Gunn nodded thankfully and rolled the bottle across his forehead. "I must have consumed twenty liters of liquid since we got here."
"I wish Pitt and Giordino were here," she said sadly. "I miss them."
Gunn stared absently at the ground. "We all miss them. I know the admiral's heart is torn out."
Molly changed the subject. "How's it look?"
He tilted his head toward the half-dismantled antenna. "She's fighting us every step of the way. Things are going a little faster now that we know how to attack her."
"A shame," she decided after a thoughtful survey of the thirty men and four women who struggled so long and hard to tear apart and move the antenna, their dedication and tireless efforts now seemingly wasted in a magnificent attempt to save so many lives, "that all this may very well come to nothing."
"Don't give up on Jim Sandecker," said Gunn. "He may have been blocked by the White House in securing the Roosevelt, but I'll bet you a dinner with soft lights and music that he'll come up with a replacement."
"You're on," she said, smiling thinly. "That's a bed I'll gladly lose."
He looked up curiously. "I beg your pardon?"
"A Freudian slip." She laughed tiredly. "I meant 'bet.' "
At four in the morning, Molly received a call from Sandecker. His voice showed no trace of fatigue.
"When do you expect to wrap up?"
"Rudi thinks we'll have the final section loaded on board the Lanikai--"
"The what?" Sandecker interrupted.
"The Lanikai, a small interisland freighter I chartered to haul the antenna to Pearl Harbor."
"Forget Pearl Harbor. How soon before you'll be out of there?"
"Another five hours." replied Molly.
"We're running tight. Remind Rudi we have less than sixty hours left."
"If not Pearl Harbor, where do we go?"
"Set a course for Halawa Bay, on the island of Molokai." answered Sandecker. "I found another platform for deploying the reflector."
"Another aircraft carrier?"
"Something even better."
"Halawa Bay is less than a hundred kilometers across the channel. How did you manage that?"
"They who await no gifts from chance, conquer fate."
"You're being cryptic, Admiral," Molly said, intrigued.
Just tell Rudi to pack up and get to Molokai no later than ten o'clock this morning."
She had just switched off the portable phone when Gunn entered the tent. "We're breaking down the final section," he said wearily. "And then we're out of here."
"The admiral called," she informed Gunn. "He's ordered us to take the antenna to Halawa Bay."
"On Molokai?" Gunn asked, his eyes narrowed questioningly.
That was the message," she said flatly.
"What kind of ship do you suppose he's pulled out of his hat?"
"A fair question. I have no idea."
"It'd better be a winner," Gunn muttered, "or we'll have to close the show."
There was no moon, but the sea flamed with spectral blue-green phosphorescence under the glint of the stars that filled the sky from horizon to horizon like unending city lights. The wind had veered and swept in from the south, driving the Marvelous Maeve hard to the northwest. The green-and-yellow beech-leaf sail filled out like a woman's tattooed breast, while the boat leaped over the waves like a mule running with thoroughbreds. Pitt had never imagined that the ungainly looking craft could sail so well. She would never win a trophy, but he could have closed his eyes and envisioned himself on a first class yacht, skimming over the sea without a care in the world.
The swells no longer had the same hostile look nor did the clouds look as threatening. The nightly chill also diminished as they traveled north into warmer waters. The sea had tested them with cruelty and harshness, and they had passed with flying colors. Now the weather was cooperating by remaining constant and charitable.
Some people tire of looking at the sea from a tropical beach or the deck of a cruise ship, but Pitt was not among them. His restless soul and the capricious water were one, inseparable in their shifting moods.
Maeve and Giordino no longer felt as though they were struggling to stay alive. Their few moments of warmth and pleasure, nearly drowned by adversity, were becoming more frequent. Pitt's unshakable optimism, his contagious laughter, his unrelenting grasp of hope, his strength of character sustained and helped them face the worst that nature could throw at them. Never did they perceive a bare hint of depression in his perspective, whatever the situation. No matter how strained he appeared as he sighted his sextant on the stars or warily watched for a sudden change of the wind, he was always smiling.