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Joe handed over the keys and Kurt started the car The engine fired easily The exhaust singing in perfect harmony with the reverberation from the white sedan

Without hesitation, Akiko pulled out and drove to the exit Kurt grabbed the gearshift, threw the car into reverse and backed out With a quick shift, they were ht

Kurt had spent nearly eight o He’d spent plenty of tiland, Australia and Barbados as well As a result, driving on the left ca roads at sparsely used intersections Without another vehicle to follow, it was easy for the brain to slip back into its deeply ingrained pattern and drive down the wrong side of the street

They picked their way through heavy traffic e of the city Finally, Akiko pulled onto a highway and began to accelerate Kurt dropped down a gear and stepped on the gas Soon they were racing to the southwest at almost a hundred miles an hour

“Any chance we’re really under surveillance?” Joe asked

“I haven’t seen anyone,” Kurt said “But they are a secret group, opposed to al their country holds dear”

Kurt reached forward and began pressing thebuttons on the radio They went in, physicallythe needle on the old AM/FM radio “When I was a kid, this radio was the height of technology”

Joe laughed “Like the lady said, it’s digital electronics they’re against Analog radios are okay And this vehicle has a carburetor, a manually adjusted camshaft to open and close the valves and it was ine control units were even on the drawing board It’s a pure machine It does what the driver co for itself”

Kurt changed lanes, punched the gas and passed an Audi and a brand-new Lexus like they were standing still “That it does”

They continued on the highway for over an hour, heading out into the foothills Well into the second hour of driving, they pulled off an exit and onto a secondary road This stretch of blacktop twisted into thein darkness

Kurt worked hard to keep up with Akiko on the unfamiliar road, but eventually they broke out onto a plateau and continued on a fairly straight line, heading toward a shi lake in the distance

Akiko slowed down as they approached the lakefront and turned onto a dirt track

“Not a house in sight,” Joe said “And certainly nothing I would call a retreat”

“I wouldn’t rule out a log cabin or tents by the water,” Kurt said, ruefully iround

They continued around the edge of the lake, arriving at a wooden causeway that led across a hundred feet of water to a small island