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Pitt and Giordino gave up trying to get a rise out of the agent and sat quietly for the rest of the trip McGonigle stopped at a heavy iron gate A guard in the unifornized the driver, stepped into his guardhouse and pressed a switch The gate swung open and the car rolled down a ramp into a tunnel Pitt was faton that led into s around the Capitol For his forays around the city nightspots

After what Pitt estile stopped the car in front of an elevator, got out and opened the rear door

"Okay, gentlemen, we've arrived"

"He talked," Giordino said, looking around the tunnel "But how? I don't see his ventriloquist"

"You guys will never get hired at the Co to be drawn in He stood aside as the doors opened "I'll await your return with bated breath"

"I don't knohy, but I like you," Giordino said, slapping the agent on the back as he stepped into the elevator He failed to see the response as the door closed before the agent could react

The elevator did not go up, but descended for what seemed a quarter of a mile before it slowed and the doors noiselessly slid open Here they found an ar in dress uniform beside a steel door He carefully checked Pitt and Giordino, coraphs Satisfied, he pressed a code on the side of the door and stood aside as it swung open He

They found theh technical communications equipment to support a major war rooraphs covered three walls Sandecker rose froreeted them

"Well, you two have really opened a Pandora's box this time"

"I hope the results of our investigation proved useful," said Pitt modestly

"Useful is a ray-haired man in a black pin-striped suit with a red tie approached "I believe you know the president's security advisor, Max Seymour"

Pitt shook the outstretched hand "I've met him on occasion at my father's Saturday-afternoon barbecues"

"Senator Pitt and I go back a long way," said Seymour warmly "How is your lovely mother?"

"Except for arthritis, she's doing fine," replied Pitt

Sandecker quicklyaround one end of the long table Jack Martin, White House science advisor; Jim Hecht, assistant director of the CIA; and General Arnold Stack, whose exact job at the Pentagon was never fully revealed They all sat down as Sandecker asked Pitt to report on what he and Giordino found in the tunnels and at the Odyssey development center on Isle de Ometepe