Vixen 03

"Nonetheless, sir, you are my responsibility, as well as the one hundred and fifty other passengers. I must ask if you foresee any problems that may endanger lives."

"None, Captain, I assure you."

"Good." Mutaapo's teeth flashed. "Let's drink to a smooth and comfortable flight. What will be your pleasure, sir?"

"A martini, straight up with a twist, thank you."

Stupidity, Lusana thought as the truck rumbled over a railroad crossing. Too late it dawned on him that commercial-airline pilots ca

Lusana could not measure the hours or the days. He had no way of knowing that he was kept in a constant state of stupor by frequent injections of a mild sedative. Unfamiliar faces appeared and reappeared as the hood was temporarily removed, their features floating in an ethereal haze before blackness closed in once more.

The truck braked to a halt and he heard muffled voices. Then the driver shifted gears and moved forward, stopping again in less than a mile.

Lusana heard the rear doors open and he felt two pairs of hands pick him up roughly and carry his numbed body up same kind of ramp. Strange sounds came out of the darkness. The blast of a distant air horn. Metallic clanging, as though steel doors were being opened and slammed shut. He also detected the smells of fresh paint and oil.

He was unceremoniously dumped on another hard floor and left there as his bearers faded out of earshot. The next thing he sensed was the rope's being cut from his body. Then the hood was removed. The only light came from a small incandescent red bulb on one wall.

For nearly a full minute Lusana lay there motionless while the circulation slowly awakened his agonized limbs. He screwed up his eyes and squinted. It appeared to him that he was on the bridge of a ship. The red glow from above revealed a helm and large console dotted with multicolored lights that reflected off a long row of square windows embedded in three of four gray walls.

Above Lusana, still holding the hood in his hand, was a huge mass of a man. Looking like a distorted giant, from Lusana's prone position on the deck, the man stared down from a kindly face and smiled. Lusana was not taken in. He well knew that most hardened killers flashed angelic expressions before slitting their victims' throats. And yet the face on this man seemed strangely i

"You are Hiram Lusana." The deep bass voice echoed against the steel bulkheads.

"I am," Lusana answered hoarsely. His voice sounded odd to him. He had not used it in nearly four days.

"You don't know how much I've looked forward to meeting you," the giant said.

"Who are you?"

"Does the name Fawkes mean anything to you?"

"Should it?" Lusana said, determined to resist.

"Aye, it's a terrible thing when you forget the names of the people you've murdered."

A realization mushroomed within Lusana. "Fawkes… the raid on the Fawkes farm, in Natal."

"My wife and children cut down. My house burned. You even slaughtered my workers. Whole families with the same skin as yours."

"Fawkes… you're Fawkes," Lusana repeated, his drugged mind fighting to grasp a bearing.

"I'm satisfied the filthy business was done by the AAR," said Fawkes, a subtle hardening in his voice. "They were your men; you gave the orders."

"I was not responsible." The fog was lifting from Lusana's head and he was coming back on balance, inwardly at least. His arms and legs would not respond to command. "I'm sorry for what happened to your family. A tragic bloodletting that had no rhyme or reason. But you will have to look elsewhere to place the blame. My men were i

"Aye, a denial was to be expected."

"What do you intend to do with me?" Lusana asked, his eyes without fear.

Fawkes looked out the bridge windows. It was pitch dark outside and a light mist coated the glass. There was a strange kind of sadness in his eyes.

He turned to Lusana. "We're going to take a little trip, you and I, a trip with no return ticket."

50

The taxi passed through a back gate of the Washington National Airport at precisely nine thirty P.M. and dropped Jarvis behind a solitary hangar that sat on a seldom-used end of the field. Except for a faint glow of light through the dusty glass of a side door, the giant building seemed bleak and cavernous. He pushed open the door and was mildly surprised not to hear it creak. The well-oiled hinges pivoted without a whisper.

The yawning interior was brilliantly illuminated by overhead fluorescent lighting. A venerable old Ford tri-motor aircraft sat like a huge goose in the center of the concrete floor, its wings protectively reaching out over several antique automobiles in various stages of restoration. Jarvis walked over to a car that seemed no more than a pile of rusted iron. A pair of feet protruded from beneath the radiator.

"You are Mr. Pitt?" Jarvis inquired.

"And you are Mr. Jarvis?"

"Yes."

Pitt rolled from under the car and sat up.

"I see you found my humble abode all right."

Jarvis hesitated, taking in Pitt's greasy coveralls and disheveled appearance. "You live here?"

'I have an apartment upstairs," Pitt said_, pointing to a glass-enclosed level above the hangar floor.

"You have a nice collection," said Jarvis, gesturing at the relics. "What is the one over there with the black fenders and silver coach work?"

"A 1936 Maybach-Zeppelin town car," Pitt answered.

"And the one you're working on?"

"A 1912 Renault open-drive landaulette."

"Seems a bit the worse for wear," said Jarvis, wiping a finger through a layer of rust.

Pitt smiled patiently. "She doesn't really look all that bad when you consider she's been immersed in the sea for seventy years."

Jarvis understood immediately. "From the Titanic?"

"Yes. I was allowed to keep her after the salvage project. Sort of a prize for services rendered, so to speak."

Pitt led the way up a flight of stairs to his apartment. Jarvis entered and his professional eye routinely traveled over the unusual furnishings. The occupant was a well traveled man, he surmised, judging from the nautical objects decorating the interior. Copper divers' helmets from another age. Mariners' compasses, wooden helms, ships' bells, even old nails and bottles, all neatly labeled with the names of famous ships from which Pitt had salvaged them. It was like looking into a museum of a man's life.

Jarvis sank into a leather sofa at Pitt's invitation. He looked his host directly in the eyes. "Do you know me, Mr. Pitt?"

"No."

"Yet you had no qualms about seeing me."

"Who can resist intrigue?" Pitt said, gri

"You guessed, of course, that you were being followed."

Pitt reclined in a leather chair and propped his feet on an ottoman. "Let's sack the wordplay, Mr. Jarvis, and get to the point. What's your sport?"

"Sport?"

"Your interest in me."

"Okay, Mr. Pitt, " said Jarvis. "Cards on the table. What is the real purpose behind NUMA's search for a special type of heavy naval shell?"