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"There is a Lear jet waiting at the NUMA hangar at Dulles It will take you to Exeter You can catch a train fronmouth"

"Afterward, shall I report to you back here in Washington?"

"No, you can report to me aboard the Capricorn "

Pitt looked up "The Capricorn?"

"Certainly Just because you're relaxing in the English countryside, you don't expect enesis in case she decides to come up ahead of schedule, do you?"

Sandecker grinned satanically He could afford that as it was all he could do to keep frorieved and crestfallen expression on Pitt's face

Pitt cli a narrow road beside the river estuary to a s the sea He paid the cab driver, went through a vine-covered gate, and up a walk bordered by rose bushes His knock was answered by a girl with absorbing violet eyes framed by neatly brushed red hair and a soft voice that was touched by a Scot's accent

"Good , sir"

"Good ht nod "My name is Dirk Pitt, and-"

"Oh yes, Ad Please co you"

She was dressed in a neatly pressed white blouse and a green wool sweater andskirt He followed her int

o the living rooe It was cozy and cohtly in the fireplace, and if Pitt had not known that the oas a retired uessed it by the decor Ships' models filled every available shelf, while fraraced all four walls A great brass telescope wasthe Channel, and a ship's wheel, its wood glea from hours of hand-waxed care, stood in one corner of the roootten helmsman

"You look like you've had a very uncoirl said "Would you like some breakfast?"

"Courtesy urges me to decline, but my stomach rumbles for me to` accept"

"Americans are famous for hearty appetites I would have been disappointed if you had shattered the myth"