Read Raise the Titanic! for Free Online

“Have the satellite photos enlarged of the immediate area at the time of the event in question.”
    Â 
    The evening shadows were darkening the streets outside the office windows when Lieutenant Marganin spread the photo blowups on Prevlov’s desk and handed him a high-powered magnifying glass.
    â€œYour perceptiveness paid off, sir. We have something interesting here.”
    Prevlov intently studied the pictures. “I see nothing unusual about the ship; typical research equipment, no military-detection hardware in evidence.”
    Marganin pointed at a wide-angle photo that barely revealed a ship as a small white mark on the emulsion. “Please note the small shape about two thousand meters from the First Attempt in the upper-right corner.”
    Prevlov peered through the glass for almost a full half-minute. “A helicopter!”
    â€œYes, sir, that’s why I was late with the enlargements. I took the liberty of having the photos analyzed by Section R.”
    â€œOne of our Army security patrols, I imagine.”
    â€œNo, sir.”
    Prevlov’s brows raised. “Are you suggesting that it belongs to the American vessel?”
    â€œThat’s their guess, sir.” Marganin placed two more pictures in front of Prevlov. “They examined earlier photos from another reconnaissance satellite. As you can see by comparing them, the helicopter is flying on a course away from Novaya Zemlya toward the First Attempt . They judged its altitude at ten feet and its speed at less than fifteen knots.”
    â€œObviously avoiding our radar security,” Prevlov said.
    â€œDo we alert our agents in America?” said Marganin.
    â€œNo, not yet. I don’t want to risk their cover until we are certain what it is the Americans are after.”
    He straightened the photographs and slipped them neatly into a folder, then looked at his Omega wristwatch. “I’ve just time for a light supper before the ballet. Do you have anything else, Lieutenant?”
    â€œOnly the file on the Lorelei Current Drift Expedition. The American deep-sea submersible was last reported in fifteen thousand feet of water off the coast of Dakar.”
    Prevlov stood up, took the file and shoved it under his arm. “I’ll study it when I get a chance. Probably nothing in it that concerns naval security. Still, it should make good reading. Leave it to the Americans to come up with strange and wonderful projects.”

5
    â€œDamn, damn, double damn!” Dana hissed. “Look at the crow’s-feet coming in around my eyes.” She sat at her dressing table and stared dejectedly at her reflection in the mirror. “Who was it who said old age is a form of leprosy?”
    Seagram came up behind her, pulled back her hair, and kissed the soft, exposed neck. “Thirty-one on your last birthday and already you’re running for senior citizen of the month.”
    She stared at him in the mirror, bemused at his rare display of affection. “You’re lucky; men don’t have this problem.”
    â€œMen also suffer from the maladies of age and crow’s-feet. What makes women think we don’t crack at the seams, too?”
    â€œThe difference is, you don’t care.”
    â€œWe’re more prone to accept the inevitable,” he said, smiling. “Speaking of the inevitable, when are you going to have a baby?”
    â€œYou bastard! You never give up, do you?” She threw a hairbrush on the dressing table, knocking a regiment of evenly spaced bottles of artificial beauty about the glass top. “We’ve been through all this a thousand times. I won’t subject myself to the indignities of pregnancy. I won’t swish crap-laden diapers around in a toilet bowl ten times a day. Let someone else populate the earth. I’m not about to split off my soul, like some damned amoeba.”
    â€œThose reasons are phony. You don’t honestly believe them