"What's done is done," Pitt said, shrugging. "How about something cold to drink?"

"Would you like a bottle of FIX?"

Pitt's eyes narrowed sharply. "A bottle of what?"

"FIX. It's a Greek beer."

"All right, if you say so." Pitt couldn't help but grin. "I've heard of taking a fix before, but never drinking one."

"I'll be right back, sir." The boy ducked around the bulkhead and closed the door. Suddenly it jerked open again and the young boy's flaming hair reappeared. "I'm sorry, Major, I almost forgot. Colonel Lewis and Captain Giordino are waiting to see you. The colonel wanted to bust right in and wake you, but the doc wouldn't hear of it. He even threatened to throw the colonel off the ship if he tried it."

"All right, send them in," said Pitt with impatience. "Just hurry with the beer before I evaporate."

Pitt lay back on the bunk and let the sweat roll down his body onto the rumpled sheets, sopping the areas that came in contact with his skin. His mind continued to turn, ransacking every detail of the past, assembling for the present, pushing ahead and plotting future directions.

Lewis and Giordino.

They hadn't wasted any time in coming. If Giordino received an answer from NUMA headquarters, it might help to supply one of the many missing pieces to the puzzle. The four borders were forming, but the middle was a scattered conglomeration of uncertain and unknown quantities. Von Till's evil face leered from the maze, his tight-lipped grin curling in smug disdain. Pitt's mind raced on. The great white dog. He tried to force it into another piece of the puzzle, but it wouldn't fit. That's strange, he thought, the dog doesn't correspond to the piece it's supposed to. For some unfathomable reason he couldn't force the animal between von Till and Kurt Heibert.

Suddenly Lewis burst into the cabin with all the finesse of a sonic boom. His face was red and he was sweating, the tiny beads streamed down his nose and into his moustache where they were absorbed like rain in a forest. "Well now, Major, aren't you sorry you passed up my invitation for dinner?"

Pitt half smiled. "I admit there was a time or two last night when I regretted turning down your scallops." He pointed to the gauze and adhesive tape crisscrossing his chest. "But at least my other dinner engagement gave me a few memories that I can carry for a long, long time."

Giordino stepped from behind Lewis' hulking form and waved a greeting to Pitt. "See what happens every time I let you go out and carouse on your own."

Pitt could see the wide grin on Giordino's face, but he also noticed a fraternal look of concern in his friend's eyes. "Next time, Al, I'll send you in my place."

Giordino laughed. "Don't do me any favors if you're a living example of the morning after."