The men of L'ANJOU discover the captain sitting at his desk, he too petrified by the maleficent passage of the deadly, icy breath that is on everyone's mind.
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The captain! Look at his hand! He seems to be indicating a location on this map. Let us look‌
he sailors eck. Whenartds in t he icpyrecipitously eme r w e h air. Their t n g sh ship hrage onto t rockspt into flami e s jus he d v wa U eru t ex eck k c plod , it ho 'ANJO s ed! is s L u on mo
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Driven by an inexplicable emotion, PLUMIER heads back to his Uncle's domicile. But why? Even he would be confounded by this question‌
The gate is no longer locked! Most peculiar! What is going on here? Has CHAPOUTIER prepared a posthumous surprise for us?
Nor does the door to the house offer any resistance to PLUMIER, who enters and proceeds into the hall‌
20
…A few minutes later, the convoy begins its headlong rush into the night. Within ten hours it will arrive in BREST…
All is quiet…
…and then suddenly a loud report echoes through PLUMIER's wagon… A SHOT HAS BEEN FIRED IN THE NEIGHBORING COMPARTMENT!!!
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Dawn breaks upon a mournful spectacle. Corpses bob on the ocean as sharpbeaked albatrosses, scavengers of the sea, tear them to gobbets.
The JULES VERNEZ sinks, pulling down its crew in its wake, putting an end to the French scientific expedition… Jérôme PLUMIER plummets into the ocean's icy depths, in the grip of a hideously tentacled sea monster. Might this nightmarish vision be the result of the delirium that has overcome him -- one final chaotic and hallucinatory vision -- before his plunge into final darkness? Or perhaps he is already dead? As the J. VERNEZ reached the mysterious position indicated by the captain of the ICELAND LOAFER, PLUMIER appeared to grasp some truth… but which one?
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Well! It turns out PLUMIER is not dead!
40
They move into another room and a door is shut behind them. A startling, missile-shaped vehicle awaits them there. The three men straddle the “torpedo.” GELATI takes the commands. The room rapidly fills up with seawater, a second door opens, this one allowing them passage into the ocean. They surge into the outside atop the “torpedo.”
CHAPOUTIER, GELATI and PLUMIER proceed into a small chamber where men assist them in donning watertight costumes designed for underwater survival. Some sort of dorsal metallic cannister containing enough oxygen to allow them to remain for an hour in the icy waters, as well as a copper helmet, complete their outfits.
Is everyone ready? Here we go!
It is with the help of such a machine that Jérôme PLUMIER was recovered and brought into the ARCTIC MARAUDER after the sinking of the JULES VERNEZ.
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Suddenly a horrific explosion rocks the iceberg! What has occurred? Immediately, through the acoustic system, a voice announces: WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY ARMOR-PLATED VESSELS! WE HAVE BEEN HiT BY A SHELL!
LAUNCH THE PLACODUS! DESTROY THEM ALL!
FiRE! Fire? Impossible! All the cannons have been rendered inoperable by an army of divers.
Launch the PLACODUS from its hangar? Can't be done! The doors have been blocked…
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A major breach! All the levels below this breach are underwater… The iceberg is sinking!