Breaking Sky(88)

In light of the accident and the global uproar, the government board had yet to rule on the Streakers. Or so Chase thought. “Did the project pass? I haven’t heard anything.”

Adrien didn’t answer, and that was answer enough. Of course the government board would have scratched the Streaker project after her abject failure in the face of that red drone.

Of course.

Adrien wiped her hands on a rag. “You haven’t brought a knife with you, have you?”

Chase was taken back. “What?”

“I need a long knife to salvage some of the software.” Adrien pointed to a hunk of jet guts. “To see if it is intact.”

Looking over the wreckage, Chase remembered the crash with a shock of heat. She fell to her knees, and Adrien took hold of Chase’s arm. “No tears,” the woman commanded. “Help me take her for pieces. It will do your heart good.”

The two of them struggled for over an hour, trying to get Dragon’s metal skin unbent from the machine’s insides. Chase felt alive through the strain of the work. She enjoyed breaking parts of her jet away and swearing and sweating into her eyes.

When they were done, both of them seated on the tarp amid a few thousand tiny parts, Chase asked a question that felt strangely important. “What will you do with all this?”

“Put her back together. Fix some design flaws we learned from your crash. I only have a few weeks to quiet the government’s doubters so that you might have your Streaker fleet.”

“You still think you can change their minds?”

Adrien answer was a shrug. “They want Streakers without young pilots, but I cannot fix that. Only teenagers have the physical durability, impulse-fast reflexes, and mental agility to adjust to the demands of the engines. You learn with the speed of heat.” The engineer looked proud of herself for using a jock pilot term. She even winked. “We will find a way to prove to our governments we need the money. We will keep moving forward.” Adrien motioned to the parts around them. “We will rebuild.”

Chase looked over Dragon’s remains. “When I left her on the shore of that lake, she didn’t look so mangled. She just looked…halved.”


“They had to recover her fast to hold back Ri Xiong Di satellite interest. They knocked her into pieces to transport her.”

Chase faced Adrien, feeling stronger for the first time since she woke in the infirmary. “You have to fix her. I need her.”

“Dragon may yet be rebuilt. I have faith. She was my favorite, but…” Her voice tilted. “Will you fly her?”

“I…want to. But I don’t know if I can fly without him. I’m going to try.” Chase turned such a simple idea over in her hands and remembered something. “Pippin always asked, ‘Where are we going, Nyx?’ And I’d say, ‘Anywhere.’ It made flying feel like escaping, but I think it’s not supposed to feel that way.”

Adrien gave her a reassuring pat, but before they could exchange another word, the hangar door blasted open, and Pegasus roared in. Sylph pulled to a quick stop, and Chase rushed up the ramp stairs to help her out of the cockpit. Riot was unconscious in the back.

“Look at him!” Sylph yelled, although her voice was hoarse and quiet. “Knocked out on the way back and I couldn’t wake him.”

“Did he gray out?”

“No! He’s asleep.” Sylph got out of her chair on soft legs and hit her RIO in the helmet. “Idiot.”

Riot jerked awake and looked around the hangar. “Shit.”

“No kidding.”

The deck officer rushed over for Sylph’s report, and Chase helped Riot down the stairs.

“I’m all right,” he said. “Man, I shouldn’t have slept, but I feel so much better. It was nuts up there.”

Chase shhhed him so she could listen to Sylph’s report to the deck officer.

“They missile locked on me. Over and over again. Tell Kale I’m not going back up there without a dozen wingmen.”

The deck officer ignored her. “Did any of the drones cross the d-line or attempt to hack your controls?”

“They stayed in their zone, and I never opened a channel to them.”

“But you said they missile locked on you,” Chase couldn’t help but interrupt. “They’re escalating.”

Sylph thrust her helmet at Chase, and Chase saw how bad off Sylph was. The blonde looked like she’d been drained of life force. She wavered, and a staff sergeant caught her by the arm. Chase recognized Liam—but other than holding her up, he and Sylph acted like they didn’t know each other. “They kept locking on me because they wanted to tire me out. They wanted to make me run evasive tactics until I didn’t have any speed left.”

“They want a Streaker,” Chase said. “They were going to wear you down and then collect you.”

Sylph nodded once, and then Liam half-walked, half-carried her out of the hangar.

Chase turned toward the deck officer. “Arrow is not going to last half as long as Sylph. He’s exhausted.” He had been up all night. “I have to relieve him.”

The man turned and left. No word. Nothing. Chase wasn’t surprised. After all, she was on the Down List. And he clearly didn’t know he shouldn’t turn his back on Nyx.