“Mon chou, I strongly suggest—”
She stuffed a wad of bedding in his mouth, tearing at the soft fabric so he would not be able to easily spit it out.
One strong yank on the chains, and he found he could not bring his hands together to unlatch them. Roaring behind the gag, Jacques went wild, shaking the bed with such force that Brenya flew back and pressed her naked body to the wall.
No one would hear him over the sounds of manic sex, but it was only a matter of time before he broke the bed frame.
Scrambling to enact a reckless and poorly thought out plan, she took his clock and smashed it on the floor. From the wreckage she scooped up the largest cog, some broken metal fragments, anything she might use as a tool. Two minutes later, she had the ventilation panel parted from the wall and was scrambling like a rat through the air ducts.
He would not be able to follow through so tight a passage, not that it gave her courage. She knew when he broke free, his wrath would come down upon her like a hammer. There would be no talk or punishments. It would be the true end.
One way or another tonight was the last time he’d twist her with his games.
It was dark in the city, but the pink tinged refraction on the glass warned dawn would be breaking soon. An unclothed female would draw attention. Fortunately, ventilation went everywhere, the paths intuitive to someone who’d spent years maintaining them.
She made remarkable time back to the Thólosen ship. It was almost too easy.
The gangplank had sealed, and she didn’t know the access codes to open it. It was sacrilegious to damage such a perfect machine, but Brenya pried open the mechanics and crossed wires that would make the door surge. She only needed it to unhinge enough to squeeze through, throwing her body weight against the hatch until it gave.
Straining to pry it one more inch apart, Brenya plunked her bare foot to the hull. With just enough leverage she was able to lift her body to where the gap was widest and fall gracelessly inside the ship.
The hatch sealed behind her, leaving her in the dark.
She did not need to see to remember where the cockpit lay. She ran, she ran as if the ship was hers, built by her hands and yipped in triumph when her hands found the shape of a door.
The lever was thrown, mechanics whirring, and then she was there, looking over the controls, just as the sun broke the horizon.
“You’ll never get out, you know.”
Screaming, Brenya rounded on the voice, holding out the sharp edge of a cog as if it might save her.
On the other side of the cargo door was nothing more than the shine of eyes in the dark. The Ambassador was there, watching, easing closer by the second.
It could not end this way, not after what she’d done. “You weren’t supposed to be in here.”
His voice was steady, the complete opposite of her high pitched panic. “The same could be said about you.”
Flying forward to catch the door before he might reach her, she threw it closed and jammed the lock.
She didn’t have time to think through her actions, she had to get the ship off the ground. These things were built to fly themselves, but they could not take off without manual control—just as she would not be able to exit the Dome without overriding the passcodes.
In the captain’s chair she gave herself a moment to look over the knobs, buttons, levers, and stick. Machines made sense, she understood their language better than the spoken word, and reached forward to flip a red toggle.
The engine shuddered, thrust coming online. There was only one bay the ship might have fit through, and she knew exactly where it was. Jerking the stick, she threw the ship into the sky, Brenya overcorrecting before she upended the vessel. Her next attempt was smoother and then glass was all that separated her from a Dome full of lies, and air that smelled of jasmine.
Codes were entered, codes she should never have known but had picked up over years of making the descent. The panels parted and she shot out of Bernard Dome and into freedom.
Brenya smiled.
She smiled despite the sound of a man attacking the door at her back. The Beta would not get through that much metal… not unless he knew how to take it apart.
He didn’t.Chapter 24She flew south according to the instruments on the dash, the sun climbing a horizontal path around her ship. Hours ago the man had stopped trying to force open the door, and she had calmed, surrounded by the subsequent sound of the surrounding mechanics functioning in harmony.
At midday, a meadow was found that would offer sufficient room for the ship to land and recharge solar energy cells. The remainder of the flying would have to take place at night. Either way, Bernard Dome was far behind her. She would not even know how to find it if she turned around.