Dragon (Dirk Pitt 10)

"Good luck," Mancuso muttered, hurrying after the others, wondering what the man from NUMA had on his canny mind.

Giordino looked down at the unconscious engineer. "Where do we stash him?"

Pitt pointed up at the access door in the ceili

ng of the elevator. "Tear his lab coat into strips, then tie and gag him. We'll park him on the elevator roof."

As Giordino pulled off the white lab coat and began ripping it apart, he gave Pitt a half-crooked grin.

"I heard it too."

Pitt grinned back. "Ah, yes, the sweet sound of freedom."

"If we can snatch it.

"Optimism, optimism," Pitt muttered cheerfully as he launched the elevator upward. "Now let's show some speed. It's twelve minutes to show time."

The MAIT team deep in the Dragon Center could not have been under heavier stress than the two men sweating out the minutes in the communications room of the Federal Headquarters Building.

Raymond Jordan and Donald Kern sat watching a huge clock and listening anxiously for the team call sign to be beamed from a satellite in a fixed synchronous position over Japan.

As if triggered by the sudden buzz of a telephone sitting on the table between them, their eyes met, their faces drawn. Jordan picked up the receiver as if it carried the plague.

"Yes, Mr. President," he answered without hesitation.

"Any word?"

"No, sir."

The President went quiet for a moment, then said solemnly, "Forty-five minutes, Ray."

"Understood, sir. Forty-five minutes until the assault."

"I've called off the Delta Forces. After a conference with my other security advisers and the Joint Chiefs, I've come to the decision that we cannot afford the time for a military operation. The Dragon Center must be destroyed before it becomes operational.

Jordan felt as though his world was slipping away. He threw the dice one more time. "I still believe that Senator Diaz and Congresswoman Smith may be on the island."

"Even if you're right, their possible deaths would have no bearing on my decision."

"You won't change your mind and give them another hour?" Jordan pleaded.

"I wish I could find it in my heart to let you have more time, but our national security is at high risk. We cannot allow Suma the opportunity to launch his campaign of international blackmail."

"You're right, of course."

"At least I'm not alone. Secretary of State Oates has briefed the leaders of the NATO nations and Soviet President Antonov, and they have each agreed that it's in all our mutual interest to proceed."

"Then we write off the team," said Jordan, his frustration showing in his tone, "and perhaps Diaz and Smith."

"I deeply regret compromising the lives of dedicated Americans, some of whom were good friends.

Sorry, Ray, I'm faced with the age-old quandary of sacrificing a few to save many."

Jordan set the receiver in its cradle. He seemed strangely hunched and shrunken. "The President," he said vacantly.

"No reprieve?" asked Kern grimly.