As he walks, Ted thinks about the Coriolis effect. At the North Pole, looking south, the Earth rotates counterclockwise. If a missile fires from that point, it will head south and land slightly to the right of the original target because the Earth has rotated under it. The opposite is true from the Southern Hemisphere. The Coriolis force causes weather patterns to arc away from a straight line. Ted thinks that maybe something has caused Salim to be deflected off-course.

Ted quickly gets lost on the streets. He locates the giant cloud forming over downtown, turns, walks toward it, and locates the road to the Tube station. Once there, he studies the Underground map, finds Earl’s Court, and plans his train route there. He buys a ticket and boards the next available train.

Alone in the train, he’s nervous, but he carefully tracks the stations he passes. He notices a man with a scowl and plaster on his face who’s staring at an ad for car insurance. Trying to think like Sherlock Holmes, Ted reasons that the man was in a car crash and is mad because he didn’t have insurance. Thus distracted, he nearly misses his station and must hurry from the car before it continues onward.