Austin was cursing the awkwardness of communicating. At his di- rection, one of the crew had attached a specially adapted ball-peen hammer to his right hand manipulator. The mechanical arm moved with agonizing slowness, but by concentrating all his resources, he finished tapping out one word in Morse code.

...ERSEN

He stopped and put his helmet against the hull. After a moment, he heard dots and dashes clunked out in reply.

YES

STATUS

AIR BAD COLD

HELP SOON

A pause. Then, HURRY

SOON

Petersen called out to his men that rescue was imminent. He felt guilty lying. Their time was about to run out. He was having a prob- lem focusing. It was getting harder to breathe, and soon it would be impossible. The temperature had plunged to below zero, and even the immersion suit couldn't keep out the cold. He had stopped shiv- ering, the first sign of hypothermia.

Unknown

Lars interrupted Petersen's drifting thoughts. “Captain, can I ask you a question?”

Petersen grunted in the affirmative.

“Why the hell did you come back, sir? You could have saved your- self.”

Petersen said, “I heard somewhere a captain is supposed to go down with his ship.”

“This is about as far down as you can go, Captain.” Petersen made a gargling sound that was as close to laughter as he could muster. Lars did the same, but their strength soon left them. They made themselves as comfortable as they could and waited.

NUMA 4 - White Death

6

THE BOAT CREW was watching for Austin to pop out of the

water, and they snagged him like a runaway calf. Within min- utes, he was back on the deck, where he spelled out the situation to Becker and Captain Larsen.

“Dear God,” Becker said. “What a terrible way to die. My govern- ment will spare no expense to retrieve their bodies for the families.”

Becker's pessimism was starting to annoy Austin. “Please stop playing the role of the melancholy Dane, Mr. Becker. Your govern- ment can hold on to its wallet. Those men aren't dead yet.”

“But you said-”

“I fylow what I said. They're in tough shape, but that doesn't mean they're doomed. The Squalus submarine rescue took more than a day to accomplish, and thirty-three were saved.” Austin paused as his sharp ears picked up a new sound. He stared at the sky and shaded his eyes against the glare of the overcast.

“Looks like the cavalry has arrived.”

A gigantic helicopter was bearing down on the ship. Dangling below the helicopter in a sling was a blimp-shaped submarine with a blunt nose.

'That's the largest helicopter I've ever seen,“ Captain Larsen said. 'Actually, the Mi-26 is the biggest helicopter in the world,)) Austin said. ”It's more than a hundred feet long. They call it the flying crane.

Becker smiled for the first time in hours. “Please tell me that strange-looking object hanging below the helicopter is your rescue vehicle.”