"My name is Dirk Pitt.  I'm part of a rescue team from the United States

ship Polar Explorer."

"Can you prove it?"

"Sorry, I left my driver's license at home." 'This was bordering on the

ridiculous.  He tried another tack and leaned against the door frame and

casually crossed his arms.  "Please rest easy," he said soothingly.  "I

want to help, not harm you."

The flight attendant seemed to relax for an instant, her eyes softened

and the edges of her lips lifted in a timid smile.  Then abruptly the

fear returned and she sobbed hysterically.

"They're all dead, murdered!"

"Yes, I know," said Pitt gently.  He held out his hand.  "Let me take

you where it's warm and the ship's doctor can tend your injuries."

Pitts face was shadowed by the floodlights irt the forward part of the

cabin, and the stronger woman of the two could not read his eyes.  "You

might be one of the terrorists who caused all this," she said in a

controlled tone.  "Why should we trust you?"

"Because you'll freeze to death if you don't,"

Pitt tired of the word games.  He stepped forward, carefully lifted the

flight attendant in his arms and eased her out into the aisle.  She

offered him no resistance, but her body was stiff with apprehension.

"Just relax," he said.  "Pretend you're Scarlett O'Hara and I'm Rhett

Butler come to sweep you off your feet."

"I don't feel much like Scarlett.  I must look a mess."

"Not  to  me,"  Pitt  grinned.  "How  about  dinner some night?"

"Can my husband come along?"

"Only if he picks up the check."

She gave in then and he felt her body sag in exhausted relief.  Slowly

her arms circled his neck and she buried her head in his shoulder.  He

paused and turned to the other woman.  The warmth of his smile was

revealed and his eyes glinted in the light.  "Hang tight.  I'll be right

back for you."

for the first time Hala knew she was safe.  Only then did the dam

holding back the nightmare of fright, the stunning disbelief that any of

this was happening to her, flood over the gates.

The suppressed emotions ran free, and she wept, Rubin knew he was

slipping away.  The cold and the pain had ceased to exist.  The strange

voices, the sudden display of light, formed no meaning for him.  He felt

detached, To his confused mind they were like obscure recollections from

a distant place, a former time.

Suddenly a white brilliance filled the shattered cockpit.  He wondered

if this was the light at the end of the tunnel people who had died and

returned claimed to have experienced.

A disembodied voice nearby said, "Take it easy, take it easy."

Rubin tried to focus his eyes on a vague figure hovering over him.  "Are

you God?"

Simon's face went blank for a brief moment.  Then he smiled

compassionately.  "Only a mere mortal who happened to be in the

neighborhood."