The officer leading the boarding crew immediately radioed the captain of the San Gabriel. There was terror in his voice as he described what they had found. The victims' bodies had turned green and their faces had been melted away, as if burned by a tremendous heat. A stench pervaded the ship, described as sulfurous in nature. The position of the bodies seemed to indicate that there had been a terrific struggle before they had died. Arms and legs were twisted in unnatural contortions, and the hideously burned faces all seemed to be facing north. Even a small dog, obviously one of the pa.s.senger's, bore the same strange injuries.

After a short conference in the wheelhouse, the boarding party signaled the captain of the San Gabriel for a towing rope. It was their intent to claim the Lillie Marlene as salvage and tow the yacht and her morbid cargo to Honolulu.

Then suddenly, before the San Gabriel could come into position, a ma.s.sive explosion ripped the Lillie Marlene from bow to stern. The force from the blast rocked the San Gabriel and hurled debris over a quarter of a mile.

Horror-struck, the crew and captain of the San Gabriel stood by helplessly as the shattered remains of the Lillie Marlene settled and then plunged from sight, taking with it the entire boarding party.

After studying the evidence and listening to eyewitnesses, the Coast Guard Board of Inquiry closed the case with the finding: "The death of the crew and pa.s.sengers and the subsequent explosion and sinking of the yacht, the Lillie Marlene, can only be cla.s.sified as caused by circ.u.mstances or persons unknown."

Pitt closed the folder and placed it on Hunter's desk.

"What we have there," Hunter said somberly, "is the only known case of a distress call prior to the disaster, as well as eyewitness reports as to the condition of the personnel involved."

Pitt said: "It would appear that the Lillie Marlene was attacked by a boarding crew."

Boland shook his head. "The men who boarded from the San Gabriel were cleared. Radio directional equipment established the Spanish freighter's position as being twelve miles from the disaster when she answered the distress call."

"No other ship was sighted?" Pitt asked.

"I know what you're thinking," Denver volunteered. "But piracy on the high seas went out with the manufacture of cutla.s.ses."

"Dupree's message also mentioned a mist or fog bank," Pitt persisted. "Did the San Gabriel sight anything resembling a fog?"

"Negative," Hunter answered. "The first Mayday came in at 2050 hours. That's dusk in this lat.i.tude. A dark horizon would have blotted out any hint of an isolated fog bank."

"Besides," Denver said, "fog in this part of the Pacific Ocean in the month of July is as rare as a blizzard on WaiMki Beach. A small, localized fog bank is formed when stagnant warm air cools to condensation most often on a still night when it meets with a cool surface. There are no such conditions around these parts. The winds are nearly constant throughout the year and a seventy-two- to eighty-degree water temperature could hardly be called a cool surface."

Pitt shrugged his shoulders. "That settles that"

"What we have there," Hunter said somberly, "is San Gabriel had not arrived when it did, the Lillie Marlene would have exploded and sunk to the bottom anyway. Then it would have been written off as one more mysterious disappearance."

Denver stared at him. "On the other hand, if something not of this world had attacked the Littie Marlene, they'd hardly have done so with another ship in sight, or allowed time for an inspection by boarders. They must have had a purpose."

Boland threw up his hands. "There he goes again."

"Stick to the facts, Commander." Hunter gave Denver an icy look. "We've no time for science fiction."

The men fell silent; only the m.u.f.fled sounds of the equipment outside the paneled walls seeped through the quietness. Pitt rubbed his hand tiredly across bis eyes, then held his head as if to clear his mind. When he spoke, the words came very slow. I think Burdette has touched on an interesting point."

Hunter looked at him. "You're going to buy little green men with pointed ears who have a grudge against seagoing ships?"

"No," Pitt answered. "But I am going to buy the possibility that who or what is behind the disasters, wanted that Spanish freighter to make the discovery for a purpose."

Hunter was interested now. "I'm listening."

"Let's grant bad weather, bad seamanship, and bad luck for a small percentage of missing ships. Then we go one step further and say there's intelligence behind the remaining mysteries."

"Okay, so there's a brain running the show," said Boland. "What did he..." He paused and stared at Denver smiling. "Or it, have to gain by letting those Spaniards catch him in the middle of a ma.s.s murder?" "Why would he deviate from an established routine?" Pitt replied with another question. "Sailors are notoriously superst.i.tious people. Many of them can't even swim, much less put on a scuba tank and dive under the surface. Their lives are spent crossing the surface. And yet, their innermost fears, their nightmares, are centered around drowning at sea. My guess is that it was a deliberate plot by our unknown villain for the Lillie Marlene's pa.s.sengers and crew to be found heaped about the decks in unG.o.dly mutilation. Even the dog wasn't spared."

