Pitt didn't answer. He simply stood in place, wondering if the next ten minutes would be his last.
«And that's only the half of it,» Delphi sneered. «You put the Starbuck twenty miles south of here, indeed. How much practice does it take to inject so much conviction into your face when you spout so many lies?» He laughed out loud. «You were right about one thing, Pitt I could not operate the submarine with a nonexperienced crew. But I did figure out her ballast system. At this moment every air tank is empty. Yet there she still sits imbedded on the bottom. Nothing short of a major salvage operation will pull the hull free. Months of resting in the same place has built up a suction beyond what her blown ballast is capable of breaking. Yes, a pity. Your crew of submariners are as good as dead, if they're not already dead by the hands of seven of my best men. I knew your Navy wouldn't give up so easily, I knew they'd be back for another try at reclaiming their precious submarine, so I left my most trusted men on board — men who love to kill. Against them I wouldn't give your engineering crew one chance in ten thousand.»
Pitt tried to leap at Delphi, to ram his fist into the teeth under the yellow eyes. But one of the guards quickly shot him, grazing him in the left shoulder. He crashed sideways into a wall where he slowly slid onto the stone floor.
Summer gave a half-retching, half-choking scream. Her eyes showed white around large gray irises; she made a move to go to Pitt, then looked hesitantly at her father. He shook his head and she shrank back in humble obeyance.
Giordino had not moved. He stared impassively at Pitt, but Pitt caught a warning millimetric nod of the head.
«You've won a battle,» Pitt hissed through clenched teeth. «But you haven't won the war.»
«Wrong again, Major Pitt. I win. Up and down the line, I win. The Starbuck was heaven-sent. As soon as I can transact her, shall we say, transfer of ownership, I can close out my venture here in the Pacific and retire to less taxing enterprises. I'm sure the new owners will take great delight in the Hyperion missiles.»
«Nuclear blackmail!» Pitt spat thickly. «You're crazy.»
«Nuclear blackmail? Come, come, Major. How common of you. That's for fictional spy novels. I have no intention of blackmailing the superpowers over the threat of a nuclear holocaust. My motives are strictly for profit. In spite of what you might think, I have no stomach for murdering women and children needlessly. A man, that's different. Killing a man is the same as killing an animal; there's no tinge of remorse afterward.»
Pitt pushed himself upright against the wall. «No one knows that better than you.»
«No,» Delphi continued. «My plan is much more subtle; ingenious in its simplicity. I have arranged to sell the Starbuck and her weapons system to one of the Arab oil countries. Which one makes little difference. All that matters is that they are willing to pay a healthy price without haggling.»
«You're crazy,» Pitt repeated. «Totally, hopelessly sick in the head.» But Delphi didn't look or act crazy. Everything he said seemed logical. Any one of the rich Arab oil nations would make the ideal buyer.
«We shall know soon enough, won't we?» He walked over to the intercom receiver and spoke. «Prepare my mini-sub. I'll be there in five minutes.» Then he turned back to Pitt. «A personal inspection trip to the Star-buck. Ill give the survivors of your crew, if there are any, your regards.»
«You're wasting your time,» Pitt said bitterly. «I think not,» Delphi replied contemptuously. «The submarine sits where I left her.»
«The Navy will never give the Starbuck up; they'll destroy her first.»
«By this time tomorrow, they will have no say in the matter. An Arab salvage fleet will be here to raise the hull. These are international waters. Your Navy would never attack another nation over a derelict and be condemned by every country in the world for instigating an act of war. Their only prayer is a deal with the Arabs for the return of the sub. By then, I shall have my finder's fee — three hundred million British pounds — deposited to a Swiss bank, and be on my way.»
«You will never leave this seamount,» Pitt said, his face twisted in cold hate. «In eight minutes you will die.»
Delphi's eyes caught Pitt's. «So? I am going to die, am I?» He turned as if he were ignoring an insect and moved to the door. Then he looked back. «Then I shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing you died first.» He nodded to the guards. «Throw them into the sea.»
«No last consideration for the condemned?» Pitt asked.
«None whatsoever,» Delphi said with a satanic grin. «Good-bye again, Major Pitt Thank you for a most entertaining diversion.»
The sound of his footsteps died away and there was only silence. It was five minutes before 0500.
Giordino writhed onto his elbows, his entire body leaping in a convulsive spasm as his eyes rolled upward. He fell from the couch, clutching his throat He had held his breath until his face was nearly purple; he'd even saved a wad of saliva until this moment, letting it burst from his trembling lips in a cloud of spray between labored gasps. It was a masterful performance, and the incredulous and stunned guards were taken in completely.
Pitt watched the scene as the two guards, keeping their guns aimed in Pitt's direction, gathered about Giordino and lifted the limp arms across their shoulders. Still without speaking, they motioned for Pitt to walk ahead.
He nodded, crossing the room to stand in front of Summer.
«Summer,» he said softly. He touched her shoulder gently and gazed into her tired face. «I have so much to say and so little time to say it Will you walk with me?»
She nodded and motioned to the guards. They simply bowed their heads in mute understanding. Summer took Pitt's arm and led him out into a well-lit rock-hewn corridor.
