It’s not my story so forgive me, but you could cut out the section starting “Lockhart took the exit..” and go right to “After a brief trip to Washington, D.C….”
Mind you, 2/3 of the way thru Atlas Shrugged, I skipped 60 pages when I realized “Ayn, I get it…this guy (I think he was on a hobo on a train) is going to have a 2-hour speech on Objectivism. I slogged though six of these already; I can skip this one without losing the plot.”
YMMV.
No sir. I want Abbot to appear, however briefly. His character, while unimportant to the overall arc, adds significant 'color'.