Kira lowered her forehead to the dirt, fighting off an urge to run, to give up now before something horrible happened. Her stomach had tightened into what felt like a permanent knot in her midsection. If only she were her mother, absolutely fearless. "If we do that, you'll be caught within the next day or two, and your mother gets that drive back, and millions of people probably die."

"You know what?" Jason said. "I don't care. Not right now. Not if it means there's a danger of something like that happening to you!"

"I'm not worth millions of lives, Jason."

"You are to me! And…and to your mom and dad!"

Kira raised her head up enough to turn it to look at him. "Jason, my mother always says that no one counts for more than anyone else, and my father says that every person is a reality, something special and unique that helps form the world we think we see around us. I can't believe I matter more than so many other people. I mean, I guess I could start to believe it if I let myself, but I can't afford to start believing it."

"This isn't philosophy class, Kira!"

"If I only believe something when it's easy, when it doesn't cost anything, then I don't believe it, do I?" Kira asked him. "I knew it was dangerous. I'm not giving up."

Jason looked back at her, angry and frustrated. "You are like your mother!"

"Give me a break."

"Try being like my mother for a little while! Long enough to be safe!"

"No." The riders were much farther away. Kira rose up enough to pull out her pistol and check the magazine, making certain the safety was set before she placed it back in its holster. Her Aunt Alli seemed to be speaking to her, repeating a familiar lesson. Don't let having a gun make you confident, because confident people do stupid things, and if you need a gun you can't afford to be stupid. Thinking that it wouldn't be too hard to stay scared in this situation, Kira tried to smile at Jason. "This is important. We'll get it done."

"Kira, please…"

"Jason." She didn't want to just shut him down, because she could tell he was scared not for himself but for her. "Listen. Even if we did what you said, there would still be a chance that I'd get caught by those guys or someone like them before I found that cavalry. And you'd certainly get caught pretty soon. If something really bad is going to happen, I want it to be while I'm trying to get something important done, not while I'm running. How about you?"

"You're asking me? You really want to know how I feel about it?"

"Yes."

Jason screwed up his face, hesitating as he thought. "I'd want to, uh, go down fighting."