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Dirk goosed the throttle and pulled up on the handlebars The Vespa pitched forward, hopping a curb and lurching past the tree Dirk then locked up the brakes, but had to swerve again to o, he bounded across a sidewalk and skidded into a bougainvillea bush Sharp thorns pricked him in a dozen spots He was otherwise unhurt The Vespa, with a few naled its durability with a putt-putt idle

A pair of students helped pull Dirk from the bush

“Are you hurt?” one asked

“Only o,” he said “Thanks all the same”

He gave the scooter a quick once-over, hopped aboard, and twisted the throttle The sedan had already sped off down the road Dirk drove across the sidewalk and off the curb, resu the chase a block behind This ti froainst the frame

Dirk coaxed asto keep the car in sight The sedan had reached the far side of the ca a ay called the Ibrahiht at the canal road and disappeared, heading toward the Nile

Somewhere in the distance a siren wailed Dirk hoped Suiven the police an accurate description of the car As he reached the crossroad, he was forced to slow for a flatbed truck, then turned right He zipped around the truck and looked for the fleeing car

It wasn’t there

He held the throttle down and desperately scanned the surroundings Then the car appeared, passing above him Ahead, a circular exit rae that crossed the Ibrahimiya

Dirk steered onto the rae, he saisp of s to a stop along the curb The back door sprang open, and Zeibig was shoved out The backseat gun’s shirt, the other a pistol They staggered onto a pedestrian ay The gunainst the side bridge rail

As Dirk closed fast, the gun Approaching a drainage cut in the curb, Dirk nudged the Vespa onto the ay and steered toward the men

The gun down at full speed He raised the gun to fire Then self-preservation took over, and he dove for the safety of the car

He was a hair late

The scooter’s nose clipped the gunun—and very nearly the gunman’s arm

The collision threw the scooter into a high hop and a skid Dirk bounced into the air, barely hanging on as the Vespa sla to save himself—push off the scooter at impact