Dinner on the Shenandoah's Daughter

Aboard the luxury airship Shenandoah's Daughter, the floors are so solid you might as well be in a hotel. There's no shudder as in a train or roll as in a ship, even when there's clouds piled ten deep outside the window. Indeed, the passenger deck is inside the hull, so there are windows all along both sides -- and at the nose, where the sides converge, the restaurant offers a view in three directions, with sloping windows so you can look down at the countryside.

Mr. Richter has taken a private salon on the port side, mostly so that Janet and Kaze can eat with the white Knights without attracting attention. And the waiters are Filipinos, so they're not likely to object.

Richter has finished reading the brief on the Voinovich Gang and reaches down for an artist's portfolio beside his chair. He has a thin face, blond crew cut, dark gray suit and gold tie. The handkerchief in his vest pocket is held down by several pens.

Kaze Nitasogare is a young Asian woman dressed in dark purple silk. She slips from the shadows as silently as the clouds outside the window.

"How many have they slain?" she asks.

""None so far," says  Richter. "They shot a lot of guns in the air, and since they added Muldoon he's been belching fire to start things off. Makes everyone shut up and pay attention. But they've shot AT guards, tellers, a customer in Lubbock ... it's really just a matter of time before they ring someone's bell."

"Here's a map of the bank, as of yesterday evening," he says. He slides a large piece of art board onto the table.

"That's where the guards were at about 4 pm Central Time," he says. "There were customers, too, but not too many. They tended to move around a lot."