Shock Wave (Dirk Pitt 13)

"Execute the witnesses by shooting them in the head and throwing their bodies overboard, is that your policy?"

"Shoot you and Mr. Giordino in the head?" There was no trace of emotion, of any feeling in Arthur Dorsett's voice. "Nothing so crude and mundane, nor so merciful. Thrown in the sea? Yes, you may consider that a foregone conclusion. In any event, I will guarantee you and your friend a slow but violent death."

After thirty hours of pounding through the sea at incredible speeds, the powerful turbodiesels fell off to a muffled throb, and the yacht slowed and began to drift amid a sea of gentle swells. The last sight of the New Zealand shoreline had long since disappeared in the yacht's wake. To the north and west dark clouds were laced with forks of lightning, the thunder rumbling dully across the horizon. To the south and east there were no clouds and thunder. The skies were blue and clear.

Pitt and Giordino had spent the night and half the next day locked in a small supply compartment aft of the engine room. There was barely enough room to sit on the deck with knees drawn up to their chins.

Pitt kept awake most of the time, the clarity of his mind heightened, listening to the revolutions of the engines, the thump of the swells. Casting aside all thoughts of restraint, Giordino had wrenched the door off its hinges only to be confronted by four guards with the muzzles of their automatic weapons pushed into his navel. Defeated, he promptly dropped off to sleep before the door was rehung.

Angered and blaming only himself for their predicament, Pitt was very self-critical, but no fault could really be attached to him. He should have out-thought John Merchant. He had been caught with his guard down because he miscalculated their fanatic desire to lure Maeve back into their clutches. He and Giordino were mere sideline pawns. Arthur Dorsett considered them little more than a minor annoyance in his insane crusade for an absurd accumulation of wealth.

There was something weird and ominous about their unmoving concentration on such a complex plan to ensnare a daughter and eliminate the men from NUMA. Pitt wondered dimly why he and Giordino had been kept alive, and he had no sooner done so when the damaged door creaked open and John Merchant stood leering on the threshold. Pitt automatically checked his Doxa watch at seeing his nemesis. It was eleven-twenty in the morning.

Time to board your vessel," Merchant a

nnounced pleasantly.

"We're changing boats?" asked Pitt.

"In a manner of speaking."

"I hope the service is better than on this one," said Giordino lazily. "You will, of course, take care of our luggage."

Merchant dismissed Giordino with a brisk shrug. "Please hurry, gentlemen. Mr. Dorsett does not like to be kept waiting."

They were escorted out onto the stern deck, surrounded by a small army of guards armed with a variety of weapons designed to inflict bodily harm but not kill. Both men blinked in the fading sunlight just as the first few raindrops fell carried ahead of the advancing clouds by a light breeze.

Dorsett sat protected under an overhang in a chair at a table laden with several savory dishes laid out in silver serving bowls. Two uniformed attendants stood at his elbow, one ready to pour at the slightest indication that his wineglass required refilling, the other to replace used silverware. Boudicca and Deirdre, seated on their father's left and right, didn't bother looking up from their food as Pitt and Giordino were brought into their divine presence. Pitt glanced around for Maeve, but she wasn't to be seen.

"I regret that you must leave us," said Dorsett between bites of toast heaped with caviar. "A pity you couldn't have stayed for brunch."

"Don't you know you're supposed to boycott caviar?" said Pitt. Poachers have nearly driven sturgeon to extinction."

Dorsett shrugged apathetically. "So it costs a few dollars more."

Pitt turned, his eyes staring over the empty sea, starting to look ugly from the approaching storm. "We were told we were to board another boat."

"And so you shall."

"Where is it?"

"Floating alongside."

"I see," Pitt said quietly. "I see indeed. You plan to set us adrift."

Dorsett rubbed food from his mouth with a napkin with the savoir-faire of an auto mechanic wiping his greasy hands. "I apologize for providing such a small craft, one without an engine, I might add, but it's all I have to offer."

"A nice sadistic touch. You enjoy the thought of our suffering."

Giordino glanced at two high-performance powerboats that were cradled on the upper deck of the yacht. "We're overwhelmed by your generosity."

You should be grateful that I'm giving you a chance to live."

"Adrift in a part of the sea devoid of maritime traffic, directly in the path of a storm." Pitt scowled. "The least you should do is supply pen and paper to make out our last wills and testaments."

"Our conversation has ended. Goodbye, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Giordino, bon voyage." Dorsett nodded at John Merchant. "Show these NUMA scum to their craft."

Merchant pointed to a gate in the railing that was swung open.