Pitt's grandfather acquired a small fortune developing SouthernCalifornia real estate. On his death, he left his grandson aconsiderable inheritance. After paying the estate tax, Pitt chose toinvest the money in classic cars and aircraft rather than stocks andbonds. Lives at 266 Airport Place, Washington, D.C. 20001, on thegrounds of Washington International Airport. Best friend is AlGiordino, whom Pitt met when the two got into a fistfight in elementaryschool. Was quarterback on hishigh school football team. Graduated thirty-fifth in his class at theU.S. Air Force Academy. While at the Air Force Academy, he was on thefootball team and fencing squad. Attended flight school with AlGiordino.
Served ten years' active duty in the Air Force, attaining the rank ofmajor and in the year 2000 promoted to lieutenant colonel. Served twotours in the last years of the Vietnam War. Awarded DistinguishedFlying Cross with two clusters, a Silver Heart and a Purple Heart.
Received a commendation for shooting down U.S. Navy Admiral JamesSandecker's plane over the Sea of China to prevent him from landing atan enemy-occupied airfield. Awarded Hero of the Revolution award byFidel Castro. Formerly surface security officer for the NationalUnderwater and Marine Agency, he is currently the special projectsdirector. Height six feet three inches, weight one hundred eighty-fivepounds. Has black hair tending to be a bit wavy, with no indication ofgray. Eyebrows dark and bushy. Straight, narrow nose, lips firm withthe corners turned up in a slight but fixed grin. Skin darkened byyear-round exposure to the sun. Has opaline green eyes that are setwide with a clear glimpse of the white around the iris. Far frommovie-star handsome, he has a craggy face that the opposite sex findsstrangely attractive. Body covered with various scars and injuries.
Walks with a loose grace that is impossible for most men. Wore an Omegawatch early on but now is known for wearing an orange-face Dora divewatch.
Quit smoking years ago. Changed from Cutty Sark to Bombay Gin to SauzaCommemorativo tequila over the years but also enjoys a glass of finewine and an occasional beer. Main exercise is scuba diving. Hisfavorite pastime is restoring and showing antique andclassic cars. Astrological sign: Cancer. Chinese sign: born in theYear of the Rat.
Pitt, George. Served in World War II, then worked his way through lawschool selling cars. Dirk Pitt's father and senior senator fromCalifornia. Elected to the Senate the same year as the president inDeep SLx.
Head of the Naval Appropriations Committee. Heads up the SenateCommittee for Oil Exploration on Government Lands. Heads the SenateForeign Relations Committee. Known as the Socrates of the Senate. InVixen 03, he tells Daggat he plans to retire next year but changes hismind. Married to the former Barbara Nash, who was named Susan inDragon. Lives in a colonial home on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington,D.C. Owns a ski chalet in Breckenridge, Colorado. Known for wearingexpensive suits with a California golden poppy in the lapel.
Pochinsky, Zerri. Secretary to Dirk Pitt. A lively type, with acontagious smile and hazel eyes. Thirty years old at the time of NightProbe! she has never married.
Full-bodied with long, fawn-colored hair that falls below her shoulders.Pitt has considered having an affair with her, but he doesn't believe inmessing around with his staff.
Sandecker, Admiral James. Graduated U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1939.
Made flag rank in the Navy before age fifty. Once served on the U.S.S.Iowa. Last command was the Navy guided-missile cruiser Tucson.
In Night Probe! he is listed as age sixty-one. Lives in a condominiumat the Watergate in Washington, D.C six miles from the NUMAheadquarters. Height is afew inches over five feet. Has a thick head of red hair that showslittle indication of white. Has a precisely trimmed red Van Dyke beard.Has cold, authoritative blue eyes. Sleeps only four hours a night. Longdivorced, he has a daughter and three grandchildren who five in HongKong. A vegetarian and health nut, he jogs and lifts weights. Takesnumerous vitamins including garlic pills every day.
Smokes ten custom made cigars a day. Likes to dine at the Army and NavyClub. Also a member of the John Paul Jones Club. Has an old Navydouble-ender whale boat he cruises on Sundays on the Potomac River forrelaxation. After retiring from the Navy, he was made the chiefdirector of the National Underwater and Marine Agency by then-PresidentFord. When he began at NUMA, it was an insignificant eighty-personagency.
