Pitt pulled the door aside and dashed across the balcony, blinking in the harsh sunlight, and hurried up the stairway. Giordino, he knew, was right on his heels. The doorway to the study was open, the drapes blowing inward in billowing folds from an offshore westerly breeze. He flattened against the wall, listening for voices. The seconds passed, ticking off to half a minute. The study was quiet. Nobody home, he thought, or if they are they're an awfully dead group. Pitt took a deep breath, turned quickly and stepped inside the room.

The study seemed quite empty. It was exactly as Pitt remembered it; the columns, classic furniture, the bar. His eyes sped around the room, stopping at the shelf containing the model submarine. He walked over and closely examined the workmanship on the miniature craft. The carved black mahogany that made up the hull and conning tower gleamed with a satin-like sheen. Every detail from the rivets to a tiny embroidered Imperial German battle flag looked fantastically real, so much so that at any second Pitt half expected to see a diminutive crew leap out of a hatch and man the deck gun. The neatly painted numbers on the side of the conning tower identified it as the U-19, a close sister of the U-boat that torpedoed the Lusitania.

Pitt whirled sharply from the model as Giordino's fingers dug deeply in his arm, as Giordino's head leaned closely to his own.

"I thought I heard something." The voice was a mere breath.

"Where?" Pitt asked in a whisper.

"I'm not sure, I couldn't get a good fix on it." Giordino cocked his head, listening. Then he shrugged. "Just imagining things I guess."

Pitt turned back to the model submarine. "Do you recall the number of the World War I sub that was sunk near here?"

Giordino hesitated. "Yeah…It was the U-19. Why ask now?"

"I'll explain later. Come on, Al, let's get the hell out of here."

"We just got here," Giordino complained, raising his voice to a murmur.

Pitt tapped the model. "We've found what we came for…"

He froze into sudden immobility, listening, his hand motioning a silence signal to Giordino.

"We've got company," he said under his breath. "Split up and circle around the far end of the room to that second column. I'll go along the windows."

Giordino nodded. He hadn't even raised an eyebrow.

A minute later their stealthy paths met, joining behind a long high-backed sofa. Both men approached it cautiously and peered over the backrest.

Without moving, without uttering a word, Pitt stood rooted to the carpet. He stood there, it seemed to Giordino, for an eternity, his mind absorbing the shock of seeing Teri peacefully asleep on the sofa. But it was no eternity, it was probably only five seconds before Pitt acted.