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CLOUDS SWEPT ACROSS the yellow oval of thechasht could strea motionless, while around it the clouds roiled It was as if they possessed a life of their ohirling upon the themselves, leechlike, onto others They were first the maws of fantastic , then bare, bleached skulls shattered slowly into frag across the surface of the sea - one high, over a darklow, just above the stern of a rusty-hulled Aht thousand tons of raw sulfur

And one hundred yards beyond the freighter&039;s as so else

Quietly and smoothly a dark cylinder of iron rose up from the depths on a slender tower Thelens sheathed in concrete - a single freezing eye

The periscope turned, the only noise betraying its presence a soft hissssss of foahted the island beacon, paused a few seconds, and turned several degrees to study the specter of the s, off porthole rilass in an upper-deck wheelhouse

Easy prey

The periscope descended A gurgle of water and gone

Then, with a noise like the death threat of a striking serpent, the first G7A concussion torpedo, loaded with eight hundred pounds of explosive, left its forward tube Powered by compressed air, it left a thin trail of silvery bubbles on its course toward the freighter&039;s stern It e machine that had borne it across six thousand miles of ocean Gradually it rose to within ten feet of the surface and hurtled onward toward its rendezvous

When the torpedo slaash below the waterline with an explosion that lit the sea with fire and fury There was a long screahter&039;s stern plates Then there came a second explosion, hotter and redder than the first, sending up a gout of heavy black sfor the sea Fla its way toward the wheelhouse A third explosion; a spray of hter veered toward the beacon light less than a mile away The captain did not fully realize what had happened He was perhaps thinking that they had struck so underwater: a reefhead, a sunken wreck He did not know the screere led and useless or that the fires were already out of control; he did not know the great shafts of the diesel engines had been thrown forward by the blast, grinding men to bloody pulps before them

When the second torpedo hit, just to starboard of the first strike, the explosion collapsed the stern section of the lower deck Supports shattered and fell away, and h smoke and flame were crushed beneath tons of iron The entire superstructure trean to cave in

Bulkheads h; iron crumpled like waxed paper;Some, above decks, were quickly burned into stiffened crisps The dying ship, filled with the hideous racket of screalass, lurched sharply to starboard and began to sink rapidly at the stern

A red e wheelhouse; it exploded in the sky with a sharp crack and floated lazily back doard the sea Black s thicker and thicker, filling the air with the stench of scorched iron and burned flesh, until finally it turned the an to part beyond the freighter&039;s fiery shape A rush of swirling white foam marked the ascent of the hunter Its periscope tower broke the surface, then the rectangular shape of the conning tower appeared, and finally its superstructure, which glea streaan to h a carnage of bodies and ti, ship&039;s furniture Here aout for help, here another in a blackened life jacket, raising up the bloody stumps that had been his arhter&039;s ruptured tanks, and it too was afire Flames reflected off the iron hull of the U-boat, burned in the eyes of the lowed in the subood hit," he said over the noises of the explosions It had been ten hter was doo blanket of debris and thethe scent of death with it, drifted around the U-boat in heavy swirls Through it the cohter headed for the bottom This was deep water, a thousand feet orcoral reef and sand walls He cocked his head, listening to a loud gurgling and bubbling of water, the hissing of steaaze to an object floating off the port bow It was a life preserver "All slow," he said, speaking into the voice tube that relayed his orders to the control roohter&039;s naistry nu his leather-bound war diary accurate "Schiller," he said to the lean blondfor -tower ladder to the deck and began to ae-slih aout for God, over and over again; the voice died away abruptly, as if theon to the port-deck railing, the oily, littered sea washing around their ankles, the two sailors waited, watching the preserver carried toward them by the waves Three rasp by hand The commander watched, hands folded before his, reached over to get it

And then there was a high, piercing noise that made the co from the midst of the black smoke, rose until it became a metallic shriek From the open tower hatch the exec&039;s black-bearded face eed, his mouth a silent O At once the com up fast on their stern He roared into the voice tube, "CRASH DIVE! CRASH DIVE!" even as the U-boat&039;s alar siren: a second subchaser joining the first Both of the down on the U-boat The exec dropped through the hatchway, and the commander peered anxiously out across the bulwark His sailors had the preserver and were frantically ht circular light hit the sea just across the U-boat&039;s bow, and now the sea vibrated with the noise of the subchasers&039; engines With a eyser of water rose up to starboard of the conning tower, followed by an explosion that alh the eardrums The sea heaved around the frohtness, his teeth clenched Schiller and Drexil would not lance, he threw hi hatch and sealed the lid shut over his head

Like a huge reptilian beast, the great glea U-boat slid without hesitation into the depths The two sailors, floundering in rising water, felt iron and wood drop away beneath their feet They clutched at a railing, screaht

"THE RING!" Schiller shouted to his mate "HOLD ON TO IT!"

But then a churn of white water tore it frorasp, and it skittered away into the fla tower sink away, passing hi monster&039;s fin, but salt water streamed into his throat and he alrasp hold of the periscope tower, but as he did his leg sla pulled down He jerked at the leg, jerked again; it was useless So hi over his head Get free! he heard hi hi fro It ca noise and pain alht his way to the surface Stroke! thebody Stroke!

Schiller found hi sea The sky was filled with the sreen co at his brain, and through the nightrasped on to an empty crate and wrapped both arms around it

When Schiller cleared his eyes he saw Drexil&039;s head bobbing only a few yards away He cried out, "DREXIL! HOLD ON!" and began swie In anotherweaker, that he could not tread water, and land was too distant There was soy, like dark clumps of jellyfish, in the waves Gouts of blood Intestines Brains Bodies torn to pieces The offal of war He reached Drexil and it was only when he took the man&039;s shoulder that he realized this man had black hair, and Drexil&039;s had been red

The corpse, floating in a tattered life jacket, had no face

White teeth grinned from a pulp of tissues and membranes and nerve fibers Schiller shouted hysterically and pulled his hands back as if they had been conta ocean, the fires still burning around hi without direction Ahead was a solid plain of flame, and in the midst of the fla around and around as if they were spinning above a gigantic whirlpool He could feel the power of the water over the freighter wrenching at him He tried tohim down, and he couldn&039;t swim anymore He wondered where Drexil was and if there were a true peace in death He lowered his head and opened his rasped him Pulled him up from the surface Threw hi over hi down

Schiller blinked, could not make out their faces, could not lish