt interrupted. "It was essential that we maintain strict radio silence once we headed for the derelict. I took the precaution of switching the radio off. We couldn't transmit, much less receive."

"After Commander Koski notified headquarters of our failure to contact your helicopter," Dover continued, "a signal came through hot and heavy ordering us to hightail it after you and act as escort in case the sub got pushy."

"How did you find us?" Pitt asked.

"We hadn't passed two icebergs before we snotted that yellow copter of yours. it stood out like a canary on a bedsheet."

Pitt and Hu

"What's the joke?" Koski asked curiously.

"Luck, plain, simple, paradoxical luck," said Pitt, his face twisted in mirth. "We flew all over hell for three hours before we found this floating ice palace, and you found it five minutes after you began searching." Pitt then briefly told Koski and Dover about the iceberg decoy and meeting with the Russian submarine.

"Good Lord," Dover muttered. "Are you suggesting that we're not the first to set foot on the iceberg?"

"The evidence is plain," Pitt said. "The Ice Patrol's dyed stain has been chipped away, and Hu

And there's more, something that takes the whole situation out of the mysterious and puts it in the category of the macabre."

"The fire?"

"The fire."

"Undoubtedly accidental. Fires have been happening on ships since the first reed boats floated down the Nile thousand of years ago."

"Murder has been going on for much longer than that."

"Murder!" Koski repeated flatly. "You did say murder?"

"With a capital M."

"Except for the excessive degree, I've observed nothing I haven't already seen On at least eight other burned-out ships during my service on the Coast Guard-bodies, stench, devastation, the works. In your honored opinion as an Air Force officer what makes You think this one is any different?"