Instead, there were two stewards, or rather two wrestlers in stewards' uniforms, and the first officer. He opened the door to her booth and bowed curtly.

"Will you please come with me, Congresswoman Smith. The captain would like to talk to you."

THE PILOT SET THE HELICOPTER on the ground at a small airport on the Isle of Palms near Charleston. He went through the standard shutdown procedure, running the engine at low RPM's until it cooled down. Then he climbed out, lined up one of the rotor blades and tied it to the tail boom.

His back and arms ached from the long hours in the air, and he did stretching exercises as he walked to a small office next to the landing pad. He unlocked the door and stepped inside.

A stranger sat in the tiny lobby area casually reading a newspaper. To the pilot he looked to be either Chinese or Japanese.

The newspaper was lowered, revealing a shotgun with a pistol grip and twin sawed-off barrels that ended barely four inches in front of the shells.

"What do you want?" asked the pilot stupidly.

"Information?"

"You're in the wrong place," said the pilot, instinctively raising his hands. "We're a helicopter ambulance service, not a library."

"Very witty," said the Oriental. "You also carry passengers."

"Who told you that?"

"Paul Suvorov. One of your Russian friends."

"Never heard of the guy."

"How odd. He sat next to you in the co-pilot's seat for most of yesterday."

"What do you want?" the pilot repeated, the fear beginning to crawl up his spine.

The Oriental smiled wickedly. "You have ten seconds to tell me the precise destination where you flew Suvorov and two other men.

If at the end of that time you feel stubborn, I shall blow away one of your knees. Ten seconds later you can bid goodbye to your sex life." He enforced his request by releasing the safety on the shotgun. "Countdown begins . . . now."

Three minutes later the Oriental stepped from the building and locked the door. Then he walked to a car parked nearby, climbed behind the wheel and drove toward a sandy road leading to Charleston.

The car was barely out of sight when a torrent of orange flame gushed through the thin roof of the pilot's office and spiraled into the white overcast sky.

Pitt spent the day dodging reporters and police detectives. He hin in a quiet pub called the Devil's Fork on Rhode Island Avenue and sat in a cushiony leather seat in a quiet corner staring pensively at a half-eaten Monte Cristo sandwich and a third Manh;ittan, a drink he seldom ordered.

A pert blond waitress in a micro-skirt and mesh stockings stopped by his table. "You're the most pitiful person in the place," she said with a motherly smile. "Lose your best girl or your wife?"

"Worse," said Pitt sadly. "My car."