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Joe ran back to the Jeep and hopped in He an toup speed as the sinking SUV pulled on the cable

Joe waited as long as he could and then popped the clutch

The engine surged, stuttered, and then fired up He pressed in the clutch and held it as he hit the brakes The Jeep stopped a few feet shy of ra the pulley vehicle

Foot still on the clutch, he gave the Jeep soan to huas, it went into a steady idle With the parking brake firot out and moved to the winch at the front of the Jeep

He put a hand on the release lever and yanked it doard The jaws of the drureat tension and whiplashed across the pulley car, shattering the windshield, before sliding across the sand and following the sinking SUV down into the lake

Joe gave a salute to the departing vehicle and clier and watched as the red light lit up

He glanced at his own reflection in the ood, Zavala,” he said to hiood”

Guessing it would take several h power to be useful, Joe decided to check on his patient

He ju Jeep and moved quickly to where Bradshaw lay The

“Hang in there,” Joe whispered

Out on the lake, the water began to stir A slight bulge was for near the center, halfway between the shore and the floating truck So beneath the surface, like a killer whale charging the beach

For a second, Joe hoped it h and revealed itself as a twenty-foot-long submersible with a wide, rubber-skirted botton became clear seconds later as the sub rose up out of the water and began racing across the surface, leaving a wide swath of foam beneath and behind it

“A submersible-hovercraft,” Joe marveled “That’s even better than a truck that swims”

For twenty seconds, the hovercraft traveled northward along the surface, then it turned slightly to the east, raced out of the water on the far side of the pit and up onto the ramp

Joe realized he itnessing the group who’d a their escape