For perhaps ten shocked, incredulous seconds Pitt let his words soak in as he sat nonchalantly in an armchair, cigarette in one hand, glass in the other, the very picture of relaxed boredom. Not so Rondheim and the other members of Hermit Limited. Their faces were as uncomprehending as if each had just come home and found his wife in bed with another man. Kelly's eyes widened and his breath seemed to stop. Then slowly he began to gain control again, calm, quiet, the professional businessman, saying nothing until the right words formed in his mind.
'Your computers must have blown a fuse,' Pitt continued. 'Admiral Sandecker and I were on to Dr. Hunnewell right from the start.' Pitt lied, knowing there was no way Kelly or Rondheim could prove otherwise. 'You wouldn't be interested in how or why.'
'You are mistaken, Major,' Kelly said impatiently.
'We would be most interested.'
Pitt took a deep breath and made the plunge, 'Actually our first tipoff came when Dr. Len Matajic was rescued-'
'No! That cannot be,' Rondheim gasped.
Pitt gave silent thanks to Sandecker for his wild plan to resurrect the ghosts of Matajic and O'Riley. The opportunity was handed to him on a silver platter, and he could see no reason not to use it to kill time.
'Pick up the phone and ask the overseas operator for Room 409 at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington. I suggest you request person-to-person; your call will go through faster.'
'That will not be necessary,' Kelly said. 'I have no reason to doubt you.'
'Suit yourself,' Pitt said carelessly, fighting to keep a straight face, laying his bluff successfully. 'As I started to say, when Dr. Matajic was rescued, he described the Lax and its crew in vivid detail.
He wasn't fooled for a minute by the alterations to the superstructure. But, of course, you know all this. Your people monitored his message to Admiral Sandecker.'
'And then?'
'Don't you see? The rest was simple deduction.
Thanks to Matajic's description, it didn't take any great effort to trace the ship's whereabouts from the time it disappeared with Kristjan Fyrie to when it moored on the iceberg where Matajic had his research station.' Pitt smiled. 'Because of Dr. Matajic's powers of observation-the crew's suntans hardly spelled a fishing trip in North Atlantic waters-Admiral Sandecker was able to figure the Lax's previous course along the South American coast. He then began to suspect Dr. Hunnewell.
Rather clever of the admiral now that I look back on it.) 'Go on, go on,' Kelly urged.
'Well, obviously the Lax had been utilizing the undersea probe to find new mineral deposits. And just as obviously, with Fyrie and his engineers dead, Dr. Hunnewell, the co-inventor of the probe, was the only one around who knew how to operate it.'
'You are exceedingly well informed,' Kelly said wryly. 'But that hardly constitutes proof.'
Pitt was on tricky ground. So far he had been able to skirt around the National Intelligence Agency's involvement in Hermit Limited. And Kelly had yet to be baited into offering any further information. It's time, he amusedly told himself, to tell the truth.
'Proof?' Okay, will you accept the words of a dying man,' Straight from the horse's mouth. The man in question is Dr. Hunnewell himself.'
'I don't believe it.'
'His last words before he died in my arms were: 'God save thee.' '
'What are you talking about?' Rondheim shouted.
'What are you trying to do?'
'I meant to thank you for that, Oskar,' Pitt said coldly. 'Hunnewell knew who his murderer was-the man who gave the order for his death. He tried to quote from 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' It was all there, wasn't it? You quoted it yourself: 'Why look'st thou so? With my crossbow I shot the Albatross.' Your trademark, Oskar, the red albatross. That's what Hunnewell meant. 'For all averr'd I had kill'd the bird That made the breeze to blow.' You killed the man who helped you probe the sea floor.' Pitt was feeling cocky now; the warmth from the brandy was spreading comfortingly through his body. 'I can't match your memory for quoting the verse verbatim, but if my memory serves me correctly, the Ancient Mariner and his ship of ghosts were met by a hermit near the end-another tie-in. Yes, it was all in the verse. Hunnewell pointed the finger of guilt with his dying breath and you, Oskar, stood up and unwittingly pleaded guilty.'
'You sent your arrow in the right direction, Major Pitt.' Kelly idly stared at the smoke from his cigar. 'But you aimed at the wrong man. I gave the order for Dr. Hunnewell's death. Oskar merely carried it through.'
'For what purpose?'
'Dr. Hunnewell was beginning to have second thoughts about Hermit Limited's methods of operation-quite old-fashioned thoughts really: thou shall not kill and all that. He threatened to expose our entire organization unless we closed down our assassination department. A condition that was impossible to accept if we were to have any chance for ultimate success. Therefore, Dr. Hunnewell had to be discharged from the firm.'
'Another business principle, of course.'
Kelly smiled. is that.'
'An I had to be swept under the carpet because I was a witness.' Pitt said as if answering a question.
Kelly simply nodded.
'But the undersea probe?' Pitt asked. 'With Hunnewell and Fyrie-the goose who laid the golden egg is dead, who is left with the knowledge to build a secondgeneration model?'
The confident look was back in Kelly's eyes. 'No one,' he answered softly. 'But then no one is required.
You see, our computers have now been programmed with the necessary information. With proper analysis of the data, we should have a working model of the probe within ninety days.'
For a brief moment, Pitt stood silent, caught unprepared by the unexpected disclosure. Then he quickly shook off his surprise at Kelly's statement. The brandy was beginning to get to him now, but his mind was still running with the smoothness of a generator.
'Then Hunnewell no longer served a useful purpose. Your data-proces!zing brains discovered the secret of producing celtinium-279.'
'I compliment you. Major Pitt. You possess a penetrating discernment.' Kelly glanced impatiently at his watch and nodded to Rondheim. Then he turned and said, 'I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the time has come, gentlemen. The party is over.'
'What do you intend on doing with us, James?'
Sam's eyes burned into Kelly's until the billionaire turned and avoided the stare. 'It's obvious you told us your secrets as a courtesy to our curiosity. It's also obvious you can never let us walk from this house with those secrets in our heads.'
'It's true.' Kelly looked at the men standing opposite the fireplace. 'None of you can be permitted to tell what you heard here tonight.'
'But why?' old Sam asked philosophically. 'Why expose us to your clandestine operation and thereby seal our death warrants?'
Kelly tiredly rubbed his eyes and leaned back in a large overstuffed leather chair. 'The moment of truth, the denouement.' He sadly searched the faces across the room. They were pale with shock and disbelief.
'It is now eleven o'clock. In exactly forty-two hours and ten minutes, Hermit Limited will open its doors for business. Twenty-four hours later we will be running the affairs of our first client, or country, if you prefer. In order to make this historical event as inauspicious as possible, we need a diversion. A disaster that will attract headlines and cause anxious concern among the leaders of world governments while our plan is carried off practically unnoticed.'
'And we are your diversion,' said the tall white haired man with the solemn eyes.
After a long wordless stare, Kelly simply said, 'Yes.
'The innocent victims of a disaster spawned by computers to make headlines. God, it's barbaric!'
'Yes,' Kelly repeated, 'but necessary. In your own ways, to your own countries, you are important men.
You represent the industry, government and science of five different nations. Your combined loss will be considered a worldwide tragedy.'
'This must be some sort of insane joke,' Tamareztov shouted. 'You cannot simply shoot two dozen men and
