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You can inform the House and Senate leaders they can hold session in the Capitol building."
"Can I ask a favor?"
"Of course."
"Is it possible to remove the Marine guard from around the White House by midnight?"
"I don't see why not," said Metcalf. "Any particular reason?"
"A deception, General," Emmett replied. "One you will find most intriguing."
SANDECKER STOOD IN THE CHART ROOM of NUMA and peered through a magnification enhancer at an aerial photo of Johns Island, South Carolina. He straightened and looked at Giordino and Pitt, who were standing on the opposite side of the table. "Beats me," he said after a short silence. "If Suvorov pinpointed his landmarks correctly, I can't understand why he didn't find Bougainville's lab facility from a helicopter."
Pitt consulted the Soviet agent's notebook. "He used an old abandoned gas station for his base point," he said, pointing to a tiny structure on the photograph, "which can be distinguished here."
"Emmett or Brogan know you made a copy before we left GuantAnamo Bay?" asked Giordino, nodding toward the notebook.
Pitt smiled. "What do you think?"
"I won't tell if you won't."
"If Suvorov escaped the lab at night," said Sandecker, "it's conceivable he got his bearings crossed."
"A good undercover operative is a trained observer," Pitt explained. "He was precise in his description of landmarks. I doubt he lost his sense of direction."
"Emmett has two hundred agents crawling over the area," Sandecker said. "As of fifteen minutes ago, they came up emptyhanded."
" Then where?" Giordino asked in a general sense. "No structure the size Suvorov recorded shows on the aerial survey. A few old houseboats, some scattered small homes, a couple of decrepit sheds, nothing on the order of a warehouse."
"An underground facility?" Sandecker speculated.
Giordino considered the point. "Suvorov did say he took the elevator up to break out."
"On the other hand, he mentions walking down a ramp to a gravel road."
"A ramp might suggest a boat," Giordino ventured.
Sandecker looked doubtful. "No good. The only water near the spot where Suvorov puts the lab is a creek with a depth of no more than two or three feet. Far too shallow to float a vessel large enough to require an elevator."
"There is another possibility," said Pitt.
"Which is?"
"A barge."
Giordino looked across the table at Sandecker. "I think Dirk may have something."
Pitt stepped over to a telephone, dialed a number and switched the call to a speaker.
"Data Department," came a groggy voice.
"Yaeger, y
ou awake?"
"Oh, God, it's you, Pitt. Why do you always have to call after midnight?"
"Listen, I need information on a particular type of vessel. Can your computers come up with a projection on its class if I supply the dimensions?"
