The Mediterranean Caper Read Online Free PDF Page B

its crest slid smoothly across the packed sand and licked his feet. The dying wave hesitated for a moment and then fell back, forming the trough for the next crest. There was barely a breath of wind, and the glistening sea was relatively calm. The moon cast its glow on the dark water and left a shaft of silver that traveled over the surface to the horizon where the sea and sky melted together into absolute blackness. Pitt soaked up the warm stillness and moved into the water, swimming along the silver shaft.
    An inner feeling always overcame Pitt when he was alone and near the sea. It was as though his soul seeped out of his body, and he became a thing without substance, without form. His mind was purified and cleansed: all mental labor ceased and all thoughts vanished. He was only vaguely aware of hot and cold, smells, touch and all the other senses, except hearing. He listened to the nothingness of silence; the greatest, but most unknown, treasure of man. Forgotten for the moment were all his failures, all his victories and all his loves, even life itself was buried and lost in the stillness.
    He lay dead and floated in the water for nearly an hour. Finally, a small swell slapped at his face and he unwittingly inhaled a few drops of salt water. He snorted, dispelling the discomfort, and again became aware of his bodily sensations. Without watching his progress, he effortlessly backstroked toward the shore. When his hands arched and touched the dense sand, he stopped swimming and drifted onto the beach like a piece of flotsam. Then he dragged himself forward until he was only half out of the water, letting it swirl around his legs and buttocks. The warm Aegean surf rose out of the dim light and flooded up the beach, caressing his skin, and he dozed off.

    The stars were beginning to blink out one by one with the pale light of the approaching dawn when an inner alarm sounded in Pitt’s brain, and he suddenly became alert to a presence. Instantly he was awake, but he made no movement, other than peering through half open eyes. He barely could make out a shadowy form standing over him. Focusing and straining his eyes in the faint light, he tried to distinguish a detailed shape. Slowly, an outline materialized. It was a woman.
    â€œGood morning,” he said and sat up.
    â€œOh my God,” the woman gasped. She threw a hand to her mouth as if to scream.
    It was still too dark to see the wild look in her eyes, but Pitt knew it was there. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    The hand slowly dropped. She just stood there looking down at him. Finally she found her voice. “I…I thought you were dead.” She stammered the words softly.
    â€œI can hardly blame you. I suppose if I stumbled on someone sleeping in the tide at this time of morning, I would think the same thing.”
    â€œYou gave me quite a frightful shock, you know, sitting up and talking like that.”
    â€œAgain, my sincere apologies.” It suddenly occurred to Pitt that the woman was speaking English. Her accent was decidedly British, but it had a trace of German. He rose to his feet. “Please allow me to introduce myself; my name is Dirk Pitt.”
    â€œI’m Teri,” she said, “and I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you alive and healthy, Mister Pitt.” She didn’t offer her last name, and Pitt didn’t press for it.
    â€œBelieve me, Teri, the pleasure is all mine.” He pointed to the sand. “Won’t you join me and help raise the sun?”
    She laughed. “Thank you, I’d like that. But then again, I can hardly see you. For all I know you might be a monster or something.” There was a note of whimsy in her tone. “Can I trust you?”
    â€œTo be perfectly honest, no. I think it only fair to warn you that I’ve assaulted over two hundred innocent virgins right here on this very spot.” Pitt’s