Between Burning Worlds (System Divine #2) - Jessica Brody Page 0,65

us!”

“Yeah, that tends to happen when you try to break someone out of prison.”

“Incoming explosif detect—” the ship began to say, but there wasn’t even time for her to finish. The pilote wrenched the contrôleur, and Chatine was knocked back as the ship leapt into the air to avoid another hit.

“Might be best to strap in,” he advised. He punched another button on his console, and a moment later, a narrow jump seat unfolded from the wall next to Chatine. Favoring her good leg, she quickly maneuvered into it and fastened the harnesses around her, just as another streak of light crackled across the sky. The ship pitched to the left.

“Can’t you do something!?” Chatine had to shout to be heard over the thunder of relentless explosions outside the window.

“I told you,” he replied breathlessly with another fierce yank on the throttle. “The stealth mode is on the fritz. Otherwise we would be hidden from these clochards.”

“Well, you need to fix it!” Chatine yelled.

“I’m only one person!” the man yelled back. “Do you want to dodge Ministère explosifs while I continue trying to fix the ship?”

“I—” Chatine started to say.

“That was a rhetorical question. Like I’d ever let you fly my ship.” The pilote swerved hard to the right and Chatine slammed against her harness.

“Then, why don’t you fly us out of here already? Why are we just hovering here like sitting ducks?”

The pilote sighed. “Because I can’t get past Bastille’s outer shields without stealth mode. We’ll be destroyed. Wait! I have an idea! Can you reach the emergency access panel?”

“The what?”

His jaw tightened as he spun the ship in a half circle. Fiery sparks exploded outside the window. “The little red door!”

Chatine glanced next to her and noticed a small red panel cut into the side of the hull. “Why don’t you just call it the little red door?”

“Because it’s—” the pilote huffed. “Never mind. Can you reach it?”

“Yes.” Chatine strained against her harness until she could reach the panel. She dug her fingernails into the groove and yanked it open. “Got it.”

“Good.” The pilote kept his gaze out the front window at the combatteurs that whooshed and buzzed around them like insects. “Do you see a large lever?”

Chatine grabbed the lever with her extended hand, ready to yank it down. “Yes!”

“Whatever you do, don’t pull that lever!”

Chatine pulled her hand away as though she’d been burned. The pilote chuckled. “Just kidding. Pull that lever.”

“I’m going to kill you when this is over. You do realize that, right?”

The pilote shrugged as he successfully dodged another incoming explosif. “Risk I take for picking up a runaway Bastille convict, I guess. Are you going to pull the lever or not?”

“What does it do?” Chatine asked, now suddenly distrustful.

“It’s a system override.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Well, you know what they say. When all else fails, reboot.”

“What does that even mean?” Chatine asked impatiently.

“We have to shut down the whole system and restart it. It’s risky but it might be the only way to reset the stealth management system. The only problem is, I won’t be able to steer the ship when it’s down.”

Chatine drew her hand away from the lever again. “WHAT? Are you crazy? They’ll shoot us for sure.”

“The system will only be down for a few seconds. As soon as it’s back up, stealth mode will reengage automatically, and we’ll disappear from their monitors and detection scans.”

“Okay,” Chatine said, steeling herself and reaching for the lever again. The ship shuddered as another explosif whizzed by.

“That is, if it works.”

She pulled back. “If?”

“Just do it!”

Chatine took a breath, grabbed for the lever, and thrust it down hard. She felt a low rumbling beneath her as the ship powered down and sunk back onto what was left of the roof. Every light on every panel extinguished, and they were plunged into darkness. Only the stars cast their measly light inside the small cockpit.

Then, three blinding streaks cracked through the sky like lightning, heading straight toward them.

Chatine held her breath and shut her eyes. After all of this, after everything she’d done today, she couldn’t believe she was still going to die on Bastille.

She opened her eyes to see the explosifs coming straight toward them. They were going to crash right through the cockpit window. They were going to slice her in half. She opened her mouth to scream.

“Stealth mode activated.”

The lights of the cockpit flickered on, one by one, and Chatine felt a jolt as the pilote took command of the contrôleur again