They'd come into International Falls by back roads, at Isabella's suggestion, and Bill dropped them a few blocks from the train yard where he was delivering his load.

"Thanks, Bill. We really owe you one," Phineas said.

"Hey, no problem. Take care, you two." With a jerk, the truck pulled away, and the couple slipped through the pre-dawn twilight toward the bridge. They'd left the snow behind an hour or so south, and the clear air was crisp and cold.

"How do we get across?" Phineas asked.

Isabella shrugged. "Ideally, we just walk across the bridge. Let's go see what the situation looks like." She nodded toward a building that overlooked the bridge. "Up there."

The helicopter landed at the American end of the bridge, and Ferb hopped out. The captain in charge hustled over, a frown on his face.

"What the hell's going on here? My men got scrambled to guard this bridge, but no indication of what the fuck we're looking for."

"We are looking for two fugitives." Ferb handed over pictures of Phineas and Isabella. "We want to take them alive."

"Can I ask why?"

"Do you want the cover story or the real story?" Ferb asked.

The captain sighed. "Both, I bet."

"The cover story is an escaped slave and her owner who's aiding and abetting her."

"Seriously? Full military roll-out for that?"

Ferb shrugged. "Real story, Southwestern military research subject and the Central researcher who was working with her."

"Shit." The captain looked at Ferb for a moment, as if trying to judge how serious he was. He winced when he realized Ferb wasn't joking. "Okay, so what do we need to know to take these folks down? I've been told to use non-lethal force, but not to rely on tasers. What am I supposed to use, harsh language?"

"I've got some experimental weapons for you. How many men do you have?"

"Twenty-four. There's another hundred or so inbound, but they won't be here for at least an hour, maybe more."

"Okay. I have twelve DIMMERs for you, so pair people up, one with a DIMMER and one with a taser."

"What's a DIMMER?"

"Non-lethal knockout round. What's your current force distribution?"

"I was told to keep everyone here until you arrived."

"Right. Put four soldiers on the dam to keep it secure. Send four down to the train bridge at Pither's Point. I want ten on the roadblock to search vehicles, two pair at the end of the pedestrian side, and one pair patrolling the walkway. Now go set things up."

The captain stormed off, setting up the roadblock. Ferb watched dispassionately, noticing several spots where Phineas and Isabella could slip past and head down the bridge. He smiled approvingly at them.

The captain stomped back, holding a radio. "The commander on the Canadian side wants to talk to the person in charge," he said with a smug grin. "That would clearly be you."

"Certainly," Ferb said, taking the radio. "Commander?" he said into it.

"You're in charge over there?" a female voice said over the radio.

"Yes, I am, for the moment. What can I do for you?"

"What the blue blazes is going on over there?"

"I'd prefer not to say over the radio. Can we meet somewhere to discuss it?"

"I'll meet you at the border on the walkway in 10 minutes," she said, and the radio went dead.

"Looks like about sixteen soldiers guarding the bridge. Groups of two," Isabella said, ducking back down. They'd snuck up to the roof of a building overlooking the roadblock. A pedestrian walkway went down the left side, next to a service lane. Two Canadian soldiers stood at the border, a short distance from the far bank. A rail lane, also used for trucks, ran between the service lane and two passenger vehicle lanes. A large pipe ran from the nearby mill, over the rail lane, and down between the rail lane and the passenger lanes.

"Can we get across the river some other way?" Phineas asked.

"No, they've got scanners running along the waterline. We should have picked a border crossing that wasn't across a river."

"Not like we had a lot of choice. And they've found Bill by now, I'm sure, so we can't really go anywhere else."

"I know. How about the dam?"

"Too many people guarding the dam and no way to sneak up on them," Isabella said.

Phineas popped his head up, glancing around quickly, and then froze. He saw Ferb walking back along the bridge from the center, talking into a radio.

"Get down," Isabella whispered, pulling on his shoulder, and he dropped back below the roof edge.

"Sorry. Ferb's there."

"That's bad."

"I think so, yes. It means they know we're here."

Isabella frowned "Let me take another quick look." She looked over the edge of the roof, nodding, then came back down. "I think we can go down the rail lane without it being obvious what we're doing. There isn't enough traffic to cause a problem."

Phineas leaned against the low wall, thinking. "So, the question becomes, did Ferb leave us that as an opening?"

"Or is it a trap?"

"Or is it a trap, right. And..." He sighed. "I don't know. I mean, he's my brother, and I think he's on our side. But..."

