“That’s right. And the Navy has generously said it’ll let us use Site 126–1.” Dave barked laughter. “The Navy did everything it could to keep the Agency from raising Humpty Dumpty. They wanted to do it themselves. If they’d tried, they’d still be yelling at each other about the design and the Russians would know all about it.”

Jerry didn’t argue. He did wonder what the Navy would say about the CIA. Since they were heading toward Midway, he might get to find out. He admired the way the CIA gave a plausible excuse for leaving the middle of nowhere and heading south.

“Can we do whatever we need to do near Midway or on it or however that works?” he asked.

Dave Schoals shook his head. “I don’t think so. That’s probably just temporary, to let us get started. We’ll do most of the work in Hawaii. We’ve got a berth reserved in the harbor at Lahaina. You know, on Maui.”

“I do know.” Jerry felt a small pang. He and Anna had had—did have again, he hoped—a room reserved at the Sheraton near Lahaina for their honeymoon. When they eventually got there from Honolulu, he’d have to remember to act as if he were seeing everything for the first time.

He couldn’t tell her what he’d been doing while they were first scheduled to get married. Past out in the Pacific, he couldn’t tell her where he’d been. He didn’t like the idea of polluting his marriage with lies and silences. Anna, a forthright person if ever there was one, would like it even less.

Why didn’t you worry about that more before you said you’d do this? he asked himself. But he knew the answer: $2,933 a month, all wedding expenses reimbursed, and two grand of mad money. And a starship in the moon pool, even if they hadn’t told him about that when John P. banged on his door.

The sailors brought in the two Waverider buoys whose electronics had helped position the Glomar Explorer as precisely as the job required. Each of the fancy gadgets was tethered to the ocean floor by a three-mile cable much less formidable than the pipe string that had gone down with Clementine to grab Humpty Dumpty. The men didn’t bother bringing up the cable; they let it sink after securing the buoys.

“If the Russians in the tugs had taken one of the Waveriders, what could they have learned from it?” Jerry asked Jack Porter.

“We would have done what we could to stop that,” the security director answered. “Our electronics are better than theirs—sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. They aren’t better to the point where the Russians can’t imitate our stuff if they get hold of it.”