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She glanced over her shoulder, looking through the glass partition that separated the driver from the back. Keiko and Mace had landed on the wing.
Ignacio lunged toward them.
Sandi angled the craft to help them slide inside.
Ignacio grabbed Mace’s flailing arm and tugged. It should have been impossible. They were heavy and sliding off the craft. But Ignacio had the strength of his other half to rely on. He pulled hard, and the three of them jerked inside, landing with a crash on the opposite door of the shuttle.
“Got them!” Ignacio shouted. “Get us out of here.”
With great effort, Sandi struggled to get the shuttle back on an even keel. It veered to the right—just as a drone appeared beside them.
“Brace yourselves,” she shouted. “We’ve got an Enforcement attack drone on us.”
There was a blast as the drone opened fire. The shuttle shuddered and wavered in the sky.
“Striker,” Sandi barked into her comm, “we’re taking fire.”
“I see it. I’m on it,” came the calm reply.
There were more blasts as Striker opened fire from the helicopter. An explosion shook the shuttle, but it was only the drone going up in smoke. Sandi turned them away from CommTECH’s building. They had to get out of there fast. Mace needed medical attention. And that wouldn’t be the last drone Enforcement sent after them.
She was right.
A blast hit their left side.
Every light on the dash in front of her blinked out.
Ignoring the firefight beside her as Striker attacked the second drone, Sandi tried to bring controls back online.
It was pointless. The shuttle shuddered, and the engine went dead.
They were going down.
“Ignacio, we’ve lost electrics,” she shouted. “I can’t get it back online. I’m going to coast us as far as I can, but then we’ll need to evac.”
A barrage of Spanish curses was the reply.
“I’m heading for Buffalo Bayou Park,” Sandi told him.
“Can you land this thing on the grass over there?” Ignacio called back.
“No.” It wasn’t built for emergency landings. Not like this one. There would be no gliding in for a long ride over soft grass. As soon as they touched the ground, they’d roll, and the shuttle would crumple like a cheap tin can. “We have to go into the water. Prepare Mace as best you can. I’ll come back to help when it’s time.”
In the meantime, she had to steer a craft that was dead in the air, using only the manual controls that utilized the directional flaps on the wings. And hope like hell they didn’t hit any of the buildings between the research center and the park.
Chapter Forty-Five
The shuttle had stalled. They were gliding silently past Houston’s downtown skyline. And Mace was unconscious beside Keiko.
She felt bruised and stunned from the leap into the shuttle. She’d hit it hard and knew they’d both feel the aches for days to come.
If they survived.
She couldn’t think about how they were going to get out of the shuttle. All she could think about was Mace.
She held him tight as she faced the stranger who’d helped rescue them. “He’s dying. We need a hospital.”
Ignacio’s expression was compassionate. “That isn’t gonna happen, bonita. You heard Sandi—the farthest we’re going is the bayou. But I’m a medic, and we’ll make sure our boy is patched up enough to live through this.”
