The moment fake Edgar saw Diesel’s truck, he glanced once at Indigo, then scrambled into the back of the U-Haul. Before Diesel even parked, a subcompact car emerged from the back, rolled down the car hauler ramps and sped away back in the direction the U-Haul had come from.
Raphael wanted to chase the car, but it was out of sight by the time Diesel’s truck stopped. He jumped from the vehicle and raced Ichor-Delta fast after it, but didn’t see so much as dust hanging in the air. Where had the tiny car gone? He made his way back to the water tower, searching each little road and path he passed, but saw nothing.
At the water tower, Diesel and Wyatt had guns drawn on Indigo Smith, now stuck at the top of the structure. He looked shocked and enraged.
Raphael called up to him, “Come down here, you coward! I have questions.” He would shake the information about Francine’s whereabouts out of the man if he was forced. And likely even if he wasn’t forced.
“I’m not going back to the gulag. You might as well kill me now,” Indigo shouted down at them.
Raphael put a hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. “Please don’t shoot him until we find out where Francine is.”
“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t shoot to kill in this instance—probably.”
Chapter Twenty
Francine woke up in yet another new place. At least she wasn’t crammed in the trunk of a car this time. There wasn’t any tape over her mouth and she wasn’t bound. A veritable hat trick of good news.
Woozy, she stood up slowly and looked for a way out. Where was she?
The room looked like a small airship compartment on the Royal Caldera Forte cruise liner.
Exploration showed she was in a small spaceship, like one of the gulag ships deployed to transfer small numbers of prisoners. She’d been sent back on a similar ship when she was kicked out of Drucilla’s reception. However, this ship smelled like a new car. Nothing like “new” smell in a brand-new vehicle, whether auto or spaceship.
It didn’t take long to discover she was locked in. No amount of tugging on the door hatch lever would allow her to open it. Space potatoes.
Francine anxiously opened doors, panels, and drawers, looking for anything that might hold the key to her escape. Next to the pilot’s console, she pulled open a magnetized drawer and saw something helpful. “Operator’s manual,” she read out loud.
She thumbed through it, looking for a way out, but finding other useful information as well, like tracking and cloaking and weapons, oh my.
Francine flipped more pages. “Ah-ha,” she said triumphantly. She pushed a few buttons on the console panel and, voila, something clicked on the outer door hatch. When she tried it, the lever moved up, the door pushed out and a three-step ladder descended to the grass below. She stepped down, only then realizing the ship was cloaked, which made the open door into the ship look strange, hanging in the air as it was.
She breathed in the scent of pine needles and flowers. It was nearly dark and she had no idea where she was. Another dirt road led from the clearing into the woods.
Francine kept an eye out for her captor and scanned the manual to see if there were any other useful items. Three quarters of the way through she saw exactly what she needed—a fully fueled land rover.
Hurrying to the compartment that held the rover, she got it ready to use, lowered the back hatch and rolled it to the grass. She climbed back inside the ship, raised the back hatch and made a few adjustments. She checked the manual for each button she pushed, including decloaking the ship. She dropped the operator’s manual back into the magnetized drawer and exited through the main hatch door, locking it on her way out.
Now if anyone was looking for her, they’d see the ship. Francine didn’t plan on being here when her captor came back. She straddled the land rover’s seat. It was wider than a motorcycle seat, but a little narrower than a four-wheeler.
Lucy had given her a ride on Axel’s four-wheeler. This was a different setup. There was a helmet and goggles in a basket behind the seat, so she put them both on. She’d probably be straining bugs through her teeth, but hopefully she wouldn’t have to go far to get help.
She turned the rover on. The low hum of the liquid bauxite fuel didn’t make much noise. She pressed the foot pedal on the right side of the little vehicle and it moved forward. She took her foot off and it stopped. Getting a feel for how the rover operated, she drove it through the grassy clearing next to the spaceship and onto the dirt road. Her choices were left or right. A coin toss.
Suddenly, she heard a loud engine approaching. Oh no. Where was it coming from? Her heart pounded in her chest.
The noise got louder, but she couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. She looked up just as a helicopter flew by overhead. Maybe it’s going to town.
Left it is, Francine thought, and hoped she was headed west to Alienn. Anywhere was better than here.
She took off on the bumpy dirt road, pressing the pedal as far down as she dared. She didn’t know how fast she was going, not flooring it. The dial on the display was pegged at half. Any faster and she’d risk being thrown from the rover. She hadn’t gone far before the dirt lane led to blacktop.
Relief flooded her system as she carefully steered the rover onto the main road. She’d only gone a few miles when she came to a four-way stop. Arrows on a sign pointed to Alienn, Old Coot and Skeeter Bite.
Alienn was to the left, the other two towns to the right.Left it is again.
She pushed the accelerator until the dial read three quarters of maximum. The smoother highway allowed her to go faster. She wanted to find someone to help her get to Raphael as fast as possible.
