The train lurched as they switched tracks and headed north on the main line. They picked up speed.

Caleb ducked back into the engineering compartment. “Did you do that?”

Rodland nodded. “Yes. With this software, I can control the switch tracks, traffic lights, and pretty much everything else we run across.”

“Excellent.”

“Shit,” Rodland said in disgust.

“What is it?”

Rodland nodded toward one of three monitors mounted above the main console. It showed a rear-camera view of the train, where an open-bed truck was speeding alongside. One by one, half a dozen men in paramilitary fatigues jumped from the truck to the rear train car.

Caleb cursed. “Bohdan’s mercenaries.”

“Who else?” Rodland increased the train speed again. “I’ll do what I can to make things uncomfortable for them.”

Caleb replaced his gun’s ammo clip. “So will I.”

*  *  *

Jane backed away from the rear door. She could hear men’s voices, shouting and talking just outside that door. She had no idea how many there were or where they were located. One of them sounded as if he was talking to someone on the roof. Then someone was pounding against the door, splintering the mahogany frame.

Shit!

She had to get out of here. But she couldn’t go out that door. And she knew that someone had been on the roof heading toward Caleb only a little while ago. They could still be there. Think. Where else could she go?

The reivers! She’d even mentioned to Caleb that there had been hiding places built in these cars because of the reivers. She looked up at the ornate paneled ceiling. She tried to remember the sketches of the remodel when the chandeliers were added in the late nineteenth century. If she remembered correctly, there was a sizable gap between the drop ceiling and the train car’s roof. At the time she’d studied them she’d wondered if this gap was used by passengers as hiding places from the reivers.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

They were almost through the door.

Jane stood on a chair and pressed against a square ceiling panel. It didn’t budge.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

She tried another. No dice.

BAM. BAM. BAM.

Bohdan’s men were almost inside. She pushed up yet another ceiling panel.

It moved.

Hurry. Not much time. They’d be breaking in any second.

She gripped the sides of the opening and hoisted herself up into the ceiling. She replaced the panel just as the door finally gave way!

She heard a single set of footsteps in the train car below. Only one man. She could hear him shouting and laughing to someone still outside the door. Carefully, quietly, she moved toward the clump of wires that fed one of the ornate lighting fixtures. She looked through the fixture opening and saw one of Bohdan’s men alone in the compartment, standing where she’d been just moments before.