"Lucky for you," said Gunn, "Admiral Sandecker was handed a priority project by the President. As much as he disliked cutting off your rest and recuperation, he ordered Giordino and me to meet in Seattle. We both arrived last night, then borrowed a helicopter at the NUMA marine-science center at Bremerton to come pick you up. After you called the admiral this morning and told him what you'd discovered and that you were making a run for it down the river, Al and I took off and dashed across the Olympic Peninsula in forty minutes flat."

"That Machiavellian old sea dog sent you thousands of miles just to put me back to work?" Pitt asked in mild amazement.

Gunn smiled. "He told me that he was reasonably certain that if he'd called himself, you'd have uttered unrepeatable words over the phone."

"That old man knows me pretty well," Pitt admitted.

"You've had a rough time," said Gunn sympathetically. "Perhaps I can talk him into letting you lay low for a few days longer."

"Not a bad idea," Giordino added candidly. "You look like the rat the cat dragged in."

"Some vacation," Pitt said finally. "I hope I never have another like it. I'd like to think of it as being over."

Gunn motioned toward the edge of the dock. "The helicopter isn't far. Think you can make it okay?"

"There are a few things I'd like to take care of before you rush me off," Pitt said, giving both men a cold eye. "First, I'd like to get Sam Foley's Chris-Craft to the nearest boat yard for repairs and an engine overhaul. Second, it might be nice if we found a doctor who wouldn't ask a lot of questions while he attends to a gunshot wound in my hip. And third, I'm starved. I'm not going anywhere until I've been fed breakfast."

"You're wounded?" both men said in unison.

"Hardly a life-threatening puncture, but I'm not keen to get gangrene."

The show of obstinacy was tremendously effective. Giordino nodded at Gunn. "You find Dirk a doctor, I'll take care of the boat. Then we'll check out the nearest restaurant. This looks like a good town for boiled crab."

"There is one more thing," said Pitt.

The two men stared at him expectantly.

"What's this urgent project I have to drop everything for?"

"It involves an underwater investigation of a strange shipping port near Morgan City, Louisiana," answered Gunn.

"What's so strange about a shipping port?"

"Its location in a swamp, for one thing. That, and the fact the developer is the head of a large-scale international alien-smuggling empire."

"Heaven help me," Pitt said piously, throwing up his hands.

"Say it isn't true."

"You have a problem?" Giordino asked.

"I've been up to my ears in illegal immigrants for the past twelve hours—that's the problem."

"It's truly amazing how you can gather on-the-job experience with such ease."