"I can't believe we pulled it off," said Giordino, as they commandeered a cart and sped off toward the dock where the Ulrich Wolf was moored.

"Luckily, they were all too focused on apprehending the evil intruders to take a good look at our faces and recognize us as strangers."

"My security uniform is too long and too tight. How about yours?"

"Too short and too loose, but we don't have time to stop off at a tailor," Pitt muttered, as he steered the cart back toward the first dock while dodging around a soaring crane that was moving ponderously over its rail track. He kept his foot flat on the pedal, but the cart had a top speed of only about twelve miles an hour and the pace seemed agonizingly slow.

They traveled alongside the stupendous floating city, avoiding the busy loading activities. The dock was packed with a milling horde of workers, many moving about in electric carts, others on bicycles, with quite a few darting in and around all obstacles on Rollerblades. Pitt had to frequently ram his foot onto the brake to keep from colliding with workers who moved carelessly into his path, absorbed in their jobs. Huge forklifts also ignored their approach and crossed in front of them to deliver their loads, moving up ramps and into the cavernous cargo holds. There were any number of raised fists and angry shouts as Pitt careened around all obstacles, humans or solid objects.

If it wasn't for the black security uniforms, stolen off the guards in the elevator, they would have surely been stopped and threatened with a beating for such reckless driving. Seeing an opportunity to board the ship without climbing long gangways, Pitt cramped the steering wheel and sent the cart into a hard right turn up a ramp empty of loading vehicles, across the main deck, and then down another ramp into the bowels of the floating city, to where the cargo was stored and all ship maintenance was performed. Inside a yawning cargo depot, with huge pa.s.sageways leading in all directions through the lower warehouse bays of the ship, Pitt spotted a man in red coveralls who looked to be in charge of loading supplies and equipment. He alerted Giordino on what to ask in Spanish and came to an abrupt stop.

"Quickly, we have an emergency at Level Six, K Section," shouted Giordino. "Which is the shortest route to take?"

Recognizing the black uniform of the shipyard security guards, the man asked, "Don't you know?"

"We've just been transferred from sh.o.r.e security," Giordino answered vaguely, "and we're not familiar with the Ulrich Wolf."

Accepting the presence of security people on an emergency mission, the loading director pointed down a pa.s.sageway. "Drive to the second elevator on the right. Park your cart and take the elevator up to Deck Floor Four. That will put you at Tram Station Eight. Board the Tram to K Section. Then take the corridor leading amidships to the security office and ask again, unless you know which residence you're looking for."

"The one where the American scientist and her daughter are being confined."

"I have no idea where that would be. You'll have to ask the chief security officer or the leader of K Section when you arrive."

"Muchas gracias," Giordino said over his shoulder, as Pitt sped off in the direction indicated. "So far so good, said the man on his way down to the sidewalk after jumping from the Empire State Building." Then he added, "My compliments. Swapping our orange goon suits for black security uniforms was a master stroke."

"It was the only way I could think of to get through the trap," said Pitt modestly.

"How much time do you think we have before they cut us off at the pa.s.s?"

"If you struck the guard a good clout, he won't come around anytime soon and give the show away. All they'll discover in the next ten minutes is that we drove straight to the Ulrich Wolf and came on board. They still don't know who we are or who we're after."

They followed the Cargo Deck leader's directions and brought the cart to a halt next to the second elevator. It was built to carry heavy freight, and it was expansive. Workers were accompanying a pallet piled with boxes of canned food. Pitt and Giordino joined them and stepped off onto Level Six, near a boarding platform raised above twin tracks that encircled the entire ship. They paced the platform impatiently for five minutes, before an electric tram with five cars painted a soft yellow outside and hyacinth violet inside approached and quietly rolled to a stop. The doors slid open with a soft hissing sound. They stepped inside the first car and found a forty-pa.s.senger vehicle that was half full of people clothed in a rainbow of coverall uniforms. As if drawn by a magnet, Giordino sat down next to an attractive woman with silver-blond hair and blue eyes whose coveralls were a soft blue-gray. Pitt tensed as he recognized the unvarying image of one of the Wolf family.

She looked at them and smiled. "You look like Americans," she said in English with a touch of a Spanish accent.

"How can you tell?" asked Pitt.

