There was no answering blast. The strange tug’s lights, it seemed to Swedborg, were approaching far more rapidly than he had any right to expect, far more rapidly than any tug he’d ever seen with a fleet of barges in tow. He was horrified as he watched the other vessel turn toward the Molly Bender’s altered course.

“Give the fool four short whistle blasts!” Swedborg shouted.

It was the Inland Waterway danger signal-sounded when the course of an opposing vessel or its intentions were not understood. Two of Swedborg’s crew, roused from sleep by the whistle shrieks, groggily entered the wheelhouse, instantly snapped to sudden astonishment by the nearness of the strange vessel’s running lights. Clearly, she wasn’t acting like a tug in tow.

In the few remaining seconds Swedborg snatched a bullhorn and shouted into the night. “Ahoy! Turn hard aport!”

He might as well have shouted at a ghost. No voice replied; no return whistle blast came through the icy dark. The lights bore down relentlessly upon the helpless Molly Bender.

Realizing collision was inevitable, Swedborg braced himself by clutching the lower frame of the window. Fighting to the last, Donegal frantically reversed engines and twisted the wheel back to starboard.

The last thing any of them saw was a monstrous gray bow looming through the sleet high above the wheelhouse, a massive steel wedge bearing the numeral 61.

Then the little fishing trawler was crushed to pieces and swallowed by the icy water of the river.

Pitt stopped the car in front of the White House gate. Jarvis was halfway out when he turned and looked back at Pitt. “Thank you for your assistance,” he said sincerely.

“What now?” asked Pitt.

“I have the distasteful duty of booting the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of their beds,” Jarvis said with a tired smile.

“What can I do to help?”

The Iowa 221p>

“Nothing. You’ve done more than your share. It’s up to the Defense Department to carry the ball from here.”

“The Quick Death warheads,” said Pitt. “Do I have your assurance Jthey will be destroyed when the ship is located and taken into custody?”

“I can only try. Beyond that, I promise nothing.”

“That’s not good enough,” said Pitt.

Jarvis was too tired to argue. He shrugged listlessly, as though he no longer gave a damn. “Sorry, but that’s the way it is.” Then he slammed the door, showed his pass to the guard at the gate, and was gone.

Pitt turned the car around and swung onto Vermont Avenue. A couple of miles on he spotted an all-night coffee shop and slipped into a parking stall. After ordering a cup of coffee from a yawning waitress, he found the pay phone and made two calls. Then he downed the coffee, paid, and left.

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