Lee Tong grunted. "Why not? Any American search force will be told we were picked up and are under lock and key by the finest English accent money can buy. Before the research ship docks in New Orleans, you, I and our crew will be long gone."

Pujon pointed. "The Port Eads light coming up. We'll be in open water soon."

Lee Tong nodded in grim satisfaction. "If they couldn't stop us by now, they're too late, far too late."

General Metcalf, laying his long and distinguished career on the line, ignored Moran's threats and ordered a military alert throughout the Gulf Coast states. At Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field in Florida, tactical fighter wings and special operations gunships scrambled and thundered west while attack squadrons rose from Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas and swept toward the east.

He and Sandecker raced by car to the Pentagon to direct the rescue operation from the war room. Once the vast machine was set into motion, they could do little but listen to reports and stare at an enormous satellite photomap thrown on the screen by a rear projector.

Metcalf failed to conceal his apprehension. He stood uneasily rubbing his palms together, peering at the lights on the map indicating the progress of the air strike as the planes converged on a circle lit in red.

"How soon before the first planes arrive?" asked Sandecker.

"Ten, no more than twelve minutes."

"Surface craft?"

"Not less than an hour," replied Metcalf bitterly. "We were caught short. No naval craft are in the immediate area except a nuclear sub sixty miles out in the gulf."

"Coast Guard?"

"There's an armed rescue-response cutter off Grand Island. it might make it in time."

Sandecker studied the photomap. "Doubtful. it's thirty miles away."

Metcalf wiped his hands with a handkerchief. "The situation looks grim," he said. "Except for scare tactics the air mission is useless.

We can't send in planes to strike the towboat without endangering the barge. One is practically on top of the other."

"Bougainville would quickly scuttle the barge in any case."

"If only we had a surface craft in the area. At least we might attempt a boarding."

"And rescue Smith and Margolin alive."

Metcalf sank into a chair. "We might pull it off yet. A Navy special warfare SEAL attachment is due to arrive by helicopter in a few minutes."

"After what happened to those FBI agents, they could be going to a slaughter."

"Our last hope," Metcalf said helplessly. "If they can't save them, nobody can."

The first aircraft to arrive on the scene was not a screaming jet fighter but a Navy four-engined reconnaissance plane that had been diverted from weather patrol. The pilot, a boyish-faced man in his middle twenties, tapped his co-pilot on the arm and pointed down to his left.

"A towboat pushing one barge. She must be what all the fuss is about."