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" 'Flown into oblivion' That's very poetic" There was no concealing the cynicism in Pitt's voice

Steiger ignored the tone and sipped at his coffee "To an air-safety investigator, every unsolved crash is a thorn in the flesh

We're like doctors who occasionally lose a patient on the operating table The ones that get away keep us awake nights"

"And 03?" asked Pitt evenly "Does that one keep you awake?"

"You're asking me about an accident that occurred when I was four years old I can't relate to it As far as I'm concerned, Mr Pitt, and as far as the Air Force is concerned, the disappearance of 03 is a closed book She's lying on the bottoedy lies with her"

Pitt looked at Steiger for a , Colonel Steiger, dead wrong There is an answer and it's not three thousand miles from here"

After breakfast Pitt and Steiger went their separate ways-Pitt to probe a deep ravine that had been too narrow for the helicopter to enter, Steiger to find a streaold The weather was crisp A few soft clouds hovered over the mountaintops and the temperature stood in the low sixties

It was past noon when Pitt climbed out of the ravine and headed back toward the cabin He took a faintly h the trees and ca the waterline he met a stream that emptied out of the lake, and he followed it until he ran into Steiger

The colonel was contentedly sitting on a flat rock in the e metal pan around in the water

"Any luck?" Pitt yelled

Steiger turned around, waved, and began wading toward the bank "I won't beany deposits at Fort Knox I'll be lucky if I can scrounge half a graave Pitt a friendly but skeptical look "How about you? Find what you were looking for?"

"A wasted trip," Pitt replied "But an invigorating hike"

Steiger offered hiarette Pitt declined

"You know," Steiger said, lighting up, "you're a classic study of a stubborn man"

"So I've been told," Pitt said, and laughed