«Please forgive me.» Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
«For what? None of this was your doing. You've already saved my life twice. Why did you do it?»
She appeared not to hear. She looked up into Pitt's eyes, and her face radiated a softness and beauty that seemed to make everything else in the passageway dim and fade. «I have a strange feeling when I'm in your presence,» she murmured. «It is not simply happiness or contentment but something else. I can't quite describe it.»
«The feeling is love,» Pitt said tenderly. He bent down, wincing from the pain in his shoulder, and kissed her eyes.
The guards on either side of Giordino halted and were stunned. Giordino's feet trailed on the floor, his head lay far across his right shoulder. He was moaning softly, his eyes seemingly shut. The guards did not notice his forearms slipping slowly up their shoulders until his hands rested loosely beside their necks. Then there was a sudden flexing of the great biceps and the guards were smashed together, bone against bone.
Giordino stood there unsteadily on his shredded feet sporting a satisfied grin. «Was that, or was that not, a work of art?»
«Every move a picture,» Pitt grinned back. He took Summer's chin in one hand. «Will you help us get out of here?»
She raised her head slowly and looked up at him through her spilled red hair, like a frightened child. Then she reached around his waist and clung tightly to him. A wall of tears masked the gray of her eyes.
«I love you,» she said, savoring the words. «I love you.»
Pitt kissed her again, this time on the lips.
«I don't mean to come between you two,» Giordino cut in. «But time is short.»
Summer hurried ahead, peering in both directions at the unconscious guards. «We must go before one of my father's men finds us like this.»
«Waitl» Pitt snapped. «Where's Adrian Hunter? We've got to take her with us.»
«She sleeps in the room next to mine.»
«Take us there.»
She gently touched his shoulder. «But how? You are wounded and your friend cannot walk.»
«I've borne his cross for years.» Pitt kneeled down and Giordino, in silent understanding, grasped him around the neck. Then Pitt hooked an arm under one of Giordino's knees an
d staggered upright.
«I must look like a papoose,» Giordino grumbled.
«You sure as hell don't feel like one.» Pitt then nodded to Summer. «Okay, lead on.»
Summer hurried ahead, peering in both directions at open corridors to see if all was clear.
They walked on, until someone approached from a side corridor; Summer waved them back Pitt loosened his hold on Giordino and they ducked into a doorway. The footsteps of the intruder could clearly be heard along the corridor across the interchange.
For five seconds, the footsteps pounded along the cross passage. Pitt's heart was pounding from exertion, sweat pouring down his face. One fit man against two down-and-out derelicts. Two good legs against two wobbly ones. The odds, Pitt decided, were definitely not on their side. Then the footsteps passed the interchange and faded into the other direction.
«Come, come,» Summer whispered from another doorway further down the passage. «It's safe now.»
Pitt lifted Giordino again and struggled on.
«How's the time?» Pitt asked.
«We aren't going to make it,» Giordino answered grimly, «providing the missile is on schedule.»
«Itll be on schedule,» Pitt panted. «Delphi was wrong about that When the Navy receives no reply to the surrender offer, they'll take it as an act of defiance and blast the seamount anyway.»
Summer took Pitt's arm and guided him, supporting his aching, overburdened body as best she could. Pitt staggered ahead, one foot in front of the other, telling himself one more, just one more step and they would be there. Finally, as he reached the last ounce of his endurance, Summer stopped at one of the side doors. She put her ear against the panel and listened a moment. Then she quietly pushed the door ajar and stepped inside. Pitt stumbled in behind her and sank to his knees, letting Giordino slide rump first onto a lush red carpet
Summer ran up to a large bed carved into the far wall and shook the sleeping Adrian. «Wake up, Miss Hunter. Please wake upl»
Adrian's response was a soft moan; Summer took her by the wrist and dragged her naked body from the bed.
The sleep quickly receded from Adrian's eyes as she became aware of Pitt and Giordino on the floor. Making no attempt to cover her nakedness, she rushed across the room and knelt at Pitt's side.
«Oh my God, Dirk! What happened to you? How did you get here?»
«We've come for you,» he said between labored breaths.
She shook her head slowly, disbelieving.
«No, no, it's impossible. There's no way out of this place.»
«In the next room, Summer's bedroom, there's a passage to the sea…»
Pitt was interrupted by a heavy rumbling explosion. The room trembled from distant shock waves. The Monitor's missile had struck the surface of the water above the seamount. The velvet curtains swept to and fro, and several coral ornaments on a stone table clattered from the unseen force,
«No time for a recital,» Pitt snapped. «Everybody out»
Summer looked lost and confused, unable to move. «I can't… my father.»
«Stay with us or die,» Pitt said. «This whole mountain is going to collapse any second.»
For a few seconds she didn't move, but then another tremor shook the room, shaking her back to her senses. She ran toward her room, Adrian right behind her, as Pitt and Giordino struggled painfully to bring up the rear.
They had barely entered Summer's exotic blue bedroom when a deafening roar and mountainous shock wave knocked them to the floor. The compression waves, rammed by a giant surge of seawater bursting through massive cracks and fissures on the top levels of the seamount, came rumbling through the passageways like an express train, crushing everything in its path.
