Free The Poseidon Initiative by Rick Chesler Page A

matter of urgency which arose too quickly to make pre-arrangements. I have orders from the President of the United States of America to close this embassy.”
    Shah lifted a piece of paper from his briefcase bearing the presidential seal and dangled it in front of her face.

FOURTEEN
    Charleston, South Carolina
    Liam snapped his head over his shoulder before making a lane change. Amir’s cab was in the fast lane and properly making use of that designation. He coaxed his little Vespa scooter with epithets muttered under his breath, but the little machine was close to giving all it had to give. As it was, were he to be sighted by a police officer he’d likely be pulled over for having the scooter on the highway.
    He stabilized the bike in the lane next to the fast lane and held the pedal to the floor. The speedometer crept up to eighty kilometers per hour, but meanwhile, Amir’s cab one lane over in the fast lane was easily doing one hundred. In a few more seconds the cab would be out of sight.
    Then he caught a break when a WIDE LOAD procession of trucks carrying mobile homes took up the two right lanes, squeezing traffic to the two left-most lanes. Traffic slowed, but Liam was able to ride between the lanes. When he was ten cars back he switched into the fast lane, deciding it was risky to pass the cab and be seen by Amir.
    His headset warbled in his ear, Tanner’s voice asking for a sitrep, a situation report.
    “Target in sight on 26. Not sure how long I’ll be able to stay with him but I got him for now.” He gave the exit he just passed.
    “Copy that, stay with him.”
    Liam braked as he came up on the rear of the cab. Up ahead the wide load convoy was exiting, traffic already beginning to flow normally once again. Liam decided he needed all the momentum he could get. He moved over one lane to the right and sped between that and the slow lane, passing the cab so that he would have a lead once traffic began to flow again. By the time he was two exits ahead of the taxi, the traffic flow was full speed again. Motorists honked at him to get out of the way with his slow vehicle. He was drawing attention so he moved right one lane into the slow lane.
    That’s when he caught the splotch of yellow in his rear view, moving left to right. The cab had changed lanes, all the way over. Liam cursed as he reflexively slowed his scooter.
    The taxi exited one offramp behind him. He banged a fist on the handlebar as he shook his head. He transmitted to Tanner.
    “Just lost him!”
    Tanner’s reply was instant. “Scooter too slow?”
    “Mobile home convoy slowed traffic and I was able to I pull ahead of him so I’d have a lead on him when the flow resumed, but then he exited while I was two exits up.” He named the exit.
    “Take the next exit, I’ll give you directions; maybe you can circle back and find him on surface streets.”
    “Copy that, getting off.”
    Liam raced off the highway, turning right onto a main boulevard where he was able to make good progress toward the street on which Amir’s cab exited.
    The closer he came to that exit, however, the more discouraged he became. The area was commercial and busy with many buildings on both sides, lots of places to duck into. He experienced a powerful jolt of adrenaline upon sighting a yellow cab, but when he got close he could see that the number painted on the door was different from that of the one Amir took. He looked into the back anyway, in case Amir may have switched cabs, but the rear was empty.
    He sped on, soon reaching the avenue that Amir’s cab had exited onto. Liam stopped at a light, looked both ways, and had to admit defeat. The cab was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, he forced himself to patrol the area, circling block by block, looking down driveways, stopping to examine places where cabs congregated. Even if he had sighted Amir’s cab empty, it would have given him a clue that he had been let off in this area. But as it was he could still be