A small line of light from the hidden door marked their exit. Vas told her to wait. He reached his leg back and stepped onto the tiny metal landing before cautiously opening the door. He jumped down, his e-gun drawn, and checked the entire room, looking for anyone. Mercifully, it was empty. He came back to the ladder.

It was harder for Reyer. She couldn’t reach her foot back to get to the landing. Vas had to pull her over. After they finally extracted themselves from the tiny opening, Reyer went from her hands and knees to laying on the icy stone floor. She rolled to her back, waiting for the worst of the torment to subside.

“Where are we?” she whispered, her eyes still closed. She was vaguely aware the room was filled with tall metal cylinders. The loud, low noise of machinery went in and out like a series of waves.

“A pump room,” Vas said, “down by the river. People only come in here when something goes wrong.”

“Do we…” Reyer felt a sense of shame clamp down on her chest, but she forced herself to say, “Do we have time—”

“Yes. Rest for now.” That was a lie. If the notice was planet-wide, their best option would be to leave before every peacekeeper received the message. But, looking down at the agonized expression on her face, Vas knew he was not going to tell her that. “I have Tranomine.”

There was a weak laugh. “Oh, yes. The hero-type.”

Adan smiled as he pulled out the bottle. He put two pills in her raised hand. Before he could even ask if she needed water, she had swallowed them dry.

“How long do those take to work?” He put the pills in her kit before sitting down on the floor beside her.

“Too long.” She took a breath. “Don’t worry, Captain. Another minute, then we can go.”

He focused on watching the door as the long minute passed.

When Reyer said she was ready to go, he helped her to her feet. Once they were outside, the sound of the river rushed over them.

Adan led Reyer over to the staircase. “Don’t worry,” he assured her, yelling over the sound of the water. “There’s an elevator only two levels up.”

It was slow going. Adan had to wait, with ever-increasing nervous tension, to stay with Alix’s slower pace. In a much longer amount of time than the captain would have liked, they reached the top of the first staircase. When he satisfied himself that Alix was immediately behind him, he turned and saw the four peacekeepers. He hissed out a short stream of profanity.

Whirling back around, he said, “Miss Reyer, we have a problem.”

Alix looked up, her hand still gripping the railing at the edge of the walkway. She didn’t swear, but it looked as though she would have liked to.

“How close are we to the elevator?” she asked.

“Across the way, past our four friends, up the staircase that goes above our heads, and then about ten meters further on.”

“Right.” She put a hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. “What are the chances they won’t stop us?”

Vas turned enough to get another glance. “Zero? Maybe less than zero? I think they’re stopping everybody. And I think they have a picture of you.”

Now Reyer swore, then condemned all spy drones to a level of hell that Adan hadn’t known existed.

Vas scanned the stairs and walkway above them, looking for more uniforms. “If we shoot them, we might be able to run for it, but there would be a mini-battle at the top of the elevator.” When Reyer didn’t answer, he looked down at her.

She looked half amused, half exasperated. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said, “I love a good shoot out, Captain.”

Vas grunted. “Maybe no running.”

“They’re coming,” Reyer said, peering past him.

Adan snatched a tiny com out of his jacket pocket and held it to his mouth. “Lynx. Lynx? Are you there? We need a lift.” He waited. “Lynx!”

Alix pulled his arm down, her eyes fixed on something behind him.

He turned while still trying to hide her from the peacekeeper’s line of sight.

“Good afternoon, peacekeepers.” Vas did his best to sound cheerful.

“Good afternoon.” The peacekeeper’s efficient and friendly tone was taxed by too much repetition. “We need ID and retinal scans.”

Adan forced a laugh and patted his back pocket. “I’m so sorry, gentlemen, but I’m not carrying mine. I didn’t expect a check. You do it so rarely.”

One of the peacekeepers was walking around him to get to Reyer. Vas shifted, trying to stay as much between them as possible.

“I’ll take your retinal then—sir!”

Adan looked back at the officer he had been talking to. Beside him, another peacekeeper had asked for Reyer’s ID.

