Page 54 of Venomous Heart
The path to where Knut kept his most prized transportation vehicles was strangely anti-climactic. The few guards she came across didn’t even glance at her, and after she’d left the main building through a small service door, she was on her own.
It wasn’t long before she slipped through the darkened hallways and entered the vast cave where a fleet of shining, luxurious hover transports waited. She made a beeline for the smaller, completely black transport at the very back of the cave.
This had been Knut’s favorite vehicle. A marvel of technology, and virtually untraceable.
After a few moments of panic, Ava was finally able to start the engines, then she activated thermal and magnetic shields so strong that no one would see her leave.
Then she was gone into Aveyn’s wilderness… and to a fate unknown.
16
Ava
An hour later, Ava piloted the transport at a dizzying speed, her hands clenched on the controls as she flew just over the tree line and toward the Southern Hemisphere of the planet.
It had been a long time since Knut had trusted her enough to let her roam free in a hover transport, and even though she’d put the exact geographic coordinates into the control panel, she was still full of doubts.
Maybe I should have waited longer. What if Arlen is already back?
But it was too late now. She had left, and if she came back empty handed, she knew that Arlen wasn’t going to let her escape twice. He was probably fuming right now.
Then something caught her eye—far away in the distance, but getting closer quickly. She slowed down the transport and stared, her mind a blank, as two other transports lifted from the ground, hovering over the horizon straight ahead of her.
Who could this be?
Her thoughts were followed by the realization that it didn’t matter. Whoever it was, she couldn’t be found. Ava scrambled to reduce the speed of her transport, her hands scrabbling over the controls. Her elbow touched the wheel and suddenly, she lost her balance.
The transport jerked from side to side and Ava cried out, grabbing the wheel with both hands. She realized that she’d over-corrected and tried to regain control, but it was too late. She was going too fast and she wasn’t an experienced enough pilot.
The transport spun out of control in a gut-wrenching, tunneling free-fall.
Ava screamed, her hands on the wheel, trying desperately to correct the trajectory. The treetops were approaching fast, and she knew, she just knew that if she crashed into the forest at that speed, she was as good as dead.
Her heart beat so hard it hurt and then, finally, she saw her salvation in the form of a glittering blue lake, just off to her side. After another mind-shattering moment of fear, she jerked the wheel to set a course toward the lake.
The next second, her world was engulfed in a wall of water as the sleek shape of the transport met the surface.
Water swallowed everything, barely slowing the transport down as it glided under the surface. A strange world appeared behind the glass as she sped toward the rocky bottom. Tears slipped down Ava’s face as she tried to correct the course of the transport, barely avoiding rocks and fallen logs as she still sped down.
The lake was deep—so deep, and still the transport kept sliding in deeper.
Finally, as rocks gave way to sand, the transport crashed, kicking up a thick cloud of sediment from the near dark bottom. Ava’s chin slammed down against her chest as the restraint locked her in place in her seat.
Her head swam with pain as she blinked. Elation filled her mind as she lifted her hands in front of her, then lowered her gaze to her body.
She was alive. Alive and unhurt.
Then she looked up and all joy deserted her. The transport was lying at the bottom of the lake, embedded deep in the muck. She stared up through the transparent ceiling and at the sky, whose blurry surface shimmered far above. She was trapped deep below the surface. Far too deep to be able to come up.
Ava tapped on her control panel, but the engines only sputtered. She was embedded too deep, she couldn’t pull out. Panic enclosed her mind as she stared around, checking the cabin for leaks.
There were none. The transport was cleared for short distance space travel, so it was perfectly watertight.
But that didn’t do her any good if she was trapped down there. Soon, she would use up whatever oxygen reserves she had in the small cabin.
No one will come find me here. I’m so stupid.
Ava pushed her head back against the headrest of her seat, shutting her eyes. Time ticked by, minutes blurring into hours as she tried to keep her breathing shallow and to use as little oxygen as she could, but she knew she was only delaying the inevitable. The cold from the depth sank into her body, still clad only in the cotton uniform, and she let it. Maybe if she was lucky, she would pass out from both hypothermia and oxygen deprivation before true panic set in.
