also disconnected a small bomb, which then resided in
my left-hand jacket pocket and would soon be tossed
overboard. It had had another five to eight minutes to
go and would have blotted the record completely. As for
me, I didn't even want a record; but if there had to be
one, it would be mine, not the enemy's.
I excused myself and departed. I disposed of the evi-
dence. I thought upon the day's doings.
Someone had tried to sabotage the project. So Don
Walsh had been right. The assumed threat had been for
real. Consume that and digest it. It meant that there was
something big involved. The main question was,
"What?" The second was, "What next?"
I lit a cigarette and leaned on the Aquini/s rail. I
watched the cold north sea attack the hull. My hands
shook. It was a decent, humanitarian project. Also, a
highly dangerous one. Even forgetting the great risks,
though, I could not come up with a good counterinter-
est. Obviously, however, there was one.
Would Asquith report me? Probably. Though he
would not realize what he was doing. He would have to
explain the discontinuance of function in the capsule in
order to make his report jibe with the capsule's log. He
would say that I had repaired a short circuit. That's all.
That would be enough.
I had already decided that the enemy had access to
the main log. They would know about the disconnected
bomb not being reported. They would also know who
had stopped them; and they might be interested enough,
at a critical time like this, to do something rash. Good.
That was precisely what I wanted.
. . . Because I had already wasted an entire month
waiting for this break. I hoped they would come after
me soon and try to question me. I took a deep drag on
the cigarette and watched a distant iceberg glisten in the
sun. This was going to be a strange oneчI had that
feeling. The skies were gray and the oceans were dark.
Somewhere, someone disapproved of what was going on
here, but for the life of me I could not guess why.
Well, the hell with them all. I like cloudy days. I was
bom on one. I'd do my best to enjoy this one.
