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THIRTY-TWO KMs FROM THE MEXICAN BORDER, 7:00 P.M.

Five miles off the coast, approaching San Diego, the super-yacht Zephyr was outrunning the storm. In his cabin, Sheikh Ali watched the devastation play out on his TV screen. He watched cars being washed down streets. He watched houses collapse and sail away in the deluge. He saw desperate people, standing through the sunroofs of cars, holding their children aloft as the flood waters swirled around them. He felt the surge of righteousness. The rain would wash away his old sins, purge him, as it purged the land of the infidel and his possessions. In twenty minutes he would be across the border, in Mexican seas.