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Finally a man opened the main door and slowly limped Onto the road, stopped a few paces away and faced him.
The stranger was tall, with intensely green eyes that never flickered and yet ignored the dozen gunbarrels poking through windows and doorways in his direction. The eyes locked on Ammar only. The black hair was long and wavy, skin weathered a deep copper from long exposure to sun, slightly bushy eyebrows with firm lips fixed in a slight grin-all lent the masculine but not quite handsome face a deceptive look of humorous detachment, with only a trace of cold hardness.
There was a cut in one cheek that oozed blood and a wound on one thigh that was heavily bandaged under the slashed fabric.
The shape might have been lean under the bulky, out-of place ski suit, but Ammar could not e a clear assessment. One hand was bare while the other was gloved and hung loosely beneath one sleeve of the ski jacket.
Three seconds were all Ammar needed to read this devilthree seconds to know he was facing a dangerous man. He searched his mind for the few meager words of Spanish stored there. "Can we talk?" Yes, that would do for openers.
"Podemos hablar?" he shouted.
The suggestion of a grin widened into a casual smile. "Porque no?"
Ammar translated that as Why not? "Hacer capitular usted?"
"Why don't we cut the crap?" Pitt said suddenly in English "Your Spanish is worse than mine. The answer to your question is No, we're not going to surrender."
Ammar was too much a pro not to recover immediately, yet he was confounded by the fact that his adversary wore expensive skiing clothes instead of battle gear. The first possibility that crossed his mind was CIA.
"May I ask your name?"
"Dirk Pitt."
"I am Suleiman Aziz Ammar ,
"I don't really give a damn who you are," Pitt said coldly.
"As you wish, Mr. Pitt," Ammar remarked calmly. Then one of his eyebrows lifted rightly. "You by chance related to Senator George Pitt?"
"I don't travel in political circles."
"But you know him. I can see a resemblance. The son perhaps?"
"Can we get on with this? I had to interrupt a perfectly good champagne brunch to come out here in the rain."
Annnar laughed. The man was
incredible. "You have something of mine.
I'd like it returned in firstrate condition."
"You're speaking, of course, of one ummarked helicopter."
"Of course."
"Finders keepers. You want it, pal, you come and get it."
Ammar clenched and unclenched his fists impatiently. This was not going as he had hoped. He continued in a silky voice.
"Some of my men will die, you will die, and your father will most likely die if you do not turn it over to me."
Pitt didn't blink. "You forgot to throw in Hala Kamfl and Presidents De Lorenzo and Hasan. And don't neglect to include yourself. No reason you shouldn't fertilize the grass too.
Ammar stared at Pitt, his anger slowly rising.
"I can't believe your stubborn stupidity. What will you gain by more bloodletting?"
"To put the skids under scumbags like you," said pitt harshly. "You want a war, you declare it. But don't sneak around butchering women and children and taking innocent hostages who can't fight back. The terror stops here. I'm not bound by any law but my own. for every one of us you murder, we bury five of you."
