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Giordino dozed during the drive, while Pitt stared unseeing at the low buildings of the city. The rush-hour traffic had begun streaming out of town, and the streets and bridges leading into the suburbs were jammed. Fortunately, their car was traveling in the opposite direction.
Pitt cursed his idiocy for not returning to Ice Hunter shortly after liftoff. If Giordino had interpreted her message correctly, Maeve was in some sort of trouble. The possibility that he had deserted her when she was calling out to him gnawed at his conscience.
The long arm of Sandecker reached through his melancholy and cast a shroud over his preoccupation with guilt. Never in Pitt's years with NUMA had he ever placed his personal problems above the vital work of the agency. During the flight to Punta Arenas, Giordino had provided the crowning touch.
"There's a time for being horny, and this isn't it. People and s
ea life are dying by the boatload out there on the water. The sooner we stop this evil, the more lives will be spared to pay taxes. Forget her for now. When this cauldron of crap is over you can take a year off and chase her Down Under."
Giordino might never-have been hired to teach rhetoric at Oxford, but he seldom failed to fill a book with common sense. Pitt surrendered and reluctantly eased Maeve from his mind, not entirely successfully. The memory of her lingered like a portrait that became more beautiful with the passage of time.
His thoughts were broken as the car rolled over the driveway in front of the tall green, solar-glassed building that housed NUMA's headquarters. The visitors' parking lot was covered with television transmitter trucks and vans, emitting enough microwaves to launch a new chicken rotisserie franchise.
"I'll run you into the underground parking area," said the driver. "The vultures were expecting your arrival."
"You sure an ax murderer isn't roaming the building?" asked Giordino.
"No, the reception is for you. The news media are starved for details of the cruise ship massacre. The Australians tried to put a tight lid on it, but all hell broke loose after the surviving passengers talked when they reached Chile. They were glowing in their praise of how you guys rescued them and saved the cruise ship from going on the rocks. The fact that two of them were daughters of diamond king Arthur Dorsett naturally excited the expose rags."
"So now they're calling it a massacre." Pitt sighed.
"Lucky for the Indians they can't blame this one on them," said Giordino.
The car stopped in front of a security guard stationed in front of a small alcove that led to a private elevator. They signed an entry form and took the elevator to the tenth floor. When the doors opened they stepped into a vast room that was Hiram Yaeger's electronics fiefdom from which the computer wizard directed NUMA's vast data systems network.
Yaeger looked up from a huge horseshoe-shaped desk in the middle of the room and smiled broadly.
No bib overalls today, but he was wearing a faded Levi's jacket that looked like it had been dragged from Tombstone to Durango by a horse. He jumped to his feet and came from behind the desk, vigorously shaking Pitt's and Giordino's hands. "Good to see you two scoundrels back in the building. It's been as dull as an abandoned amusement park since you skipped to the Antarctic."
"Always good to be back on a floor that doesn't rock and roll," said Pitt.
Yaeger grinned at Giordino. "You look nastier than when you left."
"That's because my feet still feel cold as ice," Giordino replied in his usual burlesque tone.
Pitt glanced about the room crowded with electronic data systems and a crew of technicians. "Are the admiral and Rudi Gunn on hand?"
"Waiting for you in the private conference room," answered Yaeger. "We assumed you and A1 would go there first."
"I wanted to catch you before we all sat down."
"What's on your mind?"
"I'd like to study your data on sea serpents."
Yaeger raised his eyebrows. "You did say sea serpents?"
Pitt nodded. "They intrigue me. I can't tell you why."
"It may surprise you to learn I have a mountain of material on sea serpents and lake monsters."
"Forget the legendary creatures swimming around in Loch Ness and Lake Champlain," said Pitt. "I'm only interested in the seagoing variety."
Yaeger shrugged. "Since most of the sightings are on inland waters, that cuts the search by eighty percent. I'll have a fat file on your desk tomorrow morning."
"Thank you, Hiram. I'm grateful as always."
Giordino peered at his watch. "We'd better move along before the admiral hangs us from the nearest yardarm."
