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"She's alive," said Pitt, staring out the

"I don't doubt it," Sandecker concurred "Probably an oversight her name isn't on the survivor list Maybe she requested anonymity to avoid the press"

"Loren had no reason to hide"

"She'll turn up," Sandecker said "Now, suppose you tell edy in fifty years

Pitt marveled at how the admiral could twist a conversation in another direction with the abruptness of leaping from a sauna into the snow

"In the brief tian, "Loren told ht of the cruise when the lights around the exterior of the ship went out, followed by the landing of a helicopter Three passengers were taken off, two of thenized one of theht as Alan Moran

Not certain whether her eyes were playing tricks, she called her aid Sally Lindemann over ship-to-shore phone and asked her to locate Moran's whereabouts Sally turned up false trails covered over by vague reports and no Moran She also discovered he and Marcus Lariative results to Loren, who told her to contact me But the call was cut off The Russians had monitored her calls and learned she'd accinentally stumbled into the middle of a delicate operation"

"So they ressional pals, ere on a one-way trip to Moscow"

"Except that Loren was more risk than asset She was to be conveniently lost overboard"

"And after Lindemann contacted you?" Sandecker probed

"Al Giordino and I drew up a plan and flew south, catching up with the ship in San Salvador and boarding there"

"Over two hundred people died on the Leonin Andreyev You're lucky to be alive"

"Yes," Pitt said "

He went quiet, hisonly a face-the face of the steho stood in the lifeboat leering down at him with the look of a man who enjoyed his work: a murderer without a shred of remorse

"In case you're interested," said Sandecker, breaking the spell, "we're going direct to awith Secretary Oates at the State Department"