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“I saw that,” Joe replied “I’ out of road”

“Where are they headed?”

“Southwest Along the bay”

• • •

JOE DROVE with skills that would have matched Kurt out on the racetrack, but he had to deal with real-world issues: other cars, potholes and pedestrians He swerved around a slow-ht of the helicopter as it went behind the trees and then found it again as the view opened up

He canored the rules of traffic and followed it downhill By the way it sloped, he kneas heading for the shoreline

A building blocked his view Seconds later, a small car alutter, where he avoided taking out a fire hydrant He pulled back onto a tay street as soon as he could

“Where’d you go?” he said, craning his neck around and looking for the fleeing helicopter

Finally, he saw it again, farther out over the water; it was definitely heading out to sea

He found another street, sped up again and then slan at the end of the road The tires screeched and the Skyline GT-R slid to a stop inches from a fifty-foot drop

Joe got out of the car and raised the binoculars He tracked the helicopter for another thirty seconds and then its lights went out and it vanished in the night sky

40

WASHINGTON, DC

THE EARTH STUDIES LAB filled the baseton, DC It was located down there for purely practical reasons Being an experimental facility, it took