"Sounds like an elaborate plot to scare a few seamen," Boland persisted.

"Not merely scare a few seamen," Pitt continued, "but a whole fleet of seamen. In short, the whole show was staged as a warning."

"A warning for what?" Denver asked. " A warning to stay the h.e.l.l out of that particular area of the sea," Pitt answered.

" I've got to admit," Boland said slowly, "that since the Lillie Marlene affair, maritime ships have avoided the Vortex section like the plague."

"You've got one problem," Hunter's tone was strangely soft. "The only on-scene witnesses, the boarding crew, were blown up along with the ship." Pitt grinned knowingly. "Simple. The idea was for the boarders to return to the San Gabriel and report to the captain. Our mastermind didn't figure on greed rearing its ugly head. The boarders, as you recall, elected to stay on the ship and requested a tow rope, probably already spending the salvage money in their minds. They had to be stopped right where the ship sat. If the Lillie Marlene had reached port, scientific investigation might have uncovered some damaging evidence. So one good bang and Verhusson's yacht went to the deep six."

"You make a good case," Hunter sighed. "But even if your fertile imagination has stumbled on the truth, we're still left with our primary job finding the Star-buck."

"1 was coming to that," Pitt said. "The message from the yacht's radio operator and the one from Commander Dupree, they have the same broken sentences: the same pleading tone in their words. The radio operator said: TDon't blame the captain, he could not have known.' And in the latter part of Commander Dupree's message, he said: If I had but known.' A similarity between two men under stress. I'don't think so." Pitt paused to let it sink in. "All of which leads to a likely conclusion: Commander Dupree's final message is phony."

"We considered that," Hunter said, "Dupree's message was flown to Washington last night. The Naval Intelligence Forgery Office verified an hour ago the authenticity of Dupree's handwriting."

"Of course," Pitt said matter-of-factiy. "n.o.body would be stupid enough to forge several paragraphs of script. I suggest you have your experts check for indentations in the paper. Chances are, the words were printed and then indented just enough to match the marking of a ball-point pen."

"It doesn't make sense," said Boland. "Someone would have to have extra copies of Dupree's writing in order to duplicate it."

"They had the logbook, his correspondence, and maybe a diary. Perhaps that's why some of the pages were missing from the message capsule. Certain key words and letters were cut out and pasted together into readable sentences. Then it was photoengraved and printed."

Hunter's expression was thoughtful, his tone neutral. "That would explain the strange wording and the rambling text of Dupree's message. But it doesn't tell us where Dupree and his crew lie."

Pitt raised from his chair and walked over to the wall map. "Did the Starbuck send its messages to Pearl Harbor in code?" he asked.

"The code machine hadn't been installed yet," Hunter replied. "And since the sub was operating more or less in our own waters on a test cruise, the Navy saw no great urgency for top secret transmissions."

"Sounds risky," Pitt said, "for one of our nuclear subs to be on the air."

"Strict silence is only maintained when a sub is on patrol or on station. Because the Starbuck was a new and untested ship, Dupree was ordered to report his position every two hours only as a precautionary measure in case of a mechanical malfunction. The initial shakedown was scheduled for only five days. By the time the Russians could track the calls and put a ship loaded with electronic spy gear on-the-scene, the Starbuck would have been long gone on a return course to Pearl Harbor."

Pitt continued to stare at the map. "These red marks, Admiral. What does it indicate?"

"That's Dupree's position, according to his message."

"And these periodic black symbols, I take it, are the Starbuck's last position reports?" "Correct"

Pitt continued, his words economical. "The top mark then is the final bonafide message from Dupree."

Hunter simply nodded.

Pitt leaned against Hunter's desk and stared silently at the map for several moments. Finally he straightened and rapped on the area marked as the Starbuck's last position report. "Your search area spreads from this point to where?"

"It extends in a fan-shaped sector three hundred miles northeast," Boland answered, his eyes clouded with puzzlement at Pitt's cross-examination. If you'd be so good as to tell us what you're after."

"Please bear with me," Pitt said. "Your search operations were ma.s.sive, over twenty ships and three hundred aircraft. But you found nothing, not even an oil slick. Every scientific detection device was undoubtedly used-magnetometers, sensitive Fathometers, underwater television cameras, the works. Yet your efforts came up dry. Doesn't that strike you as strange?"

Hunter's expression registered uncomprehension. "Why should it? The Starbuck could have gone down in an undersea canyon..."