“Then what are we waiting…” Chase’s voice died out. She saw Phoenix move into a striking position behind Pegasus. “No way,” she said. “This is a ‘last jet in the sky wins’ kind of thing, isn’t it?”
“That sounds about as original as the military can muster. So, sure.”
Chase watched Tristan gain missile lock on Sylph, who then left the scene with an angry burst of speed. Now it was just the two of them. “This should be interesting,” she said. “He won’t let me win this time.”
“Does anyone else feel awkward?” Pippin asked. “I feel awkward.”
Chase threw herself into the throttle and felt the magnetic surge of Phoenix blasting after her. They flew for heartbeats, for minutes. Forever. She swung around when they were way over Canada, engaging him full-on, a strong smile spreading over her face.
“Nyx!” Pippin yelled, snapping her concentration. “Do you see that? Look at the screen.”
Chase glanced down and saw a blip coming at them. Fast.
Faster than fast.
She peered at the horizon until she saw something small.
Something bloodred.
? ? ?
Chase lost Tristan in a sunburst. “Red drone! It’s fake, isn’t it?” She was already running evasive maneuvers, but her mind was a blaze of denial. “It’s for the combat test, right?”
“Looks real to me!” Pippin yelled.
She flew zigzagging getaway patterns, but the drone was faster. “Where did it come from?”
“It must have caught wind of our maneuvers. We were in the sky too long after what happened last week.” Pippin was frantic, punching at his controls.
“Can’t you get the tower on the radio?”
“No joy. Can that drone jam our signal?”
Kale’s warning from a few days ago lit up her spine.
“Hunted,” she murmured. “So I guess it’s good we’ve got real missiles now, huh?”
“Good isn’t the word I’d use.”
Phoenix was flying tight beside her. She checked the desire to look over at his cockpit. She had to go faster. They had to split up. The drone would only be able to follow one of them.
Tristan must have understood. He broke right. She went left.
“I guess we win,” Pippin said as the drone swung after them. “Or lose.”
Chase dropped her altitude and speed until the drone was right on her butt, then rocketed Dragon out over a gorgeous patch of wilderness, complete with emerald fields and a huge bottle-blue lake.
“There’s no one here,” she said, gasping between each word. “No people down there. We should do it here.” She flipped up the switch cover of the missile control and put a stiff finger on the trigger. “That drone can’t go back to Ri Xiong Di, and it can’t follow us to the Star, right?”
Pippin’s response came a mile behind her question. “Right.”
Chase hit the fastest speed she could reach on her tired muscles and swung over the shimmering water. Too fast, the drone was on top of them. She hit the brakes, and it flew by overhead so close that Chase heard the screech of metal on metal. She headed back into the atmosphere, shaking the drone a little bit off her tail before she had no choice but to come back down.
Down.
Too low. She had to pull back up, but the drone seemed to be waiting for her move. It engaged, nose to nose.
Chase fired, but the drone shot first.
A missile came at them in a blur.
At the cockpit.
Chase jammed the stick sideways. The jet jinked, and Dragon’s left wing exploded.
“Nyx!” Pippin cried out. They fell in a gut-twisting spin. Chase fought for control while the lake seemed to rise to meet the jet.
They were too low to eject.
She couldn’t save the landing.
They skipped off the surface as though it were granite. Dragon’s right wing ripped off with a horrible screech. Chase’s head whipped against her seat back, and they slammed to a stop near the sandy shore.
Smoke filled the cockpit. The canopy glass was somehow still holding shape, and yet it had been fractured like a net thrown over them. She hit the release and the canopy rose.
Chase got out of her seat, choking on each breath. “Pippin!” she tried to yell.
His head hung over his chest, and when she shook him, he didn’t move.
Chase hauled Pippin onto her shoulder. They fell over the side of the jet, landing with a splash in the few inches of water. She dragged him away from Dragon. The wet sand swallowed each step, and she stumbled several times before they fell into a pile at the lapping edge of the lake.
Her helmet was gone, and she didn’t know when she’d lost it. She pulled Pippin’s off, finding a huge crack across the back of it. Bad sign. She checked his pulse, but her fingers were too cold from the water. She pressed her ear to his chest and listened for a beat.
He had one. Thank God.
“Wake up.” She shook him. She knew she should be gentle, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Pippin?”
His eyelids trembled before they opened. “My head,” he said.
“You cracked it.”
“You cracked it,” he argued.
A bit of relief settled in. If he was joking, he was okay. She forced herself to breath, looking at the cloudless blue sky. “Where’s Phoenix? Where’d that drone go? Will it come back?”
No one responded.
“Pip?” Chase pulled his body over her lap, and his head tilted at a harsh angle like he couldn’t hold it up.
“I’m gonna—gonna—” He threw up, and she held his shoulders while the water turned gross. He collapsed onto her lap, and Chase found blood all over her hands. All down Pippin’s flight suit.
“Your head is bleeding,” she said. “I’ve got to get you out of the water.”
“Doesn’t matter. Cerebral edema. Brain filling with blood.”
“Don’t mess with me.” She swore. “Rescue helos are on their way. It’ll be any minute.”
“They’re hours away. We’re in Nowhere, Canada. I’m the navigator, remember? You’re the one failing geography.” He sucked in breath. “I have a few minutes, maybe, before the pressure takes out my higher brain functions.”
She ignored him. “We just have to stay chill to fight off shock. Okay?”
“Okay.”
There was that word again. That god-awful word.