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"I want to know about this submarine," she said quietly, after their coffee had been served "Where is it now?"

"Locked away in an old naval shelter down in the island boatyards All two hundred feet of the da"

"Two hundred twenty feet," Jana corrected hi approximately 749 tons of water And, if it is a German boat, most probably a vessel fro to you"

"No, it doesn&039;t," Moore admitted

"The workhorse of the Nazi submarine fleet They operated by the dozens both in the North Atlantic and in the Caribbean during the war I&039;ve dived on the wrecks of several just off Jah That&039;s what the Foundation fails to understand, Mr Moore: The e received is that this U-boat surfaced unaided and in almost perfect condition Now, since you&039;re a diver yourself, you tell me how that&039;s possible"

"Okay," he said "First of all, I guess I should let you know that I&039; It was buried in sand at a hundred and fifty feet, and an unexploded depth charge blew it free Both the constable and ht It&039;s authentic The hull&039;s holding tight, all the equipment&039;s still in place, and" He paused Bodies? Tell her about his vision in that dank tomb? No "It&039;s still seaworthy," he said "And I have a theory"

"Fine I&039;"

"The U-boat was buried in one hell of a lot of sand I believe a ledge just above it had given way and covered it over, and it re blohipped the sea around and slid some of the sand back If the submarine were coanisms could attach theainst corrosion"

"That would be a great deal of weight crushing the superstructure, wouldn&039;t it?" she reminded him

"I didn&039;t say the superstructure was unscratched How much pressure could those boats withstand?"

"Their shipyard guarantee was a little over three hundred feet," Jana said, sipping at her coffee "Some of them made it to six hundred and back with only one even deeper before they imploded"

"So it depended on the boat?"

"There ree in the elasticity of the iron from shipyard to shipyard, or even from year to year But tell me this: Even if your theory is correct, it doesn&039;t explain why the boat surfaced"

"No," Moore agreed, "you&039;re right But couldn&039;t the explosion have jarred a ave him a patient smile "That&039;s rather reas buildup within the boat You see, a sub the buoyancy cells with air to force the water out lifts it up, and letting the sea flood the cells again will make it descend It&039;s rather like the action of the hu The captain can control the speed of an ascent or descent by regulating the amount of air or water in the cells Leonardo da Vinci came up with the idea of an underwater boat used for warfare centuries ago, but the concept so frightened him that he never executed a model Anyway, I can&039;t see that the machinery to pump compressed air into the tanks would still be operable Of course" She paused for a ht already have been coh to displace the weight that lay over it When the weight shifted the hulk began to rise One of the crewmen may have bled air into the tanks at the sae collapsed But then it was too late"

The cook, still ht a pot of bouillabaisse filled with chunks of snapper, crabmeat, and scallops si at once, but Jana tested it cautiously with a spoon before trusting her stomach to the exotic fare

"Of course," Jana said after she&039;d taken a bite, "all of the systems were duplicated in each boat One mechanized, one manual But I doubt very seriously if there would have been any hands left aboard to operate the levers I presuot out by h the torpedo tubes"

Moore sat motionless He held a spoonful of food near his mouth, then slowly put it back down onto his plate The tension in his stomach was palpable "No," he said huskily

"What?" Jana asked, looking up, seeing his face cloud over, the look of it put her on edge

"No," Moore repeated "That&039;s not what happened at all"

Jana didn&039;t knohat he was talking about at first, and then it dawned on her Of course Skeletons "How many are left?" she asked

"I I&039;m not sure I don&039;t think I saw all of them"

"You went from bow to stern?"

He shook his head "Just froo all the way aft," Jana said "I&039;ve seen skeletons in a sunken ship before"

"Not skeletons," Moore said quietly "Not skeletons" He blinked and gazed deep into her face "What do you want to see the thing for?"

"If it&039;s towable and in reasonably good condition the British Museuht be interested in the hulk as a war relic," she said, puzzled by his behavior "Which would rant to the Foundation, incidentally"

"I see" Moore pushed his food away "Then you&039;ll want to go down inside the U-boat?"

"That&039;s right I&039;ll be checking for da notes I&039;ve been sent here to detere team is merited"

Moore saw the wo beyond the limpse of the fear he felt He could virtually sense the iron crypt lying a little more than a mile from where they sat She looked away from him abruptly, preoccupied with her food Tell her, he told himself Tell her what you&039;ve seen YES! SEEN! It wasn&039;t a hallucination, wasn&039;t the product of an oxygen-starved brain! You saw them there! YOU SAW THEM THERE!

At that instant he realized he was clinging frantically to the edge of reason What would he say? That he had seen long-dead thingswrenches and hammers? That somehow Death itself had stood still, or had claie that e mockery of life? No God in Heaven, no

"How an "How many men did a boat of that size crew?"

"Between forty-four and fifty," Jana said, and thought he see i she should knoell She must find out what it was

My God, Moore almost said aloud He picked up his coffee, realized he&039;d finished it, and placed the cup back in its saucer Fifty Fifty Fifty The number thudded in his brain Stay away fro of darkness, hiding darkness A periscope shaft, beckoning him into the depths where he was to carry out the task they had wanted done Lock your shutters, your s, your doors Fifty of the

Waiting

Jana said, "I&039;d like to see the boat now"