Pitt looked at the man for a long moment. The contrast between the neatly pressed white suit and the dark ugly face presented an impressive picture. About two inches above Pitt's own height, the man looked like a chiseled stone colossus, and just as solid. He had the largest set of shoulders Pitt had ever seen, and must have weighted at least 260 pounds. The face was misproportioned and strikingly repulsive, and yet there was a strange sort of beauty about it; the kind that artists sought to capture on canvas. Pitt wasn't fooled. He could read a man who had an indifferent attitude toward killing. His paths had crossed many times with lovable looking brutes who murdered as if it were a run-of-the-mill, everyday routine.

The guide stepped back and walked around to the front of the car. He nodded at the other man.

"We have guests, Darius. Three little goats who have lost their way. We will take them to Inspector Zacynthus. They can stage their little act for him." He turned to Pitt. "You will enjoy the Inspector's company; he is an excellent listener."

Darius soberly gestured at the back seat. "You two in here, the girl rides in front." His voice was what one would have expected, deep and rasping.

Pitt relaxed against the seat and ran through a dozen different plans for escape, each with less chance of success than the previous one. The guide had them by the testicles as long as Teri was present. Without her, he thought, he and Giordino stood tossup odds of overpowering the guide and grabbing the gun. There was also the possibility that if they made an attempt the guide wouldn't have the courage to shoot a woman, but Pitt wasn't about to risk Teri's life to find out. The guide bowed with obviously forced courtesy.

"Be a gentleman, Darius, and offer the lovely young lady your coat. Her…ah…prominent attractions might prove embarrassing and somewhat distracting as we drive."

"Don't bother," Teri said contemptuously. "I'll not wear that bloody ape's coat. I have nothing I want to hide. Besides, it'll give me great pleasure to see a greasy worm like you squirm."

The guide's eyes grew cold, then he smiled thinly and shrugged. "As you wish."

Teri lifted her negligee tightly around her thighs and climbed into the car. The guide followed, sandwiching her between him and the hulking Darius who hunched over the steering wheel. Then the Mercedes' diesel engine knocked into life and the car started rolling over the narrow, twisting road; on many stretches edged by deep and marsh covered ditches. The guide's flickering eyes bounced from Pitt to Giordino and back again, never once twitching the automatic glued to Teri's right ear. His determined vigilance and unflagging concentration was, it seemed to Pitt, unduly fanatical.

Pitt, warily watching for any negative sign from the guide, very slowly extracted a cigarette from his breast pocket and just as slowly lit it.