Iceberg

Pitt pulled the back of his hand across his eyes.

"Never, never in a thousand years would I have His voice faded away.

"It threw us out of gear too. Our first hint came when we could find no trace of her on New Guinea."

"I know. I'd already pegged her for a phony on that score."

"You knew? But how?"

"When we had di

Rather strange behavior from a missionary who spent years in the jungles of New Guinea, don't you think?"

"How the hell should I know." Kippma

"An echidna," Pitt said, "is an egg-laying spiny anteater. A mammal very common to the landscape of New Guinea."

"I can't say I blame her for missing the catch."

"How would you react if I said I was going to barbecue a New York cut steak wrapped in porcupine quills?"

"I'd say something."

"You've got the idea."

Kippma

"What put you on to her in the first place? You wouldn't have tricked her without a nudge, without a suspicious hint."

"Her tan," Pitt answered. "It was shallow-not burned deep like one acquired after years and months spent in a tropic jungle."

"You, sir, are very observant," Kippma

"Partly for the same reason I'm standing here in this ridiculous wolf suit," Pitt said grimly. "I volunteered for your little manhunt for two reasons. One, I've got a score to even with Rondheim and Kelly, no more, no less.

Second, I'm still Special Projects Director for NUMA, and as such, my primary duty is to obtain the plans for Fyrie's undersea mineral probe. That's why I co

Kippma

I have Kelly and his group in custody, I'll r to you and Admiral Sandecker for quesgood enough," Pitt snapped. "If you want my cooperation as an identifying witness, then promise me a few minutes alone with Rondheim-And full and complete custody of Kirsti Fyrie."

"Impossible!"

"What does Rondheim's future physical condition mean to you?"

"If I turned my back so you could kick him in the teeth, I couldn't let you have Kirsti Fyrie."

"You could," Pitt said positively. "Mostly because she isn't yours to give. If you're lucky, you might pin an accomplice charge on her. But that might strain our relations with Iceland, in event that wouldn't make our State Department exactly jump for joy."

"You're wasting your breath," Kippma

"Yours is not to convict, yours is to apprehend and arrest." Kippma

Kippma

Frowning, baffled, Kippma

"There are twenty thousand people out there in the park right this minute," Lazard tone. "It doesn't take any great magician to replace two of them. feat of cleverness to Croix and Castile bitched. He shrugged helplessly. "Deal about our heavy security precautions from the second they stepped through the main gate. They went to the john together and gave us the slip by ducking out a side window, just like a pair of kids."

Pitt stood up. "Quickly, do you have their tour and scheduled stops?"

Lazard stared at him for a moment. "Yes, here, each amusement and exhibit and their time schedules." He handed Pitt a Xeroxed sheet of paper.

Pitt rapidly glanced at the schedule. Then a slow grin cut his face as he turned to Kippma

"As they say during campus riots, why won't you meet our demands?"

The slump of Kippma

Kippma

"And Kelly, Marks, Von Hummel and the rest?"

"They're all there- Hermit Limited reserved the entire sixth floor." Kippma

"Rest easy. Five minutes with Rondheim. Then You can have him. Kirsti Fyrie I keep. Call her a little bonus from the N.I.A. too. Kippma

"The obvious." Pitt smiled at Kippma

The most obvious place where any two men who passed their childhood near the Spanish Main would head."

"God, you've hit it," Lazard said almost bitterly.

"The last stop on the schedule-The Pirates of the Caribbean."

Next to the cleverly engineered apparitions in the Disneyland Haunted House, The Pirates of the Caribbean is the most popular attraction in the world-famous park. Constructed on two underground levels that occupy nearly two acres'. the quarter-of-a-mile boat ride carries awed passengers through a maze of tu

Pitt was the last one up the entrance ramp to the landing where the attendants assist the paying customers into the boats at the start of the fifteen-minute excursion. The fifty or sixty people waiting in line waved to Pitt and made smiling remarks about his costume as he made his way behind Kippma

Lazard grasped the managing attendant by the arm. "Quickly. you must stop the boats."

The attendant, a blond, lanky boy no more than twenty years of age, simply stood there in mute uncomprehension.

Lazard, obviously a man who disliked wasted conversation, moved hurriedly across the landing to the controls, disengaged the underwater traction chain that pulled the excursion boats, set the handbrake and turned to face the stu

"Two men, two men together, have they taken the ride?"

"Don't know for sure, sir. There… there's been so many. I can't recall them all-" Kippma