Leviathan

The quarter-mile-wide iceberg, which had for two hundred thousand years been the center portion of the Ross Ice Shelf, covered the sound of a small motor as the Royal Navy frigate pulled away to the north, heading for Australian territorial waters. The occupant of the lead boat, which was riding low in the water, was shivering with cold as he maneuvered the large rubber boat through the smaller pieces of ice covering the Ross Sea. The man figured he would zigzag his way between the newly created icebergs until he reached the newest Antarctica seaside town of McMurdo Station, the American weather platform, where he could charter a flight out.

Colonel Henri Farbeaux had to smile as he guided two other large rubber Zodiacs behind the first. They too were riding extremely low in the water. Tarps covered the load he had hurriedly removed from Ice Palace with not a second to spare. He didn't know what amount of treasure he had recovered, but the sheer warmth he was feeling from the three loads made his smile widen.

With a fraction of the mythical gold and jewels of the Count of Monte Cristo in his possession, Henri Farbeaux slowly made his way to the south.

EPILOGUE

"The world can be such a wondrous place--so full of awe and mystery that it boggles the mind of any thinking person--but one has to realize that the beauty and wonder can be so easily lost by the arrogance of our kind. I and my family have given to you the responsibility of another sentient being, brothers and sisters of the earth who are helpless to our ways of defiling our own world. They need us, and we--most assuredly--need them."

-- Captain Alexandria Heirthall, humanist

THE GULF OF MEXICO

The presidential yacht was riding lazily at anchor in the Gulf of Mexico. Senator Lee, looking dapper with his captain's blue cap and even more regal with Alice sitting next to him, were conversing in low tones about her retirement, which was only months away.

Everett, Mendenhall, and Ryan were up front doing something silently, only looking back once in a while with suspicious looks on their faces.

Jack, Sarah, Niles, Virginia, and the president of the United States were standing at the oak transom, looking down into the water.

"If they are down there, why don't we ever see them?" the president asked.

"With our lousy track record, would you want to take that chance if you were a symbiant?" Niles asked his old friend.

"No, I guess not."

"Mr. President, getting the gas and oil leases canceled in the gulf waters is a start."

The president looked from face to face. "Yes, but I had to cave in on the Arctic tundra drilling to get it done--still robbing Peter to pay Paul." "We do what we can. Science will figure a way to help them," Sarah said hopefully. "The Heirthall papers should solve a lot of our problems."

"The children?" Jack asked.

"The State Department is using every resource to track down their next of kin, but it looks like they are truly orphans. I've set aside a small sum to keep them all together."

They all grew silent as Virginia looked over into the green gulf waters.

"I'm worried. Since the syms' release, our new SOSUS microphones haven't picked up any sounds from the bottom--either here, or in the Mariana Trench. I hope they aren't sick."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Everett said as he approached the group, wiping his hands on a rag. "The navy is monitoring everything that goes into the gulf waters. If they catch any pollutants whatsoever, the FBI will hunt the offenders down, and since the president got it passed through congress that it is a capital offense, I think the days of dumping chemical waste into the seaways are over."

"I hope you're right," Virginia said sadly.

"Well, if you people aren't a sorry sight to behold," Everett said seriously. "Here we are on a calm and peaceful sea, and you're moping around like you lost your dog."

The president looked at Colonel Jack Collins with his brows raised, then back at Captain Everett.

"I believe you've broken into my private wet bar," the president said with a mock frown.

"If Colonel Farbeaux has taught us anything, it's never to stand on ceremony when a drink is to be had. By the way, sir, it is my understanding that your wine cellar has quite a way to travel to meet up with the quality of Captain Heirthall's."

"So I understand."

Suddenly, loud music blared from the dining salon of the presidential yacht. The Supremes belted out the song "You Can't Hurry Love," and to everyone's astonishment, a very drunken Ryan and Mendenhall danced out of the dining salon wearing women's bathing suits, lip-syncing the words to the song. Their hand gestures were like those of the Supremes in their heyday.