'My dear Miss Fyrie, I'm honored that you could dine with us.' Admiral Sandecker took her hand and kissed it. Then he turned to Tidi, who wore a mask of friendliness. 'May I introduce my secretary, miss Tidi Royal.'
The two women exchanged polite but typically cool feminine greetings.
Then Sandecker turned to Pitt. 'And this is Major Dirk Pitt, the real driving force behind my agency's projects.'
'So this is the brave gentleman you've told me so much about, Admiral.' Her voice came across husky and terribly. sexy. 'I am deeply sorry for the tragic loss of Dr. Hunnewell. My brother thought very highly of him.'
'We're sorry too' Pitt said.
There was a pause while they looked at each other, Kirsti Fyrie with a touch of speculation in her eyes, and with what might have been more than friendly interest.
Pitt with analytical male appraisal.
He was the first to break the silence. 'If I sit here staring, Miss Fyrie, it's because Admiral Sandecker failed to warn me that the head of Fyrie Limited had such mystic eyes.'
'I have been paid compliments by men before, Major Pitt, but you are the first to describe my eyes as mystic.'
'Purely academic,' Pitt said. 'The eyes are doors to the secrets a person hides from within.'
'And what deep, dark shadows do you see lurking within my soul?'
Pitt laughed. 'A gentleman never reveals a lady's private thoughts.' He offered her a cigarette, but she shook her head. 'Seriously, our eyes have something in common.'
'Miss Fyrie's eyes are deep blue,' Tidi said, yours are green. What could they possibly have in common?'
'Miss Fyrie's eyes, like mine, have rays that spread from the pupil into the iris,' Pitt said. 'They're sometimes called flashes.' He paused to light a cigarette. 'I have it from the best authority, flashes are a sign of psychic powers.'
'Are you clairvoyant?' Kirsti asked.
'I admit to being a failure,' Pitt replied. 'I always lose at poker because I have yet to read my opponent's cards or mind. How about you, Miss Fyrie, can you see into the future?'
He saw a fleeting shadow across her eyes.
'I know my destiny, therefore I can control it.'
Pitts dark, grinning features gave nothing away as he began to enter into the spirit of the eternal chase. He leaned across the table until only a few inches separated their eyes-green stared into violet.
'I take it you usually expect to get what you want?'
'Yes!' Her answer came without an instants hesitation.
Then suppose I told you that under no circumstances would I ever attempt to make love to you?'
'I know the sort of thing you expect me to say, Major.' An expression of defiant determination animated her face. 'But If I really desired you and demanded your attention, I would be playing into your hands, Eternally. No, I seldom bother with something I do not want. I shant totally impore your empty rejection.'
Pitt acted as if he were unconscious of any static in the atmosphere. 'Why, Miss Fyrie, I hardly figured you for a cop-out artist.'
She looked blank. 'A cop-out artist?'
'That's American for chicken,' Tidi said with a razor-sharp tongue coated with several layers of sugar.
Admiral Sandecker cleared his throat. He was thinking of what might happen if this trend in the conversation were to continue.
'I see no reason for an old man to sit here and listen to all this lighthearted talk while he's starving.
Particularly when several square yards of delicious-looking food sits begging for attention only ten feet away.'
'Please allow me to introduce you to our native buffet dishes,' Kirsti said. 'I trust Major Pitts appetite for food is more regulated than his appetite for sex.'
'Touche!' Pitt laughed. He rose and pulled back Kirsti's chair. 'From this moment forward, my every move will be with moderation.'
The varieties of fish seemed endless. Pitt counted over twenty different dishes of salmon and nearly fifteen of cod alone. They each returned with their plates heaped with near over-the-rim helpings.
'I see you've taken a fancy to our cured shark meat, Major.' Kirsti's eyes were smiling.
'I've heard a great deal about the processing,' Pitt said. 'And now at last I have a chance to try it.'
The smile in her lovely eyes turned to a flicker of surprise as he ate several slices. 'Are you sure you're aware of how we prepare it?'
'Of course,' he answered. 'The species of shark found in colder waters can't be eaten fresh, so you slice it in strips and bury it in beach sand for twenty-six days and then cure it in the wind.'
'You're eating it raw, you know?' Kirsti persisted.
'Is there any other way'' Pitt said as he forked another slice into his mouth. Didn't have an easy time trying to shock him, Miss Fyrie.'
Sandecker cast a distasteful eye at the shark meat. 'Dirk's hebby is gourmet cooking. His specialty is fish, and he is an expert on international seafood preparation.'
'Actually, it's quite good,' Pitt managed between mouthfuls. 'However, I do think the Malaysian version has a better flavor. They cure the shark meat wrapped in a seaweed called echidna. This gives it a slightly sweeter taste than the Icelandic delicacy.'
'Americans usually order steak or chicken,' Kirsti said. 'You are the first I have known who prefers fish.'
'Not entirely,' Pitt said. 'Like most of my countrymen, my favorite standby is still a good double hamburger with French fries and a chocolate malt.'
Kirsti looked at Pitt and smiled. 'I am beginning to think that you are blessed with an iron stomach.'
Pitt shrugged. 'I have an uncle who is San Francisco's leading bon vivant. In my own small way I'm trying to follow in his footsteps.'
The rest of the meal was eaten with a minimum of small talk, everyone relaxed and comfortable in the atmosphere of friendliness and good food. Two hours later, during a strawberry and ice cream flambo, especially concocted by Pitt and an agreeable chef, Kirsti began to make apologies for an early departure.
'I hope you will not think me rude, Admiral Sandecker, but I am afraid I must leave you, Miss Royal and Major Pitt very shortly. My fiance has insisted on taking me to a poetry reading tonight, and since I am only a woman, it is difficult to refuse his wishes.' She gave Tidi a soft female look of understanding. 'I'm sure Miss Royal can appreciate my situation.'
Tidi instantly grasped the romantic inference. 'I envy you, Miss Fyrie. A fiance who loves poetry is a rare catch.'
Admiral Sandecker beamed a felicitating smile.
'My sincerest wishes for your happiness, Miss Fyrie. I had no idea you were engaged. Who is the lucky man?'
The admiral held his composure exceedingly well, Pitt thought. He knew the Old man was stunned right down to his shoe soles. This development would call for a different set of ground rules-already Pitt found himself wondering what the competition was like.
'Rondheim-Oskar Rondheim,' Kristi announced.
'My brother introduced v, in a letter. Oskar and I exchanged pictures and corresponded for two years before we finally met.'
Sandecker stared at her. 'Wait a minute,' he said slowly. 'I think I know of him. Isn't he the one who owns an international chain of canneries? Rondheim Industries? A fishing fleet the size of Spain's navy? Or am I thinking of some other Rondheim?'
'No, that's right,' Kirsti said. 'His executive offices are right here in Reykjavik.'
'The fishing boats, painted blue, flying a red flag with an albatross?' Pitt inquired.
Kirsti nodded. 'The P.I'oatross is Oskar's good luck symbol. Do you know his boats?'
'I've had occasion to fly over them,' Pitt said.
Of course Pitt knew the boats and their symbol. So did every fisherman of every country north of the fortieth parallel. Rondheim's fishing fleets were notorious for wiping out fishing grounds, almost to the verge of extinction, robbing the nets of the other fishermen, and dropping their own distinctive red-dyed nets inside the territorial
