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“Then I will signal you,” Mustafa said “And you will kill Jinn and take over the operation as a full partner in the endeavor and the head of the Oasis consortium”

CHAPTER 15

KURT AUSTIN WAS HEADED FOR MARCHETTI’S HIGH-TECH office atop one of Aqua-Terra’s two cos In the twenty-four hours since he and Joe had caught the seaplane, preventing Matson and Otero fro, much had occurred

Back in Washington, Dirk Pitt and the NUMA brass had gone into high gear, gathering intelligence on Jinn al-Khalif

Nigel, the pilot, had finished putting the helicopter back together and, at Marchetti’s invitation, had picked up Paul and Gamay Trout

Marchetti hi the co to be sure Otero had left no additional traps for the on his automated island He insisted he couldn’t be sure that all of the he’d concentrated on the more critical ones and completely deactivated the construction robots, just in case

With a report due in fro in Marchetti’s office to await the transmission and discuss their next move

Kurt opened the door and stepped inside Joe and the Trouts were already there Marchetti sat across from them Leilani sat next to him

“That’s ayou have down there,” Kurt said to Marchetti “I’ve stayed in worse five-star hotels”

Marchetti beamed “When Aqua-Terra is ready, we expect to have millionaires and billionaires on board If I have to put some of them in jail, I don’t want to ruin the Aqua-Terra experience for them”

Kurt chuckled

“Any luck getting them to talk?” Leilani as

ked

“No, they’ve cla back to Marchetti “Don’t suppose you have a hungry python around here anywhere?”

Marchetti looked shocked by the request “Um … no Why?”