Frost sat in the pilot seat and cycled the AC selector. Noble, from below: ‘Anything?’ She tapped a volt gauge. The needle remained unresponsive. ‘Total flatline.’ The lower cabin. Noble helped Frost lift a fuse panel from the wall behind the EWO console. The primary distribution bus. He held the flashlight steady while she examined tangled cable. Burnouts. They trimmed and spliced cable. They replaced the fuse panel. All load switches set to green. She returned to the pilot seat and toggled for power. Nothing. ‘We should be getting twenty-eight volts DC from the auxiliaries. Enough to restore essential systems.’ ‘Line break?’ Frost shook her head. ‘Cells must have shorted out, drained dry.’ ‘Dammit.’ ‘We’ve got one more shot,’ said Frost. ‘There is a backup power cell, a nickel-cadmium battery in the aft of the plane.’ ‘Yeah?’ ‘So I guess someone will have to take a walk and find the tail.’ Noble and Hancock looked out over the moonlit dunescape.
