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"Like some coffee?" asked Pitt.
"No, thanks. I'm too thirsty for coffee." She went over to the refrigerator and poured herself a glass of buttermilk.
"You know the subject of Press Secretary Thompson's news release?"
Sandecker prompted her.
Loren nodded. "My press aid and his wife are chummy with the Sonny Thompsons. They all had dinner together last night.
Thompson mentioned that the White House was laying the Alaskan tragedy to rest, but that was all. He didn't slip the details."
Sandecker turned to Pitt. "If you persist in this vendetta, you'll be stepping on a lot of toes."
"I won't give it up," Pitt said gravely.
Sandecker looked at Loren. "And you, Congresswoman Smith?"
"Loren."
"Loren," he obliged. "May I ask what your interest is in this?"
She hesitated for a fraction of a second and then said, "Let's just say congressional curiosity about a possible government scandal."
"You haven't told her the true purpose behind your Alaskan fishing expedition?" Sandecker asked Pitt.
"No."
"I think you should tell her."
"Do I have your official permission?"
The admiral nodded. "A friend in Congress will come in handy before your hunt is over."
"And you, Admiral, where do you stand?" Pitt asked him.
Sandecker stared hard across the table at Pitt, examining every feature of the craggy face as though he were seeing it for the first time, wondering what manner of man would step far beyond normal bounds for no personal gain. He read only a fierce determination. It was an expression he had seen many times in the years he'd known Pitt.
"I'll back you until the President orders your ass shot," he said at last. "Then you're on your own."
Pitt held back an audible sigh of relief. It was going to be all right. Better than all right.
Min Koryo looked down at the newspaper on her desk. "What do you make of this?"
Lee Tong leaned over her shoulder and read the opening sentences of the article aloud. "'It was announced yesterday by Dirk Pitt, Special Projects Director for NUMA, that two ships missing for over twenty years have been found. The San Marino and the Pilottown, both Liberty-class vessels built during World War Two, were discovered on the seafloor in the North Pacific off Alaska."' "A bluff!" Min Koryo snapped. "Someone in Washington, probably from the Justice Department, had nothing better to do, so they sent up a trial balloon.
They're on a fishing expedition, nothing more."
"I think you're only half right, aunumi," Lee Tong said thoughtfully. "I suspect that NUMA was searching for the source behind the deaths in Alaskan waters, they stumbled on the ship containing the nerve agent."
"And this press release is a scheme to ferret out the true owners of that ship," Min Koryo anded.
Lee Tong nodded. "The government is gambling we will make an inquiry that can be traced."
Min Koryo sighed. "A pity the ship wasn't sunk as planned."
Lee Tong came around and sank into a chair in front of the desk.
"Bad luck," he said, thinking back. "After the explosives failed to detonate, the storm hit, and I was unable to reboard the ship."