He built NUMA into a massive organization of five thousand scientistsand employees with an annual budget that exceeds four hundred milliondollars.
Smith, Loren. Congresswoman from Colorado's Seventh Distnct, thedistrict west of the Continental Divide. Her family has ranched thewestern slope of Colorado since the 1870s. Educated at the Universityof Colorado. Height is five feet eight inches. Age at the time of DeepSLx is thirty-seven. She has cinnamon-colored hair cut long to frameher prominent cheekbones. Violet-colored eyes. Never married.
Chest measurement is 34-B. At the time of Inca Gold, she is a five-tenncongresswoman. Lives in a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia.
Owns a cat named Ichabod. Dates Dirk Pitt, whom she met at a lawn partygiven by the secretary of the envirorunent ten years ago 132
Wolff, Julie. Admiral Sandecker's personal secretary in the laterbooks.
Yaeger, MrauL Nicknamed Pinocchio because he always sticks his nose inwhere it doesn't belong via his computer. Decorated three-tour Vietnamveteran who served with the U.S. Navy SEALS. Lured from California'sSilicon Valley by Sandecker to head NUMA's vast computer network thatincludes a catalog of all known shipwrecks worldwide. Works on thetenth floor of NUMA Headquarters. Formerly lived on a farm inSharpsburg, Maryland; he now resides in a fashionable residentialsection of Maryland. Has a wife who is an artist and two pretty, smartteenage daughters who attend private school. Had a 1989 Ford Taurusstation wagon but now drives a non production BMW. Traditionally wearsLevi's and a Levi's jacket along with scruffy cowboy boots. Has grayinglong blond hair he wears tied back in a ponytail that frames a boyishface. Has a scraggly beard he sometimes braids. Wears granny glasses.
The World of NUMAAndrews Air Force Base. Air Force base near Washington, D.C. CentralIntefflgence Agency. U.S. intelligence agency located in Langley,Virginia, on a 219-acre site. The headquarters building is a sprawlinggray marble and concrete structure. A statue of Nathan Hale standsoutside the entrance.
Dulles Airport. Commercial airport in Washington, D.C. EnvironmentalProtection Agency. The EPA is the U.S. governmental agency that handlesissues related to the environment.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI is an anticrime force thatoperates under the umbrella of the Department of Justice. Theheadquarters of the FBI are at Pennsylvania Avenue and Tenth Street inWashington, D.C. G.R.U. Acronym standing for Glavnoye RazvedyvatelnoyeUpraviemye. Chief intelligence directorate of the Soviet general staff.Best described as the Soviet military intelligence agency.
EWERPOL. An international police agency.
KGB. Soviet intelligence agency, also known as the Committee for StateSecurity National Security Agency. U.S. intelligence agency that oftenworks with NUMA. Based at Fort Meade, Maryland, the NSA speciakes incipher development and cracking as well as electronic eavesdropping andsatellite communications and detection. Operates under the Departmentof Defense.
National Security Council. Advisors to the president of the UnitedStates.
NUMA Headquartem A thirty-story tubular structure sheeted in greenreflective glass that sits on an EastWashington hill above the Potomac River. Admiral Sandecker's office ison the top floor and features an immense desk made from the refinishedhatch cover salvaged from a Confederate blockade runner that was sunk inAlbemarle Sound. On his desk is a humidor from which Giordino allegedlysteals cigars. The office is equipped with a holographic televisioncamera so Sandecker can view the people he is talking to in 3-Dsplendor. The twelfth floor is an immense equipment-laden area coveringfifteen thousand square feet manned by forty-five engineers andtechnicians who monitor the six NUMA satellites circling the globe.
The tenth floor has the glass-enclosed computer center run by HiramYaeger. Th
e fourth floor has the NUMA boardroom featuring athree-meter-long conference table built from a section of a wooden hullsalvaged from a schooner that sank to the bottom of Lake Erie, alongwith thick turquoise carpeting and a fireplace with a Victorianmantelpiece. The walls are paneled in satiny teak, and there arepaintings of U.S. naval actions in ornate frames. The fourth floor alsohas Pitt's and Giordino's offices. The lobby is an atrium surrounded bywaterfalls and aquariums filled with exotic sea life.
A huge globe rises from the center of the sea-green marble floor,contoured with the geological furrows and ridges of every sea, largelake and river on earth.
