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“Then they’ll play right into our hands In a few hours, the operation in Nagasaki will be complete; the Prime Minister and some of his Cabinet ano will be wanted men At that point, they’ll have nowhere to escape to The whole world will be looking for them”

• • •

KURT WENT frouarding each intersection in his view; others wereup positions beyond

Joe ca “Another one on the far side”

“Co this way?”

Joe shook his head “Just sitting at the intersection”

“They’re establishing area control,” Nagano said “Cutting off every avenue of escape before they begin the search We would do the same—we call it a double box”

Kurt re the warbots could replace the police “That means we’re surrounded,” he said “Probably several blocks deep Even if we could get past these warbots, we’d run into others”

He took a breath and sat back trying to visualize exactly where they were on the island As he recalled photos and the map he’d studied, an idea cao up”

“And then?”

“If this is the building I think it is, there’s a structural brace on the roof connecting it to the next building Not a real bridge But if we’re careful, we can crawl across it”

“That’ll get us past this group, but what about the next layer?” Joe asked

“I

have an idea that should take care of that,” Kurt said

Joe gri, I wish you’d stop thinking it”