Page 40 (1/2)

“Of course,” Julia replied, and exchanged numbers

Murph rolled out of the room in his wheelchair and did a three-sixty Eric and Sylvia followed close behind When Murph ca with intensity behind the special glasses

“Looks like you picked that up quick,” Sylvia said

He rotated to face her The artificial voice spoke again, but this ti basso “I find your lack of faith disturbing Now, before we leave and look for a way to get me free of this chair, can I please have my clothes?”

TWENTY-THREE

Sylvia was aet her and Mark out of the hospital She expected all kinds of red tape, but less than an hour later they were cli on board a sleek tiltrotor aircraft at Darwin’s airport

“Where are we going?” she asked him

“To the Oregon,” Juan said before cli into the copilot’s seat

“She’s a ship,” Eric said as they strapped in “Our home and base of operations Mr Overholt told us you have a top secret clearance, so the Chairman says we can show you around once we arrive”

“What does my security clearance have to do with it?” Sylvia asked

Eric smiled at her “You’ll see”

“Can’t wait to lay my eyes on it,” Murph said His artificial voice was now closer to his real voice Even he was getting sick of constantly sounding like Darth Vader

Once they were in the air, Juan joined them in thethe, she even shared the goals of her experiment and a description of the plasma cannon that sank the Namaka

When she was through with her story, Juan said, “The trin of a new patrol ship used by a lot of navies in this region, including the Australians It’s fast and has a long range for coastal and deep sea operations, so it could have come from anywhere But the plasroup”

“It overnment,” Sylvia said “I heard so Mandarin”