As if to affirm his statement, the thump of rotors and roar of engine exhaust sounded throughout the cabin as a helicopter flew over the yacht.

"The man said he was going to reconnoiter us," said Pitt. "What say we go out and wave to them?"

A red-and-yellow-painted helicopter, with its registration number and ownership lettering on its fuselage hidden under duct tape, hovered no more than a hundred feet in the air and slightly off the stern of the Periwinkle. Two men wearing flowered shirts peered down at the yacht.

Pitt lay sprawled on a couch on the lounge deck while Giordino stood partially under the deck overhang videotaping the aircraft with the camera hidden under his shirt and armpit. Misty and Cussler stood beside the Jacuzzi and waved to the men above. Pitt held up a glass and motioned for the pilots to join them. Seeing a woman and an older man with gray hair and beard must have dismissed their suspicions. The pilot of the helicopter waved back and Banked the aircraft around the yacht and headed back to Raoul Island, satisfied that the tourists were no menace.

As soon as the craft was a speck in the blue sky, they all headed back into the saloon. Giordino pulled a videotape from the camera under his shirt and slid it into the VCR. The zoom focus clearly showed a sandy-haired man with a grizzled beard at the controls and a black man flying as copilot.

"Now we have faces to go with the plot," mused Giordino.

Cussler clicked off the remote. "What happens now?"

"As soon as it's dark, we build a small raft and attach lights on it so it looks like a boat lit up from a distance. Then we sail back under cover of the cliffs near the channel just out of sight of the guard above the cliffs. The boat won't be detected because the video shows no indication of radar equipment. Then Al and I will go in the water and take a swim up the channel to the lagoon, a little fishing expedition to have a look around. If we're right, and the Deep Encounter is hidden under camouflage netting, we sneak aboard, overpower the hijackers, free our friends and sail off into the blue."

"That's the plan?" asked Giordino, his eyes squinting as if seeing a mirage in the desert.

"That's the plan," Pitt echoed.

Misty looked dumbstruck. "You can't be serious? The two of you going up against fifty or more armed hijackers? That's the craziest scheme I've ever heard."

Pitt shrugged. "I admit I may have oversimplified things just a shade. But I really don't see any other way of handling the job."

"We could call up the Aussies and have them send a special force," suggested Cussler. "They can be here in twenty-four hours."

"We may not have the time," said Pitt. "If the hijackers haven't sunk the Deep Encounter and everybody on it by now, chances are they'll do it tonight after dark. Twenty-four hours from now may be too late."