The building has an underground parking garage.
Pitt's home. The address of Pitt's aircraft hangar/home is 266 AirportPlace, Washington, D.C. 20001. The hangar is on a little-used runway atWashington International Airport and was built in 1936. Formerlyhousing an air carrier that was absorbed by American Airlines, thebuilding was scheduled for demolition in 1980. Pitt bought thebuilding, restored the inside, then had it placed on the NationalRegister of Historic Landmarks. From outside, the hangar appearsdeserted-weeds surround the building, and the corrugated walls areweathered and devoid of paint. The appearance is merely a ruse.
The hangar has the latest in security measures, including an alarmsystem Pitt deactivates by the use of a small transmitter carried in hispocket. Outside, remote cameras film guests arriving and alert Pitt toany danger. The hangar floor is polished concrete and houses Pitt'stransportation collection. Nearly fifty cars cover the ten thousandsquare feet, including a Hispano-Suiza, a MercedesBenz 540 a Marmon towncar, a beautiful blue TalbotLago, a Cord L-29, a Pierce-Arrow town carwith matchmg Travelodge travel trailer, a stunning turquoise-green Stutztown car, along with a pair of RoUs-Royces, a big Daimler convertible, aBugatti, an Isotta-Fraschini, a Delahaye, an AC Cobra, aMaybach-Zeppelin town car, a Renault Open-Drive Landaulette, a Jensenfour door convertible, an Avions-Voisin, an Allard J2X and the first carin Pitt's collection, a 1946 Ford Club Coupe. Pitt often drives his1984 Jeep Grand Wagoneer that features a 500-horsepower Rodeck enginetaken from a wrecked dragster. Other artifacts include a Ford TrimotorTin Goose airplane, a Messerschmitt 262 Swallow, a Pullman Railroad carThe Manhattan Limited, an old cast-iron bathtub with an outboard motorattached and a weird-looking inflatable raft with sails and a carvedHaida Indian totem pole. At the far end of the garage is an ornatewrought-iron spiral staircase and a cargo elevator. The door at the topleads to a living room-study filled with shelvesstacked with books about the sea along with glass encased models ofships Pitt discovered while working with NUMA. A trophy case holdsfootball and fencing trophies. Copper diver's helmets, mariner'scompasses and wooden helm pieces share space with ships' bells and oldnails and bottles from shipwrecks Pitt has excavated. A door to oneside of the study leads into a large bedroom decorated like a sailingship's captain's cabin, complete with a huge wheel as a backboard forthe bed. The opposite end of the living room opens into a kitchen anddining room.
Politburo. The primary decision makers for the Soviet Communist Party.
SEALS. Elite U.S. Navy Special Forces group. The acronym stands forSea, Air and Land.
Secret Service. Division of the U.S. Treasury Department. Handles anticounterfeiting, presidential protection and other duties.
United States Customs Service. Works to stop smuggling of illegalgoods.
Washington National Airport. Location of Pitt's aircraft hangar/home.
Pacific VortexAC Cobra. The car Pitt drives in Pacific Vortex. Built in England,they featured Ford 289-cubic-inch and 427-cubic-inch engines.
Andrei Vyborg. A Russian spy ship posing as an oceanographic vessel.
Follows the 101st Salvage Fleet when they attempt to locate theStarbuck.
Blue fin. U.S. Navy ship. Disappeared but was eventually located nearseamount.
Boland, Lieutenant Commander Paul. Tall and blond.
Resembles John F. Kennedy. Wounded by the men who board the Martha Ann.
Bounty. The ship made famous in Mutiny on the Bounty. The ship waslater burned at Pitcairn Island.
Mentioned in prologue.
Butcher, Lieutenant Robert The marine leader of the fierce attack onthe radio transmitter located on Maui. The transmitter was thought tobe lightly guarded, but Pisces Metal Company had sold it to theRussians.
Carter, Lieutenant. Crewman on the submarine Starbuck. Mentioned inDupree's log recovered by Pitt.
Cat T Located off Cuba, site where NUMA detected a mysterious underwaterobject. (See. Kurile Trench.)
Chrysler, Dr. Elmer. Chief of research for Tripler Hospital. A shortlittle man with a completely shaven head. Has brown eyes behindhorned-rimmed glasses.
