Page 182 (2/2)

Sandecker offered to drive Loren to her townhouse, and she gladly accepted, having arrived at Pitt's welcome-home party in a cab They sat in reflective silence until the car passed over the bridge into the city

"I've never seen Dirk so dispirited," said Loren, her face sad and thoughtful "I never thought I'd ever live to say it, but the fire has gone out of his eyes"

"He'll mend," Sandecker assured her "A couple of weeks of rest, and he'll be chaain"

"Don't you think he's getting a little old to play the daring adventurer?"

"I can't think of hi the seas, doing what he loves to do"

"What drives him?" Loren wondered aloud

"Some men are born restless," Sandecker said philosophically "To Dirk, every hour has a e to conquer"

Loren looked at the admiral "You envy him, don't you?"

Sandecker nodded "Of course, and so do you"

"Why is that, do you think?"

"The answer is simple," Sandecker said wisely "There's a little of Dirk Pitt in all of us"

After everyone had left and Pitt was standing alone in the hangar amid his collection of mechanical possessions, each of which had in some way touched his past, he walked stiffly to the boat he and Maeve and Giordino had built on the Misery rocks and cli time, silently lost in his memories

He was still sitting there in the Marvelous Maeve when the first rays of the ar he called home