Pacific Vortex! Part 25

"He's a tough old bird," she answered simply.

"Is he in his office?"

"No, sir. They're all waiting in the conference room." She rose and came from behind her desk. "This way, please."

He followed her down a corridor, where she stopped at a door on the right, knocked, held it open, announced him, and closed it quietly behind him when he had pa.s.sed through.

There were four men in the room. Two he knew, two he did not. Admiral Hunter came forward to shake Pitt's hand. He looked older, far older, far more weary than when Pitt had last seen him, only four days previously.

"Thank G.o.d you're safe," Hunter said warmly, surprising Pitt with a tone of intense sincerity. "How's your leg?"

"Okay," Pitt said briefly. He looked into the old man's eyes. "I'm sorry about Captain Cinana... and Adrian. It was my fault. If only I'd been more alert."

"Nonsense!" he said with a tight grin. "You got two of those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. It must have been quite a fight."

Before Pitt could answer, Denver came up and thumped him on the back. "Good to see you. You look as rotten as ever."

"Dog tired, maybe. Thirty minutes sleep out of twenty-four hours beats the h.e.l.l out of my girlish complexion.''

"Sorry about that," said Hunter. "But we're running out of time. Unless we can raise the Starbuck d.a.m.ned quick, we can write her off for good." The harsh edge of strain showed unmistakably in the lines around Hunter's eyes. Tor what little time that is available, we have you to thank. Flooding the forward torpedo compartment was an act of genius."

Pitt grinned. "The Martha Ann's helmsman was dead sure we'd both wind up paying for damages out of our wages."

Hunter allowed the bare hint of a smile to tug at the corner of his lips. "Come and sit down; but first let me introduce you to Dr. Elmer Chrysler, Chief of Research for Tripler Hospital."

Pitt shook hands with a short little man who had a bony handgrip like a pair of pliers. The head was completely shaven and the ears held a giant pair of horned-rimmed gla.s.ses. The brown eyes in back of the lenses were beady, but the smile was large and genuine.

"And Dr. Raymond York, Head of the Marine Geology Department for the Eton School of Oceanography." York didn't look like a geologist; he looked more like a burly truck driver or longsh.o.r.eman. He was big, just touching six feet, and wide in the shoulders. He flashed a set of perfectly s.p.a.ced teeth.

As they were introduced, Pitt's hand was crushed by five of the largest and meatiest fingers he'd ever seen.

Hunter motioned Pitt to a chair and then said: "We're anxious to have your account of the Martha Ann's loss and the fight in your hotel room."

Pitt relaxed and tried to force his tired mind into categorizing the events in their proper perspective. He knew they were all watching him closely, listening to every detail he could dredge up from memory.

Denver nodded. "Take your time and forgive us if we b.u.t.t in every now and then with a question."

Pitt began softly. "I suppose it all started when we discovered the rise on the seafloor, a rise not charted on our underwater topographical maps."

Then Pitt told them everything. The two scientists took notes while Denver watched over a tape recorder. Occasionally one of the men seated around the conference table would interrupt and ask a question which Pitt would answer as best he could. His only omission concerned Summer; he lied, saying he had palmed a knife before Delphi's men had bound him.

Hunter pulled the cellophane from a pack of cigarettes and wadded it in an ashtray. "What about this Delphi character? So far, Major Pitt's verbal contact with this fellow is the only communication we've had with anyone connected, if indeed he is, to the Vortex."

Dr. Chrysler leaned across the table. "Could you describe this man in detail?"

"Approximately six feet eight inches in height," Pitt replied. "Well proportioned for his size; I'm not versed at guessing weight for someone that tall. Rugged, lined face, graying hair, and, of course, his most striking feature, yellow eyes." Chrysler's brow furrowed. "Yellow?"

"Yes, almost gold."

"That's not possible," Chrysler said. "An albino might have pink eyes with a slight orange tint to them. And certain types of diseases might alter the color to a pale sort of grayish-yellow. But a bright gold? Not likely. The iris of the eye simply does not contain the right pigments for such a hue."

Dr. York took a pipe from his pocket and idly twisted it in his hand. "Most strange that you should describe a giant of a man with yellow eyes. There really was such a person."

"The Oracle of Psychic Unity," Chrysler said softly. "Of course, Dr. Frederick Moran." "I'don't recall the name," said Hunter. "Frederick Moran was one of the century's great cla.s.sical anthropologists. He advocated the theory that the human mind would be the crucial factor in man's eventual extinction."

York nodded. "A brilliant but egocentric man. Disappeared at sea nearly thirty years ago."

"The Delphi Oracle," Pitt said to no one in particular.

Denver caught the connection immediately. "Of course. Delphi comes from the oracle of ancient Greece."

"It's not possible," Chrysler said. "The man's dead." "Is he?" Pitt questioned. "Maybe he found his Kanoli."

"Sounds like a Hawaiian Shangri-la," said Hunter. "Perhaps it is," Pitt said. He related briefly his conversation with George Papaaloa at the Bishop Museum.

"I still find it hard to believe that a man of Dr. Moran's stature," said York, "could simply drop from sight for three decades and suddenly reappear as a murderer and kidnapper."

"Did this Delphi say anything else that might tie him to Dr. Moran?" Chrysler asked.

Pitt smiled. "He implied that my intelligence fell far short of Lavella and Roblemann, whoever they might be."

Chrysler and York stared at each other.

"Most strange," York repeated. "Lavella was a physicist who specialized in hydrology."

"And Roblemann was a renown surgeon." Chrysler's eyes suddenly widened and locked on Pitt. "Before Roblemann died, he was experimenting on a mechanical gill system so that humans would be able to absorb oxygen from water."

Chrysler paused and walked over to a water cooler in one corner of the room. He filled a paper cup, creating deep, gurgling sounds from inside the gla.s.s bottle, and then returned to the table, downing the cup's contents before continuing.

"As we all probably know, the primary function of any respiratory system is to obtain oxygen needs for the body and to cast off carbon dioxide. In animals and humans, the lungs hang loosely in the chest and must be inflated and deflated by means of the diaphragm and air pressure. Once the air is in the lungs, it is absorbed into the lining and then into the bloodstream. On the other hand, fish obtain their oxygen and expel the carbon dioxide through soft vascula tissues containing many tiny filaments. The device Roblemann supposedly created was a combination gill-lung that was surgically attached to the chest with connecting lines for the transportation of oxygen."

"It sounds incredible," said Hunter.

"Incredible, yes," said Pitt. "But it explains why none of the men who boarded the Martha Ann carried diving gear."

"Such a mechanism," Chrysler added, "would hardly allow a human to remain underwater much more than half an hour."

Denver shook his head in wonderment. "Maybe half an hour doesn't seem like much, but it still beats the h.e.l.l out of lugging the bulky equipment in use today."

"Do you gentlemen know what became of Lavella and Roblemann?" asked Hunter.

Chrysler shrugged.

"They died years ago."

Hunter picked up a phone. "Data Section? This is Admiral Hunter. I want details on the deaths of two scientists named Lavella and Roblemann. Pipe it through the minute it's in your hands. Well, that's a start. Dr. York, what do you make of the marine geology in the Vortex area?"

York opened a briefcase and laid several charts in front of him on the table. "After questioning the survivors from the Martha Ann's instrument detection room, Commander Boland at the hospital, and listening to Pitt's remarks, Tm forced to only one conclusion. The Vortex is nothing more than a previously undiscovered seamount."