Inca Gold (Dirk Pitt 12)

A search of the hacienda turned up nothing concrete. The rooms had been cleaned of any incriminating evidence. The abandoned plane parked on the airstrip was another matter. Inside, Starger found four crudely carved wooden effigies with childlike faces painted on them.

"What do you make of these?" Starger asked one of the agents, who was an expert in ancient Southwest artifacts.

"They look like some kind of Indian religious symbols."

"Are they made from cottonwood?"

The agent lifted his sunglasses and examined the idols close up. "Yes, I think I can safely say they're carved out of cottonwood."

Starger ran his hand gently over one of the idols. "I have a suspicion these are the sacred idols Pitt was looking for."

Rudi Gunn was told while he was lying in a hospital bed. A nurse entered his room, followed by one of Starger's agents.

"Mr. Gunn. I'm Agent Anthony Di Maggio with the Customs Service. I thought you'd like to know that Dirk Pitt was picked up alive in the Gulf about half an hour ago."

Gunn closed his eyes and sighed with heavy relief. "I knew he'd make it."

"Quite a feat of courage, I hear, swimming over a hundred kilometers through an underground river."

"No one else could have done it."

"I hope the good news will inspire you to become more cooperative," said the nurse, who talked sweetly while carrying a long rectal thermometer.

"Isn't he a good patient?" asked Di Maggio.

"I've tended better."

"I wish to hell you'd give me a pair of pajamas," Gunn said nastily, "instead of this peekaboo, lace-up-the-rear, shorty nightshirt."

"Hospital gowns are designed that way for a purpose," the nurse replied smartly.

"I wish to God you'd tell me what it is."

"I'd better go now and leave you alone," said Di Maggio, beating a retreat. "Good luck on a speedy recovery."

"Thank you for giving me the word on Pitt," Gunn said sincerely.

"Not at all."

"You rest now," ordered the nurse. "I'll be back in an hour with your medication."

True to her word, the nurse returned in one hour on the dot. But the bed was empty. Gunn had fled, wearing nothing but the skimpy little gown and a blanket.

Strangely, those on board the Alhambra were the last to know.

Loren and Sandecker were meeting with Mexican Internal Police investigators beside the Pierce Arrow when news of Pitt's rescue came from the owner of a luxurious powerboat that was tied up at the nearby fuel station. He shouted across the water separating the two vessels.

"Ahoy the ferry!"

Miles Rodgers was standing on the deck by the wheelhouse talking with Shannon and Duncan. He leaned over the railing and shouted back. "What is it?"

"They found your boy!"

The words carried inside the auto deck and Sandecker rushed out onto the open deck. "Say again!"

he yelled.

"The owners of a sailing ketch fished a fellow out of the water," the yacht skipper replied. "The Mexican navy reports say it's the guy they were looking for."