"Come now," Pitt said slowly. "Killing me now wouldn't be sporting. My eleven minutes aren't up yet." Actually to Pitt, it seemed he had been talking for hours.

Von Till stood silent for several seconds and toyed with his cigarette. Then he said: "There is one point that intrigues me, Major. Why did you kidnap my niece?"

Pitt's lips tightened to a sly grin. "To begin with, she's not your niece."

Darius' face went blank. "You—you could not have known."

"I knew," said Pitt evenly. "Unlike you, von Till, I didn't have the benefit of an informer, but I knew. All in all, Zacynthus gave it a good try, but his plan was headed for failure right from the start. He hid the genuine niece away in a safe place in England and found another girl who resembled her. They hardly had to be exact doubles since you hadn't laid eyes on the real Teri in over twenty years. Zacynthus also carefully planned his Mata Hari's cross-country vacation to look like nothing more than an innocent surprise holiday visit by a loving relative."

Darius stared at von Till, his massive jaw seeming to grind Pitt's revelation to pieces. Von Till's expression didn't change. He just slowly nodded in apparent understanding.

"Too bad," Pitt said, "it was all for nothing. You weren't the least bit surprised. Darius had seen to that. At that point, you had two choices: you could either expose the girl as an impostor and throw her out, or you could play along and feed her false information. Quite naturally your devious mind chose the latter. You were in your element. You felt like a puppeteer pulling strings. You could now play the girl and Darius on the ends against Zacynthus and Zeno in the middle."

"An irresistable situation," said von Till. "Do you agree?"

"You couldn't miss," Pitt went on calmly. "From the time of her arrival until Giordino and I grabbed her from the villa, the girl's every move was closely watched by your chauffeur. Under the guise of a sort of bodyguard, Willie stuck with her like a leech. It must have been entertaining work, especially when she sunbathed on the beach. At that, her passion for early morning swimming was nothing but a means of making contact with Zacynthus. It was the only opportunity you gave her to pass him information, all of it worthless. How you must have laughed, knowing she was swallowing every bit of crap you fed her. Then something happened and Zacynthus began to get wise. Arriving late for their rendezvous one morning, he probably spotted Willie lurking in the bushes, both eyes unerringly focused on the girl in her bikini. Zacynthus couldn't help wondering if Willie had been there observing all the other predawn meetings. Suddenly he saw his well-conceived plan going down the drain. It looked as though you had outsmarted him again."

"We could have regained the advantage," Darius sputtered in pure rage, "except for you."