the crowded city of Caracas, and then he was gazing at the horizon line where the turquoise of the Caribbean met a cobalt-blue sky. from 12,000
meters the wind-mased water looked like a flat sheet of crepe paper.
The Air Force VIP transport jet was cramped-Pitt could not stand to his full height-but quite luxurious. He felt as though he were sitting inside a rich kid's high-priced toy.
His father was not in a talkative mood. The Senator spent most of the flight working out of a briefcase, making notes for his briefing to the President.
What little conversation took place was one-sided. When Pitt asked how he happened to be on the Lady Flamborough at Punta del Este, the Senator didn't bother to look up when he responded.
'A Presidential mission,' he said tersely, closing off any further questions on the subject.
Hala also kept to herself and attended to business. She had the aircraft's in-flight telephone in constant use, firing off in structions to her aides at the United Nations building in New York. Her only acknowledgment of Pitts presence was a brief smile when their eyes happened to meet.
How quickly they forget, Pitt thought idly.
He turned his mind to the search for the Alexandria Library treasures.
He considered cutting in on Hala's phone monopoly for a progress report from Yaeger. But he drowned his curiosity with a dry martini, courtesy of the aircraft steward, instead, deciding to wait and learn whatever there was to learn at first hand from Lily and Yaeger.
What river had Venator sailed before burying the priceless objects? it could be any one of a thousand that course into the Atlantic between the Saint Lawrence in Canada to the Rfo de la Plata of Argentina. No, not quite. Yaeger theorized the Serapes had taken on water and made repairs off what was to become New Jersey. The unknown river had to be south, much further south than the rivers that flow into Chesapeake Bay.
Could Venator have led his fleet into the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi? Today's stream must be far different from what it was sixteen hundred years ago. Perhaps he had sailed into the OTinoco in Venezuela, which could be navigated for two hundred miles. Or maybe the Amazon?
He let his mind wander through the irony of it all. If Junius Venator's voyage to the Americas was absolutely proved by the discovery of the buried Library artifacts, history books needed to be revised and new chapters written.
Poor Leif Eriksson and Christopher Columbus would be relegated to footnotes.
Pitt was still daydreaming when he was interrupted by the steward telling him to fasten his seat belt.
It was dusk and the aircraft had dipped its nose and was dropping into the long glide toward Andrews Air Force Base. The twinkling sprawl of Washington slid past, and Pitt soon found himself hobbling down the steps on a cane hastily bent from an aluminum tube and presented by the grateful crew of the Lady Flamborough. He set foot on the concrete at almost exactly the same spot as on his arrival from Greenland.
Hala came down and bid him goodbye. She was continuing on with the plane to New York.
'You've become a treasured memory, Dirk Pitt.'
'We never did make our dinner date.'
'The next time you're in Cairo, it's on me.'
The Senator overheard and came over. 'Cairo, Ms. Kamil. Not New York?'
Hala gave him a smile worthy of the beautiful Aphrodite. 'I am resigning as SecretaryGeneral and returning home. Democracy is dying in Egypt. I can do more to keep it alive by working in the midst of my people.'
'What of Yazid?'
'President Hasan has vowed to place him under house arrest.'
A frown crossed Senator Pitts face. 'Be careful. Yazid is still a dangerous man.'
'if not Yazid, there is always another maniac waiting in the wings.' Her soft dark eyes belied the fear that rode in her heart. She gave him a daughterly hug. 'tell your President Egypt will not become a nation of insane fanatics.'
'I'll pass along your words.'
She turned back to Pitt. She was on the brink of falling in love with him but fought her feelings with every bit of will she possessed. Her legs felt weak as she took both his hands and stared upward into his ageless face. for an instant, in her mind's eye, she saw herself entwilled with his body, caressing his muscled skin, and then just as quickly she erased the thought. She had found brief fulfillment with him, long denied, but she knew she could never divide her love for one man with that for Egypt.
Her life belonged to those who had no life except misery and poverty.
She kissed him tenderly.
'Do not forget me.'
Before Pitt could answer, Hala had turned and hurried up the steps into the aircraft. He stood looking at the empty entrance for a long moment.
The Senator read his thoughts and interrupted them. 'They've sent an ambulance to take you to the hospital.'
'Hospital?' Pitt said vacantly, still watching as the door closed. The jet engines whistled as the pilot increased the rpm and began to taxi toward the main strip.
Pitt tore the bandages from around his head and face and threw them into the jet's exhaust, where they were caught and sent swirling through the air like airborne snakes.
Only when the plane was airborne did he make his reply. 'I'm not going to no damned hospital.'
'Over doing it a bit, don't you ?' think?' the Senator said with paternal concern, full knowing it was a waste of
