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.His daughter was in trouble and she wascalling him for help.Any suggestion of fatigue left his face instantly.They talked for another five minutes.Although their conversation sounded rambling andsometimes silly to Pias-as it was intended to sound to any outsider an enormousamount of information was exchanged.Yvette managed to tell her father that she wasstranded on a pirate's asteroid, and that she was currently free to move about, butcouldn't leave.She was able to encode the exact position of the asteroid, and she in-formed him that there was a fleet of ships on the surface that could conceivably belaunched against him.And she told him that there were more than forty people besidesherself in need of rescuing.For his part, Etienne acknowledged her information and replied that he could have a fulld'Alembert attack force at the asteroid within four days, and that he would make surethe navy backed them up, though it would take no part in the actual assault.Yvetteassured him she could hold out that long, and told him she loved him.That last part didnot need to be encoded.Her father echoed the sentiment and they signed off.Though Yvette had said she'd be all smooth, she was far from confident.She and Piasand the other prisoners would have to hold out against the pirates for four days on thelatter's home territory.She hoped it could be done.CHAPTER 10The AccidentThe man Howard had hired to arrange Jules's and Vonnie's accident was a professionalHoward had used on similar occasions before.He knew that their deaths should occurfar enough away from Howard's house that suspicion could not possibly fall on thecriminal leader.He also knew it should take him long enough to drive to the properlocation for Howard to establish a solid alibi.The car in which the accident would occurwas a stolen one, so it would not be traceable to anyone connected with Howard's gangwhen it was found smashed at the bottom of a hillside.All the details had been workedout precisely.This killer had a favorite spot for his work-an isolated mountain road twenty kilometersfrom Howard's house.Like many of the mountain roads in Southern California, it had itsshare of hairpin curves, each of which had a history of sending motorists to theirdeaths.The hillside below the road was thick with underbrush, so the car might remainunnoticed for hours or days, if all went well.And there was a nearby hiking trail that thekiller could take to walk down the mountainside and be back within the limits ofcivilization in an hour and a half, from which point he could call a cab to get him home.The man was concentrating so much on the details of this accident that he failed tonotice Vonnie's slight stirring in the back seat.The shock she bad received fromHoward's burglar deterrent system had been a strong one, and had kept herunconscious for a long time; but she was young and in perfect health, and herDesPlainian constitution allowed her to overcome the effects of the shock slightly fasterthan might be expected of anyone else.She began to regain consciousness just asHoward's henchman was nearing the spot he had selected for the double murder.At first her mind was clouded as it struggled back toward reality.She remembered theshock from the windowsill, and the consternation she had felt over committing such anamateurish mistake.Now she could tell that she was lying down in a moving vehicle.Someone else's unconscious body was lying beside hers, but at first she had troublefocusing her eyes to see who it was.She continued to lie very still, however.Sherealized that, whatever the situation, those around her expected her to still beunconscious; she would be able to learn more if they continued to believe that.When her eyes began to work properly once more, she could see that the body besideher was Jules, and that he was either unconscious or pretending to be.This alarmedher considerably.She and Jules were working alone on this case; for them both to becaptured at once meant they had no one to back them up or pull them out of trouble.The fact that they were bundled in the back seat of a car and were being driven some-where was an ominous sign.At about the time she reached this conclusion, the car pulled to a stop.Vonnie quicklyclosed her eyes once more to feign unconsciousness.She could hear the front dooropening as the driver got out and opened the back door.The man grabbed her underthe arms and dragged her out, positioning her in the front seat on the passenger side.Vonnie "cooperated" by pretending to be a limp body, slumping forward obligingly whenhe let go of her until her forehead rested lightly against the dashboard.As the man returned to the back seat for Jules, Vonnie was computing the odds for andagainst various plans.The driver's intentions were obvious by now placing her andJules in the front seat unconscious could only be the setup for a groundcar accident inwhich their deaths would be untraceable to Howard.She obviously did not want it tosucceed-but the exact method for foiling it was debatable.There was only the one man to deal with, and he still thought she was out cold.Shewould have little trouble overpowering him and freeing herself and Jules if she chose todo so.But the man might be expected to report back to Howard; if he failed to check in,the criminal leader would know something had gone wrong.Being thus alerted mightpanic him into doing something rash.It would be very convenient to have him think that she and Jules were dead.It wouldput him off his guard to the point where he might grow careless.In order to do that, shewould have to let the killer carry out his attempt and think it had succeeded.This courseof action would be much more difficult, and would require split-second timing and a littlebit of luck on top of it-but the rewards would be well worth the gamble.Vonnie continued her pretense of unconsciousness as the killer dumped Jules's bodyinto the driver's seat beside her.Then, giving them a quick look to make sure they wereboth unconscious, the man closed the door and went to the back of the car.He gave ita strong push, and Vonnie could feel the car moving forward.Her right hand crept tothe door handle while her left went over to grab Jules's clothing.If he really was still out,she wanted to take him with her when she jumped.She could feel the car bump as it went over an embankment, and suddenly it wasplunging downward through dense clumps of bushes.To someone born of Earth, thefall would have been at a dizzying speed, but to a person with DesPlainian reflexes itwas almost slow motion.Vonnie waited two seconds, until she hoped she was farenough out of sight that the killer would not be able to see exactly what was happeningto the car.Then she sprang into action.Her right arm pushed against the car door.There was a moment when the heavy brusharound the car resisted her attempt to open the door, but Vonnie was pressing with thestrength of a DesPlainian-and a desperate DesPlainian, at that.The door opened
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