"Most all our security people were recruited from the American military," she replied.

"You are a member of the Wolf family," he said softly, as if speaking to a member of the elite.

She laughed lightheartedly. "It must look to strangers as if we all came out of the same pod."

"Your resemblance to one another is quite striking."

"What is your name?" she asked, in a tone of authority.

"My name is Dirk Pitt," he said brazenly, actually stupidly, he thought, studying her eyes for a reaction. There was none. She had not been advised of his menacing actions toward the family. "My little friend here is Al Capone."

"Rosa Wolf," she identified herself.

"A great honor, Miss Wolf," Pitt said, "to be a.s.sociated with your family's great venture. The Ulrich Wolf is a glorious masterwork. My friend and I were recruited from the United States Marines only two weeks ago. It is indeed a privilege to serve a family that has created such an extraordinary work of genius."

"My cousin Karl was the driving force behind the construction of the Ulrich Wolf and our other three Fourth Empire floating cities," Rosa sermonized from pride, obviously pleased with Pitt's praise. "He a.s.sembled the world's finest naval architects and marine engineers to design and construct our vessels, from the blueprint stage to completion, under a cloak of extreme secrecy. Unlike most large cruise liners and supertankers, our ships have no single hull but employ nine hundred watertight sealed compartments. If, during the ma.s.sive surge expected from the coming cataclysm, a hundred cells are damaged and flooded on any of our vessels, they will sink no more than ten inches."

"Truly astounding," said Giordino, acting enthralled. "What is the power source?"

"Ninety ten-thousand-horsepower diesel propulsion engines that are geared to push the ship through the water at twenty-five knots."

"A city of fifty thousand inhabitants capable of moving around the world," said Pitt. "It doesn't seem possible."

"Not fifty thousand, Mr. Pitt. When the time comes, this ship will carry one hundred and twenty-five thousand people. Between them, the other three vessels will carry fifty thousand people, for a total of two hundred and seventy-five thousand, all trained and educated to launch the Fourth Empire from the ashes of archaic democratic systems."

Pitt fought the urge to instigate a heated debate, but he turned his attention out the window of the train. He watched as a landscaped park of at least twenty acres unfolded along the tram tracks. He was repeatedly stunned by the impact of such an immense project. Bike and jogging paths wound through trees and ponds with swans, geese, and ducks.

Rosa noticed his captivation by the pastoral scene. "This is one of a network of parks, leisure and recreation areas, that total five hundred acres. Have you seen the sport facilities, swimming pools, and health spas yet?"

Pitt shook his head. "Our time has been limited."

"Are you married, with children?"

Recalling his conversation with the security guard, Pitt nodded. "A boy and a girl."

"We have recruited the world's finest educators to teach in and direct our schools, from the nursery level through college-level courses and postgraduate studies."

"That is very comforting to know."

"You and your wife will be able to enjoy theaters, educational seminars and conferences, libraries, and art galleries filled with historical art treasures. We also have compartments housing the great artifacts pa.s.sed down from the ancient ones, so that they can be studied while we wait for the earth's environment to regenerate itself after the coming cataclysm."

"The ancient ones?" asked Pitt, playing dumb.

"The civilization our grandfathers discovered in Antarctica, called the Amenes. They were an advanced race of people who were destroyed when Earth was struck by a comet nine thousand years ago."

"I'd never heard of them," Giordino played along.

"Our scientists are studying their records so we can learn what to expect in the coming months and years."

"How long do you think it will take before we can begin our work on land?" asked Pitt.

"Five, perhaps ten, years before we can go forth and establish a new order," explained Rosa.

"Can a hundred and twenty-five thousand people subsist that long?"

"You're forgetting the other ships," she said boastfully. "The fleet will be totally self-supporting. The Karl Wolf has fifty thousand acres of tilled soil already planted with vegetables and fruit orchards. The Otto Wolf will carry thousands of animals for food as well as breeding. The final ship, the Hermann Wolf, was built purely for cargo. It will haul all the equipment and machinery to construct new cities, roads, ranches, and farms when we are able to walk the earth again."

Giordino pointed up to a digital sign above the doors. "K Section coming up."

"A great pleasure meeting you, Ms. Wolf," said Pitt gallantly. "I hope you will remember me to your cousin Karl."