Loren hugged Giordino. "Thank God you're all right. Is Dirk with you?"
"Who do you think is driving the bus?" Giordino smiled broadly as he nodded toward the cockpit.
Without another word, Loren ran up the aisle and threw open the cockpit door. Pitt sat in the pilot's seat, heavily concentrating on flying an aircraft that was new to him. He didn't blink or turn his head as she slipped her hands around his neck and down inside his borrowed Suma Corporation flight suit and kissed him at least a dozen times.
"You're alive," she said joyfully. "Suma said you were dead."
"It hasn't exactly been a fun-filled day," Pitt managed between her kisses. "Does this mean you're glad to see me?"
She lightly dragged her nails over his chest. "Can't you ever get serious?"
"Lady, right now I'm about as serious as I can get. I've got eight people depending on me to fly an aircraft I've never touched before. And I better get the hang of it real quick or we're all going body surfing."
"You can do it," she said confidently. "Dirk Pitt can do anything."
"I wish people wouldn't say that," Pitt groaned. He gave a quick tic of his head to his right. "Take the co-pilot's seat and play with the radio. We've got to call in the cavalry before the samurai air force takes up the chase. No way we can outrun jet fighters."
"Suma doesn't own the Japanese military."
"He owns everything else around here. I'm not taking any chances. Switch on the radio, I'll give you the frequency."
"Where are we going?"
"The Ralph R. Bennett."
"A boat?"
"A ship," Pitt corrected her. "A U.S. Navy detection and tracking ship. If we get to her before we're intercepted, we're home free."
"They wouldn't dare shoot us down with Hideki Suma on board."
Pitt's eyes flickered from the instrument panel to the water rushing by below. "Oh, how I hope you're right."
Behind them, Giordino was trying but failing to soothe Toshie, who was hissing and striking out like a hysterical rat. She spat at him but narrowly missed his cheek, catching him on the ear. Finally he grabbed her from the rear and held her in a tight vise grip.
"I realize I don't make a good first impression," he said happily, "but to know me is to love me."
"You Yankee pig!" she cried.
"Not so, my Italian ancestors would never admit to being Yankees."
Stacy ignored Giordino and the struggling Toshie and tightly bound Suma to one of several plush leather chairs in the luxurious executive main cabin. Disbelief was written all over his face.
"Well, well, well," said a happy Mancuso. "Surprise, surprise, the big man himself came along for the ride."
"You're dead. You're all supposed to be dead," he muttered incredulously.
"Your buddy Kamatori is the one who's dead," Mancuso sadistically informed him.
"How?"
"Pitt stuck him on the wall."
Pitt's name seemed to act as a stimulant. Suma came back on keel and he said, "You have made a disastrous mistake. You will unleash terrible forces by taking me hostage."
"Fair is fair. Now it's our turn to act mean and nasty."
The human voice can't exactly imitate the hiss of a viper, but Suma came pretty close to it. "You are too stupid to understand. My people will launch the Kaiten Project when they have learned what you've done."