Jane was gazing speculatively all around the train car. “You know, there are all kinds of places to hide in these cars. The passengers were afraid of the reivers and the owners of the trains made certain adjustments to keep them riding the trains. But you’re right, those marines might not be here for another hour or so. We can’t defend ourselves for that long.”

“No way,” Caleb agreed thoughtfully. “We’ll have to leave.”

Rodland shook his head. “We can’t do that. I was just out there, remember? Bohdan’s men have the place surrounded. If we go out on foot, it would be a massacre.”

“Not on foot.”

“Even if we managed to get to a car, the roads are covered.”

“We won’t be using the roads.”

“Then how do you suggest that we…” His eyes widened as the realization hit him. “You can’t be serious.”

Jane took a step closer. “Are you suggesting…that we actually take the train?”

“You asked what I thought of first,” he said simply.

“I didn’t think you meant to steal it. I didn’t think you could. I thought maybe you’d find a way to use it to hide us from Bohdan.”

He shook his head. “Not efficient enough. Why not just take it? This car is already connected to a two-hundred-ton locomotive engine. And there are five other cars connected as well. We’ll pulverize anything that gets in our way.” He smiled at her. “Let’s take it for a spin.”

“Just like that?” Rodland said. “It’s not that simple. Modern rail lines use a central control system.”

“You would know,” Caleb said. “As I remember, you were fairly well versed on the PRAM software package that MI6 was trying out before the London Olympics. As I understand it, it enabled the operator to hack into any of the U.K. rail systems.”

“It was buggy as hell.”

Caleb shrugged. “Any port in a storm. Can you access it?”

Rodland thought about it for a moment. “Maybe.”

Caleb nodded at his computer. “Use this.”

Rodland produced his key ring, where a tiny USB stick was attached. He inserted it into Caleb’s laptop and booted the computer into his own operating system. As his fingers flew across the keyboard, Jane turned to Caleb. He took her hand into his. It was meant as a gesture of reassurance, though she was anything but reassured.

After a couple of minutes, Rodland leaned back. “I have it. The PRAM was still on the MI6 training server. But we’ll still need to go to the forward car and manually power up the engine. Once it’s online, I’ll be able to control it and the local track switches from this laptop.”

“Good,” Caleb said. “You and I will make our way up there and see if the engine is as efficient as Fraser told me it was.”