die horribly also. My only regret is that I won’t be there to see your neck stretched, Heibert; see your withered old body jerk and bounce when it hits the end of the rope.
They say the shock forces the bladder and the bowels to move. That’s a fitting end for you, old man.
Thrown in an unmarked pauper’s grave to rot through eternity in your own filth.
Muttering incoherent words, his face distorted In blind anger. and entirely oblivious to the surrounding guns of the gendarmerie, von Till hurled himself at Pitt. It was the mad gesture of a hysterical man.
Giordino’s forty-five clubbed him on the back of the neck before he took the second step. He fell awkwardly to the deck in a crumpled heap and lay as if dead. Giordino didn’t even look down as he holstered the gun.
“You cracked him a bit hard,” Zacynthus said reprovingly.
“Vermin don’t die easily,” Giordino replied impassively, “especially when they’re as mean as that old bastard.”
Darius had not moved or spoken since Giordino shot him. Any other man would have gripped a wounded and bleeding hand; not Darius. The huge brute let his hand hang limply to one side, indifferently allowing the blood to splatter on the sub’s deck. The lost expression on his face reminded Pitt of a newly caged gorilla he had once seen in the San Diego Zoo, an ugly misshapen monster who could not grasp the meaning of the barred walls and the strange looking animals beyond that stood five deep, observing his every movement. Pitt was very happy indeed that at least five of Zeno’s gendarmerie had their guns trained between Darius’ cold black eyes.
Pitt nodded toward Darius. “What happens to him?”
“A fast trial,” Zacynthus answered. “Then the firing squad—”
“There will be no trial,” Zeno interrupted. “The gendarmerie have never admitted to a traitor in their ranks.” His voice was grave, yet his eyes were filled with sadness. “Captain Darius died in the performance of his duties.”
The cavern suddenly became silent Pitt, Zacynthus and Giordino all exchanged puzzled glances over Zeno’s use of the past tense.
Darius said nothing. He displayed no emotion, no sign of fear, only a resignation to a fate that precluded even the remotest possibility of hope. Slowly, very carefully. like a man who hadn’t tasted sleep in days.
he climbed from the sub onto the dock and stood before Zeno, his head bowed.
“It seems I have known you for many years, Darius,” Zeno sounded very tired. “Yet I haven’t really known you at all. God alone knows why you came to be what you are. It is a pity. the gendarmerie lost a good man…“ Zeno hesitated, groping for words, but he could think of nothing else to say. Carefully, almost to the point of meticulousness, he withdrew the cartridge clip from his gun and removed all the shells except one. Then he reinserted the clip and held out the gun, butt first, to Darius.
Nodding, as if in secret understanding, and searching Zeno’s eyes for a sign that never came, Darius took the gun, turned slowly towards the tunnel, and began walking numbly across the dock.
“No goodbye, no regrets, no to hell with you,” Giordino said “uncomprehendingly. “Just like that, he wanders off and blows his brains out. Ten will get you one that Darius makes a break for it.”
“His life ended when he became a traitor,” Zeno said quietly. “Darius knew it then — he knows it now.
An early death was his fate when he dropped from the womb, there was no escaping it. Five minutes to talk with his God and prepare his soul — then he will squeeze the trigger.”
Giordino watched Darius fade into the blackness of the tunnel and said nothing. The finality of Zeno’s words shattered all his doubts over Darius’ intentions. Until the day he. himself, died, Giordino would never understand how anyone could let loose of life so unquestioningly.
He turned back to Pitt. “Time’s a wasting, we’re running out of the money. Gunn is probably having a spastic fit wondering what happened to his precious scientists.”
“Can’t say as I blame him.” The voice came from Knight. who was climbing out of the deck hatch, a sly smile across his face. “Great intellect is hard to come by these days.”
“An egghead comedian,” Giordino groaned. “What has science come to?”
In spite of the pain in his leg, Pitt couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe some of Knight’s Intellect will rub off on you when you escort him and the other eggheads back to the First Attempt. I’m holding you responsible until they’re safely on board.”
“Talk about appreciation,” Giordino groaned again. “After all I’ve done for you.”
“It’s better to give, than to receive,” Pitt said soothingly. “Now hop to it. If you expect to swim out through the submerged tunnels, you and the others will have to retrieve the diving gear from the bottom.”
Woodson crawled from the hatch and walked over to Pitt. “Maybe I better stick with you, Major, until you’re bedded down.”
“No thanks.” Pitt answered, mildly surprised at the look of genuine concern on Woodson’s otherwise expressionless face. “I’m OK. Zac here is going to take me to a hospital full of nymphomaniac nurses, right Zac?”
“Sorry,” Zacynthus smiled. “Not unless the Air Force has changed its enlistment policy. I’m afraid the base hospital at Brady Field has the only decent facilities on the island for plugging bullet holes.”
The litter-bearers arrived and immediately eased Pitt onto the stretcher. “Oh well,” he said, “at least I travel first class.” Then he sat up. 'Damn! I almost forgot. One last thing. Where’s Spencer?”
“Here, Major. right here,” The red-bearded marine biologist stepped from behind Woodson. “What can I do for you?”
“Relay my compliments to Commander Gunn and give him a present for me.”
Spencer paled visibly at the sight of Pitt’s bloody leg. “Consider it done.”
Pitt leaned over the side of the stretcher and rested on one elbow. “In the outer cavern, twenty feet down, there are several small fissures along the base of the north wall. One has a flat rock over the entrance. If he hasn’t already muscled his way out, you’ll find a Teaser inside.”
Spencer’s face registered total surprise. “A Teaser!
Are you serious, Major?”
“I ought to know a Tearer when I see one,” Pitt replied jokingly. “See to it that you don’t drop him.”
Spencer let out a long whistle. “Well what do you know. I was beginning to think no such creature existed.” He paused a moment. deep in thought. “Christ, I don’t dare damage him with a spear shaft. A net bag, if only I’d carried a net bag.”
“There’s only one way to catch a Teaser,” Pitt grinned. “Grab him by the fin.”
The pain was going away now. Pitt’s leg felt like it was no longer part of him. The floodlights fused together in one massive blur, hurting his eyes. Everything seemed to slow down. and the voices became far away. Then the stretcher bearers picked Pitt up from the dock, moving. it seemed to him, as though they were wading through glue. He raised his head for the last time that day.
“Zac. one more request.” Pitt’s voice was down to a bare murmur. “What is the girl’s real name?”
Zac looked down at Pitt and smiled with his eyes. “Her name is Amy.”
“Amy.” Pitt repeated. “Never knew a girl by the name of Amy before.” He relaxed and fell back against the stretcher. closing his eyes. The last thing he remembered before the soothing blanket of darkness fully covered him was the sound of a single shot, echoing from somewhere within the depths of the labyrinth.
TALLY
The sky was a brilliant ceiling of blue as far as the eye could see. The summer air was hot and dripping with unseen humidity encouraged by burning waves from the blazing sun. In blinding radiance, tall white buildings stood like small chiseled mountains and reflected the heat onto the black asphalt pavement below; the traffic was heavy, and the sidewalks were crowded with scurrying office workers on lunch break as Pitt pushed aside the wide glass doors and limped stiffly into the air conditioned lobby of the Bureau of Narcotics building.
For a bachelor, he thought, one of the wonderful things about Washington, D.C. is the overabundance of girls. They come in every size, age, and disposition and swarm like chattering locusts throughout every government office in the city, providing the hungry male with all the advantages of a rich kid running amok in a candy store. Pitt selected his most charming. devil-may-care smile and offered it to a trio of giggling secretaries who exited the