Cinana, Captain Orly. The officer in charge of Admiral Hunter's salvagefleet. Heavyset. Killed by intruderswhile in bed with Adrian Hunter. Was secretly cooperating with DelphiMoran.
Colt .44. Pistol used when Delphi attempts to fire at Pitt. Giordinojams his little finger into the barrel.
When Delphi fires, it backfires and blows the side of his face off.
Crowhaven, Lieutenant Commander Samuel. An engineering officer on asubmarine, he is drafted to lead the divers on the rescue effort.
Described as blond with Scandinavian features. He brings the Starbuckto the surface.
Danzig, Corporal. Spad leader attacking the radio transmitter.
Denver, Commander Burdefte. Described as short, almost gnome like.
Aide to Admiral Hunter.
DG-10. The poison that was in the syringe Pitt took from Summer -Moran.Extremely difficult to detect, it makes a body have the appearance of aheart seizure.
Dodge truck, gray. The vehicle that was carrying the man who fired atPitt after he left the museum. The man was later impaled on a spike ona telephone pole.
Douglas C-54. The four-engine plane flown by Pitt and Giordino to theseamount to launch the rescue effort.
Dupree, Commander Fred Commanding officer of the U.S. nuclear submarineStarbuck. He has served twenty years at sea, fourteen of those insubmarines.
His classmates at Annapolis nicknamed him "The Data Bank."
Explorer. Listed as the first ship lost in the Pacific Vortex. TheExplorer was under charter to the Pisces Metal Company when Lavella andRoblemann disappeared.
F-4. A U.S. Navy submarine that sank in sixty fathoms off the entranceof Pearl Harbor. In 1915, it was successfully raised.
Farris, Seaman First Class. Crewman on the submarine Starbuck,mentioned in Dupree's log that was recovered by Pitt. Later discoveredstill alive on board the Starbuck.
FHX. A new long-range helicopter that Pitt is certified to fly. NUMAloans the helicopter and Pitt to the 101st Salvage Fleet.
Fujuna, Henry. A fourth-generation Japanese-Hawaiian fisherman. Hisfishing boat is cut in half by the Martha Ann as it returns to baseguided by control computers.
Fullerton Fracture Zone. The area where the Pacific Vortex is located.
Harper, Lieutenant. The engine-room officer on the Martha Ann. Weighsover two hundred fifty pounds.
Hunter, Adrian. Daughter of Admiral Hunter. Has long black hair. Herskin is the tone of polished bronze. A tramp, she is the only womanPitt cannot satisfy.
Hunter, Admiral Leigh. Admiral in charge of the 101st Salvage Fleet.
Tall and wizened. His hair is bushy and white. Has a cadaverous face.
Hyperion missiles. Nuclear missiles carried on board the Starbuck.
lolani Palace. The only royal palace on American soil.
Was the building that housed the Hawaii 5-0 offices.
Mentioned by George Papaaloa.
Ishiyo Maru. Japanese oil tanker of 8,106 tons. Reported missing inthe Pacific Vortex September 14, 1964. The second sunken vessel spottedby the Martha Ann.
Kaena Point, Hawaii The point in the Kauai Channel off Oahu. The spotwhere Pitt was sunning when he spotted the yellow communicationscapsule.
Kamehameha. Also known as Kamehameha the Great. King of -Hawaii.
/> Pitt is helping George Papaaloa from the museum try to locate his grave.
Kanoli. A mythical island to the north of Hawaii. Described as abarren island with few coconuts or palm trees. Also lacks streams ofcold clear water. Settlers tamed the land over several generations,then proclaimed themselves gods. The natives of Kanoh then raidedKauai, Oahu, Hawaii and other islands in the Hawaiian chain.
Kurile Trench. The area off Japan where NUMA scientists detected avessel moving underwater at veryhigh speed and a great depth. Estimates placed the object moving onehundred ten miles an hour at nineteen thousand feet deep.
LaveRa. A physicist who specialized in hydrology.
Lillie Marlene. A mysterious ship that was discovered adrift in thePacific Vortex. A former British torpedo boat converted to luxuryyacht. Owned by Herbert Verhusson, a nationally recognized filmproducer. On July 13, 1968, it radioed a distress call to the CoastGuard saying that it was being attacked by men who came out of the mist.