Austin played the light around. They were standing on a balcony that overlooked a huge, central hold. The space contained four massive, cylindrical objects set in a line.

“Looks like the electrical generating plant inside Hoover Dam,” Austin said.

“There's enough power here for a small city.”

“Or a big spark plug,” Austin said, thinking about the ruined coil they had seen on the deck. He pointed the light upward. Dozens of thick electrical cables snaked down from the ceiling and ran to the generators.

Creak.

The deck beneath their feet tilted at a sharper angle.

“I think that seagull you were worried about must have landed,” Austin said.

Zavala glanced upward. “Let's hope he doesn't have a cold.”

Austin was intrepid but not foolish. They retraced their steps through the door, up the stairs and along the passageway, until they were out in the open once more. The fresh air felt good after the claustrophobic darkness inside the ship. The vessel was definitely more tilted than it had been. Austin still wasn't satisfied. There was no foundation for a superstructure, but there had to be a control room. While Zavala called the Throckmorton with an update on their status, Austin made his way along the cockeyed deck toward the stern.

He came across several more hatchways that provided access into the ship. He figured that any one of them would be a crapshoot, and that he would have to be very lucky to choose the right one. Then he found what he was looking for. Near a hatchway set into the middle of the deck at the aft end of the ship were some round insulators. He guessed that they might have been the bases for radio antennae blasted off in the whirlpool. He opened the hatch, and motioned for Zavala to follow him down the ladder.

As before, the ladder led to a deck and a passageway, but the corridor was only about ten feet long, and it ended in a door. They opened the door and stepped inside.

“I think we just found the crew,” Zavala said.

There were six decomposed corpses in the control room. They were piled in the lower end of the room. Austin was reluctant to violate the crew's tomb, but he knew it was important to learn as much about the ship as possible. With Zavala a step behind, Austin entered the room and glanced at the large control panel. With dozens of gauges and switches, it was far more complicated than any he had ever seen. He made an educated guess that the dynamos belowdecks were controlled from this compact space. He was examining the controls when the ship suddenly creaked, then seemed to moan.

Zavala said, “Kurt!”

Austin knew that if they stayed with the crew a second longer they would be joining the bloated corpses.

“I think we're done here.” He pointed to the door.