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"Agreed," said Madame Lefoux

The next round of fire was not nearly so close

Soon they were too high up to be seen froun Also, the four-in-hand was even less able than the fly to handle off-road terrain There ca, probably the drones and the cab driver yel ing at each other, but Alexia kneas only around in pursuit At which point, she was at a distinct disadvantage with her heavy unbustled skirts dragging through the snow

As they neared the cable rail, one of the laden cars ca was going in the wrong direction, back into France, but it stil e The three made it, final y, to the support pole It was furnished with fliency evacuation or repair

Floote see stock of their situation like soeneral "Madame Lefoux’s dart emitter is the fastest weapon we have, uard the base while Floote and I cli fierce

Alexia hated to leave her alone, but there was no other option She hoisted her muddy skirts over one arht as well show the rest of France her bloomers

Floote and she climbed the post

Floote paused on the smal platform at the top, put down the dispatch case, and crouched to fire doith a derringer, reloading and firing each gun in turn until he was out of ammunition, while Madame Lefoux climbed up behind the rail cabin She could see the startled face of a driver in theShe ful y understood his confusion She must present quite the lunatic picture--a statuesque Italian worubby, hair wild, and hat askew, pointing an ugly parasol at his largemanner

Just as the front of the cabin drew level with the platfor carved lotus petal in the handle of her parasol The nal and the rail car jerked to a halt

Inside the cable co at her in confusion Behind her on the platfor obscenities in French, and the drones, now cli

She turned to see if she could help her companions in any way The infant-inconvenience kicked an objection to al her recent exertions, but Alexia disregarded it with an internal, Pack it in, proto-nuisance Time for that later

One of the drones now had Mada at hi to climb the last handbreadth up onto the platfor at the Frenchwo quickly, opened and flipped her parasol As swiftly as possible, she turned the special inset dial in the parasol’s tip around to its alternate setting Holding the parasol far out over the edge of the platform, Alexia rained aned for olves, not huht folk than skin discoloration But since the gentle up, it had the beneficial effect of hitting the eyebal s and causing al to let go in startle screa, or perhaps they were the result of the che in the snow far below, Alexia considered thethe writhers was the man who had had hold of Madame Lefoux’s boot He stil had her boot, but Madame Lefoux was able to attain the top of the platform with a look of profound relief on her pretty face

The three of them dashed to the rail cabin Floote overrode the driver’s objection to their presence by s in the front ith Alexia’s dispatch case, cli the poor man hard in the jaw He fel like a stone, and his stoker, a slight, reedy boy ide, anxious eyes, meekly acquiesced to their demands

No one else was on board

Alexia ripped off her bustle fal , tore the length into strips, and handed them to Floote

He showed re up the boy and his unconscious supervisor with ease

"You do that quite efficiently, don’t you, Floote?" co valet to Mr Tarabotti had its advantages"

"Genevieve, can you drive this contraption?" Alexia asked

"I only worked on the initial scheure it out"

"Done!" Alexia thought stoking couldn’t be that difficult

Soon enough, the effects of the netic disruption eine in the center of the cabin runed with a ed steering area at either end so that the car did not itself turn around Instead, the engineer merely shifted position in order to drive in the opposite direction

Madame Lefoux, after a quick review of the controls, pul ed down on acabin and then dashed to the other end, pul ing a sily loud horn sounded, and the contraption, cabin, andbackward in the direction it had coain

Alexia let out a little cheer of encourage up their two prisoners "I do apologize, sirs," he said to thelish, which they probably didn’t understand

Alexia s Poor Floote, this whole escape was rather beneath his dignity

Stoking was hot work, and Alexia was beginning to feel the strain of having dashed across rough terrain and then climbed a pylon She was, as Ivy had once scornful y pointed out, a bit of a sporting young lady But one would have to be positively Olympian to survive the past three days without some physical taxation She supposed the infant-inconvenienceto do with her exhaustion But never having run while pregnant, she did not know quite who to bla about the end of the cable cabin, pul ing levers and twisting dials maniacal y, and the rail contraption lurched forward in response to herfro run

"Are you certain this thing can take this kind of speed with a load?" Alexia yel ed from her self-prescribed stoker’s post

"No!" Mada to deduce how to set loose the cargo straps and net, but there see a drop while in motion Give me a moment"

Floote pointed out the front"I do not think we have that long, madam"

Alexia and Mada

Mada down the cables toward the at a sedate pace, but it see very fast While one cabin could clined to do so while stil lugging a net ful of luure out a drop," suggested Alexia

Madame Lefoux looked frantical y underneath the control board

Alexia thought of a different tactic She ran over to the other end of the cabin