Astrid Maxxim and Her Amazing Hoverbike (15 page)

Astrid moved carefully around the side of the building as she struggled to come up with a plan.  She noted that there was a door near where she now stood and that it swung freely on its hinges, the lock long since gone.  She reached the front corner of the building, and looked around at the three vans.  None of the men seemed to have stayed out to watch them.  They were probably all leaving by plane, and since they had no more need of the vans, they were
n’
t thinking about them.

Astrid thought that if she could only create a diversion, she might be able to enter through the door and lead Valerie to safety. She rounded the corner of the building and ran stealthily to the closest van.  Ducking behind it, she thought about the possibilities.  Having worked for years with internal combustion engines, Astrid knew that cars did
n’
t just explode like they seemed to on TV.  But there was one easy source of ignition in any vehicle.

Astrid looked down at her sandaled feet.  What a time to go without socks.  Pulling her shirt up over her shoulders, Astrid unfastened her bra and took it off, and then pulled her shirt back down.  She edged around the van and slowly opened the drive
r’
s side door, reached down below the dashboard, and pulled the hood release.  The thunk that the hood made as it popped up about two inches was horrifyingly loud to her, but she waited several seconds and no one from inside the building seemed to have heard it.  Moving to the vehicl
e’
s front, she lifted the hood and propped it open.  She quickly located the windshield wiper fluid reservoir, and opening the lid, stuffed her bra into it so that it was completely soaked.  She pulled the bra back out and tossed it over the two terminals of the car battery.  It sparked.  By the time Astrid turned to run, it was already smoking.  As she rounded the corner of the building, the va
n’
s engine compartment burst into flames.  Engine parts popped and hissed as they were destroyed by the fire.  She heard yelling from inside the building.

Reaching the door and carefully peering in the window, Astrid was almost bowled over by Valerie as she came running out.

“
Astrid
?”
the robot girl cried.

“
Shush
,”
Astrid ordered her.
 “
Come on
!
”

Taking Valerie by the arm, Astrid ran straight into the darkness, rather than trying to get directly back to the hoverbike.  She thought that if she could reach the desert, they could circle around to the spot where she had parked.  They had
n’
t gone more than twenty steps though when shouts of pursuit followed them.  It had really been too much to expect, Astrid realized, to divert the attention of all those eyes for more than a few seconds.  Behind the first large desert bush, she ducked down, pulling Valerie down beside her.

“
I’
m so glad to see you, Astrid
,”
said Valerie in a whisper.
 “
Is Toby with you
?
”

“
No.  I was getting tired of him horning in on my rescues so I made him stay home this time
.
”

“
There are two of them coming this way
,”
hissed Valerie.

“
I’
ve seen this on a hundred TV shows
,”
said Astrid, as she picked up several small rocks.
 “
I
t’
s time to see if it really works
.
”

She threw the rocks as hard as she could into the desert.  The sounds of the rocks crashing into the brush were followed by a squeal and even more rustling sounds.  The two men ran off in that direction.

“
You must have hit an animal
,”
said Valerie.
 “
I wonder what it was
.
”

“
Probably a rabbit or a fox
,”
replied Astrid.
 “
I hope I did
n’
t hurt it.  Come on
.
”

They ran through the darkness, dodging and sometimes tripping over rocks or brush until they reached the area where Astrid had set down, but she did
n’
t see the hoverbike.

“
Is that your new invention
?”
asked Valerie.

“
Where
?
”

“
Right over here
.
”
 
Valerie led the girl inventor right to where the hoverbike sat.
 “
It looks pretty neat
.
”

“
Of course
,”
said Astrid.
 “
I forgot that you had night vision
.
”

“
I do
?”
wondered Valerie.

Not wanting to waste any more time on trivial discussions, Astrid climbed into the flying bik
e’
s seat and instructed Valerie to sit behind her.

“
I’
m afraid
I’
ll fall off
,”
said Valerie.
 “
I ca
n’
t hold on with my hands behind my back.

“
W
e’
ll just have to be careful
,”
said Astrid, pressing the power button.

The hoverbike hummed to life and floated up eight or ten inches, but then the humming died away and the bike slowly dropped back onto the sand.  Astrid pressed the power button again, but nothing happened.  They both climbed off as Astrid checked the hoverdisks, but nothing seemed out of place.

“
The battery must be dead
,”
she said.

“
Not so perfect after all
?”
said a voice behind her.

