Read Online Raise the Titanic! by Clive Cussler - Free Book Online Page B

island.”
    Donner and Seagram looked at each other thunderstruck. Donner was the first to recover. “Killed a Soviet patrol guard!” It was more statement than question. “My God, that tears it!”
    â€œBut that’s impossible!” Seagram finally managed to blurt. “When you rendezvoused with the NUMA ship, you were alone.”
    â€œWho told you that?”
    â€œWell…no one. We naturally assumed—”
    â€œI’m not Superman,” Koplin said sarcastically. “The patrol guard picked up my trail, closed to within two hundred yards, and shot me twice. I was hardly in any condition to outrun a dog and then sail a sloop over fifty miles of open sea.”
    â€œWhere did this Dirk Pitt come from?”
    â€œI haven’t the vaguest idea. The guard was literally dragging me off to his security post commander when Pitt appeared through the blizzard, like some vengeful Norse god, and calmly, as if he did it every day before breakfast, shot the dog and then the guard without so much as a how-do-you-do.”
    â€œThe Russians will make propaganda hay with this.” Donner groaned.
    â€œHow?” Koplin demanded. “There were no witnesses. The guard and his dog are probably buried under five feet of snow by now: they may never be found. And if they are, so what? Who’s to prove anything? You two are pushing the panic button over nothing.”
    â€œIt was a hell of a risk on that character’s part,” Seagram said.
    â€œGood thing he took it,” Koplin muttered. “Or instead of me lying here safe and snug in my sterile hospital bed, I’d be lying in a sterile Russian prison spilling my guts about Meta Section and byzanium.”
    â€œYou have a valid point,” Donner admitted.
    â€œDescribe him,” Seagram ordered. “Face, build, clothing, everything you can remember.”
    Koplin did so. His description was sketchy in some areas, but in others his recollection of detail was remarkably accurate.
    â€œDid you talk with him during the trip to the NUMA ship?”
    â€œCouldn’t. I blacked out right after he picked me up and didn’t come to until I found myself here in Washington in the hospital.”
    Donner gestured to Seagram. “We’d better get a make on this guy, quick.”
    Seagram nodded. “I’ll start with Admiral Sandecker. Pitt must have been connected with the research vessel. Perhaps someone in NUMA can identify him.”
    â€œI can’t help wondering how much he knows,” Donner said staring at the floor.
    Seagram didn’t answer. His mind had strayed to a shadowy figure on a snow-covered island in the Arctic. Dirk Pitt. He repeated the name in his mind. Somehow it seemed strangely familiar.

10
    The telephone rang at 12:10 A.M . Sandecker popped open one eye and stared at it murderously for several moments. Finally, he gave in and answered it on the eighth ring.
    â€œYes, what is it?” he demanded.
    â€œGene Seagram here, Admiral. Did I catch you in bed?”
    â€œOh, hell no.” Sandecker yawned. “I never retire before I write five chapters on my autobiography, rob at least two liquor stores, and rape a cabinet member’s wife. Okay, what are you after, Seagram?”
    â€œSomething has come up.”
    â€œForget it. I’m not endangering any more of my men and ships to bail your agents out of enemy territory.” He used the word enemy as though the country were at war.
    â€œIt’s not that at all.”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œI need a line on someone.”
    â€œWhy come to me in the dead of night?”
    â€œI think you might know him.”
    â€œWhat’s the name?”
    â€œPitt. Dirk. The last name is Pitt, probably spelled P-i-t-t.”
    â€œJust to humor an old man’s curiosity, what makes you think I know him?”
    â€œI have no proof, but I’m certain he has a connection with