"So why group them that way? He must know I can take down pairs of them without too much difficulty." She looked over the edge again, nodding. "Okay. I think I see how we do this. Let's go." She led him down the fire escapes on the back of the building, coming down to the ground.

"So what's the plan?" he asked, following her down the alleyway.

"Just follow my lead," she said.

Ferb reached the roadblock again after a very fruitful discussion with the Canadian commander. The captain rushed up to him again, scowling. "Orders, Mr. Fletcher?" he asked as if he had a bad taste in his mouth.

Ferb smiled graciously at him. "Okay. The Canadians are fine for now. Your orders: keep up what you're doing. Your troops are authorized to use lethal force only in self-defense. Otherwise, DIMMERs and tasers only."

The captain nodded. "Anything else?"

"Yes. If the fugitives make it across the border, you are not to pursue. They're important, but not worth committing an act of war over."

The captain breathed a small sigh of relief. "Thank God." He turned and started barking out orders to his men.

Ferb saw a flicker of movement atop a building that would provide a good vantage point, and smiled. Good. Look at what I have set up, and what openings I've left for you.

Isabella clung to the top of the pipe and looked down at the end of the bridge. The pipe she was crawling along was about thirty feet above the ground. It came down a dozen yards behind the four soldiers at the end of the bridge, in between the rail lane to the left and the passenger car lanes to the right. The low wall between the rail land and the service lane should shield them from the soldiers patrolling the pedestrian walkway on the far left of the bridge. They just had to get past the soldiers without getting noticed. It'd be easiest if they did it soon, before the dawning sky brightened any more. Their biggest advantage was that people tended not to look up, but if they managed to draw attention, they'd be sitting ducks up here.

She could hear them talking, even without her hearing implants. They were grouped in two pairs, one by the end of the pedestrian walkway and the other by the end of the truck lane.

"This is bullshit," one of the soldiers by the pedestrian walkway said to her companion.

He shrugged, holding his taser ready. "Least the war is over. Would you rather get shot at?"

"I'd rather be in my bunk, sound asleep." She holstered her DIMMER pistol briefly to rub her arms, then drew it again.

Isabella crept along as quietly as she could. She was halfway across already.

A soft *clunk* behind her made her wince. Phineas was being as quiet as he could, but he hadn't been trained in stealth the way she had. Fortunately, it didn't seem that the soldiers had noticed.

She continued along until she reached the point where the pipe turned downwards. A ladder to one side led down to the bridge so that they didn't have to try to get down the sloped pipe. She slid off onto the platform, crouching down as she waited for Phineas, following behind her more slowly. She smiled at him; he was really doing well at not making noise. She glanced down the bridge, and saw that the soldiers patrolling the pedestrian walkway were heading away from them, and would be for a few more minutes.

Looking back to this end of the bridge, she saw all the soldiers were looking away. She'd have to be almost silent, as the ladder came down just a few feet behind one pair and off to the side of another. She frowned; she'd thought it would come out slightly further back. Nothing to do for it now, unfortunately.

Moving slowly, she started down the ladder as Phineas approached the platform. Off in the distance, she heard the *whop whop whop* of a helicopter approaching.

Halfway down the ladder, one of the soldiers below her yawned, stretching out her arms. Isabella paused and brought her implants up to full speed. Above her, she heard a slight *clunk* as Phineas landed on the platform above. The other soldier turned with a puzzled look on her face, only to freeze in panic as she saw Isabella.

Isabella leapt the remaining fifteen feet down, tackling both soldiers to soften her fall. Quick blows ensured that neither would get up again for a few minutes, which was all she'd need. She rolled off of them, grabbing the DIMMER that one had dropped. The other two soldiers at the end of the bridge were just turning toward her as she fired off shots at each. The first went down, spasming from the shock, as the DIMMER round hit his neck before he could get his weapon to bear. The second managed to get one taser dart off before Isabella's shot hit her, splashing off of her body armor. Isabella sidestepped the incoming dart and fired again as the soldier reached up to grab her microphone. Isabella's second shot hit her leg just before she could reach it, and her hand closed on empty air as she fell.

Phineas whistled low as he reached the bottom of the ladder. "Nicely done."

"We are - were - the best." She grabbed a radio headset from one of the downed soldiers, putting it on. "Now let's run," she said, crouching below the wall between the rail lane and the service lane. She heard Phineas following behind.

Ferb picked up the radio as the general's helicopter approached the landing area. "No sign of them yet, General."

"Keep an eye out. I know they're going to...wait! There they are!"

Ferb turned toward the bridge. "I don't see them."

"They're in the center lane, they just took out the soldiers at the end of the bridge. Send in the troops!"

