Valhalla Rising (Dirk Pitt 16)

The stranger unleashed a wide-tooth smile. "I thought that was obvious. I am, or rather was, the Emerald Dolphin's passenger relations officer."

"How come you remained on board after all the survivors were taken off?" asked Brown. He found it hard to believe the man was free of injuries, and except for his soaking-wet uniform he looked none the worse for his experience.

"I fell and struck my head while helping passengers abandon ship onto the research vessel. Everyone must have thought I was dead and left me. When I woke up, you had the ship under tow."

"You must have been unconscious for the better part of twenty-four hours," said McDermott skeptically.

"I must have."

"Seems incredible you weren't burned to death."

"I was extremely lucky. I fell into a companionway that was spared by the fire."

"You speak with an American accent."

"I'm from California."

"What's your name?" asked Brown.

"Sherman Nance."

"Well, Mr. Nance," said McDermott, "you'd better get out of that wet uniform. You're about the same size as Mr. Brown, my first officer. He can loan you dry clothes. Then go to t

he galley. You must be dehydrated and famished after your ordeal. I'll see that our cook gives you something to drink and fixes a hearty meal."

"Yes, thank you, Captain . . ."

"McDermott."

"I am pretty thirsty."

After Nance was escorted below by the cook, Brown peered at the captain. "Uncanny that he survived a fire of such magnitude without a singed eyebrow or a burned finger."

McDermott rubbed his chin doubtfully. "Yes, uncanny." Then he sighed. "It's not our concern. I now have the distasteful duty of notifying the directors that we lost our tow and their expensive cable."

"She shouldn't have done it," Brown growled absentmindedly.

"Done what?"

"One minute she's floating high in the water, the next she's on her way to the bottom. She shouldn't have gone and sunk so fast. It ain't natural."

"I agree," McDermott said with a shrug. "But it's out of our hands."

"The insurance underwriters won't be happy, with nothing left to investigate."

McDermott nodded wearily. "Without evidence, it will always have to remain another one of the sea's great mysteries."

Then he walked over to the big searchlight and switched it off, casting the lost cruise liner's watery burial shroud into stygian blackness.

As soon as the Audacious reached Wellington, the man that McDermott had pulled from the sea after the Emerald Dolphin sank disappeared. The dockside immigration officials swore that he hadn't left the ship down the gangway or they would have detained him for the inquiry proceedings into the cruise ship's fire and loss. McDermott decided the only way for Sherman Nance to have left the ship was over the side when they pulled into harbor.

After McDermott gave his report to insurance investigators, he was told that no crewman or officer named Sherman Nance was listed as having served on board the Emerald Dolphin.

9

While the Earl of Wattlesfield stood by, the crew of the Deep Encounter homed in on the signal beacons of the drifting sub-mersibles and lifted them on board. Once they were secured, Captain Burch advised Captain Nevins, and the two ships resumed their course toward Wellington.

Dead tired after securing the submersibles, Pitt straightened up his cabin from the mess made by the forty people who had somehow managed to pack into the small enclosure during the cruise ship's evacuation. His muscles ached, a condition he noticed that was creeping up on him with age. He threw his clothes in a laundry bag and stepped into the small shower, turning on the hot water so it sprayed into one corner as he lay on his back on the floor with his long legs extending up to the soap dish. In that position, he promptly dozed off for twenty minutes. Coming awake fully refreshed, but still sore, he soaped and rinsed before toweling dry and stepping out of the shower and staring into the mirror above the brass sink.