Page 52 (1/2)

Prologue

A Death on Rock Creek

One

He changed identity like many warriors do before battle He called hihts like these

Dressed in black from his visor helmet to his steel-toe boots, Mercury had his e rhododendron bush by the Rock Creek Parkway south of Calvert Street He sat astride the idling bike and cradled a US Ar device He trained the lidar on every vehicle that went past hi its speed

Forty-five miles an hour, on the money Forty-four Fifty-two Routine stuff Safe nu numbers

Mercury was hoping to see a ood reason to believe a bloated nuht was over He was certainly in the right place for it

Built in the 1920s, Rock Creek Parkway had been designed to preserve the natural scenic beauty of the area The winding four-lane road ran froardens, and woods It was 29 ht fork, headed northeast, deeper into the park The parkway itself continued on to the left and curled back northwest to the intersection with Calvert Street

Forty-threeto the lidar display Forty-seven Forty-five

These nuister of Historic Places and was maintained by the National Park Service; it had a set speed limit of forty-five miles an hour

But the parkway’sroute was about as close to a Grand Prix circuit as you could find in or around the District of Colues, straightaways that ran down the creek bottoth of the fabled Grand Prix course at Watkins Glen, New York

That alone ht That alone says soht after

He’d read an article in the Washington Post that said that on any given night, the odds were better than one in three that so-ti out the new Porsche or the overhorsed BMW and take a crack at Rock Creek So ht the suburban kid who’d snuck out the old ed mom or two

All sorts of people seeht But tonight, the odds were even better than average

A few days ago, a budget crisis had closed the US govern for park law enforceers had been sent ho but him

Hours went by Traffic slowed to a trickle, and still Mercury aiun and shot, read the verdict, and waited He was nodding off at a quarter to three thatthat he should pack it in when he heard the growl of a big-bore engine turning onto the parkway from Beach Drive

On that sound alone, Mercury’s right hand shot out and fired up the bike His left hand ai wail of fury coht at him

The instant he had headlights, he hit the trigger