“The three-dimensional hologram increased three or four times in size, showing the ship's position on the lower left and the car's position, a bit higher than the central point. One could also see the surface of the sea quite well inside the hologram. A line of light went from the car—tracing the path chosen by Kitty and even including suggested changes in speed—all the way to the ship which was moored at the bottom.

“The course looks good to me, Kitty,” said Marco. “Turn off the lights and take the controls.”

“As you wish, Marco,” Kitty obeyed.

No one spoke in the moments that followed. The feeling of that flight in the nighttime, as the car – silent but confident in its speed of more than 400 kilometers an hour – skimmed over the seemingly inaccessible pride of a sea that was free and unmeasured, in which, from ancient times, mysterious currents, monsters, and waves had been circulating, unspoken of and elusive,