She turned around to find a shadowy figure standing behind her.  Though she could
n’
t make out his facial features, she knew who it was.  It was Toulson.  Before he could do or say anything else, Astrid kicked him as hard as she could right in the crotch.  With a grunt, he curled up into a fetal position and fell over face first into the sand.

“
What did you do that for
?”
asked Valerie.

“
I’
ll explain it all later
,”
said Astrid.
 “
Now come on.  W
e’
ve got to run
.
”

They ran only a few feet when a quick slope led them down into a dry riverbed.

“
Astrid, le
t’
s follow this around
,”
suggested Valerie.
 “
It leads away from the airfield
.
”

“
You can see better than I can
,”
said Astrid.
 “
You lead the way
.
”

They had
n’
t started again, however, when the loud whine of a jet engine announced the arrival of an airplane.  Seconds later it shot over the mountains to the east and began to descend to the airfield.

“
Do
n’
t move
,”
said a gruff voice from above them on the riverbank. 

“
Astrid
,”
said Valerie.
 “
H
e’
s got a gun pointed at us
.
”

Despite the gun trained on her, the girl inventor looked right and left for some way of escape, but a second figure was suddenly looming above her in the darkness.  Rough hands grabbed her by the shoulder and marched her toward the man with the gun.

“
Is it her
?”
asked the man holding her, once they were beside his comrade.

“
Yeah, i
t’
s her
.
”

“
Good
.
”

The man with the rough hands continued to hold onto Astrid and push her along through the desert as they marched back to the hanger.  The plane they had seen arriving was now taxiing toward the building.  Astrid struggled to think of what to do now, but her brain could
n’
t seem to get past the immediate danger long enough to come up with a plan.  She was thinking so hard that she stumbled when they stepped from the sand onto the tarmac.

The two girls and the two men escorting them walked around to the front of the building.  The plane had pulled almost up to where the van was still burning and waited with its door open.  Astrid was not pleased to see that it was a Lear Jet 85.  Flying at more than three fourths the speed of sound, and with a range of more than 3000 nautical miles, the craft could carry her and her robot friend out of the country before anyone could find her.  She was still thinking about the abysmal situation when what seemed like hundreds of lights ended the darkness.

More than two dozen vehicles rushed in from the surrounding desert to encircle the plane, the vans, the hanger, and the people standing in front of it.  Three helicopters swooped down, each of them shining great spotlights down as they circled.  The vehicles stopped and dozens of men in navy blue combat gear and carrying automatic rifles rushed forward.  They were all shouting.

The kidnappers threw down their weapons and dropped to the ground.  Astrid put her hands up in the air.  One of the blue clad figures scooped her up and whisked her toward the bright lights of the newly arrived trucks.  She saw that another man was guiding Valerie along with them.  The man who was carrying her set her carefully down near the back of an ambulance.

“
Are you hurt, Astrid
?”
asked a familiar voice.

The girl inventor stared at the man.  Like all of the other new arrivals, he was covered in body armor and wore a hood covering his face beneath a combat helmet.  Seeing her confusion, he took off the helmet and peeled away the hood.

“
Dad
?”
squeaked Astrid.
 “
What are you doing here and why are you dressed like a commando
?
”

“
Well, i
t’
s not really much fun to play commando if you do
n’
t get to dress the part, is it
?
”

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

“
Valerie
?
”

“
Poppy
!”
shouted Valerie, seeing Mr. Diaz, who was dressed like Dr. Maxxim, though he wore his helmet without a hood.

He gave the robot girl a quick hug.

“
I hope you brought your handcuff key
,”
she said.

“
Of course
,”
he replied, and then quickly unlocked her shackles.

Astri
d’
s father guided her back to a seated position in the ambulance.

“
We have to get you checked out, Sweetie
.
”

“
Thank goodness yo
u’
re safe
,”
said Chief Gillespie, stepping from around the medical vehicle.
 “
I tried to tell you that you did
n’
t need to chase after these guys, Astrid.  We were following them the whole time
.
”

“
You were
?
”

“
Your father placed a GPS and satellite communicator inside your robot after the last incident
.
”

“
My name is Valerie
,”
said Valerie, stamping her foot.

“
Oh, um ye
s
…
”
said Gillespie.

“
I doubt Astrid would have turned around even if you had managed to give her that bit of information
,”
said Dr. Maxxim.
 “
She has a bit of a stubborn streak in her, and I suspect ther
e’
s a bit of daredevil in there too
.
”