"Aren't you and Babel going to do anything!" Raptor shouted.
Jessica breathed in and out, steadily. She could have scrambled the airship's system; she could have deduced a method of disengaging the claw. "You just have to trust me," she insisted. "This isn't Asgard."
Raptor stared spitfire, the rock of the seats unbalancing him and everything else. Despite a bout of fury nestled behind his eyes and fists, he successfully kept still. Like Valerie and Shannon, all he could do was hold on and wait. At that moment, Jessica's swirl of vision caught a stir in the backseat. Dexter was waking up.
He opened his eyes. From a squint to dilation, they widened with surpriseÑor horror. "What 's going on?" he croaked.
Jessica removed her seat belt and leaned into the back seat, vying for balance in the car's free-flight rumble. She took Dexter's wavering expression between her hands and looked him in the eye. "Dex, listen, you're okay...
"Homegirl!"