sitting in the co-pilot seat and learning how to operate the vehicle. Krysta had been sitting in back, relaxing and chatting quietly with Ginny, but when the car started to go down, everyone snapped to alert.
Tolo tried to get a message out on the comm, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t getting through. Sally took over the comm task, telling him to concentrate on flying while Ginny looked on helplessly. This wasn’t like being in battle in her ship. This was far too small a craft with few weapons, and although it was very maneuverable, if the engine went out for whatever reason, its only option was to glide to the ground and await rescue.
They were gliding now, heading for a country road with no traffic on it. That would do for a landing strip, Ginny thought, as she looked out the window. She caught sight of pursuit behind and alongside them. This wasn’t a simple malfunction. This was a deliberate attack.
She tried her personal comm, but it, too, was jammed. Grabbing a pen and paper out of her bag, she wrote a quick note the old-fashioned way and jammed it under a corner of the carpet. Unless the attackers burned the vehicle—which she didn’t think they would, since a fire like that would attract too much attention too soon—Tigh’s people would find her note. She hoped.
She also snapped a few images on her personal comm of the pursuit vehicles, trying to document as much as she could, and ordered Krysta to do the same. The attackers might find and destroy their comm devices, but at least they would have tried.
And Ginny had one last thing she could do. She activated the small robotic recording device that Tigh insisted she carry with her at all times. It was the same small camera that had been part of her gear aboard his ship, which had come in so handy when all the men had been incapacitated. The memory of those units had been downloaded and reproduced for analysis, and the units returned to the women with Tigh’s blessing. He encouraged them all to carry them, and Ginny had acceded to his wishes.
Ginny activated the little unit. It detached from her belt and began to hover, recording everything.
“Oh! I’ve got mine, too,” Krysta said, seeing Ginny’s device appear over her shoulder.
“Don’t activate it yet,” Ginny said quickly. “Keep it in reserve. My unit will probably get captured if we end up in their trap.” She glanced out the window and frowned. “And it certainly looks like we’re going to get caught. What we need to do now, is leave clues for those who will come after us. To help them find us quicker.”
Ginny positioned the floating camera near the window to record what it could of the pursuing vehicles. Then, she took the camera and reattached it to her belt, this time, facing outward on the buckle, as if it was some kind of ornament. With any luck, the bad guys wouldn’t realize what it was, and she’d get a chance to discard it somewhere Tigh’s people would find it. In the meantime, it would continue to record everything.
“Do you think they’re going to kill us?” Krysta asked, her expression grim.
“If they’d wanted to kill us, they would have blasted us out of the sky already. I’m betting on capture, so stay alert. If you can get away, do it.”
“But—” Krysta objected, but Ginny was having none of it.
“That’s an order. They’ll keep me alive, but I’m not sure about the rest of you. I’d rather have you free to come get me than dead.” Harsh words, but it was how she felt. She saw Krysta nod and was glad she understood.
Tolo had his hands full guiding the car down to the ground safely, and Sally was still working on coms, to no avail. The com system was supposed to be triple coded and unassailable on this royal vehicle, yet somehow, someone found a way to jam them. They’d also punched through the shield that should have been protecting the engine like it wasn’t even there. It was simple. Someone had to have given the enemy their codes.
“None of this is supposed to be possible with all the precautions,” Krysta said, sounding grim as they kept coasting, ever downward.
“Inside job,” Ginny muttered, but everyone in the small cabin heard her.
“I fear you are correct, Highness,” Tolo said, fighting with the stick to keep them in line with the roadway as they