--Indianapolis, Indiana

The helicopter descended by cautious degrees toward a riot of flashing-red-and blue lights. Tricky landing, Garrett thought from the passenger seat, but trusted his pilot would ace the approach. The joint was tight and lousy with overhead wires. The powers that be wanted him bad if they couldn't wait the extra few minutes of a taxi from the downtown heliport.

The ship touched asphalt, hurling aside litter in the cyclone from its rotors. Garrett liked the ground level view even less than the airborne vantage point. Nearby restaurant awnings snapped in the aircraft's artificial gale like flags in March. At least twenty patrolmen in short-sleeved blue uniforms idled with seeming purposelessness, some of them in those restaurant doorways, where the patrons were either clear...

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