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As twin brother and sister, Dirk and Summer were very close, yet, unlike identical twins, they went their separate hen not on the job Su career diplorandfather, the senator, had introduced her Dirk prettyany close attachirls as different in looks as they were in personality and taste Though cut from the same cloth as his father, Dirk didn't share all the same interests True, they both loved old cars and aircraft and had a passion for the sea, but there any similarity ended Dirk liked to race motorcycles cross-country and enter in powerboat races He was driven to compete on his own skills On the other hand, his father was rarely co to take part in sports that called for a tea Dirk entered individual competition in track-and-field events at the University of Hawaii, Dirk the elder played football, beco a star quarterback at the Air Force Academy

Finally, after exhausting all conversation on Odysseus and his voyage, they decided it was time to turn in Summer went below and slept in one of the berths while Dirk elected to sleep up on deck on the cushions in the cockpit under the open sky

At four in the ht rain came that blotted out the stars One could have walked off the deck into the water and never known it until he felt the splash Dirk pulled an oilcloth over him and contentedly returned to dreamland

He did not coine, because there was no boat and no engine They ca around toht There were four of theentle touch of feet on the boarding ladder that he had neglected to pull up Without realizing it, he made it easy for theht by intruders react in different ways Dirk had no time to react Unlike his father, he had yet to learn not to trust in luck or fate and always to follow the old Boy Scout ers were on Dear Heart, the oilcloth was pulled up around his head, and a club or a baseball bat or a truncheon, he never knew, came down on the back of his head and sent hi into a deep black pit that never seemed to end

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The preparations to evacuate Isle de Ometepe came down to the wire It took four days for Secretary of State George Hauan president Raul Ortiz that the American intentions were purely humanitarian He promised that once the evacuation was completed, all American forces would leave the country Jack Martin and Aduan scientists who, once briefed on the loo disaster, lent their full support to the operation

As expected, local government officials ere in Specter's pockets because of bribes, fought the intrusion Those close to the Red Chinese also had their ht But as Martin proposed at the conference, he and Sandecker put the fear of God into the leaders of the country by describing the potential catastrophe and the estimated number of dead within a mile of the lake All opposition was quickly drowned in a river of panic

Working closely with General Juan Morega, chief of the Nicaraguan armed forces, General Stack had all elements of his special rescue force in place Once periven, he moved quickly All boats around the lake were coes that had no major roads available by which to flee Trucks and US Arround At the sa force was assembled to assault the Odyssey facility

No one doubted that Odyssey security would put up a fight to keep their covert project and scientists ere held in illegal captivity an ongoing secret There was also the fear that Specter would murder and dispose of the scientists' bodies so no trace was left of their existence General Stack was sympathetic, but the possibility of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars lost in shattered econoave orders that the facility and its workers be evacuated as swiftly as possible, including the scientists if they were still on the island

He put Pitt under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte Nash, called Bony by those close to him A member of a Marine recon team, Nash welcomed Pitt and Giordino at the helicopter evacuation team's tee on the western shore Blond hair cropped short, a body tight fro hours of exercise, he had a round, soft face with friendly blue eyes that betrayed the toughness that lurked beneath

"Real good to meet you, Mr Pitt, Mr Giordino I was briefed on your qualifications as members of NUMA Quite i where the scientists are kept prisoner"

"We can," Pitt assured him

"But as I understand it, you were only there once"

"If we found it at night," said Giordino testily, "we can find it in broad daylight"

Nash laid out a large satellite photo of the facility on a small table "I have five CH-forty-seven Chinook helicopters, each carrying thirty men My plan is to land one at the air ter you described as the security headquarters and a fourth in a park area between a roarehouses