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have been one around without our detecting it a half a day ago would be for it to be lying doggo
lying exactly where we would stop, or within a few minutes' scuba swim. And nobody knew where
we'd stop until we stopped. Even if someone outside had known of our plan to tap the cable, they'd
have hundreds of miles of cable to guess at. And just to dispose altogether of that nonsensical silly
submarine, it would either be fer us or agin us. If it was fer us, it would have given us a hail. If it was
agin us, no diver in no yellow suit would've pegged that shark for me."
"Why would anyone be agin us?"
"Anyone wouldn't, which finally disposes of the whole silly idea."
And what's your third guess?"
Lee Crane spread his big hands. "He was an angel," he said.
CRANE LAY ON HIS BUNK LISTENING TO A tape recorder. The first thing he heard was his own
voice:
CRANE: Segment twenty-four, pair one. [Silence, five seconds] Segment twenty-four, pair two.
SPARKS: Hold it! Hold it right there, Captain Crane, while I pull up the gain. [Chatter,
scratches, chatter. And what sounds like a voice.] Captain, we got something. We got something. Can
you hook on with your needle-probes, sir? That's Segment twenty-four, pair 2.
CRANE: Hold on a minute. [Pause, 15 seconds] Try that. [Over background of bad static, a
woman's voice, crooning]
VOICE: [very English]... ride a cock horse, to Banbury Cross, and what will poor robin do then,
poor thing...? For oh, for oh, the hobby-horse is forgot. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, did boil the
beer of all those coves, in the name of the Father, the Son
SPARKS: Hello hello hello. Hello hello hello. This is the atomic submarine Seaview, United
States Bureau of Undersea Exploration. Hello hello hello, do you read me. [A moment of silence, but
for the backsurge of noise]
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VOICE: I say.
SPARKS: Hello hello hello. This is the atomic submarine Seaview. Answer, please.
VOICE: This is the operator. May I help you?
SPARKS: I have a top priority, urgent call for Washington, D.C. Where are you, operator?
VOICE: Southampton, natur'ly. What number are you calling?
SPARKS: Operator, this is an emergency. This is the submarine Seaview, Admiral Harriman
Nelson calling the President of the United States in Washington, D. C.
VOICE: You're pulling my leg.
SPARKS: Operator, this is a genuine emergency. This is the submarine Seaview. We have
tapped into the undersea cable off the Brazilian coast. We have a crash priority call for the President
of the United States. Can you get us through?
VOICE: [Completely businesslike] One moment please. [Twenty seconds silence]
SPARKS: Hello Southampton. Hello hello hello.
VOICE: One moment, please, Seaview. I've put in a trunk call to the Foreign Office. I think I've
got through and they're ringing. I say, y'know, this is the first call I've handled in two days. I was
lit'r'ly talking to myself.... I'm not getting the Foreign Office. P'raps it isn't ringing after all, there
could be a short. I'll try some numbers at the Home Office.
SPARKS: Southampton, could you put us through to the admiralty, or the RAF Signal Corps?
VOICE: I'll try, sir.
SPARKS: Could you put some other operators on it? And may I speak to your supervisor?
VOICE: [Cold, tense] I am the other operators, sir. I am the supervisor. I am the charlady and the
bottlewasher and the sweeper-up and the doorman. Oh I am the cook and the captain bold, and the
mate of the Nancy Lee.... Sorry, Seaview. I've been on duty for three days and I haven't had tea since
yesterday.... The ringing signal's stopped. Maybe it never was ringing, what? Ring out wild bells...
SPARKS: Southampton!
VOICE: Mrs. Symonds is the relief operator, what? She came a little late in her little blue hat.
She floated right up to the window and she bobbed about, and she went away with the tide, and when
the tide came in, there she was again. [Suddenly businesslike] I'm sorry, sir. I've been ringing London
right along, but I can't get an answer from telephone Central. I'm afraid I shan't get through. The wires
are down all over the west coast, y'know. This one London line sounds live, but there hasn't been
anybody on it in days.
SPARKS: Operator, what about the overseas lines?
VOICE: All out, sir. First noise, ever so much noise, and then one by one they went out. Until
you came. Where did you say you're calling from?
SPARKS: United States Submarine Seaview, tapped into the submarine cable off Ferdinand de
Noronha.
VOICE: Oh, I say: that is a lark.
SPARKS: Could you speak a little more clearly, please. There's no way you can relay this call to
Washington, then? Or to the British authorities?
VOICE: Not until they put the lines right, sir.
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SPARKS: [Off mike] Yes sir, I'll ask. [On mike] Operator, Admiral Nelson wants to know
everything you can tell us about the world situation.
VOICE: Now I know you're pulling my leg. He's been dead for years.
SPARKS: The American Admiral Nelson!
VOICE: Oh yes, of course. I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry, I've been, you know. And no tea. I say, you
wanted to call Washington in America, what? Oh dear, you can't, you know, it isn't there any more. At
least the Government are not. The very last I heard was that they had moved into Virginia, the
mountains, you know. There were some calls from New York too, there are still people there. In the
tall buildings. They want water. They want food too, but mostly water. The rivers have all gone salt,
you see, with the sea coming in. [The background noise louder. The voice fainter.]
SPARKS: Please speak a little closer. Can you read me?
VOICE: Would you repeat that, please.
SPARKS: I'll shove in more... uh... there. [Loud, and badly overmodulated] Can you read me
now?
VOICE: Ouch! Oh, my poor ear. Yes, I read you, Seaview, only the noise is frightfully loud too.
SPARKS: Can you tell us any more news?
VOICE: Oh, not possibly, I can't remember all those awful things.... The Prime Minister asks us
to keep calm for the duration. The Royal Ballet refused to cancel, last I heard, and I don't know what
will happen because they say the water's up to the first balcony at Covent Garden. There was word
that the sea would overrun Panama, you know, between the Americas. There's no chance for the
hollyhocks, they hate so much wet, you know. Oh, you'll want to know about the riot in California,
they burned down Dr. van Allen's home. He wasn't there, Dr. van Allen, I mean, you know, the
radiation belt chap. There's bad fighting in Israel too, something to do with the arm of the
Mediterranean that's filling up the Dead Sea, they blame it on one another. And oh, there's Mrs.
Symonds coming back, I can see her little blue hat floating along like a toy boat. And then there's all
those ships gone out to sink that submarine, that scientific wallah's submarine, the Seaview. Oh, but
you're the Seaview, aren't you? So they can't have got you yet, can they?
SPARKS: What ships? Operator, please speak more slowly.
VOICE: Sorry. Is this better? What ships? Oh, some silly spat they had at the United Nations,
and there was a vote to go out and find you, and it wasn't carried, and some of them got quite livid
and said they would make up their own task force and sink you.
SPARKS: How did the United States vote? [Background noise up] [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]