A figure slowly took form and walked into the refracted light falling through the roof of the hangar. A tall man, holding a stick with a white rag flowing from the top, advanced toward the semicircle of a hundred men and women holding guns, every muzzle pointed at the stranger. A scarf was wrapped around the lower half of his face. He walked directly up to Karl Wolf and his sisters, stopped, and pulled away the scarf, revealing a craggy face darkened with bearded stubble and haggard with fatigue.
'Hugo sends his regrets, but he is unable to join your little bon voyage party.'
There was a moment of incredulous confusion throughout the hangar. Blondi stared in amazed fascination. Elsie's face took on an expression of shock and baffled rage. Predictably, Karl was the first to recover and come back on keel. 'So it's you, Mr. Pitt,' he said, observing Pitt through suspicious eyes. 'You're like a curse.'
'Forgive the casual dress,' said Pitt cordially, 'but my tux is at the cleaners.'
Glaring at Pitt, her blue eyes furious, Elsie stepped forward and thrust an automatic pistol into Pitt's stomach. He grunted in pain, stepped back, and clutched his midriff, but the smile never left his face.
'You will notice,' Pitt spoke tautly, 'that I am unarmed and carrying a flag of truce.'
Karl pushed Elsie's gun hand away. 'Let me kill him,' she hissed venomously.
'All in good time,' he said conversationally. He looked Pitt in the eves. 'Hugo is dead?'
'As we say back home, Hugo bought the farm.'
'And his men?'
'In the same category.'
'Were you responsible for the destruction of my aircraft?'
Pitt looked around at the smashed aircraft and shrugged. 'I drove rather recklessly, I must admit.'
'Where did you come from?' Wolf asked sharply.
Pitt smiled, ignored him completely, and said, 'I suggest you order your people to lay down their weapons before they get hurt very badly. More than enough blood has been spilled here today. It would be the height of stupidity to add to the carnage.'
'Your men, Mr. Pitt, how many of the American force are left?'
'See for yourself.' Pitt turned and made a motion with his arm. Giordino, Cleary, and his remaining twenty men stepped from the tunnel into the hangar and spread out in an even line nearly ten paces apart, guns held at the ready.
'Twenty against a hundred.' Karl Wolf smiled for the first time.
'We're expecting reinforcements momentarily.'
'Too late,' Karl said, firmly believing that Pitt was desperately attempting to save himself through deception. 'The nanotech systems created to break away the ice shelf have been activated by now The world is headed for a cataclysm as we talk. Nothing can stop it.'
'I beg to differ,' Pitt said, his tone purposefully neutral. 'All systems were shut down ten minutes before they were to be set in motion. I'm sorry to disrupt your plans, Karl, but there will be no cataclysm. There will be no New Destiny, no Fourth Empire. The world will go on spinning around the sun as before, far from perfect, with all its man-made weaknesses and frailties. Summer and winter, blue skies and clouds, rain and snow, will continue uninterrupted until long after the human race has ceased to exist. If we become extinct, it will be from natural causes, not from some outlandish scheme by a megalomaniac bent on world domination.'
'What are you saying?' Elsie snapped in growing alarm.
'No need to panic, dear sister,' said Karl, his tone a shade less than congenial. 'The man is lying.'
Pitt shook his head wearily. 'It's all over for the Wolf family. If anyone deserves to be indicted by a world tribunal for attempted crimes against humanity, it's you. When seven billion souls find out how you and your family of ghouls tried to exterminate every man, woman, and child on the planet, you're not going to be very popular. Your giant ships, wealth, and treasures will be seized. And if any of your family members do escape a lifetime in jail, their every move will be closely watched by international intelligence and police agencies to ensure that they won't have any ambitions for a Fifth Empire.'
'If what you say is true,' Karl said with a sneer, only slightly diminished by uncertainty, 'what do you plan to do with my sisters and me?'
'Not my call.' Pitt sighed. 'Sometime, someplace, you'll be hanged for your crimes, for all the murders you've ordered of those who stood in your way. My satisfaction will be sitting in the front row and watching you drop.'
'A most provocative illusion, Mr. Pitt, and most intriguing. A pity it's pure fantasy.'
'You're a hard man to convince.'
'Give the order to fire, brother,' Elsie demanded. 'Shoot the vermin. If you don't, I will.'
Karl Wolf stared at the weary and battle-exhausted veterans of Cleary's command. 'My sister is right. Unless your men surrender within the next ten seconds, my people will cut them down.'
'Never happen,' said Pitt, his voice hard and abrupt.
'One hundred guns against twenty? The battle will not last long, and there can only be one conclusion. You see, Mr. Pitt, too much is at stake. My sisters and I will gladly sacrifice our lives in the name of the Fourth Empire.'
'It's stupid to waste lives for a dream that's already dead and buried,' Pitt said casually.
'The hollow statement of a desperate man. At least I will have the gratification of knowing you'll be the first to die.'
Pitt stared at Wolf for a long moment, then glanced down at the automatic rifle in the madman's hands. Then he shrugged. 'Have it your way. But before you get carried away with blood lust, I suggest you look behind you.'
Wolf shook his head. 'I'm not taking my eyes off you.'
Pitt turned slightly to Elsie and Blondi. 'Why don't you girls explain the facts of life to your brother?'
The Wolf sisters turned and looked.
Every neck in the hangar turned and every pair of eyes looked toward the rear wall and the entrance of the far tunnel. If there was one thing the hangar was lacking, it wasn't an arsenal of automatic weapons. Another two hundred had joined the drama being enacted around the wrecked aircraft. Two hundred nasty-looking Eradicator rifles all aimed at the backs of Destiny Enterprises engineers and scientists and held in the hands of men whose faces were hidden by helmets and goggles. They were ranged in an orderly semicircle, the front row kneeling, the back row standing, dressed in Arctic battle gear similar to that worn by Cleary and his team.
One of the figures stepped forward and spoke loudly with authority. 'Lay down your weapons very slowly and back away! At the first sign of hostility, I will order my men to open fire! Please cooperate and no one will be hurt!'
There was no sign of hesitation or resistance. Far from it. The men and women who made up the scientific team for Destiny Enterprises were only too happy to rid themselves of weapons few of them knew how to operate properly. There was an almost universal sigh of relief as they backed away from the Bushmaster rifles and raised their hands in the air.
Elsie looked as if she had taken a knife in the heart. She stood with a stunned, uncomprehending look on her face. Blondi, her eyes stricken and bewildered, looked as if she was going to be sick. Karl Wolf's face went tense and hard as stone, more angry than fearful at the certainty of seeing his grand plan to launch a new world order suddenly evaporate.
'Which one of you is Dirk Pitt?' inquired the leader of the newly arrived Special Forces.
Pitt slowly raised his hand. 'Here.'
The officer strode up to Pitt and gave a slight nod of his head. 'Colonel Robert Wittenberg, in charge of the Special Forces operation. What is the status of the Ross Ice Shelf operation?'
'Terminated,' Pitt answered steadily. 'The Valhalla Project was shut down ten minutes short of the ice- cutting system's activation.'
Wittenberg relaxed visibly. 'Thank God,' he sighed.
'Your timing could not have been more perfect, Colonel.'
'After making radio contact with Major Cleary, we followed your directions through the opening in the ice you smashed with your vehicle.' He paused and asked as if in awe, 'Did you see the ancient city?'
Pitt smiled. 'Yes, we saw it.'
'From there it was a routine run with full battle gear,' Wittenberg continued, 'until we arrived at the hangar