Ferb turned to the captain, who was already speaking into his headset. Four soldiers peeled off from the contingent searching vehicles and trotted toward the bridge.

Damn, Ferb thought. If Archer hadn't shown up, they'd have made it cleanly.

Ferb had been trying not to do anything to obviously protect the fugitives, so that he could stay free if Phineas and Isabella got captured. He wasn't sure he could keep that up any longer. They'd made it so far, he'd hate it if they got caught because of him.

"Captain, let's grab that Humvee and join them."

The captain nodded and climbed into the passenger seat as Ferb took the driver's seat, and they took off toward the bridge. Behind them, the general's helicopter came in for a landing.

They trotted along as quickly as they could, trying not to show above the barrier so that the soldiers on the pedestrian walkway wouldn't notice them.

They'd gone about fifty yards, a quarter of the way to the border, when Isabella heard a radio bleep, followed by an unfamiliar voice. "Targets are in the rail line. Repeat, targets are in the rail line. Take 'em down, non-lethal force."

"Shit," she muttered, pulling out the pistol and peeking up over the barrier. The two soldiers were ahead of them, looking around, one with a DIMMER and one with a taser, both with rifles slung over their shoulders. The one with a DIMMER spotted her and pointed, and he started climbing over the fence separating the walkway from the service lane as his partner covered him. Isabella popped up with her DIMMER and fired. The one climbing over the fence dropped down on the service lane as his partner fired his taser at Isabella, twice.

Isabella grimaced as her implants slowed time down for her; her momentum was still carrying her up, so she couldn't dodge both darts. This is going to hurt, she thought as she flicked her wrist and knocked one dart aside; its mate hit her in the arm, and she kicked in the pain dampeners as her body absorbed the shock. Her implants, temporarily overloaded, dropped her back to normal time as she saw the soldier who had fired go down twitching.

Phineas was coming up behind her. "Run," she said as she started to do the same. A DIMMER shot hit the pipe above them, and she sent her last DIMMER round at the soldier who had fired it; even if it didn't hit him, it should keep him down. The pistol was empty, so she dropped it.

They'd made it another fifty yards before another radio bleep. "This is General Archer," the frantic voice came over the pilfered headset. "Lethal force authorized. Stop them now!"

Isabella spared a second to look back. Her implants were almost back online, and she took in the scene behind her at a glance. Phineas was gasping, struggling to run. A Humvee was just entering the end of the rail lane; Ferb was driving it. The officer next to him was standing up, leaning over the windscreen, and pulling out a pistol, while the soldier in the service lane was shouldering his rifle.

Phineas tumbled to the ground, groaning and holding his leg. "Cramp," he whispered through clenched teeth. "Go. Be free. I'll be okay."

Less than a hundred yards. Ten seconds with boosts. The Humvee will have to stop for Phineas. I'll be a hard target to hit.

I can't leave him.

She turned and picked Phineas up in a bridal carry. "We'll go together," she said, pushing her implants to maximum as she swiveled and ran for the border.

Eighty yards. She pushed the implants to their absolute maximum, her feet blurring as she ran faster than she ever had before.

Seventy yards. She heard the Humvee coming up behind her. A DIMMER round hit flesh with a *thump* just as the pistol fired. She couldn't spare the time to look back.

Sixty yards. The Humvee got closer behind her. With a *ping* a bullet ricocheted off the pipe, just behind her.

Fifty yards. Agony through her left shoulder as a bullet tore through her. She clamped down on the pain as her implants worked to lessen the blood loss. She managed to not lose her grip on Phineas, but wasn't sure how.

Forty yards. Momentum was carrying her along. Another shot hit the wall between the lanes. Phineas was just realizing that she'd been hit, and his eyes were widening. She could feel the blood running down her back, and more on her front. The bullet must have hit something major on the way through.

Thirty yards. She could see the painted line on the road that marked the border, and the two Canadian soldiers crossing the service lane toward the rail lane. The Humvee was no more than fifty yards behind her. Another *thump* behind her, and Phineas started to smile as he looked over her shoulder.

Twenty yards. She braced for the next bullet, the one that would end her. Phineas could make it from here, at least. Her body would block the Humvee. The pain in her shoulder was leaking past what the implants could block. She was getting tunnel vision from blood loss.

Ten yards. "You're all clear," Ferb's voice came over the radio. The tunnel was narrowing, and all she could see was the line ten yards away.

Clear. She raced across the border, not so much setting Phineas down as dropping him onto his feet. She saw the Canadian soldiers reaching out to catch her before she fell. She stumbled forward, and the world went black.