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Behind them, the arch continued to s the reactor

Gray slowed his bike He still had a choice to randstands or the reactor He considered Nicolas’s protest, his draed The senator had plainly orchestrated a reason not to be at the event, to be taken away But where? He would not leave that to chance He would not risk being trapped in harehim to safety

Beyond the gaggle of TV vans, Gray spotted a green ar it away from the ht-foot-tall tracks of the massive archway The rutted path headed away from the reactor and curved around the end of the tracks toward the rear side of the complex

Gray spotted a suited figure in the backseat

Nicolas

Gray stared upward The blinding steel structure now consuus In another fifteen randstands rested a quarter mile away from the reactor

Gray had to make a choice

He pictured Nicolas Solokov seated behind the desk in the guard shack during the interrogation From the cut of his clothes to the patterns of his speech, the o matched only by a need to control It radiated out of him

Nicolas would want to watch as to come

So as he heading behind the reactor?

Unless…

Gray swung the cycle off the blacktop and cut across the open fields He headed straight for the end of the tracks, intending to intercept the vehicle as it rounded the bend in the road

“Pierce!” Kowalski yelled “Where are we going?”

“To save the president”

“But the grandstand’s over that way!” Kowalski pointed an arm in the opposite direction

Ignoring hi plain Kowalski clutched tightly to the handrails Gray gunned the engine and sped faster over the wild terrain Mud and grass spattered behind him

Ahead, the jeep raced alongside the four hundred yards of tracks The vehicle was almost to the end It would be close Gray was still a football field away from the road

And they’d been spotted

An ar motorcycle From the distance, Gray and Kowalski would appear to be Russian soldiers out for a joy ride Confusion should reign for a moment in the jeep That’s all they would have

“Kowalski!”

“What?”

“Can you take out one of their rear tires as they make that curve?”

“Are you nuts?” he asked, his voice rattling with the bike

“Hang on”

Gray angled the bike into a dry sandy wash Floods had swept the stretch fairly flat and smooth