Pitt scrambled to his feet, all pain forgotten. He slammed the corridor door closed, grabbed Adrian's arm, and pushed her through the curtain into the exit tunnel. Then he lunged at the fallen Summer, scooped her up, and threw her sprawling in a heap on top of Adrian. At that moment, the great mirror on the ceiling fell with a shattering crash to the room below, missing Pitt by inches. A cascade of water followed the splintering glass, accompanied by a tearing, grinding rumble as the rock room tore apart
«All» Pitt shouted through the deluge of rock and water.
«Over here!» Giordino yelled back. He waved an arm from under a stone dressing table.
Pitt waded through the rising milky froth of the slate-colored water and grabbed Giordino's upraised arm.
«Stay back!» Giordino cried. «If you cany me, you'll never make it.»
«And ruin my big chance for a life-saving merit badge?» Pitt said curtly. «No way.»
He threw Giordino's arm over his shoulder and then half carried, half dragged his friend to the escape tunnel. By the tune they made the entrance, the water was up to their knees and swirling into the darkness beyond.
«You women run on ahead,» Pitt commanded.
Without being told a second tune, Adrian and Summer began splashing awkwardly through the narrow tube.
The process with Giordino was slow, and Pitt soon lost sight of the girls in the darkness. The rushing current of water hurtled down the ramp, causing him to stumble and fall. As he went down, his head was covered momentarily by the flow and he inhaled the saltwater. Choking, he pushed himself to his knees and managed to make it the rest of the way with the help of a strong, muscled arm that came out of nowhere.
Miraculously, it was Giordino, gnashing his teeth from the agony of his bruised feet.
«This is one good deed you're going to regret,» Giordino muttered.
«Complain, complain,» Pitt sputtered, coughing out the seawater. «That's all you ever do. Come on, we've got a boat to catch.»
The slippery stone ramp gradually broadened out into the stairway, and Pitt found the going a little easier. The yellow phosphorescent rocks were falling like hail, splashing around them in a flowing stream. The strange, glowing color of the rocks as they streaked from the cavern's vaulted dome created the eerie appearance of a ghostly meteor shower. Then, at last, the gushing river of water finally diniinished as it fell over the side of the stairs to the pond below, enabling Pitt to see where he was stepping.
«Hold on, old buddy,» Pitt said encouragingly. «We're almost there. The two statues should be around the next bend.»
«See the women?» Giordino asked.
«Not yet.»
They would be there; Pitt was sure of that. A wave of confidence coursed through his veins. They were too close to die now. They had survived the explosion. Once in the water, it was only a short swim through the outer caves to the surface. True, they might all find death waiting outside from sharks, from drowning, or from exhaustion. But as long as they were still alive, Pitt would keep pushing them until the final door was slammed in their faces. He hurried his pace and began dragging Giordino two steps at a time, trying to end this part of the claustrophobic journey as quickly as possible. If they were to die, it was better to die under the familiar touch of the sun and sky.
They were rounding the final bend now. Pitt could see Summer. She was standing at the edge of the pool like one of the sculptures under the yellow phosphorescent light.
Adrian also came into view, leaning wearily against ihe base of one of the statues. She looked up as they irrived, her eyes filled with terror.
«Dirk… it's too late,» she mumbled. «He…»
Pitt cut her in mid-sentence. «No time for talk. The roof is starting to give way…»
The last word froze in his throat. His mixed feelings of fatigue, pain, joy, and hope melted into a twisted knot of defeat From behind one of the sea god statues stepped Delphi. His right hand held the big Colt and the gun was aimed straight at Pitt's forehead.
«Leaving before the party's over?» he said, the hate spread across his face.
«I bore easily,» Pitt said, shrugging helplessly. «You might as well kill me now. You don't have much time if you wish to save the others.»
«How very noble of you, Major,�
� Delphi said, his face a mask of cruel evil. «But you needn't concern yourself with details. My daughter and I are the only ones who will leave this cavern alive.»
For a moment no one spoke. The only sounds came from the splashing of the falling rocks as they smacked the water. Deep within the seamount, a rumbling shudder shook the ancient-hewn chambers. Soon, very soon, Kanoli would be totally destroyed, never to be rediscovered again.
A sudden explosive cracking sound rolled through the cavern and vibrated into a thunderous crescendo as the tremors shook the hard rock walls.
For a fleeting instant, Pitt thought Delphi had fired the gun. Then he realized the cracking sound had originated from overhead. One wall had broken loose and was crumbling down the stairway in a sweeping avalanche. Pitt gave Summer a violent shove which sent her flying from the steps into the yellow pool. In the same swift motion he threw himself on top of Adrian, blanketing her body with his.
The avalanche hit Tons of gold-tinted rock bounded down the sloping wall burying the stairway. One of the carved, sphinxlike statues stood firm on its pedestal against the onslaught, but the second figure succumbed to the crashing force and toppled over, to Pitt's dazed mind looking like a cowboy who fell off his horse in the middle of a cattle stampede.
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