“Sir, I said I’ll take your retinal and as long as there are no flags—”

The com still in Adan’s hand buzzed. Lynx’s mechanized voice came out. “Captain? Is that you? Are you requesting an escape?”

The peacekeeper’s eyes widened.

Reyer and Vas punched out at the same time. Alix struck the peacekeeper beside her hard in the face. Adan struck the one in front of him as hard as he could in the gut.

The other two peacekeepers, who obviously hadn’t been expecting anything, drew their e-pistols only a half second slower than Reyer. She fired off two shots, managing to take down one of them before they started shooting back.

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Vas pulled Reyer to the floor while shouting into his com. “Yes, Lynx! Now!”

They could hear one of the peacekeepers using his own com to call for backup. Vas pulled his weapon and shot both of the fallen men nearby. The com rolled out from the peacekeeper’s fingers. The garbled confirmation that others were coming was still barely audible.

Reyer, on one knee, took out the last peacekeeper by firing over Adan’s back as he held his own com up to his ear.

“Captain,” Lynx said, “I’ve received your GPS location, but I regret to inform you that the canyon is too narrow for safe retrieval at that point.”

There was shouting and a storm of footsteps above them.

“Then follow us, Lynx. Follow the signal and pick us up when we’re past all the buildings.”

“The canyon is still three meters narrower than recommended—”

“I didn’t tell you to do it if it was safe! I told you to do it!” He jammed the com back into his pocket and took Reyer by the shoulders. “Can you swim?”

Reyer looked down into the rushing river. “In that?” She looked up at the squad of peacekeepers already at the bottom of the stairs above them. “I’m game to try.”

They both smiled.

Vas helped lift Reyer over the railing before pulling himself up. He grabbed onto the kit bag and held it firmly as he leaped into the water.

At the deepest point of her submersion, Alix discovered she couldn’t kick with her right leg; the pain was incapacitating. She dragged herself to the surface with her arms, gulping for air when she broke the top. The current was faster and crueler than she had imagined. She worked to stay above the water while the river dragged her along.

“Reyer!”

“Vas!” She choked and coughed as water plunged into her mouth.

She fought against the force of the flow enough to turn her body so she was being dragged backward. Adan was swimming toward her, using huge strokes aided by the river.

“Grab onto me,” he yelled.

“I might take you down!”

“There’s only one com signal. We can’t be separated.”

Reyer thrashed and grabbed onto his wrist. He took a hold of hers.

They were rushed downriver. The current managed to tear them apart several times, but they fought to get back to each other almost as much as they fought to get air. A subjective eternity passed before the river widened and the current slowed. They were still being dragged along, but now they only needed to tread water to stay up.

They were still clasping each other’s forearms.

“I’m so tired,” Reyer murmured.

Vas put her arm over his shoulder before he struggled to reach the com in his pocket. For a horrible moment, he thought it might have fallen out in the river, but at last his fingers found it.

He didn’t even bother shaking the water off it.

“Lynx!”

“I’m almost there, Captain, but I’m having trouble with enemy fire.”

“What?”

“Some shuttles are in pursuit. They appear to have been outfitted with weapons, Captain.”

“All the more reason for you to pick us up so we can get out of here!”

You could almost hear the bot processing, weighing the orders against the complex calculation of risk his AI was programmed to consider.

“Descending now, sir. I will anticipate your trajectory and be ten meters in front of you. I recommend you are careful not to go under the ship, Captain.”

The ship roared overhead. When the blast from the engines drove Vas and Reyer back under the water, she slipped away from him. Vas surfaced, shook his wet hair out of his eyes, and grabbed at Reyer as she broke the surface.

About five meters away and closing fast, the ship hovered above the water with the ramp already lowered. The engines were tearing up the river, churning it until it looked as if it was being driven by a tempest.

Vas struggled to align himself and Reyer with the ramp. They both hit it hard. Adan only grunted, but Reyer let out a short howl. She curled over the ramp and didn’t move.

Vas let go with one arm, grabbed her pants at her hip, and with one wrench of effort, pulled her legs up. He cringed when she cried out again.

Reyer struggled to move out of the way so Adan could get up, but each time she tried, the pain drove her to stillness. She gulped down air for a few seconds, preparing herself. Then, holding her breath until she needed to scream, she compelled her unwilling body to its knees.

