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"Would you like me to describe them in detail?" asked Pitt carelessly "Maeve is tall, blond, with incredibly blue eyes Strictly a camp-on-the-beach type" He paused to point at a portrait of a young blond wo an old-fashioned dress with a dia set in a pendant around her neck "That's her in the painting"

"Not even close" Boudicca sreat-grandmother"

"Neither here nor there," Pitt said with feigned indifference, unwilling to tear his eyes away from the incredible likeness of Maeve "Deirdre, on the other hand, has brown eyes and red hair and walks like a runway model"

After a long pause, Boudicca said, "He must be who he says he is"

"That doesn't explain his presence here," Merchant persisted

"I told you during our last ," said Pitt "I came here to study the effects of the che into the sea from the mine"

Merchant smiled thinly "An inventive story, but far from the truth"

Pitt could not relax for aand shrewd

He had felt his way, assessing the reaction to his line of approach, but he realized it was only a ah pieces to fill in the borders of the puzzle He decided he could better control the situation by telling the truth

"The gospel you want, the gospel you'll get I'm here because the pulsed ultrasound you use to excavate far diareat distances underwater When undersea conditions are opti operations around the Pacific and kill any living organis you don't already know"

He'd caught Boudicca off balance She stared at Pitt as if he had stepped off an alien spaceship

"You're quite good at creating a scene" she said hesitantly "You should have gone into the movies"

"I've considered it," said Pitt "But I don't have James Woods' talent or Mel Gibson's looks" He discovered a bottle of Herradura silver tequila behind the bar on a glass shelf backed by a gold-tinted lass He also found a lime and a salt shaker He let Boudicca and the others stand there and watch as he dabbed his tongue on the flap of skin between his thu salt on it Then he downed the tequila, licked the salt and sucked on the lime

"There, now I feel ready to face the rest of the day As I was saying, you know ue, as it's come to be called, than I do, Ms Dorsett The sa your sisters So it would be foolish of hten you"

"I don't have the vaguest idea of what you're talking about" She turned to Merchant and Crutcher