"Now comes the good part. Your boss, Darius, isn't a man to leave anything to chance. A less clever man would have simply tried to vanish. Not Admiral Erich Heibert. He was much too cunning. Somehow he made his way through the Allied lines to England, where the bona fide von Till was living, murdered him and took his place."

"How was it possible," Darius demanded.

"It wasn't only possible," Pitt said to Darius, "it was accomplished to the letter. They were both roughly the same size and build. A few alterations here and there by a skilled surgeon, a few gestures and speech mannerisms practiced until perfect and the man who stands before you became a dead ringer for the original Bruno von Till. Why not? There were no close friends, von Till was sort of a loner, no one knew him well. His wife had died childless. There was, however, a nephew who had been born and raised in Greece. Even he didn't catch on to the switch till years later. Then it cost him his life. Mere child's play for a professional killer like Heibert. The nephew and his wife were murdered in a faked boating accident. Teri, their young daughter, was spared. No benevolence on Heibert's part I assure you. The public image of a considerate and protective grand uncle was too good to pass by."

Pitt stole another encompassing look at the guards, the tunnel and the Japanese I-Boat. Then he turned back to von Till.

"After the switch, smuggling was merely a sideline for you, Heibert. The inventive creation of a submarine attached to the keel of a ship came natural for an old U-Boat commander. To the outside world, Heibert, alias von Till, had it made. Minerva Lines was thriving, the money was rolling in. But you were worried, things ware going too well. The more prominent you became, the better your chances of being exposed. So you moved to Thasos, rebuilt the villa and played the role of an eccentric millionaire recluse. Business as usual was no problem. A high-power shortwave radio was installed so you could operate Minerva Lines without ever setting foot on the mainland of Europe. But your perverted past was too strong. You let the company fleet run down to a fourth-rate freight hauler, and turned your talents almost entirely to smuggling—"

"Where is all this talk leading?" Darius interrupted.