Deep Six (Dirk Pitt 7)

Then he anded caustically, "Always glad to help the FBI off a reef."

"That's settled," said Oates, stepping in as referee. "Mr. Pitt, do you have any idea where they might be holding Vice President Margolin?"

"No, sir. I don't think Suvorov did either. According to his notes, after he escaped from Lugovoy's laboratory, he flew over the area in a helicopter but failed to pinpoint the location or building.

The only reference he mentions is a river south of Charleston, South Carolina."

Oates looked from Emmett to Brogan to Mercier. "Well, gentlemen, we have a starting point."

"I think we owe a round of thanks to Mr. Pitt," said Fawcett.

"Yes, indeed," said Mercier. "You've been most helpful."

Christ! Pitt thought to himself. They're beginning to sound like the Chamber of Commerce expressing their gratitude to a street cleaner who followed a parade.

"That's all there is?" he asked.

"For the moment," replied Oates.

"What about Loren Smith and Vince Margolin?"

"We'll see to their safety," said Emmett coldly.

Pitt awkwardly struggled to his feet. Sandecker came over and took his arm. Then Pitt placed his hands on the table and leaned toward Emmett, his stare enough to wither cactus.

"You better," he said with a voice like steel. "You damned well better."

As THE Chalmette steamed toward Florida, communications became hectic. Frantic inquiries flooded the ship's radio room, and the Koreans found it impossibl

e to comply. They finally gave up and supplied only the names of the survivors onboard. All entreaties by the news media demanding detailed information on the Leonin Andreyev's sinking went unanswered.

Friends and relatives of the passengers, frantic with anxiety, began collecting at the Russian cruise line offices. Here and there around the country flags were flown at half-mast. The tragedy was a subject of conversation in every home. Newspapers and television networks temporarily swept the President closing of Congress out of the limelight and devoted special editions and newscasts to covering the disaster.

The Navy began airlifting the people whom their rescue operation had pulled from the water, flying them to naval air stations and hospitals nearest their homes. These were the first to be interviewed, and their conflicting stories blamed the explosion on everything from a floating mine of World War Two, to a cargo of weapons and munitions being smuggled by the Russians into Central America.

The Soviet diplomatic missions across the United States reacted badly by accusing the U.S. Navy of carelessly launching a missile at the Leonin Andreyev: a charge that had good play in the Eastern bloc countries but was generally shrugged off elsewhere as a crude propaganda ploy.

The excitement rose to a crescendo over a human interest story not seen since the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956. The continued silence from the Chalmette infuriated the reporters and correspondents.

There was a mad rush to charter boats, airplanes and helicopters to meet the ship as she neared the coast. Fueled by the Korean captain's silence, speculation ran rampant as the tension built. Investigations into the cause were being demanded by every politician who could contrive an interview.

The Chalmette remained obstinate to the end. As she entered the main channel, she was surrounded by a wolf pack of buzzing aircraft and circling pleasure yachts and fishing boats crawling with reporters blasting questions through bullhorns. To their utter frustration, the Korean seamen simply waved and shouted back in their native tongue.

Slowly approaching the docking terminal at Dodge Island in the Port of Miami, the Chalmette was greeted by a massive crowd of over a hundred thousand people surging against a police cordon blocking the entrance to the pier. A hundred vineo and film cameras recorded the scene as the giant container ship's mooring lines were dropped over rustin-, bollards, gangways were rolled against the hull, and the survivors stood at the railings, astounded at the turnout.

Some appeared overjoyed to see dry land once again, others displayed solemn grief for husbands or wives, sons or daughters, they would never see again. A great hush suddenly fell on the mass of spectators. It was later described by an anchorman on the evening TV news as "the silence one experiences at the lowering of a coffin into the ground."

Unnoticed in the drama, a host of FBI agents dressed in the uniforms of immigration officials and customs inspectors swarmed aboard the ship, confirming the inentities of the surviving passengers and crewmen of the Leonin Andreyev, interrogating each on the whereabouts of Congresswoman Smith, and searching every foot of the ship for any sign of her.

Al Giordino questioned the people whose faces he recalled seeing in the lifeboat. None of them could remember what happened to Loren or the Oriental steward after climbing aboard the Chalmette. One woman thought she saw them led away by the ship's captain, but she couldn't be sure. To many of those who had narrowly escaped death, their minds conveniently blanked olit much of the catastrophe.

The captain and his crew claimed to know nothing. Photos of Loren provoked no recognition. Interpreters interrogated them in Korean, but their stories were the same. They never saw her. Six hours of in-depth search -turned up nothing. At last the reporters were allowed to scramble onboard. The crew were acknowledged heroes of the sea. The image harvested by Bougainville Maritime and their courageous employees, who braved a sea of blazing oil to save four hundred souls, was a public relations windfall, and Min Koryo made the most of it.

It was dark and raining when Giordino wearily made his way across the now emptied dock and entered the customs office of the terminal.

He sat at a desk for a long time staring out into the rainsoaked murk, his dark eyes mere shadows on his face.

He turned and looked at the telephone as though it was the enemy.