“Even if we do,” Rowan said grimly, “what’s the long game? They’ve got us hopelessly outgunned. Even if we elude them for another few minutes, enough for the pilot to grab us, there’s no way we can outrun an airship in the open. Not in that beat-up old chopper.”
She gripped his arm. “We have to try. We have to draw that airship away from the location and away from Gordon.”
The airship stormed past, its low throbbing vibrating in her chest. The snow cover had worked. Through the leaves of the shrub, she watched the gleaming silver ship maneuver farther down the mountain slope. She saw their chance. “Now!”
She burst from the bushes and ran for the cleft. When she got closer, it looked narrower than it had before, a slender V cut into the towering cliff.
It started about five feet above the ground, so she scrambled up the rock, grabbing onto ancient tree roots, and hefted herself into the crevice. Cold and dark enveloped her. She pulled herself up, shinnying along the cleft. Rowan leaped up, and she grabbed his hand, pulling him all the way in. Now her ribs were on fire.
She gazed up. The sky opened up about twenty feet above. The airship would have a very difficult time spotting them in here. The immense size of the cliff meant it would be very cold around them.
She looked to the far end of the V, seeing a patch of daylight not far off. Then a renewed thrumming filled the air. She watched as the daylight across the way was blocked by another massive airship, wheeling slowly in the sky. It rose up, passing overhead, moving back where they’d stashed Gordon.
She met Rowan’s eyes in the gloom. “Can you ask your pilot if it’s clear out there? I’m sure she’s got a better vantage point.”
Rowan pulled out his PRD. He started to draft a message to the pilot, then stopped. “No, wait.” He switched it off. “We know the PPC didn’t track your PRD because it’s untraceable. It must have been mine.” He stared down at it, looking betrayed. “We always remove the chips, but somehow they’re able to hack us.”
She pulled out her own PRD. “Here. Use mine.”
Rowan took it and sent the message to the pilot.
“I’ll look,” Marlowe wrote back, “but that second airship ain’t far away, and it’s tracking me too.” Rowan handed back the PRD.
They began to shinny their way deeper and deeper into the crevice, ready to go in either direction.
Then a booming voice swept over the mountain. “We have your friend, the pilot,” said the voice. “Surrender now, or we’ll kill him.”
Chapter 28
She turned to Rowan in the shadows. “They’ve got Gordon.”
His mouth was a gray slash. “They’re not going to let him go if you go out there.”
“They’ll kill him!”
“They’ll kill him anyway, if they haven’t already.”
She bit her lip. “No. I can’t just let him die.”
Rowan gently took hold of her arms. “You have to think of the big picture. If you go out there, they’ll kill both of you. And then who will reach the Rovers?”
She slung her tool bag off her shoulder. “Look. Take this. It’s all the research I found on the asteroid. Find the Rovers. I’m going out there. Maybe my surrender will distract them long enough for you to get away in the helicopter.”
“Absolutely not.” He pulled her close, pressing his face into her hair.
“I won’t be able to live with myself if they kill him,” she told him.
He pulled back, meeting her eyes. “At least you’ll be alive.”
She shook her head, placing a hand on his chest. “Rowan . . .”
Drawing her closer, he placed his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her into him, his lips closing on hers. She felt his touch all the way to her toes. She breathed him in, recalling their night in the mine. She wanted to stay with him. Wanted to live. But if Gordon died because she wasn’t brave enough to go out there, she’d never be able to forgive herself.
“I have to go,” she told him.
He pressed his forehead to her. “No.”
“Can you think of anything else?”
He fell silent.
“If we stay here, Gordon dies for certain. If I surrender, there’s a chance they’ll capture me, and I could escape later.”
“From an airship?” he asked incredulously. “Do you know how heavily guarded those things are?”
“I have to take the chance.” She gripped her tool bag. “Promise me you’ll get this information to the Rovers.”
“I don’t like this plan.”
“Promise me!”
He hesitated. “I promise. But I don’t want to lose you.”
“Don’t give up on me yet. If I can find a way to get both of us off that airship, I will.” But her voice faltered a little at the end, and she knew then that Rowan saw how terrified she was. Then she moved past him and jumped down from the crevice into the snow.
“Wait!” he called after her. “We don’t even know if they really have him.”
“I’ll make sure,” she said, sprinting up the hill, sticking close to the rock outcrop.
As she drew closer to Gordon’s location, she saw one of the gigantic airships had landed in the snow. Three men stood outside, two of them Repurposers dressed in their customary black suits. Keeping Gordon on the stretcher, they dragged him over to a ramp that led up into the belly of the ship. He was screaming in pain as they hefted him up the ramp. The third man, dressed in a gray suit, held a sonic gun on Gordon.
She drew closer, keeping to the rock wall, and stopped with a start. Willoughby. The Repurposers emerged once more from the ship, scanning the snow. “There she is!” shouted one of them. She emerged from the rock, tromping toward them in the snow. Keeping his gun on Gordon, Willoughby gave her a look,
