December 31, 1997

I rang in the new year at Pier 39; I did remember it was chilly. Vladimir Jariabek, Steven Jensen, and Diana Davis were there, along with the Air Force captain Maggie Beckett, and of course, hordes of people, all wearing thick sweaters or heavy coats. Conrad Bennish, Jr. went to a house party with some childhood friends in the East Bay.

We all had bottles of champagne.

Even as I enjoyed the revelry, thoughts of tracking where Quinn and company went kept swirling in the background. I was already plugging in some holes in the idea. But there as so much more.

We counted down.

And then we yelled, "Happy New Year!"

An hour after midnight, Pavel Kurlienko drove me home in his taxi.

As I slept, all of those equations and formulae were churning.