Giordino smiled at the admiral. "Care to make a wager?"

"Name it."

"A bottle of Chivas Regal against a box of your cigars Dirk's right."

"No bet," said Sandecker. "My specially rolled cigars cost far more than a bottle of scotch."

Yaeger could be heard clearing his throat. "Here it is." There was a slight pause. "Sorry, not enough data. Those figures are a rough match for any one of a hundred different craft."

Pitt thought a moment. "Suppose the height was the same from bow to stern."

"You talking a flat superstructure?"

"Yes."

"Hold on," said Yaeger. "Okay, you've lowered the numbers.

Your mystery vessel looks like a barge."

"Eureka," exclaimed Giordino.

"Don't cash in your coupons yet," Yaeger cautioned. "The dimensions don't fit any known barge in existence."

"Damni" Sandecker blurted. "So near, yet-"

"Wait," Pitt cut in.

"Suvorov gave us interior measurements." He leaned over the speaker phone. "Yaeger, and two feet all around and run it through again."

"You're getting warmer," Yaeger's voice rasped over the speaker.

"Try this on for size-no pun intended-one hundred and ninety-five by thirty-five by twelve feet."

"Beam and height correspond," said Pitt, "but your length is way off."

"You gave me interior length between perpendicular bulkheads.

I'm giving you overall length including a raked bow of twenty-five feet."

"He's right," said Sandecker. "We didn't allow for the scoop of the forward end."

Yaeger continued. "What we've got is a dry cargo barge, steel construction, two hundred and eighty to three hundred tons-selfenclosed compartments for carrying grain, lumber and so forth.

Probably manufactured by the Nashville bridge Company, Nashville, Tennessee."

"The draft?" Pitt pushed.

"Empty or loaded?"

"Empty."

"Eighteen inches."

"Thanks, pal. You've done it again."

"Done what?"

"Go back to sleep."

Pitt switched off the speaker and turned to Sandecker. "The smoke clears."

Sandecker fairly beamed. "Clever, clever people, the Bougainvilles."

Pitt nodded. "I have to agree. The last place anyone would look for an expensively equipped laboratory is inside a rusty old river barge moored in a swamp."

"She also has the advantage of being movable," said Sandecker.

The admiral referred to any vessel, scow or aircraft carrier in the feminine gender. "A tug can transport and dock her anywhere the water depth is over a foot and a half."

Pitt stared at the aerial photo pensively. "The next test is to determine where the Bougainvilles hin it again."

"The creek where she was tied leads into the Stono River," Sandecker noted.

"And the Stono River is part of the Intracoastal Waterway," Pitt added. "They can slip it into any one of ten thousand rivers, streams, bays and sounds from Boston to Key West."

"No way of second-guessing the destination," Giordino murmured dejectedly.

"They won't keep it in South Carolina waters," Pitt said. "Too obvious. The catch, as I see it, boils down to north or south, and a distance of six, maybe eight hundred miles."