Pitt reclined in a leather chair and propped his feet on an ottoman. “Let’s sack the wordplay, Mr. Jarvis, and get to the point. What’s your sport?”

“Sport?”

“Your interest in me.”

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206 VIXEN 03p>

“Okay, Mr. Pitt,” said Jarvis. “Cards on the table. What is the real purpose behind NUMA’s search for a special type of heavy naval shell?” “Sure you wouldn’t like a drink?” Pitt countered. “No thanks,” Jarvis answered, appraising Pitt’s casual stall. “If you know we’re in the market, then you know why.” “Seismological tests on coral formations?” Pitt nodded.

Jarvis stretched his arms out on the sofa’s backrest. “When do you have the tests scheduled?”

“The last two weeks of March next year.”

“I see.” Jarvis gave Pitt a benign, fatherly look and then lunged for the heart. “I’ve talked to four seismologists, two from your own agency. They do not subscribe to your idea of dropping sixteen-inch naval shells from an airplane. In fact, they found it downright ludicrous. I was also informed that there are no seismographic tests scheduled by NUMA in the Pacific. In short, Mr. Pitt, your clever little dodge won’t hold water.” Pitt closed his eyes in thought. He could lie, or simply offer no comment. No, he reasoned, his alternatives had narrowed down to zero. There was virtually no hope that he and Steiger and Sandecker could negotiate a quick return of the QD warheads from the AAR. They had carried the search as far as their limited resources could take them. The time had come, he decided, to call in the professionals.

He opened his eyes and stared at Jarvis. ” If it were within my power to place in the palm of your hand a plague organism that could kill without interruption for three hundred years, what would you do with it?”

Pitt’s question caught Jarvis off guard. “I don’t know what you’re driving at.”

“The question stands,” said Pitt.

“Is it a weapon?” , ; Pitt nodded.

An uneasy feeling gripped Jarvis. “I know of no such weapon. Chemical and biological arms were effectively and unconditionally banned by every member of the United Nations ten years ago.” “Please answer the question,” Pitt said. “Turn it over to our government, I suppose.” “Are you certain that’s the correct course?”

“Good God, man, what do you want? The case is purely hypothetical.”

“Such a weapon must be destroyed,” said Pitt. His green eyes seemed to burn into the back of Jarvis’s brain.

No Return Ticket I 207

There was a short silence. Then Jarvis said, “Does one truly exist?” “It does.”

The pieces were falling into place, and for the first time in all the years he could remember, Jarvis wished he hadn’t been so damned efficient. He looked at Pitt and smiled thinly.

“I’ll have that drink now,” he said quietly. “And then I think you and I should exchange some very disturbing news.”