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There was no ie in the airship’s behavior The heated air maintained the envelope’s streamlined shape, and the propeller kept the craft at a shallow angle The airship continued on its heading At five hundred feet altitude the situation began to come apart at the seale of descent became steeper Pressure inside the envelope diminished as well, and the front end developed a dent The airship assu to the left

Paul orking a few feet directly in front of Gamay He had severed two lines and was about to work on the third He had becorip on the fra the sudden maneuver, he lost his balance and tumbled off Gamay yelled helplessly

The gondola was jerked violently and nosed down Ga the line i raft, which twisted violently, snapping back and forth like a child’s swing in the wind The blimp’s forward motion had slowed almost to a stop She looked up at the envelope, which had becoondola Paul was still hanging on Trout didn’t want to be under the blied feet-first into the water froht of about fifty feet As he careat splash

Ga on pure adrenaline She unsnapped her harness, cliondola, took a deep breath, and dove off Despite the shakiness of the platfor rapidly toward the water, Gamay did a classic swan dive that would have earned her a top score in an Olympic competition She hit the water with arht, went deep, then kicked her way quickly back to the shi surface Just in time to see the airship come down directly on top of the raft

The raft disappeared under the layered folds of the envelope along with any hope it could be used to float their way home She was more concerned about Paul for the moment and was relieved beyond words when she heard his voice calling, although she still couldn’t see him

Pulled under by the gondola, the envelope sank, taking the raft with it She saw Paul’s head bobbing on the other side of the sinking airship He waved, and they swa in thewith awe at the cascading strea out froan to swim for the distant shore

13

FBI SPECIAL AGENT Miguel Gomez leaned his beefy wrestler’s body back in his swivel chair, laced his fingers behind his head, and gazed in wonder on the other side of his desk

“You gentlemen must like tortillas one hell of a lot to want to see Enrico Pedralez”

Austin said, “We’ll pass on the tortillas We just want to ask Pedralez a few questions”

“I his head for emphasis His eyes were as dark as raisins, and they had the sad and wary expression cops get when they have seen it all

“I don’t understand,” Austin said, a hint of impatience in his voice “You o in and have a chat Just like any businessman”

“The Farmer isn’t just any businessman”

“The Farriculture, too”

Gorin “Guess you could call it agriculture Did you hear about the big search for bodies buried at a couple of ranches just over the border?”