Inca Gold (Dirk Pitt 12)

"We'll worry about putting together an excavation operation after we study the geology of the island,"

Pitt answered.

"Help yourself to the feast," said Loren.

Giordino wasted no time. He began building a sandwich of monumental proportions. "You lay out a good spread, lady."

"Beats slaving over a hot stove." Loren laughed. "What about permits? You can't go running around digging for treasure in Mexico without permission from government authorities.

Pitt laid a hefty portion of mortadella on a slice of sourdough bread. "Admiral Sandecker thought it best to wait. We don't want to advertise our objective. If word got out that we had a line on the biggest bonanza in history, a thousand treasure hunters would descend on us like locusts. Mexican officials would throw us out of the country in a mad grab to keep the hoard for their own government. And Congress would give NUMA hell for spending American tax dollars on a treasure hunt in another country. No, the quieter, the better."

"We can't afford to be shot down before we've had half a chance of making the find," said Giordino in an unusual display of seriousness.

Loren was silent while she ladled a spoonful of potato salad onto her plate, then asked, "Why don't you have someone on your team as insurance in the event local Mexican officials become suspicious and start asking questions?"

Pitt looked at her. "You mean a public relations expert?"

No, a bona fide, card-carrying member of the United States Congress."

Pitt stared into those sensual violet eyes. "You?"

"Why not? The Speaker of the House has called for a recess next week. My aides can cover for me.

I'd love to get out of Washington for a few days and see a piece of Mexico."

"Frankly," said Giordino, "I think it's a stellar concept." He gave Loren a wink and a toothy smile.

"Dirk is always more congenial when you're around."

Pitt put his arm around Loren. "If something should go wrong, if this thing blows up in our faces while we're in foreign territory and you're along for the ride, the scandal could ruin yo

ur political career."

She looked across the table at him brazenly. "So the voters throw me out on the streets. Then I'd have no choice but to marry you."

"A fate worse than listening to a presidential speech," said Giordino, "but a good idea just the same."

"Somehow I can't picture us walking down the aisle of the Washington Cathedral," Pitt said thoughtfully, "and then setting up housekeeping in some brick townhouse in Georgetown."

Loren had hoped for a different reaction, but she knew that Pitt was no ordinary man. She recalled their first meeting at a lawn party nearly ten years before given by some forgotten former secretary of environment. There was a magnetism that had drawn her to him. He was not handsome in the movie star sense, but there was a masculine, no-nonsense air about him that awakened a desire she hadn't experienced with other men. He was tall and lean. That helped. As a congresswoman she had known many wealthy and powerful men, several of them devilishly good-looking. But here was a man who wore the reputation of an adventurer comfortably and cared nothing for power or fame. And rightly so. He was the genuine article.

There were no strings attached to their off-and-on ten-year affair. He had known other women, she had known other men, and yet their bond still held firm. Any thought of marriage had seemed remote.

Each was already married to his or her job. But the years had mellowed their relationship, and as a woman Loren knew her biological clock did not have too many ticks left if she wished to have children.

"It doesn't have to be like that," she said finally.

He sensed her feeling. "No," he said affectionately, "we can make several major improvements."

She gave him a peculiar look. "Are you proposing to me?"

A quiet look deepened his green eyes. "Let's just say I was making a suggestion about things to come."

"Can you put us closer to the dominant peak?" Sarason asked his brother Charles Oxley, who was at the controls of a small amphibious flying boat. "The crest of the lower one is too sharp for our requirements."

"Do you see something?"

Sarason peered through binoculars out a side window of the aircraft. "The island has definite possibilities, but it would help if I knew what sort of landmark to look for."