Read Online Codename: Night Witch by Cary Caffrey - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Cary Caffrey
Tags: Fiction, Science-Fiction
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look and she found it in seconds. It was there, hovering above her: Pegasi, the sunlike star of her home, smack in the center of the constellation Pegasus.
Seeing the light of her home star brought little comfort. If anything, it only brought frustration. How on Earth was she going to get back? It was right there. Fifty-point-one light years. A stone's throw. It was staring her in the face, and there was nothing she could do about it.
No warp travel. Not for five years . That was what Jaffer had said. She was trapped, and no amount of feeling sorry for herself was going to change that. She had to get home. She had to figure out what the Independents had done to her—and she had to learn why Hitomi had sold her.
More than that, she had to find Suko.
Cursing, Sigrid pounded her fist on the dash. She hit it hard. Hard enough to dent the metal and rattle the cab.
While Jaffer snored noisily behind her, Sigrid sat in silence in the dark. The only lights in the cab came from the dim lights of the dashboard. Outside, the night remained black, but not nearly so black as Sigrid's thoughts.
~ - ~
It was hours later. The sun was fully risen, and they were following a canyon road that wound its way through a series of steep hills and sharp turns. A deep ravine to the right of the road provided a spectacular view of shale cliffs and rushing water far below. At least, it would have been spectacular if Sigrid was paying any sort of attention, which of course she wasn't.
They were coming around a sharp bend in the narrow, twisting turns of the canyon road, barreling along at 172.7 kph. She was still mumbling to herself, plotting her escape and her journey home, when her PCM blasted its alerts, shattering her stupor and yanking her back into a heart-pumping reality.
There, just ahead of them and too late to do a bloody thing about it, Sigrid saw the source of the alarms: four lengths of heavy spiked chains drawn across the road. It was a trap, and one meant for them.
"Jaffer, look out!"
Her shouted warning came too late. Jaffer's eyes bulged wide. He grabbed the wheel hard and geared the rig down fast. With a flick of his thumb he triggered the emergency brakes. Fourteen more alarms sounded—on the dash and in her own PCM: brakes overheating and failing. She hadn't thought it possible for something as massive as the cargo train to slow down like that, but it did. The G forces—more than five-point-five—sent her hurtling from her seat to crash against the dash.
Amazingly, Jaffer slowed them in less than a hundred meters, but it wasn't enough. The front wheels hit first. The spikes of the chains tore through the three-meter studded tires, tangling themselves amongst the wheels and tearing them to shreds. Unable to stop, they missed the turn completely, plowing headlong into the soft shoulder and barreling straight toward the drop-off and the ravine beyond.
Jaffer stood harder on the brake pedal. The cliff loomed before them. He practically tore the handle from the emergency brakes in his desperation. The back wheels dug in—all 140 of them. The rig shuddered violently, and still they carried forward.
The front wheels were off, hanging in empty space. The cab dipped forward, lurching downward. The rocky floor of the ravine filled the windscreen.
And then they stopped. Hanging there.
With Jaffer's help—slowly, carefully, fearing any sudden movement might send them over—Sigrid pulled herself up off the floor. Staring down through the windscreen, she swallowed. A winding river thundered below, the roar of rapids loud enough to mask the rumble of the rig's engines.
The two mangled front wheels continued to spin lazily in the air. It was only the great weight of the fourteen flatbed carriers behind them that kept them from going over.
"Hang on," Jaffer said.
He threw the shifter into reverse, starting the rig rumbling back the way they came. Inch by inch, Jaffer nudged the train backwards. It was a painstaking,
Seeing the light of her home star brought little comfort. If anything, it only brought frustration. How on Earth was she going to get back? It was right there. Fifty-point-one light years. A stone's throw. It was staring her in the face, and there was nothing she could do about it.
No warp travel. Not for five years . That was what Jaffer had said. She was trapped, and no amount of feeling sorry for herself was going to change that. She had to get home. She had to figure out what the Independents had done to her—and she had to learn why Hitomi had sold her.
More than that, she had to find Suko.
Cursing, Sigrid pounded her fist on the dash. She hit it hard. Hard enough to dent the metal and rattle the cab.
While Jaffer snored noisily behind her, Sigrid sat in silence in the dark. The only lights in the cab came from the dim lights of the dashboard. Outside, the night remained black, but not nearly so black as Sigrid's thoughts.
~ - ~
It was hours later. The sun was fully risen, and they were following a canyon road that wound its way through a series of steep hills and sharp turns. A deep ravine to the right of the road provided a spectacular view of shale cliffs and rushing water far below. At least, it would have been spectacular if Sigrid was paying any sort of attention, which of course she wasn't.
They were coming around a sharp bend in the narrow, twisting turns of the canyon road, barreling along at 172.7 kph. She was still mumbling to herself, plotting her escape and her journey home, when her PCM blasted its alerts, shattering her stupor and yanking her back into a heart-pumping reality.
There, just ahead of them and too late to do a bloody thing about it, Sigrid saw the source of the alarms: four lengths of heavy spiked chains drawn across the road. It was a trap, and one meant for them.
"Jaffer, look out!"
Her shouted warning came too late. Jaffer's eyes bulged wide. He grabbed the wheel hard and geared the rig down fast. With a flick of his thumb he triggered the emergency brakes. Fourteen more alarms sounded—on the dash and in her own PCM: brakes overheating and failing. She hadn't thought it possible for something as massive as the cargo train to slow down like that, but it did. The G forces—more than five-point-five—sent her hurtling from her seat to crash against the dash.
Amazingly, Jaffer slowed them in less than a hundred meters, but it wasn't enough. The front wheels hit first. The spikes of the chains tore through the three-meter studded tires, tangling themselves amongst the wheels and tearing them to shreds. Unable to stop, they missed the turn completely, plowing headlong into the soft shoulder and barreling straight toward the drop-off and the ravine beyond.
Jaffer stood harder on the brake pedal. The cliff loomed before them. He practically tore the handle from the emergency brakes in his desperation. The back wheels dug in—all 140 of them. The rig shuddered violently, and still they carried forward.
The front wheels were off, hanging in empty space. The cab dipped forward, lurching downward. The rocky floor of the ravine filled the windscreen.
And then they stopped. Hanging there.
With Jaffer's help—slowly, carefully, fearing any sudden movement might send them over—Sigrid pulled herself up off the floor. Staring down through the windscreen, she swallowed. A winding river thundered below, the roar of rapids loud enough to mask the rumble of the rig's engines.
The two mangled front wheels continued to spin lazily in the air. It was only the great weight of the fourteen flatbed carriers behind them that kept them from going over.
"Hang on," Jaffer said.
He threw the shifter into reverse, starting the rig rumbling back the way they came. Inch by inch, Jaffer nudged the train backwards. It was a painstaking,
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