"We'll wait until we're going over the river and then we'll jump."

Jason's relief vanished. "Nobody really does that!"

"I've been on this line, Jason. The trestle across the river is low so we'd only have to fall about three lances," Kira said. "That's about six of your meters."

"I am not going to jump and fall six meters!"

"My mother and father jumped off of trains all the time!" She didn't mention that as a result her father, normally unexcitable, still tended to get nervous on trains.

"Good for them!" Jason said. "But seeing as I have more sense than the people on this planet, I'm going to do something else. I'm going to wait until the train stops and then blend in with the crowd leaving and-"

Kira interrupted, seeing that the train had reached the bridge and was starting over the river, leaving them just seconds to act. "It won't work, Jason. Because of that!" She pointed dramatically forward and off to the side of the train.

"What?" Jason leaned out to look.

Kira shoved both hands into Jason's back as hard as she could, pitching him off the train. She took just enough time to get her feet positioned before leaping after him.

Jason hit the water with a mighty splash, arms and legs flailing, just before she entered the river feet first in a clean drop. That and the weight of her clothes and pack took her deep enough that Kira was very grateful when she struggled back to the surface through water that shocked her with its cold. Fortunately the seals on her pack kept the air inside so it could also provide a little buoyancy.

The first thing she saw as she blinked water from her eyes was the train, heading onward with no sign that their departure had been noticed. The second thing was Jason's furious face popping up near her. "How did you know if I could swim?" he demanded, shaking water from his face. "Shouldn't you have found out if I could swim before you threw me into a river?"

"Yeah," Kira said. "I should have done that. Let's—"

"You're insane! Rational people do not shove other people off of trains!"

Kira, seeing the riverbanks go by as the current carried them downstream, pointed at the north bank. "We need to—"

"No! I am not listening to you!"

"Jason, if you really think I'm crazy, and you know I have a weapon, wouldn't it be smart not to make me angry? We need to get out of the river. Come on."

They struggled through the water, being carried farther downstream before finally staggering ashore, soaked and out of breath. "We're lucky our delay in jumping off the train landed us close to the north side of the river," Kira gasped.

Jason managed to stop his raspy breathing long enough to glare at her. "You jumped. I got shoved."