Free Night Moves by Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik

have a flight leaving from Heathrow at noon. I couldn't get us on the Concorde or on a direct, so we'll have to change planes at Kennedy for a crop duster to Dulles." Alex sipped his coffee, then said, "You could stay here. There's no need for you to kill your vacation." "Stay here by myself? What fun would that be?" "Well, this silat class you found sounds interesting." "Two hours in the evening. If you go, I'm going. You'll need me at work."
He stirred his eggs around with his fork, not really interested in eating them. "Over easy," he said.
"If these things had been fried any harder, you could play hockey with them." "I'm sorry about Jay," she said.
"The doctor said he would be fine. Probably no lasting effects." "Even so."
"I can't believe that he was injured due to something that happened in VR." Alex stared at the hard eggs.
"You saw the reports from the Brits and the Japanese. Same thing happened to their people, and they were both poking around in the same area Jay was." "It still doesn't seem possible."
"Neither does breaking the code for the Pakistani train. Whoever did that is leaps and bounds ahead of us.

They know things we don't."
"There's a cheery thought."
She looked at him. He seemed terribly glum. "Something else on your mind, Alex?"
He prodded the eggs a final time, then put his fork down. "Well, yeah. I didn't want to bother you with it." "Go ahead, bother me. What?"
"I got a notice from my ex-wife's lawyers on an e-fax this morning." "And ... ?"
"Megan is suing for total custody of Susan." "Oh, no."
"Oh, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have decked her new boyfriend." "You said she was planning to do it before that." "Yes. But that probably didn't help. Or that I said if he slept over again with Susie in the house, I'd throw an adultery charge at her."
"You were angry."
"Uh-huh. And stupid. She's not a bad woman, it's just that she knows how to get under my skin." "Don't make excuses for her. She's a bitch." He smiled.
"Unfortunately, she's a bitch who is the mother of my only child, and she wants to take my daughter away. To have that bearded teacher become Daddy instead." "What did your lawyer say?"
"What lawyers always say. Don't worry, he'll handle it, Megan won't win." She reached across the table and took his hand. "It'll work out. You're too good a person; any judge will see that." He smiled again, turned his hand up and squeezed hers.

"Thanks. I love you."
"That's why I'm here."
She had loved Alex for a long time, and even though he could sometimes be exasperating, with the way he bottled up his emotions and the way he tried to shield her from things, in the grand cosmic scheme of things, these were minor problems. They'd get them worked out, eventually. She was sure of it. Sunday, April 3rdLas Vegas, Nevada Despite his resolve to get to bed early, the depth of the night found John Howard standing in a parking lot outside the Luxor Hotel and Casino, staring into the sky. He'd just taken a long midnight walk. A crisp, dry wind blew and whirled among the cars, stirring dust. The parking lot was surrounded by palm trees and other vegetation not native to this area. The Nevada summers were hot enough to convince the trees they could thrive--as long as they were watered--but the palms looked somehow uncomfortable as they stood around the edges of the concrete, swaying in the breeze, as if they knew they didn't belong here. From the apex of the giant black pyramid that was the Luxor, a tight ring of spotlights, focused into one large ray, beamed straight up into the night. The heat from the laserlike column that shot up was intense enough that it sucked air and dust into itself, shoving it heavenward in a fountain of photons. Night had to watch Las Vegas from a distance; the city didn't allow the dark to come in. Howard observed the boiling light beam. A moth that ventured too close to that white column would find itself roasted and blown halfway to the moon real quick. There was something incredibly decadent