Shay spread her hands. "What are we supposed to be? Magic?"
The car pitched into a wild climb, and the two weightless inhumans went tumbling again, their limbs flopping like rag dolls. The needle-tipped fingers of the woman whizzed past Aya's face, missing her by a few centimeters.
"Someone grab her!" Aya shouted.
Frizz reached out and snagged the woman's leg, which snapped her body down against the cabin floor with a sickening thud.
"Oops, sorry," he said.
"You'd think Tally would have asked before she knocked out the drivers," Shay said from the doorway. "But that's Tally for you."
"Get in here and help me!" called Tally's voice. Shay turned and disappeared as the hovercar went into another series of wild spins, dropping again.
Fausto leaped across the hold, grabbing the unconscious woman. He guided her into the cargo webbing, making sure her needle fingers weren't exposed.
The car dipped and twisted, the hold spinning all the way around every few seconds. But Fausto gathered and secured Udzir's body easily. He darted across the tumbling surfaces, stepping from wall to floor to ceiling, like a littlie playing in a funhouse.
The lifting fans shrieked unhappily, drowning out the howl of the wind. Aya clutched the cargo webbing with white knuckles, barely keeping her grip. Gravity twisted around her, like some wild animal trying to pry her from the wall.
Then suddenly the car leveled out, the scream of the lifting fans settling into a steady roar. At last the floor of the cargo hold felt like down again.
Shay appeared in the doorway. "Everyone okay?"
"More or less," Fausto said. "Took you long enough to find the autopilot."
"I wish we hadn't," Shay said. "It's programmed to take us straight into their hoverport. And it looks like the drivers got off a warning, so they'll be expecting us. We have to jump. Everyone's got crash bracelets, right?"
"Sure, but are we still over their city?" Fausto asked.
"After all that craziness?" Shay said. "Kilometers away. But there's plenty of Rusty metal down there, as far as we can tell."
Fausto's eyes widened. "Are you kidding? Isn't that a little risky?"
Shay shrugged. "Safer than staying in here."
"At this speed, we'll need more than crash bracelets." Fausto knelt and stripped the forearm lifter pads from Udzir, tossing them to Shay.
She strapped them on, turning to Ren. "Come on, you and me first."
"We're jumping out into a storm, with only ruins to catch us?" he cried. "But that's brain-missing!"
She laughed. "You'd rather wind up with a bunch of insane surge-monkeys? Are you thinking of joining them?"
Ren groaned, then started to unwind himself from the cargo webbing.
"Open the side door!" Shay called to Tally. "And we'll see you at the usual place!"
The wall behind Aya and Frizz began to move. They scrambled away, suddenly doused by driving rain, the wind tearing at their clothes and hair. As the door opened, the hovercar lost its stability again, shivers passing through its frame, the storm rushing greedily inside.
In the hard gray light that spilled into the cargo hold, Aya saw how close they'd come to crashingthe tops of storm-tossed trees were shooting past, their highest branches whipping the underside of the car.
"Ready?" Shay yelled against the wind.
Ren nodded, and she wrapped her arms around him, jumping through the sliding door with a wild and wordless cry.
"Our turn, Hiro!" Fausto said as he stood up, the inhuman woman's lifter pads hastily strapped onto his forearms.
"This better work!" Hiro cried, then turned to Aya. "Good luck, and don't forget Moggle."
Fausto grabbed Hiro and yanked him out of the hovercar, the two of them disappearing into the driving rain without a sound.
"But there's two of us left," Frizz said. "And only " "Me," Tally said. She stood in the doorway of the drivers' cabin, slipping on a hoverball shin pad.
"Lucky those freaks all wear these things. I think they can't walk on those feet of theirs."
"You can carry us both?" Aya asked.
Tally scowled. "Why should we take this moron? He betrayed us!"
"But he can't help it!" Aya cried.
"What is he, brain-missing?"
"No," Frizz said. "I just have to tell the truth."
"You have to do what?"
"Radical Honesty," Frizz said. "It's a kind of brain surge."
Tally's eyes narrowed. "Wow. Your city is officially the weirdest place on Earth. Why would they do something like that to you?"
Aya tried to think of something distracting to say, but Frizz was already explaining, "I asked for the surge. I designed it, actually."
"You mean you're a voluntary bubblehead? That's itI'm leaving you behind. Come on, Ayathere's no time to argue!"
Aya struggled out of Tally's grip. "You can't just leave him here! Those freaks will get him!"
"So? He's a freak too. And this is dangerous enough with only two of us!"
"I'm not a bubblehead," Frizz said. "But she's right, Aya. You'll be safer without me. Leave me!"
"Crap," Tally growled. "You just had to say that!"
She grabbed them both, then jumped.
At this speed the rain felt hard as stones.