Update 24 March 2024
Since I've got all the main characters on an Atlantic beach, I am considering just having an asteroid smash into the ocean in front of them like at the end of Deep Impact. That should also take care of the characters still in Washington.
I have loved all the feedback on what has been a rolling first draft since chapter 6. You all have forced me to write the characters deeper than their original design specifications, and my team of tiny literary engineers are scampering about the base of the superstructure attempting to avert an implosion of the matrix. For this to reach its full potential I may have to get all the characters to evacuate the story and put them up in hotels while I demolish it and rebuild.
Thanks to all the internet people out there for: a) reading this thing in the first place; and b) playing Simon Cowell to all the Paula Abduls who'd looked at it before. I am going to be a much stronger writer thanks to you.
I am going to go ahead and close out the main plot of part two in the next chapter, which I should get to around Easter. I'll probably do something about the sub-plot as well. It might be a bit long.
Part three (the conclusion) exists only in rudimentary form, and a lot of it is irrelevant after what these girls have been through.
Maybe I'll just pull an Arthur C. Clarke: "Due to scientific advances, the sequels will be inconsistent with previous books. Deal with it."