As she turned, her boot knocked Adan’s fingers. His hand lost its tenuous hold on the slick metal, and he was pulled under.

Reyer lunged. Her left hand wrapped around the ramp’s hydraulic piston as her right hand snatched at Vas. She caught one end of her pack’s strap. Vas was clinging to the other.

“I can’t pull you in,” she shouted.

Arm over arm, Adan dragged himself back to the side of the ramp. He was partly over the edge when the Supremacy shuttles came around the turn of the canyon.

By the time Vas had pulled himself up, they were already firing.

“Lynx! Get us out of here!” he yelled.

“But the ramp isn’t closed, Captain. I—”

“Now!”

Lynx pulled away from the river.

“Raise the ramp! Run downriver.”

Reyer moved her kit and her arms away from the opening as it pulled shut, but she couldn’t do anything else. Vas caught her as best he could when she rolled to the deck. He laid her out there.

“Are you all right, Reyer?”

“No.”

Dumb question. “Were you hit?”

“No.”

Adan nodded, then ran up to the pilot’s seat. He dropped into it, spraying water over his instrument panel.

“The shuttles are still pursuing us, sir,” Lynx said.

“If all they have are e-weapons, we’re in no danger.”

There was a rain of loud chink noises.

“I have reason to believe they may be carrying old style ammunition,” the bot said with unaffected calm.

“You think! Those bastards are shooting at my ship?! With bullets?!”

“The hull is currently in no danger, but prolonged exposure to metal projectiles may compromise the integrity of this vessel.”

“Then we’ll have to outrun them.”

“Captain, I am already navigating the canyon at speeds not considered safe. It’s beyond my computing ability to fly faster while still calculating our route.”

Vas’s hands were already on the controls. “You get the route, I’ll fly it.”

After another hail of bullets played over the ship, Adan shouted, “Is there a problem, bot?”

“I’m more likely to be able to manage this craft with the exactness required for precision flying.”

“You’re safer than me, Lynx, but I’m a better pilot than you. And I sure as hell know I can’t calculate as fast as you.”

“Yes, Captain.”

They screamed down the canyon, the noise of their engines filling the space from wall to wall. It wasn’t long before the shuttles were outdistanced.

“We’re going up now, Lynx. What are the chances of cover fire over the mesas and atmosphere border?”

“A statistical certainty, Captain, but we could reduce the number of weapons fired at us if we fly down canyon for three minutes.”

“How?”

“We’ll be away from the mesas and into the delta country.”

Vas laughed. “Perfect. I like those odds.”

“Captain?”

“Only half the cover fire means only half the risk, right, bot?”

“I’m not sure those statistics are valid or meaningful, sir. Is this the mental fallacy known as optimism bias?”

“Yes, it is, Lynx!” Vas choked the engine nozzle for a boost of speed.

When they reached the crawling delta, the ocean spread out before them, giving them a panoramic horizon. As Adan pulled up, he hissed a familiar prayer to a god that, at other times, he wouldn’t have been prepared to swear he believed in.

Mesa Rojo wasn’t considered enough of a priority for the Supremacy to install force fields, and the cover fire at the atmosphere was sparse. The ship dodged through it without being hit.

Once clear of the planet, Vas ordered Lynx to set the course for Home Base.

“I already have, Captain.”

Vas set the ship to autopilot and leaned back in his chair. He let out a long breath.

“Sir?”

“Yes, Lynx?”

“I would like to point out that my original caution proved to be correct. Stopping at P31 was unnecessarily hazardous.”

Vas laughed. “Yes, Lynx. You told me so.”

“I am programmed to draw attention to the fact.”

“I know you are.” The captain stood up and went down to the main cabin. Reyer was still where he had left her. Her eyes were closed.

He sat down on the deck beside her. “Hey,” he said quietly, “you’re not asleep, are you?”

“I didn’t think I could handle watching you fly,” she said.

Adan laughed.

“Still,” Reyer said, “we made it out alive.” She held up her arm.

He reached over and they clasped hands. “We made it out alive.”